This weekend will be a fitting finale to three thrilling Grand Tours
What a way to close out the year.
A season of thrilling Grand Tours is coming down the home stretch in much the same way things have proceeded throughout the past few months. Just as they were with two stages to go at the Tour de France and at the Giro d’Italia, things are incredibly tight at the Vuelta a España as the last two days of racing loom.
For years the clear third of three Grand Tours from a popularity perspective, the Vuelta has proven time and time (and time and time) again this decade that it’s one heck of a show, and the 2020 edition has already proven to be just another great example of that. Saturday’s stage 17 to the Alto de la Covatilla will be worth the watch indeed, while stage 18 will close things out with a day for a field of sprinters that includes some big names.
With Richard Carapaz sitting only 45 seconds off of Primoz Roglic’s lead as of Friday night in Spain, and Hugh Carthy also in striking distance at 53 seconds back, it seemed worthwhile to take a moment to point out just how incredible the GC battles have been all the way down to the wire at all three Grand Tours this year.
That 45-second margin between first and second at the Vuelta right now is as close as it has been with two stages left to go in the race since 2015, when Tom Dumoulin was holding onto a six-second lead (which he would lose) to Fabio Aru. Only the 2013 Vuelta, where Chris Horner led Vincenzo Nibali by three seconds with two stages to go, has been closer this decade.
However you might feel about that 2013 result, from a close-as-heck-GC-battle perspective, 2013 and 2015 are pretty fine company for this year’s Vuelta to be in.
But wait, there’s more!
The Roglic-Carapaz-Carthy battle is the third of three fantastic GC battles on the year. Just how fantastic have this year’s Grand Tours been? Glad you asked!
You’ll recall that with two stages to go at this year’s awesome Tour de France, Tadej Pogacar was sitting 57 seconds behind Roglic. And you may recall that with two stages to go at this year’s awesome Giro d’Italia, Jai Hindley was a mere 12 seconds behind Wilco Kelderman, with eventual winner Tao Geoghegan Hart only three seconds behind that.
How about this stat for you: The combined GC margin between first and second with two stages to go at all three Grand Tours this year stands at a grand total of just 1:54. That is as tight as that number has been in a decade, and going any farther back than that you’re working around at least a few names whose results have been deemed fictitious by history.
That margin between first and second at all three Grand Tours with two stages to go in 2010 was tighter from the perspective of live viewers, but things played out a little differently in the end. With two stages to go at the 2010 Tour, Andy Schleck was eight seconds behind an Alberto Contador whose victory was later stripped. David Arroyo was 51 seconds behind eventual Ivan Basso at the Giro (that win did stand at least), while Ezequiel Mosquera, later stripped of his runner-up result, was 50 seconds behind Vincenzo Nibali at the Vuelta.
In other words, this year’s Grand Tour season has seen the tightest battles of at least this current era of pro road racing.
Considering how things were looking for the state of this year’s Grand Tours only a few months ago, that’s a pretty awesome turnaround.
It’s been a wacky, up-and-down season for the world of bike racing. For a while there, it seemed like the 2020 season might never pick back up again after racing was halted in March.
Instead, we’ve had a chance to watch not one, not two, but three fantastic GC battles, culminating in this weekend’s final showdown at the Vuelta.
However things play out, it’s been a real treat so far, and an all the more welcome one in an otherwise challenging year for the sport and the world.
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