Okay, okay, so I had always considered it possible for an exceptional rider with a proven pedigree to pull it out of the bag and maybe do the Giro, Vuelta double, given that the Giro is in May and the Vuelta at the end of August. Maybe, just maybe, a rider ‘par excellence’ could peak twice in one season and do that double, but if truth be told the more I watched the tours the less likely this seemed to become. And of course that particular double might be considered (by cycling purists) to be the lesser of any of the possible double combos, since ‘le Tour’ is still considered by most to be the epitome of the grand tours, la creme de la creme, if you will, thus a double without ‘le tour’ is, thereby, a lesser achievement (?).
Chris Froome winning this year Tour!
Whilst I have rarely heard it said out loud, la Vuelta was, until recently anyway, considered to be the poor relative of the grand tours; the least prestigious of the three perhaps. Then in 2014 it was taken over by the team that also run ‘le Tour’, namely the Amaury Sport Organisation, who have transformed the impoverished Vuelta into perhaps the most exciting grand tour of them all to watch from a spectators point of view. The race now attracts many of the sports top names with Froomey being perhaps the biggest draw of all.
Of course ‘le Tour de France’ retains its’ position as the most prestigious cycling crown of all and is still the one that most professionals yearn to be a part of more than any other, but ‘le Tour’ certainly lost some its’ lustre during the Lance Armstrong scandal and the subsequent years of Tour winners who were proven latterly to be cheats.
For me personally, as an avid and daily cyclist, if not a very talented one, and as a long time fan of the sport, the first decade of this century were the dark years; the forgotten years, and even though the sport as whole was to blame for the excessive drug culture that ran riot through the peleton during the Armstrong years and probably for sometime before that, the largest scandals always seemed to resonate around ‘le Tour’ even if the race itself was not to blame.
Thus the organisers (of ‘le tour’) and those at the UCI deserve immense credit for the way the sport has been cleaned up and similarly for the way in which, despite its’ travails, ‘le Tour’ has retained it’s position at the pinnacle of the sport. Just to be slightly controversial for a minute, I think a fairly large part of that credit and the way in which ‘le Tour’ has resurrected itself, must go down to Chris Froome himself. Alright, in France he’s not the most popular rider by a long chalk, but then who is if they’re not French? It’s a sad fact that it’s been a long time since the French have a genuine grand tour contender, the last two years withstanding (with Romain Bardet), and Chris Froome has borne the brunt of the French disenchantment with their chances during the last few years. Let’s just agree that the French are poor sports if they’re not winning and leave it at that! But outside of France I think Froome has been an amazing ambassador for cycling. He is charming, intelligent, well spoken and more than a little bit shy (I would say). He comes across as extremely humble, likeable and agreeable, but with an iron resolve that is quietly, but firmly stated and as sporting figureheads go I think there are none better at the moment, and perhaps even doubly so given cycling’s recent rocky history. He is, as the man says, ‘just what the doctor ordered’!
However, the Vuelta is catching up fast and since its’ recent reinvention the race has gone from strength to strength. This years race was not so much a grand tour as a ‘tour de force’! Unlike some days at ‘le tour’ there were no ‘so called’ easy days where a breakaway (of riders out of contention for the overall GC win) is allowed to escape and accumulate huge time gaps with the peleton ambling along 10’s of minutes down. Days such as this in ‘le tour’ seem to be, if not a common occurrence, certainly an expected one, and can make for a poor spectacle from a fans perspective. But this years Vuelta was all crash, bang, wallop right from the first day to the last. Even if a break away did manage to gain a significant advantage the peleton was always livened up at some point, more often as not, Alberto Contador, whose aggressive racing style will be sorely missed next season, or by another GC contender (Nibali, Zakarin, Chaves, one of the Yates’s, for example) attacking Froome’s lead. It really was a great 21 days racing and one that will live long in the memory. The mountain stages were hard, harsh and relentless providing a wide variety of finishes and giving ample opportunities for riders of all (physical) persuasions to ‘have a go’!
Whilst the 2017 Tour might have been closer, time wise, than the Vuelta, the level of excitement for watching fans was by far the better in the Vuelta. And all Froome’s critics (yes, he does have them) and detractors who said he was all but finished after such a close Tour in July, are perhaps eating their words now. Given that there were barely 4 weeks between the end of ‘le tour’ and the start of the Vuelta, it can now be seen that Froome’s preparation and timing was all but perfect. It is impossible for any athlete in any sport to ‘peak’ twice in such a short time, thus I would suggest that for ‘le tour’ Froome and his team gauged his fitness level in such a way that he had just enough to win in France without really hitting the heights that he had perhaps done in years gone by. And by doing so they left that extra bit of polish to be buffed up in time for the start of the Vuelta where (I would suggest) he probably hit a slightly higher physical peak than he had previously reached during the 3 weeks of ‘le tour’, thereby allowing him to make history and become the first man in modern times to do a grand tour double. An absolutely stunning achievement by any measure and one that any cyclist will be hard pushed to equal in the future.
Froomey cementing his win at the Vuelta!
I hope this double win will go some way to cementing Froome’s popularity in the UK where his phenomenal achievements thus far have not (I believe) recieved the recognition they deserve. He truly is a sporting giant and deserves every accolade no matter what he may go on to win the future. For me Chris Froome is a true and valiant hero and I, for one, feel privileged to have witnessed this amazing sporting feat.
Cheers Chris! Until next year.......!
PS. As a footnote I would like wish Alberto Contador all the best in whatever he does next and say that I will miss his punchy, agressive riding next year.
