John Degenkolb won Stage 21 of the 2012 Vuelta a España, his fifth sprint win, while Alberto Contador won the general Classification, his second overall Vuelta win.
The final stage, 115 km from Cercedilla to Madrid, ended with ten laps of the city’s downtown and a bunch sprint. Degenkolb’s Argos Shimano teammates led him out perfectly, and the powerful German did what he had done in four previous sprints.
RadioShack’s Daniele Benatti, the only other sprinter to win in the 2012 Vuelta, tried to follow Degenkolb but couldn’t match his pace once the sprinting started. Liquigas sprinter Ella Viviani was third wheel when Degenkolb accelerated. Viviani swung left, passed Benatti, but couldn’t come within half a length of the German.
Alejandro Valverde finished sixth; he couldn’t hope to win the race overall but his closing effort earned the Movistar rider both the Points and the Combined Classifications. Movistar won the team competition as well.
Overall, Alberto Contador cruised home 1:16 ahead of Valverde and 1:37 ahead of Katusha’s Joaquim Rodriguez.
Rodriguez lost a hard-won lead in Stage 17, when Contador attacked on a flat stage; he lost the Points and Combination jerseys in the final meters of the last stage. This was the first race in which the Katusha rider has contested GC; the lessons he will learn from the Vuelta will make him a bigger threat.
Valverde and Contador share the unhappy distinction of having their Vuelta success mark successful comebacks from doping suspensions. Alejandro Valverde didn’t fail a test; he was given a two-year ban when bags of blood labeled with his name turned up in the Operacion Puerto investigation.
Contador, cleared of involvement in Operacion Puerto, was given a retroactive two-year suspension for failing a test in the 2010 Tour de France. Contador only say out six months, but gave up all his wins going back to the original infraction.
Both these Spanish riders were top of their forms and top of the cycling world when their penalties were assessed. Both have made excellent comebacks, providing cycling fans with all the excitement their talent and skill can create—supposing, of course, the ride clean from now on.
No More Tainted Grand Tours
The 2012 Vuelta a España was an incredible race—cited by many as the best Grand Tour of the decade. There was action in every stage, often when none was expected. The parcours, with numerous summit finishes, forced GC contenders to fight for stage wins, even on flat stages.
The titanic struggles of Alberto Contador, Alejandro Valverde, and Joaquim Rodriguez to try to gain an edge on the toughest terrain brought out the best in each rider and in their teams. Anyone watching the 2012 Vuelta would say there is absolutely no need for riders to take performance-enhancing drugs.
The triumphant comebacks of Alberto Contador and Alejandro Valverde enthused some fans and annoyed others; Twitter posts show this. Fans want to know the riders earned their laurels, and don’t want cheaters to be rewarded.
Cycling has spent the past two decades embroiled in one doping scandal after another. As recently as the 2012 Tour de France, a cyclist as famous as Frank Schleck was expelled for failing a test. The UCI (International Cyclist Union) which organizes professional cycling, needs to stop playing games with doping—maybe riders need longer bans, or permanent bans, but the sport cannot hope to retain fans and sponsors if fans and sponsors have to question if they are watching a cyclist or a pharmacist win a race.
The UCI might decide to pursue Lance Armstrong for alleged drug infractions of a decade ago. It really won’t matter if the organization does not also address the present. Fans—and sponsors—want to know the riders are competing fairly, and using their own abilities, not the abilities of drug dealers, when those riders ascend the podium.
The sport needs to absolutely ensure that the riders are clean, so every fan can share the thrill of seeing true sports achievements.
