Vuelta a España overall victory by more than three minutes over the Spanish cyclists Carlos Sastre and Samuel Sánchez. In June 2008, French company Amaury Sport Organisation, who organize the Tour de France, announced it had bought 49% of Unipublic. In 2008, the winner was the Spaniard Alberto Contador, who also won that year's Giro d'Italia, and became the first Spaniard to win all three Grand Tours. In 2009, the Vuelta began in Drenthe, Netherlands, continuing through Belgium and Germany. The final winner was Alejandro Valverde, who adopted a conservative stance without winning any stage and sprinting in the final meters to achieve
2009 Vuelta a España 2009 Vuelta a España The 2009 Vuelta a España was the 64th Vuelta a España. The event took place from 29 August to 20 September 2009. For only the second time in the race's history, it began away from Spanish soil, with the race not in fact reaching Spain until Stage 5. The 2009 Vuelta has been described as having an easy start and a hard finish. This is because of the short individual time trial and three perfectly flat stages in the Netherlands (along with another in Spain in the race's first week), and eight of the final fourteen