It's time to toast the Vuelta's Gran Salida
+ Get ready for the Tour de France Femmes to tackle Alpe d'Huez
Vuelta de los Vinos
Listen to DVine Cellars’ Greg Andrews in conversation with Daniel Friebe about this year’s Vuelta a España wine selection.
Our Vuelta coverage started earlier this week with a pre-race KM0 very much inspired by this year’s Portuguese ‘Gran Salida’, plus our usual XL preview episode with Fran Reyes and Rob Hatch – and the build-up continues with our now traditional wine-lover’s guide to the route.
As usual, Dvine Cellars have put together a case designed to take your taste buds where the peloton will ride over the next three weeks. On Thursday, before flying to Lisbon, Daniel also headed to Dvine HQ for some, ahem, vital last-minute prep – and above you can hear his conversation with our and Dvine’s resident guru of the grapes (or maybe “Sultan of Smashability”?), Greg Andrews.
UK residents can order the Vuelta selection here while overseas listeners should glean enough from Daniel’s chat with Greg to assemble their own approximation. Please drink in moderation and ¡Salud! to all!
The wines
Vale de Mata white 2022, Lisboa, Portugal
Amorro Tinto 2021, Bodega Vinificate-Mahara Viticultores, Cadiz, Andalucía Spain
Quinta Da Ladeira, Godello blend, Ribeiro, Galicia, Spain
Sernande So What Tinto, Adega Sernande, Ribeiro Galicia, Spain
Bodega Tandem, Inmácula 2021, Viognier Viura, Navarra, Spain
Bideona Las Parcelas 2020, Rioja Alavesa, La Rioja, Spain
April 1974
The latest episode of KM0 for Friends of the Podcast subscribers is inspired by the Vuelta’s Gran Salida in Portugal.
This year’s start in Lisbon is a repeat of the first ever ‘foreign’ start – which was from the Portuguese capital in 1997. That year the Danish rider Lars Michaelsen won the opening stage, which finished in Estoril. The next day German sprinter Marcel Wüst won in Villamoura before the race crossed the border into southern Spain during stage three, which Wüst also won. Alex Zülle of Switzerland eventually won the race overall, which was the third to be held in the new September slot after a calendar switch from the spring.
But another date looms larger over the Vuelta’s latest trip across the border into Portugal: this spring marked the 50th anniversary of what the Portuguese call their ‘Carnation Revolution’, the military coup that, overnight, brought to an end half a century of dictatorship.
Coincidentally, while the authoritarian government was falling in Lisbon, the Vuelta a España had just begun its journey over the border in Andalucía… and it would end with the best-ever result for a Portuguese rider before or since, Joaquim Agostinho’s second place overall. A Spaniard, José Manuel Fuente was the winner, by 11 seconds. At least that’s what the official results said; some Portuguese fans believed – and still believe – Agostinho was robbed, perhaps because Spain’s own right-wing dictatorship was flagging, and the noisy neighbours needed keeping in their place.
In this special episode of KM0 presented by Daniel Friebe, Alex Fernandes walks us through ‘The Carnation Revolution’, which was also the title of his acclaimed book on the subject, published earlier this year. Parallel to that, another author, Vuelta historian Juanfran de la Cruz, takes us back to the 1974 edition and Joaquim Agostinho’s own attempted, agonisingly thwarted coup.
April 1974 is the 13th special episode (or mini series) released for Friends of the Podcast this season. The others are listed below and they are all available for subscribers to listen to now. An annual subscription gives access to these plus a back catalogue of more than 300 episodes recorded since 2015 covering all areas of pro cycling. It’s easy to subscribe and add the feed to your preferred podcast player in a couple of simple steps.
1 Classicissima: Springtime in Sanremo – five-part series recorded by Lionel Birnie and Simon Gill at Milan-Sanremo last year
2 Diary of a CEO – Daniel Friebe in conversation with Ineos Grenadiers boss John Allert
3 How To Become A Pro Cyclist & How To Become An Ex-Pro Cyclist
Companion episodes featuring Jack Burke and Joe Dombrowski about entering (or trying to enter) and exiting the pro ranks
4 Grande Torino – Commemorating and celebrating Italy’s greatest sports team as the city of Turin prepared to welcome the Giro
5 KM0 Live: Girovagando 2024 – Daniel, Joe Dombrowski and Larry Warbasse talk all things Giro
6 Love & Other Drugs – The story of Marco Pantani’s 1998 Giro-Tour double
7 Sierra Alpha – Behind the scenes with Tadej Pogačar in Sierra Nevada by Fran Reyes
8 Sugar Rush – Exploring the fuelling revolution in pro cycling
9 Tappone – The story and origins of the Giro d’Italia’s ‘Queen Stage’ as told by Daniel Friebe and Brian Nygaard
10 Humongous Bunting – A three-part series looking back at the 2014 Grand Départ when Yorkshire ruled the cycling world for a weekend by Richard Abraham
11 Dust Gets In Your Eyes – Mitch Docker, Graham Willgoss and Richard Abraham get dusty amid the vineyards as the Tour de France hit the gravel
12 Room Mates – A peek behind the bedroom door to talk about grand tour sleeping arrangements
Twenty-one hairpins to destiny
Listen to our mini feature on Alpe d’Huez below, and don’t forget to keep up with the race with The Cycling Podcast Féminin’s nightly coverage from the Tour de France Femmes.
There may have been upsets galore at the Tour de France Femmes so far, with the prized yellow jersey changing hands multiple times even on stages marked – in theory – as flat. But there is no doubting that the true GC contenders will be focused entirely on one day, the very last stage where the riders will take on the legendary Alpe d’Huez.
The Alpe has a long and fabled history with the men’s Tour de France, appearing 31 times since it was first conquered back in 1952. Fausto Coppi won that inaugural edition and it has continued to be a battleground for icons of the sport ever since: LeMond v Hinault, Pantani and on the women’s side, Leontien Van Moorsel.
It has been a long wait for the female riders since Van Moorsel’s triumph on the Alpe over 30 years ago. In fact, it hasn’t been on the women’s calendar in any major race since then, until now.
In our Tour de France Femmes preview, we looked to uncover the origins of the Alpe’s legend, speaking to Peter Cossins author of Alpe d’Huez: Cycling’s Greatest Climb. We also hear from some of the few women who have raced professionally on the Alpe. Marion Clignet, who came second on the Alpe at the Tour Féminin in the early 1990s, and Emma Pooley who as a bike rider in the 2010s only had the opportunity to race the climb as a triathlete, which she duly won in 2015.
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