The Diversity and Decay in Cycling

The first warning that the 2014 cycling season would be one of upheaval came when Carlos Betancur out-sprinted John Degenkolb to win a preseason tune-up race. Betancur is a pure Bogotano climber, short and explosive. Degenkolb is a rangy sprinter, with an impressive collection of classics podiums and Grand Tour stage wins. The Colombian isn't supposed to beat the German in that scenario, but Betancur charged ahead and rode everyone off his wheel. It felt anomalous then, and it was, but Betancur's victory was this year's first instance of the old world cycling hegemony loosening its grip on the sport.

Top-level professional cycling has never been diverse—in 2007, ex-commissioner Pat McQuaid called for the "Anglo vision to carry the day"—but 2014 has seen riders from outside of cycling's traditional geographic strongholds break through and open up the sport, while the stars of the old guard drool their ways to mediocre seasons. Of course, it's been the most fun season in a while.

Nairo Quintana, last seen showing Chris Froome a clean pair of heels in his Tour De France debut, waxed a stacked field at the 2014 Giro D'Italia and became just the third non-European ever to win the Italian Grand Tour. This was no anomaly and Quintana didn't have anything like luck on his side, he had to earn the shit out of his victory. He battled crashes, an ass injury, snow, and illness and still managed to grind his rivals down to nubs by the end of the three week race.

And so there he was, resplendent on his first day in the maglia rosa, decked out in pink far beyond what most race leaders prefer to wear. It might seem ostentatious, but the Giro is a culturally important race to Colombians, and watching him wear the jersey and lock down the first Colombian victory is a milestone for them. Quintana wasn't showing off as much as he was acknowledging the weight of the moment. Besides, why should he have to bow to a history that wants to ignore him?

The Giro wasn't just the Quintana show either. Countryman and former roommate Rigoberto Uran Uran raced with the full resources of Omega Pharma - Quickstep, the biggest cycling team in the world, and finished second with a stage win and four days in the leader's jersey. Julian Arredondo, who's from the same Bogota neighborhood as Betancur, won a stage and the King of the Mountains jersey. Arredondo's pile of loot was especially sweet since anti-Colombian UK immigration policies almost prevented him from starting the race.

While the Colombians stole all the headlines, it wasn't just their party either. French-Algerian sprinter Nacer Bouhanni won a trifecta of stages and Ramon Carretero and Andrey Amador represented Panama and Costa Rica respectively, becoming the first two Central Americans to race the Giro.

Then, at last month's Tour De France, the Giro's "You get a car! And you get a car! Everyone gets a car!" narrative inverted in on itself. The Tour was marked by the sport's established superstars crashing out instead of new stars establishing themselves. Chris Froome, Andrew Talansky, Alberto Contador, and Andy Schleck all lasted less than two weeks and the race was was quickly left without any previous winners. Many B-Listers avoided the Tour in fear of a rerun of 2013's Froome-shaped ass-kicking so the surviving field of contenders was modest. Two French dudes got on the podium for the first time in almost 20 years, but the absences made for a mostly uninteresting race.

Still, Grand Tours are so sprawling that there is a texture worth exploring even if there's no uncertainty about who's going to win. Ji Cheng became the first Chinese rider to complete the Tour this year, playing an important role in teammate Marcel Kittel's four stage wins. Ji earned a reputation for snuffing out breakaways and priming Giant's unstoppable lead-out train to the point that he finished last. The reward for his smart racing was Phil Liggett—NBC's husk of a commentator and the last Lance Armstrong Stan left—calling him "chinaman" during the last stage as he straggled behind the main field after going down. Along similar lines, Michael Albasini either did or did not fire a racist outburst at Kevin Reza, the only black rider at this year's Tour. If the Giro was all about possibility and charting courses into new territory, the Tour was a reminder of the dark side of cycling: wild crashes and occasional flickerings of retrograde racism. And then there's La Vuelta a Espana.

As the third of the three Grand Tours, with its wacky stages and hostile temperatures, La Vuelta goes off the rails more frequently than its contemporaries. Last year, 41-year-old American Chris Horner became the most surprising Grand Tour winner ever after injuries forced him to focus only on Spain. An odd choice in that most elite riders target the Tour or the Giro, building up their form for one three-week race and unspooling afterwards once their main target has been accomplished. La Vuelta, by comparison, is a weird backwater, raced mostly by teams' younger riders, Spanish guys, and riders looking for a lost season's redemption. This year, however, is a much different race—everyone is here.

As Grand Tour doubles go, Giro-Vuelta is the most efficient. You can chill in July while the Tour is zipping around the French countryside, then arrive in Spain fresher than those who participated. Vincenzo Nibali came within 37 seconds of that particular double last year, and with UCI World Tour restrictions potentially tightening in the near future, teams see following his path as the best way to maximize their stars' point-earning potential. Nibali aced the 2014 Tour, which is a bigger race, but he got more points last year. The entire Giro podium is here this year, along with fellow protagonists Arredondo, Degenkolb, and Wilco Kelderman.

The ghosts of the 2014 Tour are also showing up for the start in Jerez de la Frontera tomorrow. Froome and Alberto Contador looked set to tangle for this year's yellow jersey, but both crashed out empty-handed. Despite Contador's long layoff with injury, both are prepared to throw themselves at La Vuelta to try and squeeze at least something positive out of twin disappointments. Almost immediately after Froome was forced out of the Tour, he pivoted and focused on La Vuelta. The race is a screen onto which riders who've struggled with injury, form, or bad luck—like Froome, Contador, Betancur, and Dan Martin—can project whatever they need onto it. Froome and Martin got to start the Tour and Giro respectively in their own countries, only to get swept up in early crashes. Betancur missed his planned Tour debut with visa problems. La Vuelta is different versions of the same idea for all of them. It's a second chance.

Riders chasing redemption will have to go through a thicket of Colombians eager to prove that the Giro wasn't a flash in the pan. The big tentpole narratives of the 2014 season, diversity and decay, have ran independent courses so far, but the sheer density of ambition of La Vuelta means it's going to get messy. Redemption and progress can't necessarily be coeval here, there are only so many stages for a crowded field. This is why La Vuelta is going to be the most exciting race of 2014. The stakes are so much higher. Everyone's looking for something and they're all looking in the same place.

Follow Patrick Redford on Twitter.