The Vuelta belongs to Chris Horner, unbeatable even on the tremendous walls of the Alto de l'Angliru, the first rider over forty capable of winning one of the three most important stage races on the cycling calendar. The duel seen yesterday by the American with a Nibali who is back as Squalo, generous and proud as ever, will remain in the most beautiful pages of cycling. Repeated shots, bordering on human, on hairpin bends that rear up with gradients of over 23,5%, while Angliru, the Mortirolo of Asturias, was enveloped in a mist that made the scenography almost infernal, in a large snake of crowd in a frenzy: Nibali, with a series of breathtaking stretches, seemed to have won the game but the "grandfather" in the red jersey, with the crooked pedal stroke and his crooked left foot, was always there, he would lose a few seconds and then recover it.
Nibali also had the psychological advantage of having two Astana team-mates with him for a certain stretch of the climb, when Tiralongo and Fuglsang who had been scouting for some time were sucked into the final tussle but Horner never broke down. He waited for Nibali's two supporters to completely run out of batteries, breathing hard at the wheels of the Shark before detaching him, with an action of overwhelming force, in the last kilometre, even going one step away from winning the stage. He didn't make it to the French Kenny Ellissonde, winner of the stage, the only survivor of a breakaway of about thirty riders, but the Vuelta was definitively his. Horner is thus also the first American to win it. Neither Lemond nor Armstrong have made it in the past.
The ease with which he dominated it, especially in this last week of the race, is incredible. He looked like Froome of Ventoux with the inevitable bad thoughts about who knows what he has in his body. One wonders where at the age of almost 42 (he turns 23 next October) he drew so much energy. One also wonders how it is possible that such a marvel has never won anything or almost nothing in his 20-year career. After the exhausted finish line, Horner dropped to the ground but never lost that strange smile, almost a grimace, which characterized him in these three weeks of racing. Nibali, preceded by Valverde, was immediately there but finished fourth at 28 seconds. His Vuelta was lost. Rodriguez, who triumphed on the Alto de Naranco on Friday but was in great difficulty on the terrible final ramps of Angliru, came even further behind losing his last chance to get on the podium today in Madrid.
“Today I gave my heart and soul to fight like a lion! Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, but the important thing is to do it with honor until the end!”. Sportingly via Twitter in the evening, Vincenzo Nibali acknowledged the defeat, but what he did yesterday, even in conditions that weren't the optimal ones of the Giro, relaunches him again as the most authoritative challenger of Froome, for future challenges starting from the imminent World Championship in Florence. Where Horner will probably also be there, perhaps promoted to captain of the US team but still looking for a contract renewal which, after the triumph in the Vuelta, shouldn't be long in coming. Because he has no intention of quitting. On the contrary, seeing that he has now started to win, he would like to race again for three or four years.
