The first uphill mountain finish of the Vuelta a España took place Thursday and as expected, was a turning point in the race that put many general classification hopefuls out of contention.
Alejandro Valverde made Spanish fans proud by winning the sixth stage. The Movistar rider pushed the pace so hard in the closing portion of the day’s stage that only a few were able to follow. In the final kick to the finish, Valverde broke away from his rivals to cross the finish alone and claim the red leader’s jersey.
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Team Sky’s Chris Froome finished second on the day, ahead of Alberto Contador of Tinkoff-Saxo.
Movistar is now 1-2 in the overall standings with Nairo Quintana slotting into second place, 15 seconds back from the lead.
Many were not so fortunate.
More than a minute splits the top ten riders. GC contenders such as Rigoberto Uran and Dan Martin find themselves well over a minute back. Cadel Evans, in what is surely going to be his final year, is on the wrong side of a 2:40 deficit. Canadian Ryder Hesjedal was already in a difficult spot heading into today’s stage. At nearly eight minutes back, his hopes for a strong Vuelta are over. Hesjedal will move into a support role for teammate Martin.
Though domestiques are generally any rider that is riding in support of a teammate, all support riders are not equal. Sprinters have the support of a lead-out train that creates a slipstream to the finish, each leader dropping away until finally the sprinter is in front just before the finish line. The strongest domestiques may even transition into the role of a lead rider in the event the main GC hopeful has significant problems.
Yet for a group of riders hidden away in the ranks of the peloton, the Vuelta holds an ultimate promise. Stagiaires, the name given to rookies getting their first chance on a pro team, are working to be the ultimate domestique in an effort to get noticed by team bosses ahead of the 2015 season.
In order to earn a pro contract, a stagiaire must do the biggest share of the grunt work. Shuttling food and bottles to the more senior members of the team from the team cars behind the peloton forces a junior rider into an exhausting yo-yo, dropping from the peloton to take on kilograms of supplies before pushing to better the pace of the pack in order to distribute much needed food and drink. On hot days in the mountains currently characterizing the Vuelta, this task must be done many times in a day.
Canadian Christian Meier is in his third season with the Australian Orica-GreenEDGE team, but got his taste of elite level racing as a stagiaire for the Garmin-Chipotle squad in 2008.
“The team may be interested in hiring the rider for the upcoming season (which is what all we stagiaires hope for) and they want to give you a test run to see how you get on with the team,” wrote Meier, in a blog post in 2008. “In other cases, they just need a couple riders to fill out rosters for the last half of the season as riders are tired or injured.”
Stagiaires often come from the ranks of development squads, or from smaller continental or regional teams. Meier was called up from the B.C. based Symetrics team for his stint with Garmin.
At the Vuelta, there are a number of stagiaires all hoping to impress a team and be able to leave their more ordinary lives behind.
Maxat Ayazbayev has been called up to ride for the Astana Pro Team. The young Kazakh has dreams of riding professionally after watching cycling on TV since 2005. The Astana Team is based in Kazakhstan, and like to have riders from their home nation on the squad. Riding for the Astana development team since 2012, Ayazbayev has been a consistent rider, even winning the 2012 Tour of Bulgaria.
Belgian Oliver Naesen has performed well in one day races in the past, and caught the attention of the Lotto Belisol team this year. Although he has yet to win a UCI level race, Naesen is regularly a top ten in major races at home.
“He’s not part of our U23 team, but we certainly noticed him,” said Kurt Van de Wouwer, sports director for Lotto Belisol. “Almost in every race he participated in, he showed himself. Oliver won some races this year and often got into top five. He’s a classic type, a man for the Flemish races.”
Final rosters for the next season won’t be announced until the winter. Until then, hopeful staiaires will continue to hustle and show their best efforts in hopes of joining professional cycling’s elite ranks.