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Since the dawn of time, pundits and fans alike have squabbled over which of cycling’s Grand Tours is the best. The Dolomites of Italy get pit against the Alps and Pyrenees of France and the Cantabrian Mountains of Spain. I’m here to definitively answer the question of which is the best, and if you’ve managed to read the title, then you know where this article is heading.
Put simply, it self evidently is the best if you’ve only watched five minutes of any of the Grand Tours. I suspect however dear reader that such an argument would be insufficient, so I shall persist.
Cycling is nothing without stories, and yes you get stories at all races – some big, some small, some medium-sized. The Giro d’Italia is the first grand tour of the season, but it acts like a prelude, it whets the appetite, but it cannot hope to satiate the public’s hunger for stage racing. It develops some stories, and sets the scene but it could not possibly be the whole book.
The Tour de France, the biggest of all races, is a level above everything else and on its own echelon. The Tour is a race many view as the race to watch and that’s understandable because it acts like a main meal, it sustains you and can easily fill you up. It’s tenderly crafted, Michelin-starred fine dining but in huge quantity. A vast majority of riders look to write their names into history and have a few chapters about themselves through each edition of Le Tour, and for all the ones trying and succeeding, there’s countless others who will encounter adversity and be left disappointed, like if you order steak and get a limp, sad salad.
It’s easy to indulge at the Tour, and many viewers over-do it and the TDF becomes all they can consume, no space for anything else, but they’re missing out.
The true and greatest pleasure is La Vuelta. It’s the dessert of the Grand Tour menu, and who doesn’t love dessert. For me it’s one of those sharing sundaes, that you tell the waiter “I’ll just need the one spoon actually”. The trick to enjoying La Vuelta is to avoid over-indulgence at the Tour, save that little bit of space that you’ll need for later.
The last Grand Tour of the season is the best, because it’s the culmination of the stories. No-one watches a tv show and gets to the penultimate episode and decides enough is enough, or no-one watches the Cornetto trilogy and stops after Hot Fuzz, or after Eclipse for those more into Twilight.
La Vuelta brings the whole season into a state of completeness, the stories that are half-written at the Giro or the Tour, have their denouement in Spain. For some it represents redemption, either they had a tough Giro or Tour and those riders are looking to get their glory before the off-season begins, like Primož Roglič who suffered in the Tour due to injury and had to withdraw from the race, or Ben O’Connor, who was looking to back up last year’s July exploits with some more in France and was unable to due to injury. For other riders it’s their first chance at a Grand Tour, a chance to cut their teeth and experience something that changes you as a rider.
A story of exploring potential or a story of redemption – La Vuelta brings it all and for that reason it will never be surpassed.
