Vuelta Stage 20 Review - Climbing Bola del Mundo confirms victory for Contador

Today's Stage: Bola del Mundo. One of the craziest climbs in professional cycling.

Who won today's stage? Katusha sent two men into the breakaway to assist Joaquin Rodriguez later in the stage. That breakaway ended up staying away as it had 20 men in it, so former double Vuelta overall winner Denis Menchov (Katusha) took the stage win instead of helping his teammate.

What matters in the GC race? Though Rodriguez dropped Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) who in turn dropped Alberto Contador (Saxo Bank-Tinkoff), everyone stayed in their same positions. The final top 10 is also complete as the last stage is mostly ceremonial until the final sprint. This is the final GC barring something crazy though Valverde and Rodriguez's Green Jersey fight could play a role in the battle for second as they battle for the Green Jersey:

1 Alberto Contador (Saxo Bank-Tinkoff)

2 Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) +1'16”

3 Joaquin Rodriguez (Katusha) +1'37”

4 Chris Froome (Team Sky) +10'16”

5 Daniel Moreno (Katusha) +11'29”

6 Robert Gesink (Rabobank) +12'23”

7 Andrew Talansky (Garmin-Sharp) +13'28”

8 Laurens Ten Dam (Rabobank) +13'41”

9 Igor Anton (Euskatel) +14'01”

10 Benat Intxausti (Movistar) +16'13”

What matters in the other competitions?

Green Jersey (Points) – Rodriguez extended his lead further by a point. Still, this will go to tomorrow as the final sprint will determine the winner. With two intermediate sprints before that, the Rodriguez-Valverde battle will continue from mid stage all the way through the final sprint.

Polka Dot Jersey (King of the Mountains, it's blue in Spain, not red) – Simon Clarke (Orica-GreenEdge) got himself into the breakaway again and took enough points that the Bola del Mundo did not matter in the race of the King of the Mountains. With no climbs tomorrow, Clarke has won the jersey. Special note that four-time defending champion of this classification David Moncoutie (Cofidis) finished 10^th.

White Jersey (Allround, instead of young rider, calculated by adding the rankings in GC, Points and KoM, lowest score wins) – There is still a battle to be waged here as well. If Valverde steals the Green Jersey on the final day he would be tied with Rodriguez as Rodrgieuz lost a spot in the King of the Mountains today bringing Valverde in range. Just something else to watch on the final stage.

Team Classification (top 3 times by team on each stage) – Movistar lost over 8 minutes today to Euskatel, but they had over 17 minutes to spare so they still clinched the team victory.

Biggest surprise: No Thomas De Gendt (Vacansoleil) in the breakaway. De Gendt is a talented climber and the King of the Mountains jersey was in range as was a possible stage win (remember that De Gendt won the Queen Stage at Stage 20 of the Giro d'Italia in May), but De Gendt didn't get himself in the breakaway today.

Biggest disappointment: Rodriguez didn't attack early enough. He was unlikely to pull back over 2 minutes today, but he should have made the effort as his podium position was never going to be at risk, even if he exploded and lost a ton of time. As it turned out, had he attacked earlier, he might have pulled enough time to pass Valverde.

What is coming tomorrow? Processional stage into Madrid to finish with a bunch sprint.

Tomorrow's Prediction: John Degenkolb (Argos-Shimano) will remind everyone why he was the best sprinter in the field early in the race with an easy win.

Vuelta Stage 18 - Degenkolb finally loses a sprint

Today's Stage: Sprinter's day. Days like this at this point in Grand Tours are often left for the breakaway, but with the sprinters having had few opportunities and the breakaway fulling a fast one on one of those opportunities, the sprint teams were always going to control this and hope they could beat John Degenkolb (Argos-Shimano).

Who won today's stage? And beat Degenkolb they did. Daniele Bennati (RSNT) finally got his stage win after a couple of close calls with Bennati. Ben Swift (Team Sky) was second and Allan Davis (Orica-GreenEdge) was third. Degenkolb ended up fifth.

What matters in the GC race? Nothing. And it will be that way tomorrow too. With no climbing today and none tomorrow, the wait is now on for Bola del Mundo to decide the ultimate winner. Alberto Contador (Saxo Bank-Tinkoff) is the leader followed by Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) and Joaquin Rodriguez (Katusha). Everybody else is at least 9 minutes behind Contador.

What matters in the other competitions?

Green Jersey (Points) – If Degenkolb were to have a chance at a miracle comeback here, he needed to win the stage today. He did not. Rodriguez leads followed by Valverde and Contador.

Polka Dot Jersey (King of the Mountains, it's blue in Spain, not red) – Simon Clarke (Orica-GreenEdge) retained his lead again. And he will until Saturday as there are no categorized climbs tomorrow before the final massive stage to Bola del Mundo. Rodriguez is second and Thomas De Gendt (Vacansoleil) is third. Expect both Clarke and De Gendt to try and get in the breakaway on Saturday searching for the points needed to take the final jersey as that is the only day remaining with points available.

White Jersey (Allround, instead of young rider, calculated by adding the rankings in GC, Points and KoM, lowest score wins) – Ho hum. Despite the issues today, Rodriguez retains the lead here and still won't be wearing the jersey (he will be wearing Green tomorrow). This jersey, worn by Contador will return to Valverde, at least during the race.

Team Classification (top 3 times by team on each stage) – Valverde's Movistar team has blown this open. Barring a catastrophe, the team will win this prize as it now leads by over 17 minutes.

Biggest surprise: Degenkolb was beaten. The only thing we hadn't seen was Degenkolb sprint after lots of mountains and it didn't go as well as earlier in the race. Still, when the only man to win a sprint stage during the race finishes fifth, it is a shock.

Biggest disappointment: Elia Viviani (Liquigas) was not there for the sprint at the end. Viviani was dropped and finished in the second group, six seconds behind the sprint. For Viviani, the race has been increasingly difficult in his quest to get a stage win as it becomes evident that his team doesn't care at al about this race. The top stage racers on the team (Vincenzo Nibali and Ivan Basso) both were sent to Colorado for the US Pro Challenge (where Viviani won two stages last year). Peter Sagan is on a different program for World Championships preps. Just an all around frustrating Vuelta for Viviani.

Other items of note: The topic of doping in cycling has been back in the public eye ever since the Lance Armstrong case came to the forefront of the discussion. Yesterday, Garmin-Sharp team manager Jonathan Vaughters, who previously confessed to doping during his career in a New York Times op-ed, outed three former teammates of Lance Armstrong who actively ride for his team: David Zabriskie, Tom Danielson and US Pro Challenge winner Christian Vande Velde. Beyond that former Lance Armstrong teammate Tyler Hamilton's book came out and while there is the usual stuff about Lance in there, the book also goes after Bjarne Riis, current manager of Saxo Bank-Tinkoff for organizing doping within his team at that time (Saxo Bank's precursor was CSC and Hamilton rode for it after leaving US Postal before ultimately getting caught after he changed teams again and went to Phonak and was caught in 2004)...In Vuelta news, we are down 20 riders to withdrawals now. Linus Gerdemann (RSNT) was involved in a crash today and had to abandon.

What is coming tomorrow? Sprint stage. No climbs. Boredom.

Tomorrow's Prediction: Degenkolb. He will recover after the beating he took today.

Vuelta Stage 17 - The return of El Pistolero. Contador takes the lead.

Today's Stage: Another uphill finish. But this one on a long but not steep category two climb and after more hills than mountains. Not expected to be major battling territory. We were wrong.

Who won today's stage? Alberto Contador (Saxo Bank-Tinkoff) got his first win since his suspension with a combination of insane long range attacking and incredible team tactics (more on that later).

What matters in the GC race? Contador is now the overall leader and he is the leader by a significant margin over Alejandro Valverde (Movistar), who pretty much emptied the tank to catch try and catch Contador on the final climb. He didn't quite make it, losing seven seconds after being down by two minutes at one point. The big loser was Joaquin Rodriguez (Katusha). The former leader overall lost 2'38” to Contador today and fell to third place on a stage that didn't look all that troubling. As for the rest, fourth place Chris Froome (Team Sky) is now over nine minutes behind Contador.

What matters in the other competitions?

Green Jersey (Points) – The GC men are now battling for this after having battled on today's stage, a likely breakaway stage that might a keep a sprinter in the competition. Rodriguez is still the leader followed by Valverde and Contador. Of the rest, only sprinter John Degenkolb (Argos-Shimano) and Froome have yet to be mathematically eliminated though that will certainly come for Froome tomorrow.

Polka Dot Jersey (King of the Mountains, it's blue in Spain, not red) – Simon Clarke (Orica-GreenEdge) retained his lead again. And he will until Saturday as there are no categorized climbs either tomorrow or Friday before the final massive stage to Bola del Mundo. Rodriguez is second and Thomas De Gendt (Vacansoleil) is third. Expect both Clarke and De Gendt to try and get in the breakaway on Saturday searching for the points needed to take the final jersey as that is the only day remaining with points available.

White Jersey (Allround, instead of young rider, calculated by adding the rankings in GC, Points and KoM, lowest score wins) – Despite the issues today, Rodriguez retains the lead here and still won't be wearing the jersey (he will be wearing Green tomorrow). This jersey, worn by Contador will return to Valverde, at least during the race.

Team Classification (top 3 times by team on each stage) – Valverde's Movistar team has blown this open. Barring a catastrophe, the team will win this prize as it now leads by over 17 minutes.

Biggest surprise: Katusha fell asleep at the wheel when their leader needed them most. At one point early on, Contador and Valverde got ahead of the peloton together. This should have been the warning bell that something different might be happening. Katusha didn't heed it. What they ended up with was multiple groups on the road when Contador attacked and Saxo Bank riders in every one of them and Movistar riders in every one of them. Meanwhile, Katusha was ground down to nothing quickly. Rodriguez had to work all alone in his group to try and bring Contador back, so much so that he couldn't go when Valverde attacked out of his group. Had he managed to hold Valverde's wheel, he would have made up some of the time he lost (and Valverde would have sat up). Given all of this, where were the likes of Daniel Moreno and Denis Menchov. Those guys are the mountain domestiques for Rodriguez. Moreno has been good, but not there at all on the business end of stages despite being in fifth place overall. Menchov has been in his usual invisible man act, nowhere to be seen. Unlike past races, that means he is never seen instead of never seen before the finish. Obviously, Rodriguez didn't have great legs today, but that happens to a lot of riders coming off the rest day. His team needs to pick him up and it was surprising that in his time of most need, they were nowhere to be seen.

Biggest disappointment: Contador's armada of other helpers showed up today. Back at the 2011 Giro, I bemoaned the tactics as every non-Italian team in the field either did nothing at all or helped Contador even though he was dominating the race. Today, it was the same. Yes, there were Saxo Bank riders all over the road, but the man who did the biggest pull for Contador was Paulo Tiralongo (Astana). Yes, Astana. Tiralongo is a former Contador teammate who testified on Contador's behalf at his Court of Arbitration for Sport doping hearing. Last year, Tiralongo helped Contador quite a few times and was gifted a stage win for his efforts. This year, it was so blatant that Tiralongo was getting water from the Saxo Bank team car. Ridiculous. If I'm Vincenzo Nibali and I have signed with Astana next season, I'm worried. If Contador is in the race, Tiralongo has shown he will work for Contador. What happens when his teammate and his friend are battling. Who does Tiralongo help? The answer was clear today. That is Contador.

Other items of note: So why did this work today whereas everything in the higher mountains fail? Simple. Different kind of climb, different kind of stage. Contador became the best stage racer in the world by winning at the Tour de France, famous for long, grinding climbs. The Alps with its 20 km climbs at 6% gradient, not the steep monsters we have seen all race thus far. Today, with over 20 km at an average of 3.9% was a more Alpine climb and Contador took advantage... Some had bemoaned the lack of another time trial, but the riders do indeed make the race. Contador and his team essentially made today's stage a time trial and Contador was of course going to win that over Rodriguez... With four days to go, some of the weak field of sprinters that showed up here have to be thinking why they bothered. While the next two days and the final day look like sprints, it also looks like John Degenkolb territory. Degenkolb has won every bunch sprint of the race so far and there is no reason why he shouldn't win a couple more over the next four days.

What is coming tomorrow? Sprint stage. No climbs. Boredom.

Tomorrow's Prediction: Degenkolb.

Vuelta Stage 16 - Rodriguez extends his lead further

Today's Stage: Circle of Death – Part 3. By far the hardest stage of these three days in the mountains and quite possibly the 'Queen Stage' (that would be hardest stage) of the race (Stage 20 up the Bola del Mundo is also under consideration for 'Queen Stage')

Who won today's stage? Dario Cataldo (OPQS) and Thomas De Gendt (Vacansoleil) battled together for the stage win as the only breakaway survivors. Cataldo was able to drop De Gendt on Cuitu Negru and then survive one of the slowest stage finishes ever. Both Cataldo and De Gendt nearly fell off their bikes in exhaustion just at the sight of the finish line and the final three km took them over 15 minutes to complete.

What matters in the GC race? Overall leader Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) took the sprint for third over Alberto Contador (Saxo Bank-Tinkoff), taking the time bonues and extending his lead again, now up to 28 seconds. Just behind them was Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) who confirmed his podium place in part because Chris Froome (Team Sky) finally exploded, losing over two minutes to the leaders.

What matters in the other competitions?

Green Jersey (Points) – More points for Rodriguez. His lead is now 52 over 4^th place John Degenkolb (Argos-Shimano), the main contender considering the other two in between are Valverde and Contador. Rodriguez can seal the jersey with a win on Wednesday or a win atop the Bola del Mundo on Saturday. Even without those, Degenkolb likely needs to win all three remaining possible sprint stages on Thursday, Friday and Sunday to take the jersey. Looks unlikely.

Polka Dot Jersey (King of the Mountains, it's blue in Spain, not red) – Simon Clarke (Orica-GreenEdge) is now holding on for dear life as the GC men continue to take points on all the uphill and summit finishes. In addition, stage runner De Gendt has appeared in 3^rd place and De Gendt has been very strong in week three of the last two Grand Tours he has entered. I suspect he will be in the breakaway looking for the King of the Mountains win on the Bola del Mundo stage with its three category one climbs before the final run up the huge climb at the end.

White Jersey (Allround, instead of young rider, calculated by adding the rankings in GC, Points and KoM, lowest score wins) – Same as it ever was. Even Froome cracking today changed nothing. Rodriguez still leads (as expected). Valverde is second and Contador is third. Froome is fourth but falling further behind every day as he is in the GC battle.

Team Classification (top 3 times by team on each stage) – Movistar has really extended this out the last couple of days. With three riders in the top 11 on the stage, they are now over 12 minutes ahead of second place Katusha.

Biggest surprise: Froome exploded as bad as he did. We have seen the signs that this was coming, but it looked like Froome was doing a good job of limiting his losses to a few seconds. Today, that was just not the case. As soon as the leaders went, Froome was with the second tier GC group and was beaten by many of them including Gesink, Ten Dam, Anton and Talansky.

Biggest disappointment: With the exception of Movistar domestique Nairo Quintana, nobody has stayed with the leader the last three days. Just once in this race, I would like to see the likes of Gesink and Talansky attacking with the leaders. Of course that would means risking positions if the attack failed so those riders are content to grind away.

Other items of note: Another two men dropped out of the race today. Pablo Lechuga (Andalucia) and Cameron Meyer (Orica-GreenEdge) were the two and there are now 17 men out of the race. As a whole, this has been a low-attrition race. The eventual toll of the stage 6 crash in the Tour de France alone was 12, when including those involved who dropped out on later stages.

What is coming tomorrow? Rest day tomorrow and then a long but not very steep ascent up a category 2 climb to finish.

Tomorrow's Prediction: Breakaway. Someone from both Caja Rural and Andalucia will be in it along with those in the mid-teens region on GC looking to sneak away and move into the top 10.

Vuelta Stage 15 - Breakaway succeeds, Favorite wait for Tomorrow'

Today's Stage: Circle of Death – Part 2. The easy one of the three. Only three climbs, but the final one was the fearsome Lagos de Covadonga.

Who won today's stage? Antonio Piedra (Caja Rural) finally chose a correct break for his team (i.e. one that stays away) and paid it off by attacking at the bottom of the Lagos de Covadonga, winning the stage by over 2 minutes.

What matters in the GC race? Overall leader leader Joaquin Rodriguez (Katusha), Alberto Contador (Saxo Bank-Tinkoff) and Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) finished together, but without Chris Froome (Team Sky) who was dropped and hung on for dear life just to stay with the second group of GC men. Froome lost 35 seconds more on the leaders and saw his chances at the podium start to slip away.

What matters in the other competitions?

Green Jersey (Points) – The breakaway picked up most of the points, but Rodriguez and Valverde did a score a small amount to extend further away from John Degenkolb (Argos-Shimano). Rodriguez is the leader but Valverde will be wearing the jersey as Rodriguez is the overall leader.

Polka Dot Jersey (King of the Mountains, it's blue in Spain, not red) – Simon Clarke (Orica-GreenEdge) didn't get himself in the breakaway today, but he retains his lead here. Rodriguez is 2^nd and Valverde 3^rd as none of the contenders scored points.

White Jersey (Allround, instead of young rider, calculated by adding the rankings in GC, Points and KoM, lowest score wins) – Rodriguez still leads (as expected). Valverde is second and Contador is third. Froome is fourth but falling further behind every day as he is in the GC battle.

Team Classification (top 3 times by team on each stage) – The entire race was remade today. Movistar had a man in the break and then had another with Valverde. They now lead by 2'52” over Euskatel who also had a man in the break and a domestique with team leader Igor Anton. Former leaders Rabobank have seen their hopes here explode with the cracking of Bauke Mollema the last two days. The team is now over six minutes behind and will need to find a successful breakaway to get the time back.

Biggest surprise: The breakaway got away and stayed away. With the exception of stage four, no breakaways have been allowed to go the whole race. The peloton has limited matters and then swept up the break up with plenty of time to go (Stage 12's breakaway win was an exception to this, but it was never allowed much time and Argos-Shimano just failed in its attempts to pull it back). Today, it just didn't care. The top riders rode tempo until the end and the break enjoyed a huge lead that including Piedra gaining over nine minutes on the leaders (not that it really helps him there as he is still over an hour behind).

Biggest disappointment: Nobody can make an attack stick. While this has been very entertaining, we are most certainly into a pattern with the racing: Contador or Valverde attacks, Rodriguez pegs it back, yo-yo with that for awhile, sometimes Valverde is dropped, Rodriguez wins uphill sprint unless Valverde is still there, then there is a battle for the win. It would be nice to see an attack go and work (see Thomas de Gendt at Giro d'Italia).

Other items of note: Two more casualties of the race bring the total to 15 men out of the race. Olivier Kaisen (Lotto-Belisol) and Rafael Valls (Vaconsoleil) both are out of the race.

What is coming tomorrow? Circle of Death, part 3, the hardest of this circle of climbing. Tomorrow starts with a simple category 3 climb, then climbs two category one climbs before finishing atop the beyond category Cuitu Negru for the first time ever.

Tomorrow's Prediction: Rodriguez will win stage and likely the Vuelta followed by Contador and Valverde, same as its been.

Vuelta Stage 14 - Rodriguez wins (again) Round 1 of the Circle of Death Climbs

Today's Stage: Circle of Death – Part 1. Five climbs including a finish on the brutal Puerto de Ancares climb.

Who won today's stage? Joaquin Rodriguez (Katusha) has followed this script quite bit: Follow wheels and then use his superior finishing kick to take a few seconds and win the time bonus by winning the stage. Today was much the same with a slightly different story as Rodriguez was briefly dropped by Alberto Contador (Saxo Bank-Tinkoff) before fighting back and passing him at the end.

What matters in the GC race? Rodriguez extended his lead over Contador to 22 seconds and also made it a two-man race for the overall victory. Chris Froome (Team Sky) struggled and Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) is still being hurt seriously by the 50 seconds he lost on stage four because he was caught in a crash. Froome and Valverde are both 1'41” behind and neither seems able to match Rodriguez and Contador in the high mountains.

What matters in the other competitions?

Green Jersey (Points) – Rodriguez's win stretched his lead out a bit. His lead is now safe even if he scores no point tomorrow. Valverde is 2^nd and John Degenkolb (Argos-Shimano) in 3^rd.

Polka Dot Jersey (King of the Mountains, it's blue in Spain, not red) – Stage four winner Simon Clarke (Orica-GreenEdge) smartly went into the breakaway today to pick up points and in the process regained his lead in the competition even though he was dropped on the final climb and lost boatloads of time. Valverde and Rodriguez are tied for second.

White Jersey (Allround, instead of young rider, calculated by adding the rankings in GC, Points and KoM, lowest score wins) – Rodriguez still leads (as expected). Valverde will now wear the jersey instead of Contador as he no longer holds the Polka Dot jersey.

Team Classification (top 3 times by team on each stage) – Rabobank had a very bad day today. Robert Gesink dropped to from 5^th to 6^th place and Bauke Mollema dropped from 10^th to 15^th. With those results, Rabobank's lead in the team classification dropped to under 2 minutes over Team Sky.

Biggest surprise: Contador finally got away and was pegged back. All race, everyone had been waiting for Alberto Contador to lay down a big attack and finally drop everyone. He did it today, and it didn't matter. Joaquin Rodriguez seems to have learned from his defeat to Ryder Hesjedal at the Giro how to calculate his max and leave himself in range to peg anyone back. At this point, Contador is going to need to lay down a long attack the likes of which we haven't seen him do since the 2011 Giro on the Mt. Etna stage.

Biggest disappointment: There were a bunch of domestiques around well up the final climb. The amount of domestiques with the top climbers late in races is startling. Saxo Bank had a full train going today and Sky could have done that as well with the number of people they had until late in the stage. This is a big change from the racing in the Giro when nobody had domestiques anywhere near the end of any climbing stages. I think the racing is more entertaining when the top guys have to go mano-a-mano from early on.

Other items of note: Three more riders abandoned before the stage began with varying injuries/fatigue/fear of three days of torture for no real reason. JJ Rojas (Movistar) had a minor crash in the sprint yesterday, but decided to call it a race and head home to rest before the World Championships. Jurgen Van den Broeck (Lotto-Belisol) was never himself in this race after emptying the tank to finish 4^th at the Tour de France. With Van den Broeck out, teammate and domestique Jens Debusschere also dropped out... Quietly, Andrew Talansky (Garmin-Sharp) has had a great race. With most of his American compatriots not here because they raced the USA Pro Challenge during week 1, Talansky is carrying the US banner well. He is in 8^th place overall and would be in 6^th, fighting for 5^th if not for the debacle that was Garmin's Team Time Trial.

What is coming tomorrow? Circle of Death, part 2. The lead up to the big climbs isn't as hard tomorrow as it was today, but the finish is worse. Tomorrow brings the category 1 Alto del Mirador before finishing atop one of only three Beyond Category climbs in this race, the Lagos de Covadonga.

Tomorrow's Prediction: Is there any reason to deviate from the script? Rodriguez will limit losses early before overtaking Contador in the sprint at the end. I wonder if Contador will try something crazy like attack on the Mirador?

Vuelta Stage 13 Review - Breakaway stay away as High Mountains Loom

Today's Stage: A transitional sprint stage before the mountains. Breakaway or sprint was possible instead of the inevitable sprints of previous flatter stages.

Who won today's stage? Steve Cummings (BMC) attacked from the breakaway with four km to go and made it stick as someone with his track background should if in a breakaway.

What matters in the GC race? Nothing. All the contenders finished in the main group. Joaquin Rodriguez (Katusha) continues to lead Alberto Contador (Saxo Bank-Tinkoff) by 13 seconds.

What matters in the other competitions?

Green Jersey (Points) – Sadly for John Degenkolb (Argos-Shimano), the breakaway consisted of a group of really strong riders and they stayed away. This cost him a chance at another stage win and it cost him in the points chase as he still trails overall leader Rodriguez going into three high mountain days where he will never score points and Rodriguez will.

Polka Dot Jersey (King of the Mountains, it's blue in Spain, not red) – The day was climbless. Therefore, Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) continues to lead over Rodriguez before the next three days remake the classification. Expect David Moncoutie (Cofidis), the four time defending champion in this category, in the break tomorrow looking for points and his annual stage win.

White Jersey (Allround, instead of young rider, calculated by adding the rankings in GC, Points and KoM, lowest score wins) – With Rodriguez leading or second in every category, he will lead this until he cracks. If he does crack, Valverde is the likely beneficiary.

Team Classification (top 3 times by team on each stage) – Flat stages just don't do much in this category. Rabobank still leads.

Biggest surprise: The break stayed away. All day long, the breakaway never got a huge advantage. Still, they stayed away as nobody wanted to help Degenkolb's Argos-Shimano team get another win. Among the other sprinters at the Vuelta, Ben Swift (Team Sky) is freelancing on a team built around Chris Froome, Allan Davis (Orica-GreenEdge) had two teammates in the breakaway, Nacer Bouhanni (FDJ) left the race injured after being involved in the big crash yesterday and Elia Viviani (Liquigas) went into the break himself (he was dropped by the other six in the final 10 km).

Biggest disappointment: Disappointment? No way. There is no disappointment today. Degenkolb's wins have been of the soul-killing boredom variety. So having a tension filled finish where the break stayed away and no GC men lost time means a happy stage today.

Other items of note: Other than Bouhanni, two other riders left the race today. They were Morris Possoni (Lampre) and Hayden Roulston (RSNT)... Interestingly, today's stage winner Cummings was the only British rider entered at the Tour de France who failed to win a stage. The others (Wiggins, Froome, Cavendish and Millar) all won at least one in France.

What is coming tomorrow? Circle of Death, part 1. Three small climbs before a category one climb and then a finish atop the category one Puerto de Ancares. Last year, the race climbed the Puerto de Ancares in the middle of stage 13 won by Michael Albasini (then HTC-High Road, now Orica-GreenEdge).

Tomorrow's Prediction: Alberto Contador will finally show his true power and win the stage, but Rodriguez and Valverde will be close.

Vuelta a Espana Stage 12 - Rodriguez wins on the wall to extend his lead.

Today's Stage: The wall. A strange gimmick of a stage with no climbs until the final 2km and then a climb with sections reaching 30% gradients.

Who won today's stage? This stage seemed to be built for Joaquin Rodriguez (Katusha), again. And he won again, dropping Alberto Contador (Saxo Bank-Tinkoff) at the end.

What matters in the GC race? Rodriguez extended his lead over Contador to 13 seconds. Further down, Chris Froome (Team Sky) lost 23 seconds and got no time bonus leaving him 51 seconds down and Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) lost 13 seconds and is now 1'20” behind.

What matters in the other competitions?

Green Jersey (Points) – As expected, Rodriguez took control of this jersey as well by winning the stage. Valverde is now second and former leader John Degenkolb (Argos-Shimano) fell to third, again.

Polka Dot Jersey (King of the Mountains, it's blue in Spain, not red) – Valverde continues to lead in this competition, but Rodriguez is now really close (only 2 points). The weekend stages should decide matters or at least inform the final classification before the Bola del Mundo climb.

White Jersey (Allround, instead of young rider, calculated by adding the rankings in GC, Points and KoM, lowest score wins) – With Rodriguez leading or second in every category, he will lead this until he cracks. If he does crack, Valverde is the likely beneficiary.

Team Classification (top 3 times by team on each stage) – Rabobank with its three top 10 GC riders was again the best on this stage, extending its lead further over Team Sky and AG2R La Mondiale.

Biggest surprise: Rodriguez dropped everyone along the way. He past successes in this race had been either by winning uphill sprints (stage 6) or by cagey moves that caught others off guard (escaping with Gilbert on stage 9). This move was something different as Rodriguez and Contador rode away from everyone else and then Rodriguez attacked Contador and dropped him with an explosive attack at then end.

Biggest disappointment: Froome was not very good today. He has seemed vulnerable since stage 8 and today was no exception as he was beaten not only by the other contenders, but by Robert Gesink (Rabobank) as well. While in a vacuum, losing to Gesink isn't a bad thing, in this race it isn't great given the issues Gesink has had staying with the leaders thus far (though he is fifth overall).

Other items of note: There was a crash today that caused two abandonments. Daniele Ratto (Lampre) and Xabier Zandio (Team Sky) were both forced to leave with their injuries with Zandio being injured far worse than Ratto.

What is coming tomorrow? Transitional stage with a flat run in. After the last two days with three days of insane high mountain climbing coming, that normally means breakaway. In this race though, it could mean sprint with no sprinters other than John Degenkolb having won a stage and a lack of sprint opportunities left. In addition, Degenkolb himself may want to win the stage in the quest for the green jersey.

Tomorrow's Prediction: Degenkolb. The other sprint teams will help Argos chase down the break and it will be a dumb decision as Degenkolb schools their sprinters again.

Vuelta Time Trial Day - Rodriguez survives the Race of Truth, lead intact

Today's Stage: Time-trial. The race of truth and the stage that will determine the tactics of the race going forward.

Who won today's stage? Fredrik Kessiakoff (Astana) shocked everyone by winning his second time tiral of the year. Not that it should have shocked anyone considering he beat Fabian Cancellara (Switzerland) in the Tour de Suisse in June.

What matters in the GC race? Joaquin Rodriguez (Katusha) is known as an awful time trialer. He lost six minutes as the race leader in 2010 and lost the Giro d'Italia on the final day despite riding one of the better time trials of his career. Somehow though, Rodriguez, despite ceding time, retained the overall lead by one second over Alberto Contador (Saxo Bank-Tinkoff) with a surprising top 10 finish. Still, Rodriguez ceded time to all three of his GC rivals. Contador closed to within a second, Chris Froome (Team Sky) is now 16 seconds down and Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) is now 59 seconds behind.

What matters in the other competitions?

Green Jersey (Points) – John Degenkolb (Argos-Shimano) retained the lead, but Rodriguez and Valverde inched a little closer with their unexpected top 10's in the time trial. Tomorrow should bring a change in leadership if not the jersey with over 180km of flat followed by 2km that are basically a wall to climb at the end.

Polka Dot Jersey (King of the Mountains, it's blue in Spain, not red) – With a rare climb on the TT parcours, points were given out for three best times on the climb. That went to Kessiakoff, Contador and Froome. Still, Valverde is the leader followed by Rodriguez.

White Jersey (Allround, instead of young rider, calculated by adding the rankings in GC, Points and KoM, lowest score wins) – Rodriguez is going to lead here for the foreseeable future over Valverde. Other than them, only Froome and Contador are even close.

Team Classification (top 3 times by team on each stage) – There was a big shakeup here as time trials often end up determining the team classification at major races like this one. Rabobank still lead, but the lead is under 2 minutes again and it's Team Sky with Richie Porte finishing in the top 10 along with Froome's top 5 not Ag2R who had been second (they are now 4^th).

Biggest surprise: Rodriguez, Rodriguez, Rodriguez. His time trial ride will end up as the biggest surprise of the entire Vuelta unless someone outside the top 4 manages to somehow win the whole thing (unlikely at best).

Biggest disappointment: Where were the other GC men? I know they aren't challenging the big four on the climbs, but some of them are better than this in the time trial. At the very least, riders like Gesink should be ahead of Rodriguez in a TT, even if he rides the TT of his life.

Other items of note: The abandonment list grew by one yesterday as John Gadret (Ag2R La Mondiale) left the race sick on the rest day. Still, there have been only five abandonments. I expect that to change when the horrifying mountains are reached on Saturday.

What is coming tomorrow? The Wall. Tomorrow has no categorized climbs for 188 km. Then the road tilts uphill for the final two and sheds he sprinters for another GC fight. The gradients on this thing are ridiculous including a section of 30%. The legs will hurt even though the day will likely be easy until the climbs. I expect another heartless, soulless breakaway involving riders who don't want to hurt themselves in the breakaway for nothing other than showing the sponsor.

Tomorrow's Prediction: Stages like this are why some say the course was built for Joaquin Rodriguez. Whether that's true or not, tomorrow does suit him, but it also suits Contador. Rodriguez will win the stage followed by Contador, Valverde then Froome, wh has semmed on the edge of cracking big a couple of time in this race.

Vuelta Stage 9 - Degenkolb wins the Degenkolb Invitational (aka bunch sprint)

Today's Stage: Sprint stage coming off a rest day. This doesn't often happen but then again, what about this route has been conventional.

Who won today's stage? It was a bunch sprint stage. If you've been reading during this race, you know that John Degenkolb (Argos-Shimano) was the favorite. And the favorite won...again. For Degenkolb, the sprint win was his fourth of this Vuelta in four attempts to sprint.

What matters in the GC race? Nothing matters today. Joaquin Rodriguez (Katusha), Chris Froome (Team Sky), Alberto Contador (Saxo Bank-Tinkoff) and Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) remain the top four in that order.

What matters in the other competitions?

Green Jersey (Points) – Degenkolb was wearing the Green Jersey on this stage, but only because those in front of him were wearing other jerseys as leaders in those classifications. That won't be a problem tomorrow as Degenkolb regained the lead with his stage win. He also picked up a couple of extra points on the road as the breakaway only had two riders in it leaving the 3^rd point at the intermediate sprints available to the peloton. Overall leader Joaquin Rodriguez is second and Alejandro Valverde is still third.

Polka Dot Jersey (King of the Mountains, it's blue in Spain, not red) – Another climbless day leaves Valverde in the Polka Dots for another day. This Vuelta semms to go back and forth. It's either a ton of climbs and a summit finish or no climbs whatsoever.

White Jersey (Allround, instead of young rider, calculated by adding the rankings in GC, Points and KoM, lowest score wins) – Rodriguez is going to lead here for the foreseeable future over Valverde. Other than them, only Froome and Contador are even close.

Team Classification (top 3 times by team on each stage) – No time gaps of note here. Rabobank still lead Ag2r La Mondiale by 2'27”

Biggest surprise: Everyone allowed Degenkolb's Argos-Shimano team to not be the main team chasing the breakaway. At this point, nobody, even the other sprinter teams should do any work. Make argos tire themselves out, even if it means giving a stage away. That's the only way to beat Degenkolb here.

Biggest disappointment: Only two riders went into the breakaway and they were from the dead weight teams of Andalucia and Caja Rural. At this point, I wonder why they are in the race. They just can't compete at this level unlike the French and Italian Pro Continental teams.

Other items of note: The USA Pro Challenge finished with a time trial on Sunday and got a surprise overall winner in Christian Vande Velde (Garmin-Sharp). Behind Vande Velde was Tejay van Garderen (BMC) and then Levi Leipheimer (OPQS)... For those not at the Vuelta, there is some time off before the Canadian World Tour races in Montreal and Quebec. Philippe Gilbert (BMC) won both of those last season but won't be defending those titles as he is racing the Vuelta.

What is coming tomorrow? Time trial. The race of truth and a huge day that will determine tactics for the massive mountains days that are coming this weekend. Oh, and there is a category 3 climb on the TT course. Since we can't have an important day in this Vuelta without climbing of course.

Tomorrow's Prediction: Tony Martin is the only TT specialist in the field so he is a good pick as are Chris Froome and Alberto Contador.

Vuelta Stage 9 - One for Opportunists

Today's Stage: Interesting downhill stage away from the mountains towards to Barcelona, with a little category 3 hill near the end to launch attackers.

Who won today's stage? Philippe Gilbert (BMC) won his first race of the season outkicking overall leader Joaquin Rodriguez (Katusha). The win has to be a relief for Gilbert considering his struggles this season after winning 18 races last season including the Ardennes sweep.

What matters in the GC race? Rodriguez caught his rivals napping on that little climb at the end, escaping with Gilbert. He beat them all to the line by 12 seconds (except Valverde who was 9 seconds behind) and took a 9 second time bonus for second place on the stage. Rodriguez now leads Chris Froome (Team Sky) by 53 seconds, Alberto Contador (Saxo Bank-Tinkoff) by 1 minute and Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) by 1'07”.

What matters in the other competitions?

Green Jersey (Points) – With the high finish, Rodriguez also took over the lead in this competition. Former leader John Degenkolb (Argos-Shimano) is tied for second with Valverde. Degenkolb will wear the jersey Tuesday as Rodriguez is the race leader and Degenkolb has three stage wins to Valverde's two.

Polka Dot Jersey (King of the Mountains, it's blue in Spain, not red) – Valverde is still the leader here with Rodriguez now second. It will stay this way until Saturday's summit finish atop Puerto de Ancares as there are not enough climbing points on offer for anyone to take the jersey (there are two sprint stages, a stage a lot like stage six and a time trial until then along with a rest day tomorrow).

White Jersey (Allround, instead of young rider, calculated by adding the rankings in GC, Points and KoM, lowest score wins) – Rodriguez ascension to the top of the points standings and second in the mountain standings gives him an amazing score of 4 here. Considering the best possible is 3, he is the leader. Valverde is second, but will be in the mountains jersey. Froome is third and he will be wearing this jersey when the race resumes on Tuesday.

Team Classification (top 3 times by team on each stage) – No time gaps of note here. Rabobank still leads Ag2r La Mondiale by 2'27”

Biggest surprise: Rodriguez escaped, catching his rivals napping. Before turning into a true Grand Tour contender, this was a built for Rodriguez type of stage (and Gilbert too). They have dueled with each other in the Ardennes classics in recent years and those races have finishes like this one. It seems the other GC men forgot about this as Rodriguez escaped with Gilbert. Though that ended as many of Rodriguez's duels with Gilbert have (in second place to Gilbert), this time it was more about the time than the win.

Biggest disappointment: The other overall contenders were asleep at the wheel. There really isn't any excuse for this. They should know this kind of finish is one Rodriguez has won on before and at least should be alert that he might try to escape at the end.

Other items of note: At the USA Pro Challenge, the climb up Flagstaff Mountain finally separated the top riders. Rory Sutherland (United Healthcare) won the stage, his second big US stage race win after taking a stage at the recent Tour of Utah. More importantly, defending champion Levi Leipheimer (OPQS) attacked up the climb at well, dropping his rivals (Sutherland was a survivor from the breakaway) and moving into the race lead. He now leads last year's runner up Christian Vande Velde (Garmin-Sharp) by nine seconds and last year's 3^rd place Tejay van Garderen (BMC) by 21 seconds going into a race finishing 15.3 km time trial today... Back to the Vuelta, there have been very few abandonments thus far in the race. Only four in fact. Enrico Gasparotto (Astana) abandoned on stage win with two broken clavicles after crashing in the TTT. David Boucher (FDJ) withdrew on stage 4, and two riders, Yohann Bagot (Cofidis) and Tom Dumoulin (Argos-Shimano) failed to finish stage 8. That is it. There haven't been the crashes that normally mark the Tour de France early on and it has resulted in a relatively in tact peloton thus far.

What is coming tomorrow? Rest day with a transfer to the other side of the country. Then a sprint stage on Tuesday.

Tomorrow's Prediction: Degenkolb, Degenkolb and Degenkolb again. He is the only elite sprinter in this field and he should continue to have his way with the field in any bunch sprint.

Vuelta Stage 8 - And it's a 4-man Race

Today's Stage: Another summit finish. This Vuelta isn't messing around.

Who won today's stage? Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) got his second stage win of the Vuelta, outkicking Joaquin Rodriguez (Katusha) and Alberto Contador (Saxo Bank-Tinkoff) at the line.

What matters in the GC race? We now know for certain that there are only four men who have a chance to win this Vuelta. Overall leader Joaquin Rodriguez; Chris Froome (Team Sky), 4^th on the stage today and 2^nd overall; Alberto Contador, 3^rd on both the stage and overall; and stage winner Valverde, 4^th overall. These four have been the guys there at the end of every summit finish except the one where Valverde was caught in the crash and these four are the only ones under a minute on GC.

What matters in the other competitions?

Green Jersey (Points) – John Degenkolb (Argos-Shimano) continues to lead, but with a mountain stage, his lead was cut to 10 points (25 is earned for a stage win). Valverde is second and Rodriguez is third.

Polka Dot Jersey (King of the Mountains, it's blue in Spain, not red) – By virtue of his win at the summit, Valverde assumed the lead from Simon Clarke (Orica-GreenEdge). The biggest question is where is David Moncoutie (Cofidis)? Moncoutie has won this classification the last four years, but has yet to score a point this year.

White Jersey (Allround, instead of young rider, calculated by adding the rankings in GC, Points and KoM, lowest score wins) – Rodriguez and Valverde are now tied, but both of them have another jersey to wear tomorrow. That means 3^rd place Chris Froome will be wearing the white jersey. Have I ever mentioned how this jersey seems redundant given that someone who wins one of the other jerseys will often win this one too?

Team Classification (top 3 times by team on each stage) – Rabobank may not win the Vuelta, but their climbers are going well if not elite. The squad has three men in the top 10 overall and those three (Gesink, Ten Dam and Mollema) have paced Rabobank to a lead of 2'27” over AG2R La Mondiale. Sky, with its train and domestiques thing it does to set up its team leaders often loses time here on mountain stages despite having a very strong team and today is no exception. They dropped from leading to 3^rd, 2'34” behind.

Biggest surprise: Igor Anton (Euskatel) was there near the end. A few days ago he was in the disappointment section for being dropped on a climb he probably shouldn't have been and then he was one of the first top GC men to crack on stage 6. Still, Anton was good today, losing only 33 second and finishing 7^th on the stage to move back up to 8^th overall.

Biggest disappointment: A challenger to the big four didn't appear today. It certainly seems as though there are others with the legs to challenge Rodriguez, Froome, Contador and Valverde, but they are teammates (Daniel Moreno of Katusha and the Uran/Henao pair for Team Sky). Other than that, there have been high hopes for a Dutch challenge by Gesnik or Mollema, but they have settled firmly into the second tier headed for a top ten finish. If anyone else wants to join this party, it will have to be quick (like on the time trial on Monday).

Other items of note: At the USA Pro Challenge, Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Sharp) got his second stage win of that race. The riders there have a true summit finish today followed by a time trial to decide things tomorrow. Should be a fun race to watch... Tomorrow brings an important prep race for the upcoming World Championships, the GP Ouest in France. Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale) will be back in action there.

What is coming tomorrow? Another sprint stage with a tricky category three climb near the end. If Argos-Shimano doesn't think John Degenkolb can get over the hill, they may not chase and a breakaway might be allowed to go for the second time in the Vuelta (Simon Clarke's win was from a breakaway that was nearly caught on the final climb).

Tomorrow's Prediction: Breakaway wins. Time for the stage hunters to come out and play.

Vuelta Stge 7 - An odd sprint on a motorcycle racing course

The stage finish was on this thing, somewhere. Not a normal finish.

Today's Stage: A sprint stage, but one far more interesting than the circuit race in stage five. The finish on a motor racing course made for something interesting that we normally don't get on sprint stages.

Who won today's stage? Still, despite the difference in sprint stages, John Degenkolb (Argos-Shimano) just wins. Today's stage win was his third of the Vuelta in three sprint stage attempts.

What matters in the GC race? Normally the answer on these sprint stages is nothing. Suprisingly, that is not the case today. Former 4^th place Rigoberto Uran (Team Sky) was dropped on the run in to the finished and dropped to 12^th place. Joaquin Rodriguez (Katusha) still leads Chris Froome (Team Sky) by 10 seconds overall.

What matters in the other competitions?

Green Jersey (Points) – Degenkolb's win moved him into an even bigger lead. To win he will still need to take nearly every opportunity as there are still seven uphill or summit finishes that he will not figure into at all along with a couple of transition stages where breakaways are likely to win. Still, the lead is more than a stage win is worth right now.

Polka Dot Jersey (King of the Mountains, it's blue in Spain, not red) – No changes again with no categorized climbs on the course. Simon Clarke (Orica-GreenEdge) is still the leader. Expect this to change tomorrow with a summit finish to deal with.

White Jersey (Allround, instead of young rider, calculated by adding the rankings in GC, Points and KoM, lowest score wins) – No change. Rodriguez still leads Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) though Valverde continues to wear the jersey with Rodriguez in the leader's red jersey.

Team Classification (top 3 times by team on each stage) – No change here on a sprint stage (there very rarely is). Sky still leads Rabobank by 1'09”.

Biggest surprise: Uran was dropped. Nobody really knows why, but Uran gave up over a minute today and just like that Sky has no back up card to play for the GC. Uran and Sergio Henao are now 10^th and 12^th overall instead of their expected positions in the top five to seven riders.

Biggest disappointment: Nobody is really challenging Degenkolb in the sprints. Sprint stages are problematic as it is. They are long and often dull and boring. To have the same winner on all of them makes it that much worse. Somebody in this field of admittedly weaker sprinters needs to step up and beat Degenkolb once, just to add some flavor and intrigue here.

Other items of note: The bigger story in cycling today is the Lance Armstrong affair. Other than this blip, I'm not writing about it. Armstrong was stripped of his Tour titles and banned for life. While I have always maintain he doped, I maintain that basically everyone else in the peloton did. I'm happy the sport seems to be cleaner now but there is no need to retroactively change the results. Let's face it, if we gave the Tour de France wins to the second place rider in those Tours, we have a list of convicted and suspected dopers. He couldn't be busted then, leave it alone. Prosecute him and ban him if you want (I have no problem there) but leave the tainted results alone, just as we have done with the steroid era in baseball... At the USA Pro Challenge, Jens Voigt (RSNT) escaped for an incredible solo win yesterday. Below him, Tejay van Garderen (BMC) and Christian Vande Velde (Garmin-Sharp) finished on the same time again, but the jersey switched back to van Garderen by virtue of his higher finish on the stage.

What is coming tomorrow? Another summit finish. If you haven't figured out what this year's Vuelta is about, this should be the final clue. This is the third summit finish in only eight stages with another stage having had an uphill finish. This kind of relentless climbing pace just continues the whole race.

Tomorrow's Prediction: Race leader Joaquin Rodriguez trains on the roads to Andorra and therefore will want the win. That means a breakaway victory is unlikely. Prediction is Alberto Contador, Rodriguez, Chris Froome.

Vuelta Stage 6 - The Stage Where it Officially became better than the Tour de France

Today's Stage: Long mostly flat stage with a punchy category 3 climb at the end. In other words its Joaquin Rodriguez territory as he owns these type of stages normally.

Who won today's stage? Race leader Rodriguez (Katusha) did indeed win the stage dropping Chris Froome (Team Sky) after Froome team had helped him shed everyone else.

What matters in the GC race? The final climb at the end gave up bigger time gaps than either of the two summit finishes so far did. Along with the time bonuses, Rodriguez extended his lead over Froome to 10 seconds. Below them though, the gaps were bigger. Alberto Contador (Saxo Bank-Tinkoff) is now 35 seconds behind Rodriguez and only six men remain within a minute of the lead.

What matters in the other competitions?

Green Jersey (Points) – John Degenkolb (Argos-Shimano) of course didn't do too much today with the late climb, but he retained his points lead. GC men Rodriguez, Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) and Froome are 2^nd-4^th.

Polka Dot Jersey (King of the Mountains, it's blue in Spain, not red) – No changes here. Thre just weren't enough points with the two climbs only being category 3's. Simon Clarke (Orica-GreenEdge) is still the leader.

White Jersey (Allround, instead of young rider, calculated by adding the rankings in GC, Points and KoM, lowest score wins) – After stage 4, I said this is usually a GC guy in this category. I was right, at least so far. Rodriguez leads followed by Valverde, Froome, Contador and 7^th overall Nicholas Roche (Ag2r-La Mondiale).

Team Classification (top 3 times by team on each stage) – Teeam Sky's three-headed monstaer of Froome, Rigoberto Uran and Sergio Henao were all very good while the Rabobank trio of Robert Gesink, Bauke Mollema and Laurens Ten Dam were not. Sky now leads Rabobank by 1'09”.

Biggest surprise: Rodriguez and Froome dropped Contador. This is the type of finish that would seem to suit Contador along with Rodriguez. Though I would favor Rodriguez in the sprint at the end, it was a surprise that the upping of the pace by Sky dropped everyone except Rodriguez.

Biggest disappointment: It seems the legs aren't there entirely for Rabobank. Mollema was the first to be shed today. After that I was Gesink and then Ten Dam. While still in good position for high overall finishes (Gesink is 5^th, Mollema is 8^th and Ten Dam is 12^th), this was disappointing for a team that came with high hopes.

Other items of note: After a few Grand Tours where teammates never finished highly together, it has been interesting to see the rise of teams with multiple high placing again. At the Tour, there was Sky finishing 1-2 of course. Here at the Vuelta, Sky has 1^st, 4^th and 11^th. Rabobank has 5^th, 8^th and 12^th. Even Movistar has 6^th and 10^th (Valverde and a riding himself back into shape Cobo)... At the USA Pro Challenge, there is a new man in the leader's jersey. Christian Vande Velde (Garmin-Sharp) finished in the same time as Tejay Van Garderen (BMC) and took the leader's jersey by virtue of a higher position on the stage. Vande Velde's teammate Tom Danielson won the stage.

What is coming tomorrow? A strange looking stage. Rolling hills but no categorized climbs (though if the Vuelta used category 4 for climbing like they do in the Tour de France, I think there would be a couple of them). With the heat and no mountains points on offer, this is a good stage for an opportunist break to go. If Degenkolb's Argos-Shimano team can't or won't chase the breakaway then it will stay away as long as there are no fringe GC men in it.

Tomorrow's Prediction: If a sprint, John Degenkolb, Ben Swift, Elia Viviani. If a breakaway, you have a better chance of hitting big on one number at the roulette wheel. No prediction.

Vuelta Stage 5 - Degenkolb makes it 2 sprint wins

Today's Stage: Textbook example of a sprint stage. No categorized climbs and so flat in its circuits around Logroño that only one rider went in the breakaway.

Who won today's stage? John Degenkolb (Argos-Shimano) won his second stage of this year's Vuelta, beating Daniele Bennati (RSNT) at the line.

What matters in the GC race? Nothing, nothing at all. This type of stage is a favorite of the race leader (doesn't have to do anything) and a hated type of stage for fans (there wasn't even a breakaway of note to watch or any suspense about it). Joaquin Rodriguez (Katusha) retains his one second lead over Chris Froome (Team Sky).

What matters in the other competitions?

Green Jersey (Points) – Degenkolb doubled his point total to 50 and he now lead this category and takes the jersey. He could keep it for awhile as the upcoming stages are unlikely to yield a challenger to him. Once we start getting to the other summit finishes Degenkolb will likely lose this jersey.

Polka Dot Jersey (King of the Mountains, it's blue in Spain, not red) – With no categorized climbs today, Simon Clark (Orica-GreenEdge) retains his lead over Pim Ligthart (Vacansoleil) though neither is likely to contend for the jersey at the end of the race.

White Jersey (Allround, instead of young rider, calculated by adding the rankings in GC, Points and KoM, lowest score wins) – Joaquin Rodriguez leads here, followed by Alejandro Valverde (Movistar). Valverde will wear the jersey tomorrow with Rodriguez in the race lead.

Team Classification (top 3 times by team on each stage) – No change here with this kind of sprint stage. Rabobank leads Team Sky by 3 seconds and Astana by 1'55”.

Biggest surprise: Nobody bothered to go in the breakaway. Normally, even on these doomed breakaway stages, the breakaway ends up being 4-5 riders just to get the sponsors airtime. This course was so flat and dull though, that nobody wanted in. The one guy who did go, Javier Chacon (Andalucia), was so tired that he gave up a 7 minute lead without the peloton really making an effort to chase.

Biggest disappointment: A stage this dull was allowed into the race. I understand the need for sprint stages. Still, at least give us a point to point race if something like this must be included. The only thing keeping us going on these days is the beautiful scenery, but today that wasn't even great since we saw it eight times. If the race must be circuit, at least give us something interesting, even if its a small climb, just to give the breakaway hope and entice riders to go into it.

Other items of note: Yesterday's attacking the red jersey controversy continued today (in part because there isn't much interesting to discuss about the stage today). For the most part people are siding with Team Sky, even in Spain. Sky was racing and crash happened behind. If there is a crash like that and then the attack happens, that would be a whole other deal... At the USA Pro Cycling Challenge, Tejay van Garderen (BMC) attacked up the Crested Butte finishing climb to win the stage with Christian Vande Velde (Garmin-Sharp) just behind. Van Garderen leads overall headed to the Independence Pass stage being reprised from last year.

What is coming tomorrow? A stage that looks a lot like this one. Except for the finish. There is a category 3 climb just 16 km from the finish and another at the finish. Should be good for punchy climbers like race leader Joaquin Rodriguez and classics aces like Philippe Gilbert (BMC).

Tomorrow's Prediction: Joaquin Rodriguez, Alejandro Valverde, Philippe Gilbert

Vuelta a Espana Stage 4 Review - New leader... Again

Today's Stage: Remember yesterday with the early mountaintop finish that would never be seem in the Tour de France. Repeat. Different climb, another mountaintop finish.

Who won today's stage? Simon Clarke (Orica-GreenEdge) beat Tony Martin (OPQS) in a two-up sprint at the top of the mountain after they were the only two survivors from the breakaway that went away early in the stage.

What matters in the GC race? There were crosswinds. Crosswinds cause problems. Crosswinds cause lots of problems when a team attacks on the front. This happened before the final climb and it caught race leader Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) in a crash when riders were trying to move to the front. Then, in a matter of breaking one of cyclings unwritten rules (sit up and wait for the race leader when he crashes), everyone drilled it on the front of the peloton (more on this later). The peloton collapsed into many different groups and Valverde and his group got left behind, never making it back to the lead group. With this, Movistar sent Benat Intxausti back to help Valverde allowing Joaquin Rodriguez (Katusha) to assume the race lead. Chris Froome (Team Sky) is one second behind and Alberto Contador (Saxo Bank) is five seconds behind.

What matters in the other competitions?

Green Jersey (Points) – The three stage winners have the most points, but today's stage winner Simon Clarke has the jersey as he picked up points at one of the intermediate sprints today. He has 27 and stage winners Alejandro Valverde and John Degenkolb (Argos-Shimano) have 25.

Polka Dot Jersey (King of the Mountains, it's blue in Spain, not red) – As a mountaintop stage winner that was in the breakaway, Clarke also holds this jersey over yesterday's top breakaway attacker, Pim Ligthart (Vacansoleil).

White Jersey (Allround, instead of young rider, calculated by adding the rankings in GC, Points and KoM, lowest score wins) – This category usually ends up going to a GC man with a finishing kick and it already looks that way this year. Joaquin Rodriguez leads followed by Valverde, Chris Froome and Alberto Contador.

Team Classification (top 3 times by team on each stage) – Rabobank leads this competition. That is no surprise as they were highly ranked in the Team Time Trial and have three riders in the top ten overall (Robert Gesink, Bauke Mollema and Laurens Ten Dam).Behind them is Team Sky who have three riders within a minute of the overall lead (Chris Froome, Rigoberto Uran and Sergio Henao).

Biggest surprise: Movistar sent Intxausti back to help Valverde. When they did so, it was obvious Valverde wasn't making it back to the lead group. Given that, Intxausti should have stayed with the lead group in an attempt to retain the leader's red jersey.

Biggest disappointment: Wither Igor Anton (Esukatel). Anton just hasn't been the same rider since blowing up the day after his stage win in the 2011 Giro d'Italia. At that point he had crashed out with the lead in the 2010 Vuelta and won a stage and looked set for the podium in the Giro. After that, he never really fired except for the Basque stage last year. This year, he basically did nothing all season while targeting the Vuelta. And then he cracked today on the climb. Just not good.

Other items of note: About that unwritten rule that was broken: Today was payback. All season long, Movistar has attacked at the time of others misfortune. While others have often sat up when the race leaders crashed, the chance to pay Movistar back for a season of unpopular riding was irresistible and Valverde paid for it by giving up his leader's jersey... At the USA Pro Cycling Challenge, Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Sharp) turned himself inside out to get over the climb and then blew everyone away in the final sprint. Today that race finishes at Crested Butte where Levi Leipheimer (OPQS) won last year to take the race lead and set himself up for his GC victory.

What is coming tomorrow? Sprint stage. The most obvious one of the whole race outside of the final stage in Madrid. It is a circuit race with seven 21km circuits around Logroño.

Tomorrow's Prediction: John Degenkolb (Argos-Shimano), Elia Viviani (Liquigas-Cannondale), Ben Swift (Orica-GreenEdge)

Vuelta Stage 3 Review - Exciting Mountain Racing Returns (Thanks Contador)

Today's Stage: A stage 3 Mountaintop finish. And it ended up being great racing, better than anything involving the GC men at the Tour de France.

Who won today's stage? Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) beat Joaquin Rodriguez (Katusha) in a photo finish after Alberto Contador (Saxo Bank-Tinkoff) attacked six times climbing up the mountain. There were only four riders at the end but a false flat near the end allowed a group of 10 riders to bridge back to only a six second gap.

What matters in the GC race? Valverde also took the red leader's jersey with his stage win as he was on the winning team in the opening TTT and also got a 12 second time bonus for the stage win. Valverde teammate Benat Intxausti is second as he finished with the second group. The other three lead group riders, Rodriguez, Contador and Tour de France runner up Chris Froome (Team Sky) are 3^rd-5^th. Most of the other contenders for top positions are still in good position as they finished in the second group. That included the Rabobank pair of Robert Gesnik and Bauke Mollema, Igor Anton (Euskatel) and key domestiques Daniel Moreno (Katusha) and Rigoberto Uran (Team Sky). Of note among those losing time were John Gadret (Ag2r La Mondiale), Damiano Cunego (Lampre), Jurgen Van Den Broeck (Lotto-Belisol) and Thomas de Gendt (Vacansoleil)

What matters in the other competitions? This section will be hiatus until after the summit finish on stage four.

Biggest surprise: The sheer amount of aggression. There was more aggression amongst the GC men on this final climb than there was the entire Tour de France (minus Nibali). While most of that was Contador, Valverde also put in a couple of digs as did Rodriguez. Even Anton, despite finishing in the second group upped the pace at the front at one point.

Biggest disappointment: Defending champion Juan Jose Cobo (Movistar) hasn't been in good form. We know that. Still, he was out of the front group before Contador started his digs. Given his teammates Valverde and Intxausti are 1-2 overall, Cobo should be ready to be fetching water bottles and pacing his teammates up the climbs for the rest of the rest of the race.

Other items of note: Many of the top riders in the world are at the USA Pro Cycling Challenge. That is starting today with an interesting stage that will likely end in a select sprint amongst GC men. Part of that is the climbing on the stage (there is a lot) and part of that is the altitude as the sprinters who can climb normally could make it on this type of stage... Tactically, this stage was very interesting. The job of chasing the breakaway was left to Movistar who had the race leadership. Once it was evident the break would be caught, Team Sky came to the front to try their train thing that worked so well at the Tour de France. It didn't work. Contador, Valverde and Rodriguez are just the type of riders who will uncaringly attack the train in high risk moves. With more than one of them (only Nibali fit that bill in the Tour), the train is much more likely to crack and while Froome was never isolated (Uran was in the second group), he certainly won't be getting to the final climb of each stage with five domestiques at his disposal like his teammate Bradley Wiggins did at the Tour.

What is coming tomorrow? More mountains. Tomorrow is summit finish number two. It is not terribly difficult, but it is longer than today's finish was. Expect more aggression especially as it is a true summit finish as opposed to toady when the summit was 2 km from the finish.

Tomorrow's Prediction: Alberto Contador, Joaquin Rodriguez, Robert Gesink (Rabobank)

Vuelta a Espana Stage 2 Review - Sprinty Sprint

Today's Stage: Sprint stage in extreme heat. Temperatures in excess of 100 degrees Fahrenheit.

Who won today's stage? John Degenkolb (Argos-Shimano) is the fastest sprinter in the field at the Vuelta this year and he proved it with a stage win. Allan Davis (Orica-GreenEdge) was second followed by Ben Swift (Team Sky) and Elia Viviani (Liquigas-Cannondale).

What matters in the GC race? Nobody crashed in advance of the first mountain stage tomorrow. Jonathan Castroviejo (Movistar) retains the red jersey.

What matters in the other competitions? This section will be hiatus until after the summit finish on stage four.

Biggest surprise: Nothing at all. This was a by the books sprint stage contested by the very few sprinters in the race this year.

Biggest disappointment: The number of mountains scared all of the big sprinters off, making days like today that are going to end in a sprint all the more dull.

Other items of note: Most of the big sprinters were in Hamburg today for the Vattenfall Cyclassics. Arnaud Demare (FDJ) surprised the field for the biggest win of his young career... Much of the rest of the peloton that isn't at the Vuelta and didn't go to Hamburg is at the USA Pro Cycling Challenge in Colorado. It starts tomorrow with a lot of climbing and elevation that remains very high throughout both the stage and the entire race... Yesterday was filled with crashes that nobody saw because of spotty television coverage. We knew Garmin-Sharp had hit the deck yesterday. Now, we know that Astana crashed (with Enrico Gasparatto out of the race entirely with two broken clavicles) and OPQS had riders follow a wayward moto right off the course (including Tony Martin who just can't seem to catch a break in a Grand Tour this season).

What is coming tomorrow? Mountains, already. This Vuelta is getting down to business immediately with a mountain stage in the Basque Country.

Tomorrow's Prediction: Igor Anton (Euskatel), Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha), Jurgen Van Den Broeck (Lotto-Belisol)

Vuelta a Espana Stage 1 TTT Review

There are two things wanted by most neutral fans in a Team Time Trial. A close, suspenseful race and unintentional comedy (who can forget Skil-Shimano riding with half their team in a ditch on a farm after overshooting a turn during the 2009 Tour de France TTT). Today, we got both as one team crashed (not seriously) and the final team to race won the stage after a number of close calls for potential lead changes.

The rundown, team by team in reverse order of finish with prospects for the rest of the race.

Caja Rural: As expected, this team finished last. They are pretty much allergic to the time trial as a discipline and also have no prospects for GC on the roster. This is the Spanish version of the Pro Continental team that is here to be sacrificed to everybody else. The goal is simply to get into breakaways and maybe steal a stage win somewhere.

Garmin-Sharp: Normally, this is one of the best TTT teams in the world. They won the TTT at the Giro and also recently at the Tour of Utah (though none of the Utah riders are here) and also finished 8^th with about a C- level team in the TTT at the Eneco Tour. Things started out nicely (early leader at the first time check) before a crash killed their chances (unintentional comedy checked off) and hurt Andrew Talansky's hopes for a top 10 on GC. Talansky is nearly 1'30 behind the leaders already.

Andalucia: The other Spanish Pro Continental sacrifice, Andalucia has few well-known riders and will be looking for breakaways the whole race. This was still a decent race for them despite 20^th place as they were within 10 seconds of Lampre and RadioShack.

Argos-Shimano: The former Skil-Shimano has improved greatly since the horrible TTT in the 2009 Tour de France referenced earlier, but they still aren't good. This team figures to be working hard tomorrow as they brought the best sprinter in the field (John Degenkolb) so it is likely they didn't work super hard on this stage, especially with no GC contender on the team.

FDJ: Only in this race because World Tour rules say they have to be, FDJ didn't send anyone of note to the race (Arnold Jeannesson is the best and his claim to fame is being the guy who got hurt allowing Thiabult Pinot to ride the Tour de France) and will be on the Caja Rural/Andalucia breakaway plan.

RadioShack: Good luck and Godspeed. This team seems like it is collapsing in on itself with all the insanity going on and no results to speak of outside of Fabian Cancellara's first week of the Tour de France. The team lined up here doesn't look great, but maybe that will be better for a team that hasn't looked much like a team for most of the season and has been even worse off since Andy Schleck was injured during the Criterium du Dauphine in June. Even with Maxime Monfort here, this appears to be a rudderless ship.

Lampre: They can't do TTT's. They showed that on home roads in the Giro. That and a team built around Cunego looks likely to disappoint, especially since Cunego is more likely to be targeting the World Championships (on a course suited for his talents) and the Giro di Lombardia. I have no expectations for this team. None, whatsoever.

Cofidis: An ok ride in this TTT, but this race is about one thing and one thing only: getting David Moncoutie one last Vuelta King of the Mountains victory before he rides off into retirement.

Liquigas: Question A for this team is if they are even going to exist two months from now. Given the exodus of riders and lack of those entering the team (that we know of), it seems like the team is collapsing with Liquigas pulling out as a sponsor next year. Question B is what on Earth are they doing here? The two star GC men of the team (Nibali and Basso) are in the United States for the US Pro Cycling Challenge starting on Monday and team leader Eros Capecchi has seemed to have maxed out as a domestique career wise. Also, Peter Sagan is in Germany and up and coming start Moreno Moser is in the United States with Nibali and Basso. Whatever, given the low level roster this team brought, Liquigas put in a good ride today.

Vacansoleil: Lost 35 seconds which isn't great for Thomas de Gendt, but this team has brought a bunch of breakaway artists along with de Gendt. Not great support for a possible Grand Tour podium run (though de Gendt had basically no support for his podium at the Giro). I wonder what this team will do in the ongoing transfer season to support de Gendt as he is obviously far more talented than most imagined.

Ag2r: Considering the two stars of the team (John Gadret and Nicolas Roche, who hate each other by the way) can't time trial, only losing 34 seconds and finishing in 12^th place is a great ride for this team. Moving forward, it will be interesting to see what happens as Roche is leaving the team for Saxo Bank at the end of the season. Is Roche on his own, especially if Gadret is close to him in the standings, and will Roche work to support Gadret if called upon to do so?

Astana: Anything this team does here is gravy on top of an incredibly successful season. They won the Amstel Gold, Liege-Bastogne-Liege, the Olympics and two stages of the Giro. Still, I expect at least a stage win somewhere long the line as Tour de France KoM runner up Fredrik Kessiakoff and early Giro contenders before fading Paolo Tiralongo are here.

Orica-GreenEdge: A disappointing result today after winning at Eneco. It shows the value of a top level individual time trialist (Svein Tuft who won the ITT at Eneco after pacing the team in the TTT). This team doesn't look super strong though and I expect little out of them here.

Euskatel: That Euskatel managed to finish a TTT in the top 10 with Samuel Sanchez not in the team is bordering on miraculous. This could mean good things for the carrots as team leader Igor Anton is not starting 90 seconds behind this year. The team should animate stage 3 as it is a home stage for them. The biggest question, other than Anton's form is his bike handling. He crashed out as the leader in 2010 and also crashed out in 2008.

Katusha: That they finished with a good result isn't as surprising as it was when they finished second in the Giro. Joaquim Rodriguez has obviously improved as a time trialist (even if he's still below average) and Denis Menchov is here to support him as well. This is one of the teams with legitimate GC ambitions as Rodriguez was second at the Giro. If he falters, Menchov has won three Grand Tours and Daniel Moreno has a similar skill set as Rodriguez and could factor into the equation as well.

Saxo Bank: It's a about Contador. Alberto Contador, coming off his suspension, rode at the front of the team all race today. The team is all in for Contador and will be hoping the long layoff without racing won't have hurt his explosiveness too much. With only two seconds lost to rival Chris Froome, this was a successful day.

Lotto-Belisol: The team of Jurgen Van Den Broeck did quite well today and Van Den Broeck will be happy not to have to share domestiques with a big sprinter like he had to with Andre Griepel at the Tour de France. Good start today.

Team Sky: It was a big shock when they didn't take the lead today with Chris Froome and Richie Porte on the roster. Still, this is a really strong climbing team with Froome as the lead man and Porte, Rigoberto Uran and Sergio Henao on the roster to try and control the race just as the Tour de France was controlled.

BMC: No major GC threats. Just redemption today after a crash filled debacle in the TTT at Eneco where they lost over 2 minutes. The team brings Philippe Gilbert and Alessandro Ballan building form for the World Championships and maybe an outside GC threat (top 10) with Brent Bookwalter.

Omega Pharma Quick Step (OPQS) – This team is mostly building form for the World Championships as well. Maybe Tony Martin would have a prayer on a flatter course, but this thing is most certainly not flat. Still a good result today for a team that has a lot of good time trialers on the roster.

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Rabobank: Team redemption is off to a good start with a second place today. Still, today isn't what ultimately matters on this team. It is keeping Robert Gesink and Bauke Mollema upright and getting the through to the finish both in the top 10 on GC with one of them preferably on the podium.

Movistar: The huge shock of the day. Nobody expected a TTT win from Movistar. Out of 36 fans on the podiumcafe predictor game, only one thought Movistar would finish in the top 5. Despite the win, there is still reason for Movistar to worry. Defending Vuelta champion JJ Cobo was dropped at the end and didn't finish with the team (he lost five seconds). This is troubling to say the least.

Vuelta a Espana (aka kill the peloton with climbs) Preview

It's Vuelta time

After the highs of the Tour de France and the Olympics and a long season already, the cycling peloton (minus a few top riders that either are done for the year or with US leanings) heads to Spain for the Vuelta a Espana. Normally, the Vuelta is the red-headed stepchild of the three Grand Tours, drawing a weaker field reserved for Spaniards who aren't going to ever win the Tour de France, riders that crashed out of the Tour de France and those that targeted the Giro d'Italia and need some late season racing. This year though, a combination of factors has seemingly elevated the Vuelta above it's normal perch.

The field: Last year, JJ Cobo (now Movistar, then the now defunct Geox-TMC) shocked the cycling world, coming from nowhere to beat out of nowhere Chris Froome (Team Sky) and a recovering from crash Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky) on a course that didn't suit Wiggins nearly like the recent Tour de France course that Wiggins won on did. This year, Cobo is about the 6^th choice in the field. While part of that is Cobo (the guy has done basically nothing all season), part of that is the rest of the field. It is one of the strongest Vuelta fields I have ever seen.

Starting at the top, we have Alberto Contador (Saxo Bank-Tinkoff). Contador hasn't raced all season because of his suspension, but he is still the best Grand Tour rider in the peloton and is also by far the most explosive attacker in the mountains. He enters as the favorite despite little racing up to this point (he did finish 4^th overall at the recent Eneco Tour in his first race back after the suspension).

Also, Froome is back and while he was beaten by Cobo last year, that was by a combination of time bonuses and Froome waiting for Wiggins on the Angliru climb allowing Cobo to get away. Beyond that, Froome is much more of a favorite than Cobo in part because he followed up his Vuelta breakthrough last year with an equally impressive result in the Tour de France (2^nd to his teammate Wiggins). The big question about Froome is how he will recover from his Tour de France effort and the Olympic effort that followed (Froome raced for Great Britain in the road race and then won the Bronze Medal in the time trial).

Beyond the two favorites and the defending champion Cobo, the two podium finishers from the Giro are also here. Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) was likely salivating at the thought of this course, until Contador's suspension came down and allowed him to race here. Rodriguez does everything Contador does, just not as well. If Contador is off form, Rodriguez could find himself in a similar position to the Giro, battling for the race lead into the final days. The big difference here is that the time trial that cost Rodriguez the win at the Giro is much earlier, allowing him to retake time in the mountains that remain after that.

Giro 3^rd place Thomas de Gendt (Vacansoleil) is also here for his first meaningful riding post-Giro (he got married on the day of the first stage of the Tour de France). In his last two Grand Tours, de Gendt has been incredibly strong in the final week and especially the final days of the race (at the 2011 Tour, he was five on both the Alpe d'Huez stage and the time trial and then won the Passo del Stevio stage at the Giro and finished in the top five of the time trial there as well). If he can keep from losing time early in the race (no easy task, especially here), de Gendt could be a threat for the podium again in the final week.

Also, the crashed and wrecked contingent of the Tour de France is stronger this season than in recent years. In particular, Rabobank's Dutch pair of Robert Gesink and Bauke Mollema are both here. Gesink has long been tapped for Grand Tour success because of his incredible climbing ability (which he used to win the Tour of California on the Mount Baldy stage in May), but he generally struggles to stay on his bike, crashing with regularity. His teammate Mollema was 4^th in this race last season but was caught along with Gesink and entire Garmin team in the stage 6 crash in the Tour de France. He will be looking to rebound and save a particularly disappointing season.

The route: The other thing that has upped the Vuelta's prestige this season is the route, especially after a couple of average bordering on dull and totally uninspired routes at the Giro and the Tour. (Seriously, the Giro, while great in the final week was dull as can be for the two weeks before that and the Tour de France was suffocated by the two long time trials without enough mountains close to the finish to dent the Team Sky train).

Here, there are mountains and summit finishes pretty much everywhere. Enough that I expect everyone in the peloton to crack at least once during the race. The key thing is to manage the race, not crack on a key stage, and limit the time losses when the inevitable crack comes.

The mountains start right off the bat with summit finishes in stages 3 and 4. After that there is a mix of sprints, uphill finishes and a time trial (along with a summit finish in Andorra on stage 8). Then the race gets insane. Stages 14-16 are all summit finishes with the stage 16 finale a monstrous climb to Cuitu Negru that includes ramps up to 23% in gradient. Still, that is not the climax. The climax comes on the second to last day when the Bola del Mundo makes its return after a one year absence on a stage with three category one climbs and a category 2 climb before the peloton even reaches the foot of the fearsome Bola del Mundo. Needless to say, with 10 summit finishes in the race, this is a spectacle for the climbers (and one that likely will kill the legs of any serious contenders here before the World Championships and the Giro di Lombardia for those that will target those races).

Final pick: Contador. He will struggle early in the race, likely ceding time on stage 3 or stage 4 before getting his legs under himself and smashing the field on stage 14-16 and possibly again at Bola del Mundo.