Grand Tour contenders – who’s racing what in 2014

Jan 20, 2014

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in Giro d’Italia, Tour de France, Vuelta a Espana

It’s a common misconception among casual followers of cycling that all the best riders compete in the Tour de France. This is, patently, bollocks. If the route doesn’t suit them, many riders will instead centre their efforts on the Giro or the Vuelta – often both (albeit with greater emphasis on the Italian race, which is a little bit higher profile).

Plans change depending on form and injuries, but here’s how most of the main Grand Tour contenders appear to be organising their seasons.

Giro d’Italia

Joaquim Rodriguez
Nairo Quintana
Cadel Evans
Chris Horner

Tour de France

Chris Froome
Bradley Wiggins (in support of Froome)
Vincenzo Nibali
Alberto Contador
Alejandro Valverde
Rigoberto Uran
Chris Horner

Vuelta a Espana

Joaquim Rodriguez
Nairo Quintana
Alberto Contador
Alejandro Valverde
Bradley Wiggins

Also

You’ll notice that Chris Horner doesn’t get a mention. That’s because he doesn’t even have a team at present, let alone a race schedule. (Update: Horner has now signed with Lampre-Merida and will ride the Giro and the Vuelta.)

Horner felt sufficiently emboldened by his Vuelta victory to request a two-year contract on a greatly-improved salary. Being as he’s 42, no-one’s been keen to sign him on these terms and he’s basically going round and round the pro teams, reducing his demands after each lap. Eventually someone will relent and he’ll presumably ride to defend his Vuelta title.

There are of course other riders who perhaps warrant a mention, but I’ve tried to keep this list to the headline names plus Rigoberto Uran.

Comments

7 responses to “Grand Tour contenders – who’s racing what in 2014”

Suave

January 20, 2014

I’m guessing with Horner, there is also a concern over his blood passport. No-one other than Horner believes he won the Vuelta clean. He’s forty fucking two, forty two year old men don’t destroy the best spanish riders, on hills, in spain. It just don’t happen.

Reply
1. Alex
  
  January 20, 2014
  
  That’s a popular line and while there may be an element of truth to it, I think the truth is more prosaic – he’s overestimating his market value.
  
  One theory as to why he went better than the Spaniards in 2013 is because he was a hell of a lot fresher than everyone else, having barely raced all year due to injury. However, if someone’s paying you a boatload of cash, they want you to race.
  
  Reply
2. Alex
  
  January 20, 2014
  
  Incidentally, if anyone’s interested in how cycling performance deteriorates with age, a study of Miguel Indurain produced some very interesting results.
  
  http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22868823
  
  It might not mean much if you aren’t au fait with wattages and so forth, but the gist is that at the age of 46, Big Mig could still ride professionally and indeed competitively if he chose to make a bit more effort with his training, even though he retired 14 years ago.
  
  Reply
  1. Pete
    
    January 21, 2014
    
    This isn’t a fair comparison: from what I’ve seen Horner appears to be a human.
  2. Alex
    
    January 21, 2014
    
    Really? Human?
    
    I’ll admit that he’s a different beast to Indurain, but human? Come on.
Pete

January 21, 2014

Naked molerat?

Reply
1. Alex
  
  January 21, 2014
  
  Certainly at least one parent was.
  
  Reply