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.

Racing News - Friday September 21st

Stage 18 : Luis Perez Rodriguez goes out with a bang, closing out his 13 year career with a stage win in his home country. 4 riders dropped out before the start of Thursday's, the most notable of which was World Chamion Paolo Bettini. 24 riders tried to make an early escape today, but were captured by the peloton at 40km. Soon after, another group of 19 riders broke away. Even that group splintered, and we ended up with a group of 12, consisting of chasers and breakers at the 56km mark. Some of the notable names in the break were Menchov, Sastre, Evans, Sanchez and Mosquera. Chasing closely behind (38 seconds back at 76km) was a 10 man group containing Efimkin and others. At 93km, the second group was caught be the peloton, while the leaders extended their advantage to 2 minutes and 45 seconds. The leaders cooperated well over the final climb and kept their lead. With 13km to go, Rodriguez put the hammer down and quickly pulled out to a 26 second lead. He managed to keep ahead al...

Landis at the Shenandoah Mountain 100

Some of you probably took advantage of the long Labor Day weekend to take a long bike ride (not me, I had a nasty cold). Floyd Landis took a long ride, too, participating in the Shenandoah Moutain 100 . Reports are that he got to the race early, hung out with the locals , chewed the fat , had some beer and signed some autographs. He hung around after the race as well. Somewhere in the middle of all of that, he got third place in a very tough race. I have to agree with Harlan Price (who took 2nd place at the SM100) that Floyd must love the sport if he keeps showing up at events like Leadville and Shenanhoah Mountain. Maybe he picks up a little bit of press coverage, but these are fringe events that the mainstream media largely ignore. Some may say that he is schmoozing fans, but that's not going to help his trial end in his favor. Sounds to me like he's just an ordinary guy who loves to ride hard and party hard afterwards. He hasn't gone into hiding, he's up front,...

Tour de France - Stage 19 Results

The day started with rumors of yet another positive doping test, but the 11 a.m. conference at which the offending rider was to be announced passed without any mention of it. American Levi Leipheimer put in a blazing performance in today's individual time trial to come within 31 seconds of the yellow jersey. Still, he remains in 3rd, behind teammate Alberto Contador and Australian Cadel Evans. Today's Results: 1. Leipheimer 2. Evans 3. Karpets 4. Popovych 5. Contador General Classification 1. Contador 2. Evans (:23) 3. Leipheimer (:31) 4. Sastre (7:08) Sunday's race is traditionally a parade into Paris, but with talks of a rider protest against doping tomorrow, whether the riders hold to tradition is anyone's guess.

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