It's La Vuelta time!

For the next three weeks, all eyes will be on the third and final Grand Tour of the 2011 season, the Vuelta a España. It is the youngest of the three Grand Tours, starting sporadically in 1935 before becoming an annual event 20 years later.

The Vuelta is the least popular Grand Tour and it used to be raced in April until it was moved to September in 1995. The obvious reason of the transfer was that it coincided with the Belgian classics season and most of the big teams and the big names would rather race for the classics than do the Vuelta. It is also probably due to this date that historically, Spain has very poor showing when it comes to the one-day classics.

Roberto Heras, a former Lance Armstrong domestique, won the most number of Vueltas, four (00, 03, 04, 05). But he tested positive for PED’s and his 2005 win was nullified. However, his disqualification was overturned last June but officially he is still tied with Swiss Tony Rominger (92, 93, 94) with three wins.

Just like the Giro d’ Italia is for the Italians, the Vuelta is the main race for the Spaniards. But the reality is that the Vuelta is for the riders, a. who didn’t do well in the Tour de France (Bradley Wiggins, Jurgen van den Broeck, Tom Boonen), b. who are the number two rider in their teams (Vincenzo Nibali, Micheli Scarponi), c. whose team didn’t get invited to ride the Tour (Carlos Sastre and Denis Menchov of team Geox), and d. who are using the event to fine tune their preparation for the World Championships.

It is rare for those who did well in the Tour to ride the Vuelta that’s why there is no Cadel Evans, the Schlecks, Philippe Gilbert or Mark Cavendish. Thor Hushovd, who won two stages in the Tour, had planned to ride the Vuelta to prepare for the World Championships, but when he signed for another team for next year, his current team took him off the list.

The most dominant ride in the Vuelta belongs to Frenchman Laurent Jalabert. In 1995, Jalabert won all the race classifications-leader, mountains and sprint. The only other rider to the same feat was the great Eddy Merckx who won all the classifications in the 1969 Tour de France.

For the 2011 edition, the favorites to win the yellow are defending champion Nibale and last year’s runner up, Scarponi. Also in the list are the highly motivated team Geox with Sastre and Menchov. Then there are Wiggins, van den Broek and Andreas Kloeden. Unfamiliar names but not to be dismissed are Igor Anton and Joaquim Rodriguez.

This year’s Vuelta is composed of 21 stages and two rest days. It has one TTT and a 47km ITT. The climbs of Spain are steeper than in France and 10 mountain stages are served which makes this Vuelta a climber’s event. In total, the riders will race 3,300km.

Finally, you can look the links for “live” video streaming at www.steephill.tv….the Tour of Bohol will be on held on September 24 and 25…the first Richie Yu Cup in Tacloban will also be held on the same date as the ToB.

RACE RESULTS MANDAUE RECLAMATION CRIT, CAT C 1- ROMEO CRUZ, 2- MARCELO BERDUN, 3- CHRISTIAN ENTICA. – THE FREEMAN