Vuelta a Espana (2009) Photos Aug 29-Sep 20

« Vuelta a Espana 2009 Live Dashboard

Stage 1:  Assen, NL 4.8K ITT  Full Results and Report

The grandstand was full of spectators for the rare spectacle of cyclists on the Assen race track	Another fish-eye view	For some reason, Rabobank's Pieter Weening found the track harder than others
Garmin's Tyler Farrar about to continue his strong month of August with a third place performance 12 seconds off the winning time	Tom Boonen at the start of his second place performance, five seconds off the winning time set by none other than..	Fabian Cancellara in full flight
Cancellara whizzes by the grandstand in a winning time of 5:28 for the 4.8 km course	Cancellera with his reward in the early evening sunlight	Winning an opening stage/prologue has the added benefit of the capturing the first (gold) leader's jersey

Stage 2:  Assen - Emmen 202km  Full Results and Report

Fit and glad to be back. Astana rider Alexander Vinokourov returned to racing this August after sitting out his two-year doping suspension	The World Champ, Alessandro Ballan, with retired Dutch Rabobank rider, Michael Boogerd, before the start	Early race action on a classics like course
After Team Columbia set the pace for the last km, Tom Boonen (left-center) moved to the front	But Boonen faded and a tight battle for the line followed	The photo finish: 1st Gerald Ciolek (Ger) Milram, 2nd Fabio Sabatini (Ita) Liquigas, 3rd Roger Hammond (GBr) Cervelo
A hairy classics course that climbers like Frank Schleck were glad to survive	Gerald Ciolek (Ger) Milram celebrates his first Grand Tour stage win

Stage 3:  Zutphen - Venlo 189.7km  Full Results and Report

The World Champ, Alessandro Ballan, gives us a different perspective of his rainbows	Rolling through Holland during the best weather so far	Columbia's leadout man, Greg Henderson was stronger than his main man, Andre Greipel, who watches his the podium position slip away with 25m to go
There seems to be a difference of opinion from the rear, but clearly Borut Bozic (Slo) of Vacansoleil is going to have to settle for 2nd	Greg Henderson crosses first with Oscar Freire (Spa) Rabobank crossing 3rd just ahead of Andre Greipel	Henderson celebrates his first Grand Tour stage win
Jesus Rosendo (Andalucia-Cajasur) was the last survivor in the three man break that was given a lead of 9:42 by the 28km mark. Rosendo was caught with about 12k to go.	Henderson's win today gives Team Columbia an extraordinary total of 72 wins for the year	Henderson reacts as he snaps off his champaign cork. A bad omen for future Grand Tour wins?

Stage 4:  Venlo - Liege 224km  Full Results and Report

A "filthy" stage even before the final massive crash	Tired, wet and dirty with lots of concentration	Only six riders (three from Columbia and three from QuickStep) survived the massive crash with 2.5k to go
Andre Greipel doesn't mind that only one rider was left to contest another Team Columbia win	Not comment necessary	The tarnished gold jersey wearer. Cancellara was involved in the crash but faired better than other riders.

Stage 5:  Tarragona - Vinaros 174km  Full Results and Report

Haimar Zubeldia is happy to be back in Spain with some good weather	Italian Lampre teammates Ballan and Cunego were soaking up the sunshine pre-start as well	Daniele Bennati (far right) jumped first from a good ways out before Tom Boonen (second from left) came around him
But, Andre Greipel was on Boonen's wheel and timed his jump perfectly	Andre Greipel has won something like 19 races this year so he should be able to control a victory salute by now	Greipel shows off his guns to second place Tom Boonen
The Belgium Champ was disappointed with second	Leadout man Greg Henderson gets a hug from the winner	Greipel gives the sniff test to the Gold Leader's Jersey previously worn by Fabian Cancellara

Stage 6:  Xativa 177km  Full Results and Report

Today's stage was a loop that started and finished in Xativa
Borut Bozic jumped early and held off the strung out peloton led by Tylar Farrar of Garmin	The first Grand Tour win by Bozic for his first year team, Vacansoleil	He almost can't believe it
GC favorite Alejandro Valverde is biding his time until the time trial and mountain stages; however, he unexpectedly gained time today on his rivals when the peloton strung out at the finish	Andre Greipel also finished in the lead group and retains the Gold Jersey	Bozic knows how to celebrate a win

Stage 7:  Valencia ITT 30km  Full Results and Report

Two of the GC favorites, Valverde and Basso, literally on-deck. Neither of them attempted to light up the course in the rain.	The rear of the start house	No surprise. 1st Fabian Cancellera in 36:41
Gerad Ciolek set against the harbor start in Valcencia	Garmin's David Millar was 32 seconds back of Cancellara's winning time for 2nd on the stage	Among the GC favorites, Samuel Sanchez posted the best time @ 47 seconds, good enough for 6th on the stage
Tom Danielson of Garmin posted a very good time placing 7th at @ 50 seconds, 2nd best among the GC favorites	Cadel Evan's 10th place performance @ 1:02 off the winning time was good enough to move him up to 6th overall, best among the GC favorites	Tom Boonen obviously crashed somewhere on the wet course. He still sits 2nd overall but the mountain stages start tomorrow.
Ivan Basso talks about his 17th place performance to Claudio Ghisalberti of Gazzetta dello Sport and other journalists	Cancellera regains the Gold Leader's Jersey with another fine TT performance

Stage 8:  Alzira - Alto de Aitana 206km  Full Results and Report

Just inside 1k to go on the summit of the 22k final climb, Damiano Cunego reeled in the last break survivor, David Moncoutie who just barely held onto second.	Robert Gesink also rode away from the GC contenders and almost caught Moncoutie but settled for third	At this point, Ezequiel Mosquera (ESP XAC) was leading the remaining GC favorites after Cunego and Gesink had danced away
	Cunego on his own	His first Grand Tour stage win since 2004
		The 7th-12th riders: Tadej Valjavec SLO ALM, Ivan Basso ITA LIQ, Ezequiel Mosquera ESP XAC, Joaquin Rodriguez ESP GCE, Thomas Danielson USA GRM, Paolo Tiralongo ITA LAM
It was a surprise to most to see the "Little Prince" on the top step today	Cadel Evans was 4th today finishing in the same time as Valverde and Sanchez and takes over the race lead

Stage 9:  Alcoy - Xorret de Cati 189km  Full Results and Report

Port de Carrasqueta peloton panoramic: The cat 2 climb before the cat 1 finish at Xorret de Cati	Cofidis rider Rein Taaramae was in the lead with 4k to go and looking for the finish, but he ran out of gas on the 17% grade	Lampre's Marco Marzano would finish second on the day seen here just ahead of the eventual winner.
The GC favorites led by Caisse d'Epargne domestique, Joaquin Rodriguez, who loves the steep stuff	R-to-L: Valverde, Evans and Basso	Garmin's Tommy Danielson has been in the mix every day and remains 4th on GC within one-minute of the lead
Spain finally gets it's first stage win. Gustavo Cesar of the continental team Xacobeo Galicia was the strongest rider in the 8 +/- man break.	Alejandro Valverde sprinted for the 3rd place bonus seconds while the Gold Jersey, Cadel Evans, was poorly position in the final corner and was boxed in	The bonus seconds moved Valverde into the Gold Jersey ending a good day for the Spanish riders. That's former pro and 1995 world champion Abraham Olano awarding Valverde Spain's first Gold Jersey of this year's Vuelta

Stage 10:  Alicante - Murcia 162km  Full Results and Report

Garmin's Ryder Hesjedal leads Simon Gerrans, Alexander Vinokourov and Fuglsang Jacob down the slopes of the fourth category Alto de la Cresta del Gallo after separating from a larger, 19-man breakaway	Descending extraordinaires Sammy Sanchez and race leader Alejandro Valverde broke free of the peloton on the tricky descent but were brought back before the finish	The rest of the GC contenders led by Ivan Basso and Tom Danielson
A Fuji - Servetto rider awaits a wheel change after crashing or flatting on the descent	Alexander Vinokourov (far right) has given up his early jump leaving it a three man race	The final battle was between Gerrans and Hesjedal
Hesjedal (right) doesn't think the race is over but Gerrans is in victory salute mode. The Australian now has a stage win in each of cycling's three Grand Tours.	Gerrans dwarfed on the podium	Valverde remains in Gold, but his kid won't be happy until he's wearing it the last day

Stage 11:  Murcia - Caravaca de la Cruz 200km  Full Results and Report

Massimiliano Mori is unsure whether he likes having a photographer inside the Lampre team bus prior to the start	Franco Ballerini can't stop talking about Damiano Cunego's mountain stage win from several days again. At this point, only Cunego himself is a willing listener.	It's easy to confuse a race radio with an energy bar when you reach into your back pocket
The start in Murcia	Jumping ahead to the finish. Just inside 25m to go, Tylar Farrar knows he's won the sprint finish that ends a medium mountain stage.	Preparing for his first Grand Tour victory salute
... and the first individual Grand Tour win by a Team Garmin rider (I believe)	The ascension of the next great American sprinter is well underway. It has been a long wait.	No change at the top of the GC today. Five-time Tour de France winner, Miguel Indurain, assists Valverde with his Gold Jersey.

Stage 12:  Almeria - Alto de Velefique 174km  Full Results and Report

The peloton makes its way up the vast, desolate finishing climb called Alto de Velefique	Good crowds near the top	The two remaining break survivors, Ryder Hesjedal (Can) Garmin-Slipstream and David Garcia (Spa) Xacobeo Galicia nearing the finish. Garcia was preoccupied with whether his captain, Ezequiel Mosquera, would bridge up
Mosquera wasn't able to join the lead group. In fact, Robert Gesink of Rabobank put in vicious attack with 2 km to go and caught Mosquera. Gesink finished 3rd followed by Mosquera	Two big back to back wins by Team Garmin: Ryder Hesjedal follows up a stage 11 sprint win by teammate Tylar Farrar with a mountaintop win today	The remaining GC contenders were led in by Damiano Cunego followed by Valverde, Evans and Basso @ 16 seconds
The rest of the peloton reaching the top	Ryder Hesjedal is the first Canadian to ever win a Vuelta stage	Parched Canadian lips; Hesjedal is also the first Canuck to win a Grand Tour stage since 1988
The spectacular view of the Alto de Velefique switchbacks after the race with riders descending back to base camp.

Stage 13:  Berja - Alto de Sierra Nevada 175km  Full Results and Report

Ominous cloud cover as the remnants of the peloton ascend the two-tier climb to the finish at Sierra-Nevada	The French climber, David Moncoutie, attacked from an early break and rode solo over the final two climbs of the day, the Alto de Monachil and the Alto de Sierra Nevada	The GC men Ivan Basso, Robert Gesink and Alejandro Valverde weren't worried about Moncoutie but Ezequiel Mosquera of Xacobeo-Galicia was in-between
Cadel Evans flatted on the second last climb and despite a little help from Paolo Tiralongo of Lampre-Ngc he wasn't able to chase back on. He lost over one minute and slips down the GC standings from 2nd to 4th.	Moncoutie adds another classic mountain stage win to his palmares	Valverde once again was able to distance himself slightly at the line with his good sprint finish, collected more valuable bonus time for 3rd on the stage and strengthened his overall lead to 27 seconds over Robert Gesink seen here with his head down.
Samuel Sanchez of Euskaltel-Euskadi lost contact with the GC contenders early on the big two-tier finishing climb, but clawed back to within 20 seconds by the finish	Garmin's Tom Danielson had a bad day losing almost seven minutes so GC hopes are finished	Moncoutie is also celerbrating his solid lead in the mountain classifications
Valverde hasn't had a bad day yet. In fact, strengthened his overall lead to 27 seconds today.

Stage 14:  Granada - La Pandera 157km  Full Results and Report

The peloton on its way to another mountaintop finish this time at Sierra de la Pandera	Damiano Cunego bidded his time in the break before attacking at just the right moment	One of the breakaway riders, Gonzalo Rabunal dropped back to pull for his Xacobeo - Galicia team captian, Ezequiel Mosquera who was just ahead of the GC riders.
Samuel Sanchez of Euskaltel-Euskadi caught Mosquera and finished third	Race leader Alejandro Valverde was following Robert Gesink's wheel when possible (like right here). He put more time into all his GC rivals except Sanchez and Mosquera finishing, 5th on the stage.	Damiano Cunego celebrates a "very, very hard" stage win. His second mountaintop win at this year's Vuelta after not winning a Grand Tour stage since 2004.
Second place on the stage went to fellow break survivor, Jakob Fuglsang (Den) of Saxo Bank who finished well behind (2:23 minutes) Cunego	If it wasn't for this cool shot of Rabobank's Pieter Weening, we wouldn't mention he finished 39th today	The Vuelta needs shorter podium girls for the mountain stages

Stage 15:  Jaen - Cordoba 167.7km  Full Results and Report

A 13 man breakway successfully escaped in the first hour of racing	Without any GC threats in the break, Caisse d'Epargne allowed the them to get a huge lead	And the GC contenders were content to take the day off
Rabobank's Lars Boom attacked the break on the second ascent of San Jeronimo with 22 km to go		The former cyclocross world champ and first year road pro won by 1:36 ahead of ...
2nd place David Herrero (Spa) of Xacobeo Galicia	Surely, Dominik Roels of Milram knows he finished third and not first?	The 23 year-old Dutchman has the potential to be a big rider for many years

Stage 16:  Cordoba - Puertollano 170km  Full Results and Report

Columbia's leadout man Greg Henderson celebrates as Andre Greipel moves into the lead at just the right moment	The sprint finish was thinned out by a crash inside 3k to go.	Another giant win for Team Columbia
	One hug for Bert Grabsch and...	and another hug for Frantisek Rabon
Andre Greipel reminds the crowd that he now has three wins at this year's Vuelta		No change on GC; Valverde's chances are looking pretty good

Stage 17:  Ciudad Real - Talavera de la Reina 193.6km  Full Results and Report

Break survivor, Francaise des Jeux's Anthony Roux hung on by a slim margin	Roux bridged across to breakmate Martijn Maaskant before leaving the Garmin rider behind with 500m to go	A thrilling finish with the peloton bearing down in the final meters. A win the 22 year old Frenchman will remember for a long time
	A real ladies man. Roux gave you each podium girl a flower from the winner's bouquet	Celebrating his first pro win with a glass of champagne
Valverde remains in control

Stage 18:  Talavera de la Reina - Avila 187km  Full Results and Report

The race leaders on the cobblestones arounding the Medieval walls near the finish in the old part of Ávila	Philip Deignan of Cervelo TestTeam and Liquigas' Roman Kreuziger in a two man duel	Philip Deignan post-race: "Kreuziger was really strong coming into the finish. He attacked at 500 meters, and I got onto his wheel. Then I had the power to come around"
Deignan also explained that after such a long day out in the break, the finish came down less to who was the better sprinter between Kreuziger and him, than to who had the better legs left.	Only the third Vuelta win ever by an Irish rider	Second place hurts more in the muscles on a cold, damp day
David Garcia (25th on GC) finishes among the top GC contenders. His solid performance has helped his team, Xacobeo Galicia, earn first place in team classification.	Another Grand Tour win for the first-year Cervelo TestTeam, the most successful team this year next to the Team Columbia juggernaut	Valverde keeps his tidy little 32 second lead

Stage 19:  Avila - La Granja 174km  Full Results and Report

The peloton going over for the first of three cat 1 climbs, Puerto de Navacerrada, at km 75	The weather had deteriorated by the third and final cat 1. Here, Samuel Sanchez attacks going over the summit followed by the race leader, Alejandro Valverde.	The rest of the GC contenders had to work hard to catch back on during the descent to the finish
Juan Jose Cobo of Fuji-Servetto was even further back. He would not only chase back on, but, ...	Cobo won the race while the top GC contenders were looking at each other	Valverde once again used his sprint skills to scoop up more bonus seconds and with Robert Gesink slipping back as a result of his knee injury, Valverde will take a healthy 1:26 lead into the deciding Stage 20 ITT
Another rider has captured the biggest win of his career at this year's Vuelta	The Gold Jersey is looking baggy on the thin remains of the race leader	Alberto Contador was in La Granja at the post-stage press conference fielding questions about his plans for 2010, mentioning Garmin and Caisse d'Epargne as teams he favors.

Stage 20:  Toledo 26km ITT  Full Results and Report

Xacobeo-Galicia thought today was a Team Time Trial	David Millar not only set an early best intermediate time	He was determined to win the 26k ITT which he did in a time of 35:53.
Cadel Evans was nine seconds back and moves past Ivan Basso on GC and onto the 3rd podium step	Samuel Sanchez had a very good day but he neither won the stage nor caught Valverde on GC. He placed second just five seconds back.	Just like he's been for the last three weeks, very good but not the best. Valverde placed 7th, 36 seconds back of Millar
But being consistently good every day can win you a Grand Tour	Even for those not high on GC, sticking around for the full three weeks has its rewards. Inset: Stage winner David Millar was rewarded with a sword by the locals of Toledo.	Valverde knows the final stage is pretty much meaningless for the GC. He has won/has a 55 second lead on Sanchez.

Stage 21:  Rivas - Madrid 110.2km  Full Results and Report

The ceremonial circuits in downtown Madrid in front of town hall	A sprint finish is what everyone has come to see	Andre Greipel puts an exclamation point on his Vuelta green jersey win with his four sprint finish victories
Greipel, one more time	Valvarde 1st on GC	Sammy Sanchez 2nd on GC
Cadel Evans 3rd on GC	Your GC podium	Time to cut loose