Vuelta a Espana: Fabio Aru, Tom Dumoulin and other conclusions

The Vuelta a Espana produced some of the most thrilling racing of the season.

Fabio Aru claimed the first grand tour victory of his career by beating Joaquim Rodriguez into second place and Rafal Majka into third.

Here are five conclusions we can take from the race…

Vuelta could be first of many grand tour wins for Aru

As fans and even fellow riders threw their support behind Tom Dumoulin, Aru almost took on the role of pantomime villain during the Vuelta. But even those bitterly disappointed with Dumoulin's demise cannot deny that Aru was an impressive and deserving winner.

He didn't win a stage, yet he was the most consistent climber in the race and also produced a solid time trial that, in the end, proved to be the difference between himself and runner-up Rodriguez.

Given that he is only 25 years old, he is certain to develop even further and you get the impression that this could be the first of many grand tour wins.

Cycling has a new grand tour force

In the end it wasn't to be for Dumoulin, but his performance at the Vuelta has announced him as a grand tour contender - and potential winner - of the future.

We already knew he was one of the top time-triallists in the world, but we didn't know that he could also climb with the best on some of Europe's steepest and toughest ascents.

Stephen Roche has likened Dumoulin to Miguel Indurain, the five-time Tour de France winner, while Sir Dave Brailsford described him as "majestic" and "class". Dumoulin is just 24 years old - younger than Aru and Nairo Quintana - so he has plenty of time and scope to develop into a grand tour champion.

Grand tour doubles are a huge ask

We will never know whether Chris Froome would have pulled off the Tour de France and Vuelta double had he not crashed out of the latter on stage 11, but the bare facts are that two riders have attempted grand tour doubles this year and both failed.

While Froome might have succeeded, Alberto Contador never really came anywhere near to adding Tour victory to his Giro d'Italia in May. The Spaniard looked exhausted pretty much from day one and never recovered.

And there was further evidence that a double is cycling's ultimate challenge in the performances of Quintana and Alejandro Valverde at the Vuelta. Both had finished on the podium at the Tour and both were well short of their best at the Vuelta, although in Quintana's case, he does have the excuse of being ill for much of the race.

Nibali needs to start behaving

It hasn't been a good summer for Vincenzo Nibali's reputation. At the Tour de France, he threw a water bottle at Froome and then attacked the race leader on stage 19 just as he had to stop to remove a stone from his brakes. But far worse then came at the Vuelta, when he was kicked off the race for being towed up the road by his team car.

Little has gone right for Nibali this season in terms of results, and perhaps his poor behaviour has been borne out of frustration, but that is no excuse for actions that have discredited and embarrassed his sport. As a winner of all three grand tours and as such a high-profile rider, Nibali needs to step back into line.

Vuelta best candidate for shortened grand tours

It has been suggested over the past couple of years that, as part of the restructuring of the cycling calendar, the grand tours should be shortened from three weeks to two. The idea has its supporters, but it has also been met with a lot of opposition from people who say it would compromise the test of endurance presented by 21 stages of racing.

However, if you were going to try the concept of a 14-day grand tour out, the Vuelta would appear to be the ideal candidate. It has become so mountain-orientated over the past few seasons that hardly any sprinters race it. Therefore, you could potentially take the flat stages out of the race, plus maybe one mountain stage and a couple of intermediate stages, and still have a hugely demanding race taking place over two weeks instead of three.