Belkin: A heavy Vuelta a Espana

Astana Pro Team rider Vincenzo Nibali came second overall at the 2013 Vuelta a Espana on Sunday, finishing three weeks of racing across the mountains of Spain with a ceremonial stage in Madrid.

Nibali led the Vuelta from the beginning, taking the leader's red jersey from the shoulders of teammate Janez Brajkovic after a victorious team time trial along the Atlantic shores of Galicia. His nearest rival Chris Horner briefly took over as race leader in the first week, but gave the jersey back just as quickly as the race moved across the Iberian peninsula in hot summer weather.

With 13 mountain stages, and 11 mountaintop finishes the 2013 Vuelta a Espana clearly favoured a rider with strong climbing skills and a team that could support him for three weeks of extremely difficult racing. Astana Pro Team riders Jakob Fuglsang, Tanel Kangert, Paolo Tiralongo, Andrei Grivko, Andrey Zeits, Maxim Iglinskiy and Alessandro Vanotti, along with Brajkovic, worked daily to keep Nibali's lead protected, shuttling back and forth in hot weather to take water and food back to their leader.

Astana Pro Team Director Sportif Alexander Shefer said the second place finish was not a disappointment.

"We held the red jersey for 13 stages. Our guys went to the front and worked more than any other team to chase down dangerous breakaways, control our rivals and counterattack in the mountains, and we can be proud of every kilometer we pedaled. In the end Horner was stronger by 37 seconds after 84 hours of racing. It's very important to say that we did not lose this Vuelta - we did not lose. We came second to a rider who was stronger and we are extremely proud - extremely proud - of everything we did in Spain," Shefer said

Vincenzo Nibali is looking forward to the World’s in his home country:

“Coming second of the Vuelta after winning the Giro, for sure it means I’m having an exceptional season. I’ve been strong in the last week of the Vuelta. Today again I wasn’t feeling tired. That’s a good sign before the world championship. I need to recover some energy and do the last training rides in altitude. In Florence, I’ll have to be brave and race smartly. It’s going to be a tough World’s. The polemics around Chris Horner winning the Vuelta at almost 42 are a consequence of what happened in the past. He has raced very little before coming to Spain. He was fresh like nobody else in the peloton,” Nibali said.

Australian Michael Matthews won the final sprint in Madrid, and Astana Pro Team rider Alessandro Vanotti leaped out into a two-man breakaway for 35km in front of tens of thousands of fans in Spain's capital city. The rest of Astana Pro Team finished in the same time on Sunday, smiling, happy, content with second place but now motivated to work even harder for the next victory.