Vuelta a Espana In Photos | Part Two

September 10, 2012

This edition of the Vuelta a Espana shaped up to have been the Grand Tour the year in my opinion. It was only ever a four man race (Contador, Valverde, Rodriguez and Froome) which came down to a two man race in the second half, but it kept us guessing and the win was far from being certain. You have to give credit to Alberto Contador who took the general classification after an audacious attack on Stage 17 which could have failed miserably, but paid off spectacularly. He raced his way to victory instead of riding defensively trying not to lose. Rodriguez looked to have the race in the bag but just as in this year's Giro, he couldn't hold on for the entire race. If he ever had any hopes of winning a Grand Tour, this was probably his best chance with a course that suited him perfectly.

One of the stand-outs of this Vuelta was John Degenkolb who took five stages in only his second year as a professional. Simon Clarke claimed the king of the mountains competition which is a remarkable achievement seeing as he was up against the Spanish climbers in their very own Tour.

We’re in the twilight hours of the 2012 season but the World Championships are on the horizon and Gilbert and Gerro are two riders who have come up to form nicely with a course that suits them.

2012 Vuelta a Espana Results

2012 Vuelta a Espana In Photos – Part 2

see part 1 here

: Richie Porte and Chris Froome await their call to the start ramp in the time trial on stage 11

: Officials checking every time trial bike to make sure that the saddle is level as per UCI technical regulations

: Joaquin Rodriguez and Alberto Contador chasing on the summit of stage 16

: Dario Cataldo (Team Omega Pharma – Quickstep) wins stage 16

: Lefthand side crash.

: The breakaway passes through a tunnel on stage 16

: Alberto Contador attacks with 55km remaining in stage 17 and pulls off the win and takes the overall GC from Rodriguez

: Philippe Gilbert (BMC) wins his second race of the Vuelta (and the season) and is coming up to form nicely before the World Champs which finishes on top of the Cauberg (about 1000m further than where Amstel Gold finishes)

: Simon Geschke (Argos – Shimano) in a world of pain after finishing the final climb on stage 20

: Alberto Contador Velasco (Team Saxobank – Saxo Bank) and Daniel Moreno Fernandez (Team Katusha – Katuscha) pictured during stage 20

: The jersey wearers before stage 21. Valverde finished in sixth place on the stage to snatch the points jersey of Rodriguez’s back.

: The peloton winds its way around the streets of Madrid on the final stage

: John Degenkolb pictured moments before taking the final sprint of stage 21 in Madrid to claim his 5th victory at the Vuelta in only his 2nd year as a pro

: On the podium – Alejandro Valverde (Movistar), Alberto Contador (Saxo-Tinkoff), and Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha). Valverde wears the white the “combined classification” winner. This is awarded to the rider with the best position in all three classifications; overall, mountains and points. Valverde also won the green points jersey

: Simon Clark pulling one last cheeky “Call Me Maybe”

Rossco

Well done Contador, the smoking gun is back!
Paolo

The pic of Gilbert is fantastic!
SuperDom

Great photos: muchos gracias! Good to see ‘Bertie back. Now ‘Bertie vs Wiggo vs Froome at Le Tour 2013? (Bertie gets my vote).
- bracks_ashat
  
  Nope, it will just be Bertie vs Schleck. Everybody else can retire after stage 1.
Albert

I agree with u guys! Thank u for this beautiful pics.
Ratbag

My kids (& I, I have to say) can’t get enough of the “Call Me Maybe” Green Edge video. Got to love it on the final podium too!
raf

Brilliant pictures! Thanks!
bracks_ashat

Where’s Abdu and his Contador steak jokes when you need him?
Anonymous

Great photos CT, thanks! Some awesome reading in general lately…please have a lull so I can get some work done ;)
lekoshe

If you’re using S3 for content storage it’s usually cheaper and faster to stick a Cloudfront distribution in front of it, especially now that there’s an Australian PoP.
- http://www.cyclingTipsBlog.com cyclingTips
  
  Thanks. I’m using Cloudflare. Is there a better one I should be looking into?
  - lekoshe
    
    Ah, Cloudflare is great too and is optimising your text content. But right now the bulk images are being served straight off S3, there’s no CDN happening for them. I’d create a Cloudfront distribution to match the S3 bucket distribution, then join it up by configuring a CNAME like “ct-images.cyclingtips.com.au” on both sides.
Anonymous

You always have brilliant photos on your site. Thank you for sharing them.

The ex-English teacher in me can’t let this go though. Spell checkers don’t catch this mixup.

You ride to lose, and have loose chain ring bolts.

Cheers.
- http://www.cyclingTipsBlog.com cyclingTips
  
  Thanks for that. I know the difference, but my fingers seem to always type “loose” automatically!

Vuelta a Espana In Photos | Part Two

September 10, 2012

2012 Vuelta a Espana In Photos – Part 2

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