Vuelta stage 20

EPIC

Do we actually over-use this term? Probably, or most likely we do not use it correctly. The Thesaurus lists other (adj.)s marathon, heroic, classic, larger-than-life, impressive, ambitious, grand.

I would say that what took place on stage 20 was EPIC, what I saw could be described by almost all of those words, if not all. Nibali delivered, he did his job, he did the leader's jersey proud. I wrote about the weight of the leader's jersey when Rodriquez lost it in the TT and how it can crush you. The other side to that is the transcendental quality that the jersey possesses, the one that Nibali experienced on Saturday when he rode like the champion of la Vuelta.

There is no question that this was an Epic battle between Mosquera and Nibali. It should go down in the books as one to remember. I love le Tour and I am a big fan of Andy, but la Vuelta's battle was way more exciting to watch than this year's Tour. First you had a different winner every day for the first two weeks, then Rodriquez and Anton traded the leader's jersey a few times. Rodriguez and Nibali fought for the lead, and Mosquera tried to take time out of Nibali.

This was a true Spanish style tour, equivalent to a Telemundo daytime show with all of the twists and turns, beauty, pageantry, pain and suffering. If that does not qualify as to be labeled EPIC, then I must have been misinformed. And if you missed this one, you missed out on one of the most exciting, impressive, classic, heroic, larger-than-life, Grand Tours.