Vuelta a España race director Victor Cordero expressed satisfaction Sunday in Madrid, calling the final podium "world-class, worthy" for the season’s final three-week grand tour.

"I am happy with the Vuelta that we are enjoying, there are more people than ever and the racing has been spectacular," Cordero told VeloNews.com. "This year has been traumatic for all of us. This success reminds us all of what this sport have inside that we keep attracting people despite all the things we’ve done poorly, because this is a beautiful sport."

The Spanish tour has paid perhaps the highest price after the recent spate of doping scandals. In the wake of the Floyd Landis doping positive at the Tour de France, the Vuelta lost its new title sponsor.

"We are getting back on our feet after being knocked down to our knees again," Cordero said. "We had the unfortunate luck of having the winner of last year’s Vuelta testing positive and then having it confirmed. Just when we were getting back on our feet, we had the shock of the Operación Puerto, which is international, but largely a Spanish investigation. When we thought we had started all again from zero at the Tour and we had a great Tour, we have another cretin who tests positive and we’re back in trouble.

"We lost our sponsor because of this latest scandal. Just when we were making the negotiations over the past year with the new sponsor, we kept getting hit, first with (Roberto) Heras, then with Puerto, then with (Floyd) Landis – they finally said no."

Cordero is remaining cautiously optimistic the podium will remain the same in the coming weeks and that there won’t be a last-minute doping scandal to sour the fiesta enjoyed by tens of thousands in Madrid on Sunday.

"We look for the cheaters and we find them. Other sports don’t do the same as cycling when it comes to sniffing out the cheats," he said. "I perceive there has been a new perspective in changes among the cyclists. This sport has a cleaner base and the UCI is honestly working against doping. They don’t always do everything perfect, but they truly interested in cleaning up the sport." Caisse d’Epargne peeved over ProTour podium snub
Alejandro Valverde didn’t get his moment in the spotlight in Sunday’s podium ceremony for solidifying his hold on the ProTour individual standings, and his team isn’t too happy about it.

With the Vuelta a España and the UCI locking horns over a variety of issues, the race organizers put the kibosh on the jersey ceremony at Sunday’s conclusion of the Vuelta. Valverde now holds a commanding lead in the ProTour series, but he didn’t get any kisses from the podium girls.

"We regret the incoherence that the organizers commit by accepting the rules of participation of the ProTour obliging the rider to comply with all the requirements that his condition of leader imposes (namely the controls and the obligation to wear the white jersey of leader) for later, at the end of the race, once he consolidated his position, not to admit on the official podium the handing over by the UCI ProTour of the leader jersey that honors him," Caisse d’Epargne said in a statement.