Category VII Cycling

Ok, so perhaps Manolo Saiz wasn't simply being a callous heel of a manager yesterday when he expressed disappointment in his captain's ride to the Lagos de Covadonga. Because a scant 24 hours later, Roberto Heras pulled off the ride many -- yours truly included -- believed was not possible. Heras not only was able to drop the previous bullet-proof Menchov, but he put over four minutes into his chief rival, praticially sealing his record fourth overall win in the Vuelta -- at the last possible moment for him to do so.

Liberty’s strategy looked pretty solid from beginning to end. Liberty made sure they had riders in the original big break of the day – in this case Joseba Beloki, who has ridden terribly for himself in the past couple years, but has done yeoman work for Heras in the Vuelta. Rabobank was noticeably absent from the group here. Heras then attacked Menchov on his own, some 50+ kms out from the finish, knowing that it wasn’t sufficient to gain some time on the race leader – with one more long time trial before the Vuelta ends, Heras needed some insurance against the man who has dominated all of the races against the clock thus far. The only way he could get that in the final day of the mountains was to go for a long way out. And his attack had Menchov isolated immediately.

After getting his initial gap, Heras managed to bridge up to the front group, where Beloki again pulled domestique duties for his captain. Meanwhile, Menchov looked like the blown Beloki, trying to limit his damage on the day. Heras rode in to the finish with a brilliant win, and taking enough time to give him a comfortable lead, even with one long time trial (favoring Menchov) to come.

Yesterday I wrote that Menchov looked set to win the Vuelta if he could just continue to follow wheels. But Heras proved me and everyone else wrong by taking the race to his opponents in impressive fashion. But make no mistake about it -- this race was not lost by Menchov. Rather it was won by Heras who took everything he had to the Russian in laying the groundwork for his voctory. An impressive effort by any measure. Bravo, Roberto!