La Vuelta 2009

The 64th edition of the La Vuelta Espana started on 29 August. La Vuelta 2009 has 21 stages scheduled covering a total of 3292,3 km. 22 teams and 198 riders are racing in this year’s competition that will end on 20 September in Madrid. From the 21 stages 3 are time trials, 7 mountain stages and 11 flat stages.

Vuelta 2009 will start, for the second time in its history abroad, in Holland and after four stages will move to Spain. This year Vuelta will not include Pyrenees and will visit three countries: Belgium, Holland and Spain.

This year it's a Tour for climbers almost all the mountain stages being scheduled in the second week, when the overall leaders will come forward. So it would not be a surprise if the overall standings will change dramatically in the second part of the tour.

In the first stage Fabian Cancellara proved again that he’s one of the best time trial riders in the world, winning the first gold jersey finishing the 4.8 km in 5:20 min, 9 seconds faster than Tom Boonen.

This year’s favorites for winning the race are Alejandro Valverde, Ivan Basso, Samuel Sanchez and Cadel Evans. Bookmakers have close odds for the first two riders but all credit Alejandro Valverde, the 5th in La Vuelta 2008, with most chances to win this year’s edition.

After 6 stages the favorite Alejandro Valverde is on the 8th place and Ivan Basso on the 7th place. On the individual standing the top three riders are André Greipel, Tom Boonen, and Daniele Bennati.

At this point six riders retired from the race: Kim Kirchen, Manuel Ortega, Óscar Garcia-Casarrubios, Christopher Horner, Robert Kiserlovsky and Charles Wegelius. Christopher Horner was forced out from the race because a right arm wrist fracture caused by an accident on the 4th stage.

Few kilometers before the stage finish, on Venlo – Lieja route, due to the rain, there was a big spill in the front of the platoon. Charles Wegelius was also involved in the spill and retired from the race because of an injury. In the incident were also involved but didn’t suffer any major injuries Tom Boonen, Fabian Cancellara, Ezequiel Mosquera and Tyler Farrar.

For the next days the weather will be cloudy and is expected to rain. The officials hope that incidents like the one from the 4th stage will not happen again and the Vuelta 2009 will run smoothly.

For more updates on every stage feel free to visit the official site of La Vuelta 2009, www.lavuelta.com