At the Team Sky bus at the Vuelta a Espana starts Mikel Nieve may not draw in the crowds in such huge numbers as Chris Froome - the rider he’s substituted as team leader for Sky at the race but nonetheless as the Vuelta heads back into the mountains today, his rivals know that they would underestimate Nieve’s climbing talents at their peril.
There’s no doubt about it, following Chris Froome’s departure, if the number of well-wishers at starts and finishers is anything to go by, local fans attention on Team Sky at the Vuelta a España has dropped off considerably.
At stage 13’s start at Calatayud, for example, just a couple of fans stop the riders as they come off the Team Sky bus to ask for autographs. Meanwhile on the opposite side of the avenue where Katusha are parked, throngs of Spanish aficionados stand in the warm sunlight to cheer local star Angel Vicioso as he makes his way to the start.
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Even so, Mikel Nieve, 31, eighth overall and Sky’s ‘Plan B’ for the Vuelta after Froome’s departure, doesn’t appear to mind the lack of attention as he gets ready before Friday’s stage. Quietly spoken, Nieve belongs to the class of climber that prefers, as the cliche has it, to let his legs do the talking.
Seventh in Cortals d’Encamp, and twelfth overall in the Vuelta last year, Nieve has taken an extremely tough stage win in the Giro, at Val di Fassa in 2011, as well as at Cotobello in the Vuelta in 2010. He’s had top ten places overall in both the Italian and Spanish Grand Tours too.
To an extent, Nieve has already played the role of Sky team leader when Froome has had a difficult moment, but much more briefly. In the 2014 Dauphine, on the final stage to Courchevel when Froome was injured, Nieve came through for Sky with a classy uphill win.
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