At Wednesday’s presentation of the 2006 Vuelta a España in Madrid, the race director Victor Cordero said how he was "outraged" by 2005 winner Roberto Heras testing positive for EPO, while the Spanish state secretary for sports Jaime Lissavetzky spoke about taking a more "rigorous" approach to doping and having a "clean and ethical" race next year. But the fact that Heras did test positive shows that the UCI’s stepped-up anti-doping program is working.

Doping in sport has been around for decades; it’s not a problem that can be suddenly eradicated. At least Cordero said he was planning a "great collaboration" with the UCI and the World Anti-Doping Agency in the fight against doping. But the Vuelta organizers should be talking less about the overall doping problem (which is out of their hands) and focus more on working with the 20 ProTour teams, who are firmly committed to high ethical standards. Indeed, the Phonak and Bouygues Télécom teams both excluded some of their own riders during last year’s Vuelta (and later fired them) for not following the teams’ medical protocol.

Heras, who continues to claim his innocence, has yet to be sanctioned by the Spanish cycling federation. Barring unexpected developments in his case, Spanish-based Russian Denis Menchov of Rabobank will go down as the 2005 Vuelta winner, with Spaniard Carlos Sastre of CSC in second and Spaniard Francisco Mancebo, now with AG2R, in third.

Mancebo, Sastre and the top Spanish star rider Alejandro Valverde of Caisse d’Épargne-Illes Balears were all present for Wednesday’s unveiling of the 2005 Vuelta route, which again favors the climbers but is more balanced than in recent years. At 3129km, the 61st edition of the Spanish national tour is 110km shorter than this year’s race, with only two stages over 200km (compared with three in 2005), five mountaintop stage finishes (rather than six), and two individual time trials (as opposed to three).

Five mountaintop finishes
The race opens with a very short (7.2km) team time trial, rather than a prologue, on August 26 at Málaga on the coast of southern Spain. After three rolling road stages through Andalusia in late-summer heat, the first mountain stage heads over two Cat. 1 climbs and a Cat. 2 before the hors-cat mountaintop finish at the Covatilla ski station.

La Covatilla mountain is right outside Béjar, the hometown of Heras, whose supporters in past years came out in their tens of thousands to support their favorite son. Without the multi-time Vuelta winner (unless there are some unexpected developments in his doping case), the crowds might be thin.

The 2006 Vuelta then transfers north for a stage to the city of León (which happens to be the hometown of VeloNews European correspondent Andrew Hood), followed by a 148km stage that tackles the long, but not particularly steep ascent of El Morredero, the second summit finish, to close the opening week.

The race stays in the Galicia region of northwest Spain for its second weekend, with Sunday’s stage 9 on September 3 being the toughest of the whole tour. It’s 206km long and contains five climbs, notably the hors-cat Puerto de San Lorenzo (not far from the more famous Angliru) and a finish on the Cat. 1 Alto de la Cobertoria.

Mancebo, also seen in the '05 Vuelta, calls the '06 route 'spectacular'

Photo: AFP

After a rest day in Avilés on Spain’s northern coast, the sprinters get a look in with four undulating stages in a row, including, appropriately, a stage on September 9 that starts in the velodrome at Torrelavega, named after its most famous citizen, three-time world champion Oscar Freire of Rabobank. These stages completely bypass the Pyrenees and Catalonia, with the race already heading south.

The next crucial stage is on the Vuelta’s third Saturday, a rolling 33km time trial at Cuenca, to the southeast of Madrid. This is followed by a mostly downhill run to the orange groves of the Mediterranean coast near Valencia before a long transfer back to the deep south on the second "rest day."

The first three stages of the final week hold the crux to the 61st Vuelta, with a difficult mountaintop finish on the 6847-foot Calar Alto on September 12, a three-climb stage to Granada, and the 6037-foot Sierra de la Pandera summit finish.

Two days later comes the time-trial showdown on a flat 28km course at Rivas in the Madrid suburbs before the final stage for the sprinters in the Spanish capital on September 17.

The challengers
Whatever the outcome of the ongoing "clash" between the three grand tours and the UCI ProTour Council, the two sides do concur that in 2006 all 20 ProTour teams will again compete at the Vuelta, along with a couple of wild cards — probably Spanish squads Comunidad Valenciana and Relax. Having all the world’s top teams should again make the Vuelta highly competitive.

Sastre, who will be supporting his CSC teammate Ivan Basso at the Tour de France, will make the Vuelta his main season goal. "The course is very tough," Sastre said on his team Web site, "and there’s no doubt you’ll need a strong team to be a main contender for the overall win. I’m looking forward to defending my top result."

Mancebo, who again will focus first on the Tour de France, where he was fourth this year, also has his sights on the Vuelta podium. The AG2R leader said, "It looks like being a spectacular Vuelta. It’s a climber’s course and the most difficult stages are the ones to La Cobertoria and Calar Alto."

As for Valverde, who placed third at the 2003 Vuelta, he said his participation depended on his performance at the Tour de France, where he could be one of Basso’s main challengers. The young Spaniard said he was enthusiastic about the Vuelta course because "it is a mountainous course with less time trialing."

These three Spanish contenders should provide a tough challenge for Menchov, who will be motivated to win the 61st Vuelta outright — with or without Heras.