the low swing of the arc

a brief reflection on vuelta stages 2-4

The Vuelta is often considered to be a race of desperation, of last chances; it is a race of expiring contracts and answering for squandered opportunities, of middling expectations answered mightily by both the known and the unknown. These things are true. But the Vuelta is also the race of liberation. There is no other race like it for this reason: it …