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.

Lance Breaks His Silence On The Landis Decision

When first asked a couple of weeks ago about the decision in the Floyd Landis case, Lance Armstrong basically implied that he didn't keep up with cycling anymore and that he didn't have time to look at it.

Now, in a new interview released yesterday, Armstrong blasts the decision of the arbitration panel and states that he feels that Landis would have been exonerated by a jury.

It's about time he spoke up. He may be focused on finding a cure for cancer, but he needs to recognize that for most Americans, he is the person that comes to mind when they think about professional cycling.

Specialized Rolls Out 2008 Products In Advance Of Interbike

Specialized has already rolled out much of their new products for 2008 in advance of Interbike.

Saddles: Specialized found that, because of its comfort and light weight, many of their mountain bike riders were using the Toupe road saddle off road. They saw that they could use the same technology to make an MTB saddle that is as light and comfortable, but more durable and off road specific. The result is the new Phenom saddle.
They also are rolling out a new time trial/tri saddle called the Tri-Tip. This is very similar to the Toupe, but with a longer and wider, slighty more padded nose.
Tires: Specialized grew their tire team this year and worked with long time advisor Ned Overend on a new line of mountain bike tires. This year sees the introduction of the Control line, with S-Works, Captain, Armadillo and S-Carve models. The S-Works tire was designed to be lighter while increasing cut resistance.
The Captain is an all around tire, while the Armadillo is focused on overall durability.
The…

Vuelta Stage 7 plus Other News

Raul Garcia de Mateo and Jesus Rosendo broke away from the peloton only 3 km from the start of today's stage, eventually building up a nine minute lead. Their breakaway was aided by a big crash in the peloton with about 30km to go, but they still ended up being caught about 7 km from the finish.
The sprinter's teams worked to move their riders to the front, but another crash within 2km of the finish blocked many of the contendors from previous days, such as Pettachi, Bennati and Freire. Allan Davis, Eric Zabel and Paulo Bettini were lucky enough to be ahead of the pack in a bunch sprint and fought for the stage amongst themselves. Allan Davis looked to have it wrapped up, but Zabel came around on the left in the final seconds to take the stage. Davis took second and Bettini was in third. There was almost no change in the G.C. today, with Vladimir Efimkin still on top.
See the full story at CyclingNews.com
Other news: Alejandro Valverde is expected to sue the UCI for the false pu…

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