Vuelta Stages 8 to 10, plus other news

Today is a rest day at the Vuelta. I took my rest day yesterday, so here is all of the information from the last 3 stages.

Stage 8:

Bert Grabsch of T-Mobile sets a blistering pace of 55 km/h to win Saturday's individual time trial. Laszlo Bodrogi took second and Stijn Devolder got third. Devolder made up enough time to cruise by Denis Menchov in the G.C. Devolder has a 30 second lead, with Menchov, Efimkin, Evans and Monfort rounding out the Top 5.

Stage 9:

Saunier-Duval's Leonardo Piepoli survived a number of attacks to take Sunday's stage. Denis Menchov was in there with him up until the end, but did not fight for the stage win, as he knew that he would still end up in the golden jersey at the end of the day. Stijn Devolder had a bad day, losing 5 minutes off of the leaders. For the stage, the leaders were Piepoli, Menchov, Miquez, Sastre and Zaugg. The G.C. is now led by Menchov. Previous leader Vladimir Efimkin in second, though a little over 2 minutes behind. Cadel Evans, Carlos Sastre and Esquivel Mosquera Miquez complete the Top 5.

Stage 10:

Oscar Freire was a DNS today. He says that he is saving his strength for the upcoming World's.

There was an early escape by 18 riders from the 21km mark. They had a lead of 4'15" by the second climb and as much as 5 minutes by the 100km point. At 185km, some members of the CSC team decided to start reeling in the break, and had the gap down to 2 minutes in short order. The peloton started picking off riders from the break, and when all was said and done, only Ludovic Turpin and Jurgen Van Goolen was able to stay off the front.

Turpin and Van Goolen's lead was down to 32 seconds with 8km to go. Manuel Beltran was part of a small chase group and he swallowed up the break at the 6km mark. With less than 3km to go, Sastre, Beltran, Menchov, Evans, Efimkin, Sanchez and Piepoli were all battling for the lead. The last 200m of the stage was uphill. Menchov led the final sprint followed by Evans, Sanchez, Beltran and Sastre. Three Spanish riders in the Top 5!

No change at the top of the G.C. today:

1. Menchov

2. Efimkin

3. Evans

4. Sastre

5. Miquez

Other News:

The Univest Grand Prix took place over the weekend in Souderton, PA. It was said to be a huge success. Floyd was in the house.
Alejandro Valverde continues to battle with the UCI regarding suspicions of Operation Puerto involvment
The inaquaral Tour of Missouri is starting today. This will be, more or less, the farewell race for the Discovery Channel team. Alberto Contador, as well as George Hincapie and Levi Leipheimer will be racing, and they are aiming to put Hincapie on the podium. However, the Toyota-United, Slipstream-Chipotle, Kodak Gallery-Sierra Nevada and Health Net-Maxxis teams are all in attendance and will be ready to show America what they can do.

Rasmussen Shopping For A New Team

Yahoo Sports reports that Michael Rasmussen is looking for a new team to finsish the season. He has his sights set on the Giro di Lombardia, the final single day race of the season. He met with the director of the Acqua & Sapone team on Wednesday for about 30 minutes. Director Palmiro Masciarelli states, "He wants to finish the season with us. He showed me all his papers. The problem is with the Danish federation." You'll recall that Rasmussen was kicked out of the Tour and off of his team for allegedly lying about his whereabouts to evade doping tests. Masciarelli states that Rasmussen should not have been dismissed because he missed two tests, but if I recall correctly, the dismissal was over the lying, not the missed tests. If I was a team director, I would be very reluctant to add a rider who was under such heavy scrutiny. In today's environment, one bad egg could bring down an entire team.

TDF - It Was Too Good to be True

Yesterday, I posted about Alexandre Vinokourov's amazing wins in Saturday's time trial and on Monday's stage from Foix to Loudenvielle. Today, the news comes that Vino has tested positive for homologous blood transfusion after Saturday's time trial . He was immediately dismissed by his team and his entire team has dropped out of the Tour. At this point, I can't help but think that this is going to ultimately affect many of the other teams' sponsorship, media coverage of the race and many other things. I had hoped that we could make it through this year without any huge scandals. One man is not going to bring down the entire tour, but he did just make life far more difficult for the entire professional cycling community. I can see the effects of this rippling down to the developmental teams, making it more difficult for talented riders to progress.

Vuelta Stage 11 plus other news

Vuelta de Espana - Stage 11: The day started with a two man breakaway at the 8km mark that saw it's biggest gap at the 40km point. The peloton was taking it easy, working only hard enough to let the break not get any bigger. At 120km, the peloton started to reel in the break and they had made up the 3 minute advantage by km 150. The Milram and Lampre-Fondital teams, along with Rabobank, did the majority of the work to make up the break. By the final 10 km, the speeds racked up considerably, with T-Mobile & Milram leading a long, single file peloton. Milram took over the lead in the final 2 kilometers. Zabel did the work to set up Pettachi to take the final sprint at the last corner. Pettachi racks up his 18th career win today at the Vuelta. coming by teammate Erik Zabel in the final meters of today's stage. Paolo Bettini took second, Zabel third. The G.C. stays much the same with Menchov, Efimkin, Evans, Sastre and Miquez in the Top 5 spots. Other News: Ivan Dominque...

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