Tour of Spain Heads Into Pyrenees For First Big Challenge
by Pierre Ausseill
MADRID, Sept 5, 2008 (AFP) - After a week that served as a warm-up, the Tour of Spain will on Saturday hold its first mountainous stage in the Pyrenees which will force the three Spanish favourites for victory to show their hand.
As the riders enjoyed a day of rest Friday the three - Alejandro Valverde of Caisse d’Epargne, 2007 Tour de France champion Alberto Contador of Astana and his successor Carlos Sastre of CSC-Saxo Bank - stood in third, fourth and fifth place in the overall standings.
France’s Sylvain Chavanel of Cofidis who took the overall lead on Wednesday after the race’s sixth stage, a 150.1 kilometer course from Ciudad Real to Toledo, meanwhile has vowed to fight to keep the leader’s golden jersey.
“I will try my utmost to defend this lead on the mountain stages this weekend. It’s the leader’s jersey of a major Tour and you must respect it,” said Chavanel, who is the first Frenchman to wear the jersey since Jackie Durand in 1999.
He will certainly struggle to hold on the the jersey.
At 224 kilometres, the seventh stage between Barbastro and La Rabassa in Andorra is the longest of the race and it features four categorized climbs that end in a mountain top finish.
Valverde is ahead of the other two Spanish favourites to win the race but he may now be without gas to face Saturday’s tough climbs.
“What you should not do is what Valverde has done which is to try to win all the stages,” said 1959 Tour de France winner Federico Bahamontes.
“If you want to win the Vuelta, you can’t waste your strength at the beginning because after you pay,” the former Spanish rider added.
He said Sastre - who earlier on Friday announced he would ride for Canadian outfit Cervelo next season - had so far tackled the Tour of Spain more intelligently.
“Just as at the Tour, he has saved his strength and its waiting for his chance,” he said.
Of the three however Sastre has the most time to make up and Bahamontes tipped Contador to put in the best performance in the mountains.
“Contador is a great climber who is surrounded by a great team, he is the most serious pretender,” he said.
Astana boss Johan Bruyneel meanwhile argues that Contador is in the best shape to face the Pyrenees having missed the Tour this year.
“He will mark the difference in his terrain, the mountains,” he told sports daily Marca.
A total of 167 riders remain in the race as there have been only four withdrawals so far: Staf Scheirlinckx and Maryan Hary of Cofidis, Ricardo Serrano of Tinkoff and Aurelien Clerc of Bouygues Telecom.
Last year’s champion, Russia’s Denis Menchov, is not participating.
The are 15 stages left in the 3,133 kilometer-long Tour of Spain which finishes in Madrid on September 21.
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