You Tell 'Em...

Do it, Contador!

BIG WINNER!

Apparently this is Alberto Contador's new signature move... he's done it about every day of the Vuelta this year, but I need to investigate if this move was a part of his winning Tour de France or Giro d'Italia...


But, needless to say - HE WON!! 3 Grand Tours in 15 months... Congrats! (Now move teams and smoke Lance next year!)

Contador still...

He's still in the lead. Blah Blah Blah. Someone needs to do something radical. Like Levi. HAHA

That's all I have to say about the last few days.

Stage 16 > Ponferrada - Zamora

Not much changed today over all in La Vuelta - but my boy Tommeke won!!




Oh - and Contador is still in the lead.

Contador Dominates

In Stage 13 (San Vicente de la B. - Alto de L´Angliru) of the Vuelta, Alberto Contador asserted some dominance and won the stage, and took over the general classification and put the Golden Fleece on his back.

Stage 14 (Oviedo [you've heard of it if you've seen Vicky Christina Barcelona] - E. E. Fuentes de Invierno) was more of the same with Contador winning in fine form again, not to mention looking pretty sure of himself...


Stage 15 (Cudillero - Ponferrada) went to David Garcia Dapena of Spain, and Contador held onto his lead...

Let us not forget that there is still about a week left to this race, and ol' Levi Leipheimer is a little over a minute behind Contador. But, he's his teammate - so be assured that Levi will be discouraged from acting against Contador - so expect a podium similar to the 2007 Tour de France. Levi making way for Contador.

If he keeps it up, he'll join the elite club of the few who have won all 3 tours... eat it, Lance. Lance Armstrong was too good to do something like that...

Stefan Schumacher

In more trading around news, Stefan Schumacher is leaving his now defunct Gerolsteiner team and is moving to Quickstep. Apparently Bettini was none too happy about it.

But I don't like Schumacher, and I like Quickstep, so I'm not really either.


I hope their helmets can contain his abnormally huge skull.

Thor Hushovd

So this may not be breaking news (the article I read it from was dated two days ago) - but it's new to me.

Thor Hushovd has joined the Cervelo TestTeam, as well as Carlos Sastre. But Thor was the surprise... wow. That should be fairly interesting next year. Hopefully the team won't have any problems getting into big races - I would miss Thor too much.

Vuelta Update, So Far

So - we've all missed half of the last, but not least Grand Tour - so here's a Vuelta update:

Stage 1 > Granada - Granada (TTT)
Winner: Liquigas
Overall: Filippo Pozzato
For the record: The Tour needs the Team Time Trial back... due to its pure awesomeness.

Stage 2 > Granada - Jaen
Winner: Alejandro Valverde
Overall: Alejandro Valverde

Count how many times this happens (won't be much - leading a Grand Tour that is)

Stage 3 > Jaen - Cordoba
Winner: [My Man] Tom Boonen
Overall: Daniele BennatiTom Boonen with a little Tour redemption

Stage 4 > Cordoba - Puertollano
Winner: Daniele Bennati
Overall: Daniele Bennati

Stage 5 > Ciudad Real - Ciudad Real (TT)
Winner: Levi Leipheimer
Overall: Levi Leipheimer

Stage 6 > Ciudad Real - Toledo
Winner: Paolo Bettini
Overall: Sylvain Chavanel

Stage 7 >Barbastro - Andorra (Naturlandia - La Rabassa)
Winner: Alessandro Ballan
Overall: Alessandro Ballan

Stage 8 > Andorra (Escaldes - Engordany) - Salardu Naut Aran/Pla de Beret
Winner: David Moncoutie
Overall: Levi Leipheimer

Stage 9 > Vielha/Mijaran - Sabinanigo
Winner: Greg Van Avermaet
Overall: Egoi Martinez

Let us note that Damiano Cunego finished 5th. Nice try, Little Prince.

Stage 10 > Sabinanigo - Zaragoza
Winner: Sebastien Hinault (It's that famous name)
Overall: Egoi Martinez

Stage 11 > Calahorra - Burgos
Winner: Oscar Freire
Overall: Egoi MartinezStage 12 > Burgos - Suances
Winner: Paolo Bettini
Overall: Egoi Martinez

VUELTA, BABY!

Okay, so for all my friends who don't know anything about cycling - the Vuelta a Espana is currently happening... The Vuelta is the 3rd and final Grand Tour of the year (which also includes the Giro d'Italia and the Tour de France). It's three weeks, all around Spain, and it's a little more than halfway through.

My sisters and I have done our predictions, as we do every year for the Tour, for the Vuelta for the first time. It's a points competition, and somehow I am smoking them both with 569 points, to their 467 and 442.

I picked for the Overall:
Alberto Contador
Carlos Sastre
Damiano Cunego (who is a letdown like usual)
Alejandro Valverde
Syvain Chavenel

I also had some good picks for KOM and Sprinters, so that's most likely where my points are coming from.

Currently the race just finished up Stage 12 and is heading into a rest day tomorrow, and Egoi Martinez (One of my KOM picks) is sitting pretty in the Golden Fleece.

Lance Armstrong's Return

Well, to begin... this is my first post since the Tour, and I had enjoyed writing on here, but I had all but given up simply because the only people reading this who understood were my sisters. But I have recently had an encouraging message sent to me, commanding me to update. So - I will try to keep up, because I do actually enjoy it.

So here's the Lance Armstrong rant I've been wanting to make for a long time:

Lance Armstrong should not return to cycling. The peloton was dominated for many, many years by US Postal Service/Discovery Channel, under the system of an entire team sacrificing itself for one rider. While this method works, it leaves little to the imagination while watching, and the winning outcome of Lance on top was usually assumed. It was boring.

Since the end of the Discovery era, several teams have not only grown in strength, but also in leaders. My favorite example/favorite team is Team CSC Saxo Bank. With the absence of Discovery power, CSC has become free to take over in their own right. However, the significant change, most especially in the Tour de France is that the team doesn't have just one leader - but they are a team of leaders. This past year, Carlos Sastre, Andy Schleck and Frank Schelck all had legitimate claims to the Yellow Jersey (especially the Schlecks, but oh well), and let's not forget Fabian Cancellara and the hard work that Jens Voigt puts in day after day.

Now, let's address the "American" aspect of this. All over US news media is the hearalding of Lance's glorious return - finally, the American public can get behind cycling again because they know the rider. That is absolutely pathetic. There are so many other good Americans who ride, and get little to no recognition because they aren't Lance. The demise of Discovery Channel has paved the way for teams like Garmin-Chipotle and Columbia to break through and dominate American races, and on those teams are great American riders, in addition to the European riders. Americans need to get behind Christian Vande Velde, Danny Pate, and my favorite Dave Zabriskie. (Not to mention Levi is on Astana, but I don't like Levi) These American teams are going to suffer among the American public, because a return of Lance Armstrong will overshadow them greatly. And these are teams who prove that they race clean, when Discovery simply avoided the subject.

And speaking of riding clean. I have always believed Lance rode clean (but I thought other riders did too - and was proved wrong), and a lot of this is about Lance trying to prove that he can do it clean, and has offered to post his blood results online (I believe). So does that mean that this "new" attention to riding clean mean that his previous races were possibly not?

And last but not least, Lance Armstrong is claiming that he is doing this for cancer. Bull. This is a typical Lance Armstrong ego trip. Disgusting.

And I'm not even a Lance hater... but just quit already. And I hope he gets eaten alive by the Schlecks next year.