Sunday, September 11, a summer day in Bucharest, where a few copper leaves on the sidewalks and alleys told us about autumn, a day full of sporting events. In New York, the very young Carlos Alcaraz wins the US Open, in Madrid, the king of cycling: at the “Ceratizit Challenge by La Vuelta”, Elisa Balsamo won the final stage in the Spanish capital, and Annemick van Vleuten took the red jersey, as well as the Grand Slam, with victories included in all grand tours; on the men’s side, Juan Molano also took a stage win for Team UAE, while youngster Remko Evenepool stayed in the red to win his first Grand Tour.

Bucharest cleverly got involved in this story with the Tour of Romania finale, which took the cyclists along Kiseleva and Aviatorilor boulevards fifteen times, for a total of 96 km, a stage that was finally won by the Czech Daniel Babor from Elków. Casper.

In the end, Scotsman Mark Stewart of Bolton Equities stayed in yellow, while the second and best-placed Romanian cyclist in the final standings (blue jersey) was Cristian Railanu of the Romanian national team. Even if the Tour of Romania only gathers teams Continental or procontinental and not of a very high level, this year the Eurosport 1 broadcast of the stage results won, which hopefully made it more visible.

The Cycling Tour of Sibiu is, from this point of view, more famous than the Tour of Romania and would probably benefit from better positioning in the competition calendar, as it brought six teams to Romania this year world touri.e. Jumbo Visma, Bora-Hansgrohe, Astana, Lotto Soudal, Israel Premier Tech and Cofidis, which is not quite from there.

The competition in Sibiu is tougher, seven places out of the top ten are occupied by riders from teams world tour. Our best athletes at the Tour of Sibiu were Emil Dima in 19th place and Cristian Reilianu in 23rd place, far from the podium.

The curtain has come down on the big cycling tours and every year I feel nostalgic because for me the end of the Vuelta is synonymous with the end of the summer season, even if until the end of 2022 we have another major sporting event, somewhat unusual – the FIFA World Cup organized by by Qatar

The competition will be unique in that it stretches far into winter, with the final being played the week before Christmas, the football royalty we’re used to in the summer watching matches on the terrace with a beer by the side. This year we are trying mulled wine and blankets for our feet.

Returning to cycling, I noticed how, throughout the summer, the grand tours wrote stories that cannot leave anyone indifferent, with great performances, some unexpected, but also sad or sad events that marked the performance of athletes who put in hope and effort, but were forced yield to the relentless. And, yes, we also had new athletes present in the grand tours this year: I mean Manuela Mureşan, who participated in the women’s Vuelta, finishing 101st in the general classification[1].

Manuela Mureșan started cycling seven years ago, has competed in road, mountain bike and triathlon races and is a national cross-country Olympic (XCO) champion. Her participation in the women’s La Vuelta was intended to give her professional Grand Tour experience, and her team – Soltec Team (also Spanish) – gave her confidence and the opportunity to be with the big names in world women’s cycling.

The history of the grand tours this year has been full of spectacular events and I admit that I, like many others, have been impressed by the new generation of cyclists who are making their way, with Jonas Wingegard, Thaddeus Pogakar or Remko Evenepol, but also the unlucky Egan Bernal, who In January, he injured himself very badly while training at home in Colombia, but miraculously found the strength to return to the big competitions through La Vuelta.

No less impressive was the retirement from professional cycling – with his Tour of Honor from Madrid – of the Spanish veteran Alejandro Valverde or the unique performance of the Dutch cyclist Annemiek van Vleuten, world champion in 2021, winner of the challenger La Vuelta 2021, then the Giro, the Tour de France and the Vuelta in 2022, authoritatively dominating the major road races in which he participated last year.

Also impressive was Olympic champion Richard Carapaz, who podiumed at the Tour de France in 2021, then won gold at the Olympic road race in Tokyo, finished second at this year’s Giro and hoped to also podium at the Vuelta but lacked the necessary sports uniform in the first week of the race. So he revised his goals and managed to achieve three stage wins in Spain for Ineos Grenadiers.

Of all these and many other stories that influenced the season, I was most drawn to the story of young Australian cyclist Jay Wine, which is not often seen in the sport and which tells us a lot about the times we live in and how technology meets performance a person in sports in a way that was previously impossible.

In 2020, Jay Wine was an amateur cyclist who made a name for himself by winning a global online e-bike competition organized by Zwift Academy, which was rewarded with a one-year professional cycling contract offered by the Belgian Continental Pro Team. Alpecin – Phoenix. At the time, Jay Wine was a driver for the Australian continental team ARA Pro Racing.

The contract he made with Alpecin seemed a favor and at the same time too big a hat for the “welcoming cyclist”. Before turning pro with the Belgian team, Jay Wine performed well in 2019 and 2020 at several races in Australia, but no one seemed to take notice of his results.

Jay and his wife, Bre, who is a sports journalist and cycling enthusiast, took it seriously and moved to Europe in 2021 to focus all their energy on a new personal project as a cyclist. In 2021, Jay Wine finished second overall at the Tour of Turkey, showing that he knows how to play to his strengths, collaborate effectively and follow the tactics of a high-performing team.

In 2022, foreshadowing La Vuelta, J-Wine again finishes second at the Tour of Turkey, but repeats the same result at the higher-ranked Tour of Norway. At the Vuelta, on the sixth stage of the climb, ten kilometers before the finish, the Ukrainian cyclist Mark Padun was leading, who seemed to be on his way to victory.

The riders encountered cold weather and thick fog on the climb, at which point Jay Wine came hot on the heels of Padun, who he overtook with around 6 kilometers to go before holding on at the finish to unexpectedly win the stage. . Sports commentators watching the race lauded the victory, trying to make up for the fact that Spanish television, which broadcast the race, was unable to show clear images of either the finish line or the awards ceremony due to heavy fog.

Two days later, on stage eight, Jay Wine broke away with Mark Soler, Oleksiy Lutsenko, Mikel Landa, Rein Taaramäe, Lucas Hamilton, Bruno Armirail and Mads Pedersen. With about 6 kilometers to go, Jay takes the race on his own and wins the stage, much to everyone’s surprise, but totally deserved (which all the commentators enthusiastically agree with).

As such, Jay Wine wore the blue polka dot top climber’s white jersey, which he unfortunately had to give up on stage 18 after a collective fall with 17 kilometers to go. He managed to finish the stage, but had to withdraw abruptly the next day, an irony that endeared him even more to the cycling public.

Nairo Quintana, a well-known Colombian cyclist from BikeExchange, who finished sixth in this year’s Tour de France, after fighting for the podium with Geran Thomas, Romain Bardet, Luis Meintjes or David Gaudu for almost the whole tour, he also offered to take part in La Vuelta, aiming for the podium again.

However, to a surprise, about ten days before the start of the Vuelta, the French daily L’Equipe announced that the tests carried out by Quintana at the Tour de France showed traces of tramadola powerful painkiller banned by the International Cycling Union (UCI) in 2019. The tests were conducted after the finish of the Super Planche des Belles Filles (Stage 7) and the Col du Granon Serre Chevalier (Stage 11), the latter of which saw Quintan finish second to Denmark’s Jonas Wingegaard.[2]

Tramadol it is a drug with which an athlete does not increase his sports performance, but suppresses pain, so he can compete even if he is, for example, injured. The problem with this drug is that, in addition to giving the injured athlete the advantage of pushing their physical endurance limits in the face of pain, it has dangerous side effects during athletic competition, namely dizziness, which can occur prematurely.

Nairo Quintana initially publicly denied that he had been treated tramadol and announced that he would do everything he could to be at the start of the Vuelta, after which he returned to say he would miss the race in Spain to prepare for his statement to the Court of Sports, saying he was confident he had won the case.

His team was much more cautious in their statements, suggesting that whatever Quintana did regarding the banned painkillers, he did so without the involvement of the team and to the detriment of his own good name.

I’ve been following Nairo Quintana for a while and I have to admit, I’m sorry that he’s become the subject of such a scandal. I think I can understand what prompted him – the Frenchman’s tests are unlikely to be false positive – to resort to painkillers, because at the age of 32 it is not very easy to cope with the intense professional competition in cycling.

In his case, we cannot talk about doping, as was the case with Lance Armstrong, and the measures that will be taken to punish him cannot be so drastic. The organizers of the Tour de France decided to disqualify him, and Nairo Quintana and his lawyers appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport[3] Thursday, September 1 this year; the date when his case will be decided has not yet been announced.

Nairo Quintana’s case is not the only controversial story this summer. Jumbo Visma entered the Tour de France with two team leaders: the young but experienced Slovenian Primož Rogliči, a former Grand Tour winner (a three-time winner of La Vuelta), and the much younger and talented Dane Jonas Wingegaard, with the team expecting to -win backs whoever takes the best place and shows good form in the first week.

On the fifth stage, Wingegard rose to 7th place, then to 3rd place, and on the seventh day of the competition he was already second. So Primož Rogliči returned to the not-so-comforting role of the Dane’s first lieutenant, aiming to win the Tour ahead of his main rival, 2021 winner Tadej Pohačar.

On the 11th stage, Wingegard attacked Pogachar and spent almost 3 minutes, thus taking the first place in the general classification, while Roglic had to lead the defense of the Dane’s yellow jersey. Read the whole article and leave comments to the participants. UA