It was an emotional final week of Vuelta 2017 – tears of joy for Chris Froome who did the Tour/Vuelta double, tears of both sadness and joy as Alberto Contador crossed the line solo at Angliru. But we also have singing – lots of singing, chanting – lots of chanting, a little bit of rage and fans a go-go. It’s our final Vuelta Tweets of the Week …
Flying up Angliru
It was the last mountain stage of Alberto Contador‘s career. And he decided to fly one last time. It was, quite simply, majestic.
Goodbye doesn’t mean forever
The final rollout – it’s the first bit that I love, the little boy giving Alberto some good luck charms.
Give some guys a sip of champagne and they’re singing at the top of their lungs!
Adrenalin-fuelled, the Trek guys kept the champagne on ice until they were sure that they’d met and signed autographs for all the fans who turned out to celebrate with their leader on Sunday evening. Chapeau!
Seeing double
Both of these riders got the ending they wanted – Contador animated the race at every turn and took the Angliru stage with such style and panache; Froome doing the Tour/Vuelta double. It was good to see them congratulate each other.
The most controversial move on the final stage, by far, was Chris Froome contesting both the intermediate sprint and the final sprint in order to keep the green jersey. Matteo Trentin fought hard for it but in the end, Froome placed just high enough in the final sprint to keep the jersey by 2pts. Twitter went bananas! How dare he! Greedy! Can’t we have anything nice?! were some of the more polite reactions.
I think, however, the most controversial tweet on the subject goes to Journal Velo (he will so love this …). JV, honey, nothing but love for you, but no. No.
Should Froome have raced for the green on a stage that is traditionally all about the sprint? Well, it was a race and he wanted the jersey. Which surely means that any final Sunday in a grand tour that has a close podium is a race too, methinks.
50 shades of blue
Enric Mas had a big part to play in Contador’s final conquest of Angliru – and he gets his reward.
You know Aqua Blue has made a lot of fans when Stefan Denifl took the final Pedaleur de Charme teeshirt of the Vuelta, beating Contador by public vote!
Nothing stopped this Aqua Blue team. They came away from this Vuelta with a stage win and a whole lot of new fans!
What it feels like for a mum
The Gruppetto
There are perks to being on the podum
She’s proud of her daddy. And well she should be.
He rode up Angliru with a fractured rib
“You said skimmed milk, right?”
While Cannondale riders are giving their jerseys for beer …
I can’t get over the fact that Vino has wavy hair!
Farewell, Tyler.
Mysteriously bad behaviour …
Fabs has been out and about …
…and been crowned King!
Meanwhile, Worlds are coming up and all thoughts lead to … Peter Sagan