Week 2 of the Vuelta ended the very same way as the first week. Italian Paolo Bettini (Quick Step) won the stage before the rest day while the GC favorites held out for a huge showdown on Saturday. Too bad none of this week's stages or results were the biggest news. Lance Armstrong's recent announcement that he will come out of retirement easily overshadowed anything the Vuelta could have produced. But as this week ends, the attention will return to the mountain goats as they tackle the final stretch of the last 3 week race of the 2008 season.

Stage 7 was the first big mountain stage of the the Tour. I wish I could comment on it but the entire broadcast was rained out. CyclingTV's coverage (and others as well since it was a problem with the feed) consisted of a recap of the early part of the stage and the final 1km run into the finish line. From what I've read, the stage was dominated by a day long break of which the winner, Alessandro Ballan (Lampre), broke away from to win the stage. The classics rider showed he can climb the big mountains as well. Behind him, the GC contenders revved it up in the final kilometer. Big favorite, Alberto Contador (Astana) attacked his challengers but was only able to gain 5 seconds for his hard work. Ballan ended up taking over the gold jersey as the new leader of the Tour.

Follow up:

The 2nd day in the Pyrenees provided a bit more drama as Contador attacked out of the leading group to quickly gain ground on everyone else except Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d'Epargne) and Igor Anton (Euskaltel - Euskadi). But because non of them wanted to cooperate with Contador, the time they gained was minimal. At the end of the day, Contador gained just 5 more seconds on his other rivals plus a few more seconds for his 3rd place time bonus. Carlos Sastre (Team CSC) was dropped originally thanks to Astana's blistering pace but showed his experience by crawling back to finish with the other contenders. Levi Leipheimer reclaimed the gold jersey for his 2nd stint as the leader.

Apparently, Leipheimer is only meant to wear the gold jersey one day at a time. Just like last week, Leipheimer lost the lead thanks to an opportunistic breakaway. Eqoi Martinez (Euskaltel - Euskadi) took the chance to step into the leader's jersey as Belgium Greg Van Avermaet (Silence - Lotto) sprinted ahead of Italian Davide Rebellin (Gerolsteiner) for the win.

Stage 10 and 11 were for the sprinters once again. It seemed an eternity had gone by since the last sprint stage. Frenchman Sébastien Hinault gave Crédit Agricole a going away present with his win on stage 10 while Oscar Freire (Rabobank) confirmed his World Championship form by winning stage 11. The GC never changed after stage 10 or 11.

An exciting stage 12 concluded with another win by current World Champ Paolo Bettini while Alejandro Valverde lost all chances of winning, or even stepping on the podium, at this year's Vuelta. During a torrential downpour and as the peloton descended the final climb of the day, Valverde again lost concentration and lost touch with the leading group on the downhill. We later found out that Valverde went back to the team car for a jacket. As a result, he lost about a minute at the bottom of the descent. Knowing this statistic, Astana pressed on and the other GC contenders eventually gained over 3 minutes on Valverde in what should have been an uneventful stage. If Valverde wants to win a grand tour, he cannot make these little mistakes. I hope he's learned his lesson. Eqoi Martinez stayed in the lead as we enter today's 2nd and last rest day.

So what does the 3rd week bring? The back breaking Angliru climb! The incredibly steep climb could be the deciding point for the overall leadership. Let's look for Contador to attack, attack and attack! Astana is clearly in the driver's seat thanks to the positions of both Contador and Leipheimer, but don't count on Sastre. It's a shame that Valverde lost his chances yesterday as it would have been exciting to watch him battle it out on the slopes of this amazing ascend.

On to Madrid we go!

Top 5 GC after stage 12:
1 Egoi Martinez De Esteban (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi 45.48.33
2 Levi Leipheimer (USA) Astana 0.11
3 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Astana 0.29
4 Carlos Sastre Candil (Spa) Team CSC - Saxo Bank 1.38
5 Ezequiel Mosquera Miguez (Spa) Xacobeo Galicia 2.10