offbyone said:
This is all true and I agree with most of what you say. There are certainly a lot of teams that are hoping to make those extra spots. But if the vuelta wants to get bigger it needs to invite the best teams, not the most popular teams internally.
Who said the Vuelta wanted to get bigger? Perhaps Javier Guillén is happy with its current level. Also, in comparison to the Giro and Tour, the Vuelta suffers from a lack of internal support - you will find a lot of flat stages running through areas which are very sparsely populated, and few fans able or willing to turn up in those areas. Perhaps Guillén's opinion is that he'd rather solidify the race's national base before worrying about the Armstrong/Hog audience, which is mostly casual, external and transient, and don't care about the Vuelta, they care about Armstrong/Hog. Solidifying your local base before attempting globalisation is a good business model. Furthermore, the Vuelta a España, like the Giro d'Italia, has always been much more tied in to its nation of origin than the Tour de France.
I still really don't see why the giro participation should be linked to the vuelta. Would the giro organizers even want their b team? Would race fans be cheering if TRS participated in the giro with their b squad? I wouldn't think so.
But the point would have been that they wouldn't have disrespected the Giro. Maybe the team did care about the Vuelta. But they spent so much time saying that the Tour of California and the Tour were the only races that were important to them that Unipublic took that as read, and invited teams that did say they wanted to be at the Vuelta, even if it was only lip service, because at least they respected the race's organisers and the race's tradition and history. RS were acting like their place was sacrosanct, so it doesn't matter if we don't go to the Giro, we'll send Jani, Tiago and Chris to the Vuelta, like it's just a backup plan. Guillén has a right to take umbrage with this. Honour and valour are important factors here.
And again I don't think it is fair to complain that an american team wanted to go to the biggest american race even if it is during a much bigger race in europe. If anything the vuelta organizers should see that radioshack has a deep team and is only racing one GT, they will bring motivation and good riders...
It's fair for Shack to want to go to the Tour of California. But several other teams - Liquigas, Columbia, Garmin, Quick Step, Rabobank, BMC - managed to race both the Giro AND California. BMC! A team most of us have criticised for their lack of depth! The Shack have a very strong roster of 25. I think what was ridiculous was their assertion that they couldn't race the Giro. They could easily have sent a strong 9-man team that the Giro's organisers would have wanted around and still left Levi and Lance in California. Popovych as leader even could have been bought - Popo was 5th overall back in 2004.
When the team were talking about only targeting California and the Tour, others might have accepted that as talking about primary targets. But when a 25-man squad decided that they couldn't send a squad to the second biggest race on the calendar because they had 8 men in California, lots of people might have sat up and took notice and said "whoa, actually they mean it, they really DO only care about California and the Tour".
Maybe JB is too cocky to present his case and no doubt there is something to be said for that. But the way I see it, the Vacansoleil decision really brings the truth out. This decision was based purely on politics, not talent or motivation. Unfortunately for the vuelta this is a lose-lose proposition. Radioshack would have brought a better team than most and more attention=money to their race.
Of the teams that were given wildcard berths: Cervélo's invite was dependent on a guarantee of participation from one of Cervélo's Spanish GT riders. With Sastre having a herniated disc he could well skip the Tour and do it, or Tondó could do it. They had a top 10 rider last year and they have several Spanish talents, with Óscar Pujol in particular having been in good form recently. Xacobeo-Galicia bring a rider who will be DEFINITELY peaking for the Vuelta and who has been top 5 in the last three events. Garmin won 3 of the stages last year (Farrar, Hesjedal and Millar). Andalucía-CajaSur will do the race-animating job (usually more important at the Vuelta since a lot of breaks go, and few people want to attack all day in the searing heat of southern Spain in late August/early September), as well as be interesting in the fight for stages and possibly even overall in the first couple of weeks with Ángel Vicioso and Javier Moreno. Katyusha may have cut a deal last year (they were the one ProTour team to miss out last year, like Shack are this year), and Joaquím Rodríguez has been top 10 in the last two Vueltas despite never having the chance to ride for himself. This race also suits the Catalan.
In reality, it's more a straight fight between Sky and Shack for that final slot, if Cervélo have made their guarantees. And Shack definitely offer the better squad for the race, but Sky obviously made Unipublic feel better about them - Sky had been talking about squads for each Grand Tour before the season, which could be construed as being arrogant, expecting inclusion in all of them, but at the same time it showed right from the beginning of the season that they cared about the Vuelta. Radioshack have gone out of their way to look like they don't care about it, so it's no surprise Unipublic have decided to go with the people who care, because they'd rather have lesser talents duking it out and making the racing good than better talents who they fear don't care.
More attention=money to their race? Well, is it? Would a Lance and possibly Levi-free Radioshack draw in the same number of eyes? Maybe they looked at the audience figures and international coverage of the Volta a Catalunya and Vuelta al País Vasco and decided that actually, having the Shack around didn't do anything for them? Perhaps they're also remembering Astana last year, who brought none of their big names, contributed 4 riders in the top 20 but none in the top 10, never attacked and seldom got in any breaks, and decided "it'll just be that again".
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