Vuelta a España 2008

Final result after the 21st stage

Overall rating	Alberto Contador	AST	80:40:08 h (38.959 km / h)
02.	Levi Leipheimer	AST	+ 00:46 min
03.	Carlos Sastre	CSC	+ 04:12 min
04th	Ezequiel Mosquera	XAG	+ 05:19 min
05.	Alejandro Valverde	GCE	+ 06:00 min
06th	Joaquim Rodríguez	GCE	+ 06:50 min
07th	Robert Gesink	RAB	+ 06:55 min
08th.	David Moncoutié	COF	+ 10:10 min
09.	Egoi Martínez	EUS	+ 10:57 min
10.	Marzio Bruseghin	LAM	+ 11:56 min
Scoring	Greg van Avermaet	SIL	158 P.
Second	Alberto Contador	AST	137 P.
Third	Alejandro Valverde	GCE	129 P.
Mountain scoring	David Moncoutie	COF	149 P.
2.	Christophe Kern	CA	106 P.
3.	Alberto Contador	AST	99 P.
Combination scoring	Alberto Contador	AST	06 p.
2.	Levi Leipheimer	AST	11 p.
3.	Alejandro Valverde	GCE	16 p.
Team evaluation	Caisse d'Epargne	GCE	241: 20: 38 h
2.	Team CSC-Saxo Bank	CSC	+ 38:27 min
3.	Euskaltel-Euskadi	EUS	+ 39:22 min

The 63rd Vuelta a España took place from August 30th to September 21st, 2008.

The three-week cycle stage race consisted of 21 stages, including two individual time trials. The route length was about 3142 km. The first stage was a seven-kilometer team time trial in Granada. A special highlight was the journey to the Alto de Angliru . The tour traditionally ended in Madrid.

Starting position

Participating teams

UCI ProTeams Quick Step Silence lotto Team CSC-Saxo Bank Gerolsteiner Team Milram ag2r La Mondiale Bouygues Telecom Cofidis Crédit Agricole Française des Jeux Lampre Liquigas Astana Rabobank Caisse d'Epargne Euskaltel-Euskadi Professional Continental Teams Team Tinkoff Credit Systems Andalucía-Cajasur Xacobeo Galicia

The Vuelta 2008 was no longer part of the UCI ProTour , so the organizers were free to decide which teams to invite. With the exception of Team Columbia, all 17 other ProTeams were invited, as well as Tinkoff, Andalusien-Cajasur and Xacobeo Galicia (formerly Karpin Galicia), who received a wildcard . The ProTeam Scott-American Beef (formerly Saunier Duval-Scott) was excluded after the doping cases in the 2008 Tour de France .

Of the top three in the overall ranking of the Vuelta 2007, only the 2008 Tour de France winner Carlos Sastre starts. Defending champion Denis Menshov canceled his participation in February in favor of the Giros and the tour. Samuel Sánchez, third last year and 2008 Olympic champion, is also not at the start. Cadel Evans, who was fourth last year, had to cancel his participation due to an injury.

Placement of the favorites in the last three Grand Tours

driver	team	Vuelta 07	Giro 08	Tour 08
Sastre	CSC	2.	DNS	1.
Contador	AST	DNS	1.	DNS
Mosquera	KGZ	5.	-	-
Antón	EUS	8th.	DNS	DNS
Valverde	GCE	DNS	DNS	9.
Barredo	QST	10.	DNS	89.
Astarloza	EUS	DNS	DNS	16.
Popovych	SIL	DNS	DNS	24.
Cunego	LAM	DNF	DNS	DNF

In addition to Sastre, favorites are: The 2008 Giro d'Italia winner Alberto Contador, with his teammates Levi Leipheimer and Andreas Klöden . Alejandro Valverde , Damiano Cunego , Ezequiel Mosquera , Jaroslaw Popowytsch , Igor Antón , Mikel Astarloza . The 22-year-old Robert Gesink is going on his first big tour.

Among the most promising sprinters in the field are the 2007 points winner Daniele Bennati , Óscar Freire , Tom Boonen , Danilo Napolitano , Koldo Fernández and Erik Zabel . The classic specialists Paolo Bettini and Davide Rebellin also take part.

→ Main article : Driver field 2008

Race course

Route Vuelta a España 2008
The start takes place in southern Spain in Granada, the route runs counter-clockwise and traditionally ends in the capital Madrid.

The first week

In the first week, six different drivers wore the gold jersey of the overall leader. Filippo Pozzato was the first porter - his Liquigas team won the team time trial in Granada. Alejandro Valverde won the 2nd stage and took over the overall classification due to the time credit. This was followed by victories for sprinters Tom Boonen and Daniele Bennati, who rode in the gold jersey for two days.

Levi Leipheimer won the first individual time trial, making him the new leader in the overall standings. Alberto Contador and Alejandro Valverde lost less than a minute, while Robert Gesink, Igor Antón and Jaroslaw Popowytsch lost more than two minutes. Sylvain Chavanel took over the gold jersey on the 6th stage.

Stage overview

In the golden jersey column is the leader of the overall ranking after the respective stage.

	Type	Day	Start finish	km	Stage winner	Golden jersey
01st stage	MZF	August 30th	Granada - Granada	008th	Liquigas	Filippo Pozzato
02nd stage		August 31	Granada– Jaén	176	Alejandro Valverde	Alejandro Valverde
03rd stage		0September 1	Jaén - Cordoba	169	Tom Boonen	Daniele Bennati
04th stage		0September 2nd	Cordoba - Puertollano	170	Daniele Bennati
05th stage	EZF	0September 3	Ciudad Real - Ciudad Real	043	Levi Leipheimer	Levi Leipheimer
06th stage		0September 4th	Ciudad Real - Toledo	150	Paolo Bettini	Sylvain Chavanel
1st day of rest		05th September	-
07th stage		0September 6th	Barbastro -Naturlandia-La Rabassa ( Andorra )	223	Alessandro Ballan	Alessandro Ballan
08th stage		07th of September	Escaldes-Engordany (Andorra) - Pla de Beret	151	David Moncoutié	Levi Leipheimer
09th stage		0September 8th	Viella - Sabiñánigo	201	Greg Van Avermaet	Egoi Martínez
10th stage		0the 9th of September	Sabiñánigo– Zaragoza	151	Sébastien Hinault
11th stage		September 10	Calahorra - Burgos	178	Óscar Freire
12th stage		September 11	Burgos - Suances	186	Paolo Bettini
2nd day off		12th September	-
13th stage		13.september	San Vicente de la B. - Alto de Angliru	210	Alberto Contador	Alberto Contador
14th stage		September 14th	Oviedo - EE Fuentes de Invierno	158	Alberto Contador
15th stage		September 15th	Cudillero - Ponferrada	202	David García
16th stage		16th September	Ponferrada - Zamora	186	Tom Boonen
17th stage		17th of September	Zamora - Valladolid	148	Wouter Weylandt
18th stage		September 18	Valladolid - Las Rozas	167	Imanol Erviti
19th stage		September 19th	Las Rozas - Segovia	146	David Arroyo
20th stage	BZF	September 20th	La Granja de SI - Alto de Navacerrada	017th	Levi Leipheimer
21st stage		21st September	S. Sebastián de los Reyes - Madrid	102	Matti Breschel

Ratings in the course of the tour

The table shows the leader in the respective classification after the respective stage.

	Overall rating	Scoring	Mountain scoring	Combination scoring	Team evaluation
01st stage	Filippo Pozzato	not forgiven	not forgiven	not forgiven	Liquigas
02nd stage	Alejandro Valverde	Alejandro Valverde	Jesús Rosendo	Egoi Martínez	Caisse d'Epargne
03rd stage	Daniele Bennati
04th stage		Daniele Bennati		Paolo Bettini	Quick Step
05th stage	Levi Leipheimer			Egoi Martínez	Astana
06th stage	Sylvain Chavanel			Paolo Bettini
07th stage	Alessandro Ballan		Alessandro Ballan	Alessandro Ballan
08th stage	Levi Leipheimer	Alejandro Valverde		Alberto Contador
09th stage	Egoi Martínez		David Moncoutié		Caisse d'Epargne
10th stage		Greg Van Avermaet
11th stage
12th stage					Astana
13th stage	Alberto Contador				Caisse d'Epargne
14th stage		Alberto Contador
15th stage
16th stage
17th stage		Greg Van Avermaet
18th stage
19th stage
20th stage
21st stage

• Davide Rebellin wore the blue jersey during the 3rd stage .
• Tom Boonen wore the blue jersey during the 5th and 17th stages .
• During the 8th stage, Marc de Maar wore the red jersey and Levi Leipheimer the white jersey.
• During the 14. – 21. Levi Leipheimer wore the white jersey for the 2nd stage.
• Greg van Avermaet wore the red jersey during the 15th and 16th stages.

Retired drivers

Of the 171 riders who started, 131 reached the finish in Madrid. Caisse d'Epargne, Astana, Xacobeo-Galicia and ag2r La Mondiale ended the tour with all nine riders who had started.

stage	driver	team	reason
DNF 0 1.	Staf Scheirlinckx	Cofidis	unknown
DNS 0 4.	Ricardo Serrano	Tinkoff Credit Systems	Broken collarbone after colliding with a service truck during the third stage
DNS 05.	Aurélien Clerc	Bouygues Telecom	unknown
	Maryan Hary	Cofidis	unknown
DNS 07.	Carlos Barredo	Quick Step	Scaphoid fracture after a fall on the 5th stage
DNF 07.	Stef Clement	Bouygues Telecom	unknown
	Volodymyr Djudja	Team Milram	unknown
	Nikolai Trusov	Tinkoff Credit Systems	unknown
DNF 08.	Jean-Marc Marino	Crédit Agricole	unknown
DNS 09.	Matthew Lloyd	Silence lotto	Injury after a fall
DNS 10.	Daniele Bennati	Liquigas	flu
DNF 10.	Anthony Geslin	Bouygues Telecom	unknown
	Alexandre Pichot	Bouygues Telecom	unknown
DNF 12.	Gianni Meersman	Française des Jeux	unknown
	Danilo Napolitano	Lampre-Fondital	unknown
	Stephan Schreck	Team Gerolsteiner	unknown
DNS 13.	Óscar Freire	Rabobank	World Cup preparation
DNF 13.	Mathias Frank	Team Gerolsteiner	unknown
	Igor Antón	Euskaltel-Euskadi	Broken collarbone after a fall
DSQ 13.	José Antonio López	Andalucía-Cajasur	Violation of rules
DNS 14.	Davide rebel	Team Gerolsteiner	World Cup preparation
DNS 15.	Patrice Halgand	Crédit Agricole	unknown
	Alessandro Ballan	Lampre-Fondital	unknown
DNF 15.	Juan José Haedo	Team CSC-Saxo Bank	unknown
	Artur Gajek	Team Milram	unknown
	Mauricio Ardila	Rabobank	unknown
DNS 16.	Damiano Cunego	Lampre-Fondital	World Cup preparation
DNF 16.	Ivan Rowny	Tinkoff Credit Systems	unknown
DNS 17.	Sylvain Chavanel	Cofidis	unknown
DNF 17.	Sébastien Joly	Française des Jeux	unknown
DNS 18.	Philippe Gilbert	Française des Jeux	unknown
	Tom Boonen	Quick Step	unknown
DNF 18.	Manuel Quinziato	Liquigas	unknown
	Andrea Tonti	Quick Step	unknown
	Matteo Tosatto	Quick Step	unknown
DNS 19.	Stefan Schumacher	Team Gerolsteiner	World Cup preparation
	Filippo Pozzato	Liquigas	unknown
	Paolo Bettini	Quick Step	World Cup preparation
DNF 19.	Heinrich Haussler	Team Gerolsteiner	unknown
	Christian Kux	Team Milram	fatigue

DNS (Did not start)

The driver did not start at the specified stage

DNF (Did not finish)

The driver did not finish the specified stage

DSQ (Disqualified)

The driver has been disqualified

Web links

Commons : Vuelta a España 2008  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Official website (English, French, Spanish)