Yeah, Tooth, the Vuelta begins on Saturday with a 7.3km team time trial in Malaga and finishes in Madrid on Sept. 17.You remember the Vuelta, Tooth. That's the race that Russian Denis Menchov won when Roberto Heras was stripped of the title following a positive test for the banned blood-booster erythropoietin (EPO).
And cycling has been just a joy from there with one doping scandal after another.
"I'd love to win the race, but the Vuelta is a secondary objective this year after the Tour (de France) and I don't feel as fresh this time," Menchov was quoted as saying in the Spanish sports daily Marca.
Menchov (pictured above by Graham Watson winning Stage 11 of the Tour) finished sixth in this year's Tour de France behind Floyd Landis. Of course, that could be fifth, too, if Landis is stripped of his title following his positive test for excessive levels of the hormone testosterone.
Lovely, lovely, lovely.
Other riders to watch: Alejandro Valverde, Carlos Sastre, Alexander Vinokourov and and maybe even Iban Mayo.
There are some tough mountain stages in the early part of the Vuelta this year, so the likely contenders could be revealed in the first week of the race.
"The mountains will be the key. There are a lot at the start, not many in the middle and a lot at the end. The time trials are short and I don't think they will be decisive," Menchov said.
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