Today's stage: Time trial day. Uphill. There aren't too many of these normally so it was an interesting day.
Who won today's stage? Levi Leipheimer (Radio Shack) took the stage by under a second from Christian Vande Velde (Garmin-Cervelo), who rode the best time trial of his career.
What matters in the GC race? Leipheimer is now the leader again followed by Vande Velde in second place. Overnight leader Tejay Van Garderen (HTC-High Road) is now 3rd after finishing the stage in sixth place.
Biggest surprise: Vande Velde's ride. When he was on course, he was visibly faster than everyone in front of him including Tour de France champ and time trial specialist Cadel Evans (BMC). Considering he had not shown form anywhere near this level since 2008, the high placing is a total shock.
Biggest disappointment: Andy Schleck (Leopard-Trek) once again was underwhelming. Considering he needs to be working on his time trialing and the uphill nature of this should have given him some help, getting beat by brother Frank is just an awful result considering that Frank is a terrible time trial rider (If Frank could do anything at all in the time trial, he would be the likely Grand Tour winner instead of brother Andy).
Other items of note: Whether he wins the race or not overall, Leipheimer appears to have locked up the Green Points jersey... Van Garderen has pretty much done the same with the Blue Young Riders jersey though he wasn't wearing it today because he was the overall leader... Versus still is having some technical problems with its broadcast, but it was generally much better today.
What is coming tomorrow? A largely downhill stage to Steamboat Springs that is likely to end in a sprint finish, if in fact there are any sprinters in this race.
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