For those who don't follow cycling, the Vuelta a Espana is one of the three major grand tours on the schedule and while it is the least prestigious of the three (the Tour de France being the most important followed by the Giro d'Italia raced each May), it can be the most difficult of the bunch as far as toll it takes on the riders despite generally drawing the weakest field of the three and having many riding not for the win, but to get in shape for the World Championships, usually held not to long after the Vuelta each year.
Winner – Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Domo, Italy)
Nibali did everything necessary to win his first grand tour after finishing thrid behind teammate and countrymen Ivan Basso at the Giro in May. Nibali is a strong time-trialer and good climber and while not the best at either discipline, he tends to be better than most other overall contenders in the time trials and he is good enough that climbing that, while he usually doesn't gain a ton of time, he rarely loses big chunks either. In this race, he also got a little bit lucky with Igor Anton's crash out of the race while wearing the red leader's jersey.
Stars of the race other than Nibali after the jump
Ezequiel Mosquera (Xacobeo-Galicea, Spain)
Second overall and with a win on the queen stage (generally the most difficult mountain stage of a tour), the 35 year old Mosquera had an incredible tour and was a genuine threat to win it up until the very end when Nibali held on during the climb on the second to last day up the Bola del Mundo climb.
Igor Anton (Euskaltel-Euskadi, Spain)
While he crashed out wearing the leaders jersey on stage 14, this was still a successful race for Anton who had never before contended in a grand tour. Anton won two stages including the stage up into the mountains in Andorra and looked like the favorite to win before his crash.
Philippe Gilbert (Omega Pharma-Lotto, Belgium)
Gilbert came to this race to prepare for the World Championship road race in Geelong, Australia on October 3. With his two stage wins here and his run of early season results, Gilbert will head to Australia the favorite to win and carrying two unexpected stage wins from this Vuelta and a few days in the leaders red jersey to boot.
Mark Cavendish (HTC-Columbia, Great Britain)
Cavendish also came here to get in shape for the World Championship road race where if the race turns into a bunch sprint (possible on this years course), he would be among the favorites. His objectives changed though when he found himself leading the points race for the green sprinters jersey and he delivered by staying all the way through the race (unexpectedly) and winning the points jersey at the end despite being beaten in the final sprint by Tyler Farrar.
Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Transition, United States)
Farrar was in this race for much the same reason Gilbert and Cavendish were and he also had spectacular results with two stage win including the prestigious final stage in Madrid.
Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha, Spain)
JRod, as his fans call him had a great tour himself. He was the only one of the top ten finishers at the Tour de France to also seriously compete for the win here and he won a mountain stage and held the leaders jersey for a few days. He finished fourth overall despite all of that because of extreme struggles during the individual time trial where he lost nearly four minutes.
Peter Velits (HTC-Columbia, Slovakia)
Velits was a revelation here beating time trial aces Fabian Cancellara and Denis Menchov to take the time trial and seal third place overall. Considering he was nowhere near the favorites list here, finishing on the podium with a win in the time trial over two of the best in the world is an incredible feat.
Vuelta bonks (a bonk is when a rider seemingly inexplicably drops through the field getting dropped by the peloton, usually on climbs)
Team Saxo Bank
Where do we start with this team. For one thing, Andy Schleck and Stuart O'Grady got themselves thrown out of the race by team director Bjarne Riis for being out having a drink after hours. Then Fabian Cancellara was beaten in the time trial, withdrew from the race and then bought himself out of his contract. Also, Frank Schelck never really got into contention for the overall victory after a weak first weak and struggles in the time trial and nobody from the team managed to win a stage either. Entirely forgettable for what is normally one of the best teams in the world.
Denis Menchov (Rabobank, Russia)
Menchov was widely tapped as the favorite considering his form at the Tour de France (3rd lace on the podium) and his three previous grand tour wins (including two Vueltas). Too bad that the Tour de France sapped too much energy from him. Menchov was never really a threat in this race with his reserves still depleted from the podium fight in France though he did ride a very strong time trial finishing second to Velits.
Sprinters not named Gilbert, Cavendish or Farrar
Though there weren't a lot of major sprint stages in this Vuelta, Gilbert, Cavendish and Farrar were dominant in them. The rest of the field only had two sprint wins and one was by a guy, Yauheni Hutarovich, who many including former three time world champion Oscar Friere had never heard of. Ouch.
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