{"id":170701,"date":"2018-09-18T16:43:24","date_gmt":"2018-09-18T16:43:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/?p=170701"},"modified":"2018-09-19T06:43:37","modified_gmt":"2018-09-19T06:43:37","slug":"the-lessons-we-learned-from-the-2018-la-vuelta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2018\/09\/18\/the-lessons-we-learned-from-the-2018-la-vuelta\/","title":{"rendered":"The Lessons We Learned from the 2018 La Vuelta"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Froome won the Triple Crown \u2013 Le Tour (2017), La Vuelta (2017), and the Giro (2018). The Team Sky\u2019s embarrassment of riches resulted in another Briton winning the next big prize \u2013 Geraint Thomas winning Le Tour earlier this year.<\/strong><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>And now, Simon Yates has made this five wins in a row for British cyclists. As a cycling fan who is a Brit, I have to confess that I\u2019m enjoying the glow of victory\u2026<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Great teams pick their battles<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Team Sky were conspicuously absent, opting to pour their talent into the Tour of Britain. Geraint Thomas couldn\u2019t help but comment that he felt a \u201clittle jealous\u201d of Simon Yates\u2019s opportunity not just to race in, but also to win La Vuelta. And what a victory it was\u2026<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/bTZGlgkeWSo\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s all the sweeter for Yates, who won stage 20 in Andorra, his home turf. The cynics among you may say he only won because Brailsford changed his priorities. Personally, I think Team Sky noticed something the rest of us missed \u2013 that if Yates had the talent to challenge the best away from home, he should be favourite to win at home.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Reconnaissance or renaissance?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The absence of Froome and Thomas provided an opportunity for other riders to shine. Talents like Viviani, Kruijswijk, Valverde, Pinot, Uran, Quintana, and Mollema fought a race that was rich in tactics that wouldn\u2019t have seemed out of place in the 90s. As a cycling fan, I was thrilled.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/KiIRJEDxSuM\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Team Sky will certainly pick over each stage result as they plan their tactics for next year\u2019s Grand Tours. Just look at Enric Mas who not only finished within two minutes of the lead, he did so at just 23 years old. Winning the best young rider classification is an understatement of Mas\u2019s potential.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Family first<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Speaking of youth, Simon Yates is only 26 \u2013 just three years older than Mas. In 2013, Team Sky were rumoured to have been interested in signing Simon after winning the World Track Championships in Belarus. But the deal fell through, amidst whispers that Team Sky weren\u2019t interested in offering Simon\u2019s twin, Adam, a deal at the time.<\/p>\n<lite-youtube videoid=2CRLVpu9gu4 params=\"enablejsapi=1\" style=\"background-image: url('https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi_webp\/2CRLVpu9gu4\/maxresdefault.webp');\"><\/lite-youtube>\n<p>Team Sky\u2019s loss may be Mitchelton-Scott\u2019s gain, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/cycling\/2018\/09\/17\/sir-bradley-wiggins-simon-yates-would-not-have-won-vuelta-espana\/\">Sir Bradley Wiggins certainly thinks that\u2019s the case<\/a>. Rather than become another super-domestique, Simon Yates has risen above Team Sky\u2019s temptations and, unlike Richie Porte and Mikel Landa, reaped the benefits with a major tour win.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Mitchelton-Scott could beat Team Sky<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Cadel Evans\u2019s win with BMC Bikes in 2010 was a moment of magic, and BMC will be sorely missed. Richie Porte\u2019s career alone has been a tragedy of errors, risks, and unfulfilled potential. I will very much miss the team that should have been Team Sky\u2019s greatest threat these last few years. Chapeau BMC\u2026<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/UDnvT98Tc_k\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>But Mitchelton-Scott have rattled Team Sky \u2013 no one can doubt that Team Sky\u2019s absence from La Vuelta is more than just a note of caution. You\u2019d think that a team with two leading men could afford to compete in the most important tours of the season. But Simon Yates has given Mitchelton-Scott something Team Sky don\u2019t have. A clearly defined race leader, with youth on his side\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Froome won the Triple Crown \u2013 Le Tour (2017), La Vuelta (2017), and the Giro (2018). The Team Sky\u2019s embarrassment [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":170714,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[329],"tags":[2301,425,1941,1080,479,794,494,773,1786],"global-categories":[],"class_list":["post-170701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-road-cycling","tag-cadel-evans","tag-chris-froome","tag-elia-viviani","tag-geraint-thomas","tag-la-vuelta","tag-mikel-landa","tag-nairo-quintana","tag-richie-porte","tag-simon-yates"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.3 (Yoast SEO v25.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Lessons We Learned from the 2018 La Vuelta - \u0160koda We Love Cycling<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Froome won the Triple Crown \u2013 Le Tour (2017), La Vuelta (2017), and the Giro (2018). 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The Team Sky\u2019s embarrassment of riches resulted in another Briton\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2018\/09\/18\/the-lessons-we-learned-from-the-2018-la-vuelta\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"\u0160koda We Love Cycling\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-09-18T16:43:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-09-19T06:43:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2018\/09\/profimedia-0387055621-1.webp\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/webp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Christopher Ashley\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2018\/09\/18\/the-lessons-we-learned-from-the-2018-la-vuelta\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2018\/09\/18\/the-lessons-we-learned-from-the-2018-la-vuelta\/\",\"name\":\"The Lessons We Learned from the 2018 La Vuelta - \u0160koda We Love Cycling\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2018\/09\/18\/the-lessons-we-learned-from-the-2018-la-vuelta\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2018\/09\/18\/the-lessons-we-learned-from-the-2018-la-vuelta\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/d2p6e6u75xmxt8.cloudfront.net\/2\/2018\/09\/profimedia-0387055621-1.webp\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-09-18T16:43:24+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-09-19T06:43:37+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"\"},\"description\":\"Froome won the Triple Crown \u2013 Le Tour (2017), La Vuelta (2017), and the Giro (2018). 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