No doubt you know by now that the 2008 Vuelta a España ended on Sunday with it's native son, Alberto Contador (Astana), becoming only the 5th rider to win all three grand Tours. Contador came into this race as the heavy favorite, carrying all of the baggage that comes with being the marked man. Having sat out this year's Tour de France, he was fresh, feisty and ready to stamp his authority on the rest of the peloton. His team came packed with their big guns, ready to help their young team captain make even more history. The team included 2 other previous Tour de France podium finishers in German Andreas Klöden and American Levi Leipheimer. By far, they were the strongest team.

But Contador's win did not come easy. He narrowly beat his own teammate, Leipheimer, by less than one minute. It was thanks to the time bonuses (and probably some team tactics) that shifted the balance of power towards the Spaniard. If the Vuelta followed the route of this year's Tour de France and not have given out the bonuses, Contador and Leipheimer would have been tied. (Since they time to the decimal, Contador had a slight edge and would have won anyways.)

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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.

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Week 1 of the 2008 Vuelta closed with a lot of action, many changes in leadership and a fine butt whipping by Astana. Mirroring the Giro, this year's Tour of Spain started out with a short team time trial. These exist purely for show as minimal time can be gained between the GC contenders. Nevertheless, it did produce a lot of suffering as most teams finished with well less than the 9 riders each team started with. Surprise winner, Liquigas finished 8 seconds ahead of Euskaltel - Euskadi and put leader Filippo Pozzato in the first gold leader's jersey.

The second stage was very similar to this year's stage 1 of the Tour de France and consisted of a sharp uphill just before the finish. And just like the Tour, Spanish champ Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d'Epargne), triumphed and ended the day with the leader's jersey. Proving to everyone that his form is good, Valverde still insisted he is here to win stages and not for a high placing on GC.

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Link: http://www.lavuelta.com

Note: This post was written on Friday but because of server problems, this didn't get posted until Sunday.

It's almost September, a full month after an exciting Tour de France and big time cycling is back! Yes, the 63rd running of the Vuelta a España, or the Tour of Spain, will commence this Saturday, August 30th and finish 3 weeks later on September 21st. The final grand tour of this season will see some big guns battling it out in a war that wasn't allowed to take place in July.

Spain's Alberto Contador and his Astana team are back with a vengeance to prove once again that they are both the best stage racing team in the world and that Contador is the best stage racer in the world. Joining Contador at the top of the favorites list are this year's Tour champ Carlos Sastre (Team CSC-Saxo Bank), Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d'Epargne), Damiano Cunego (Lampre), Igor Antón (Euskaltel Euskadi) and Contador's teammates Levi Leipheimer and Andreas Klöden.

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German tank Jens Voigt (Team CSC) won today's stage after leaving his breakaway companions with about 36 km to go. Stage 18 traversed over this year's world road race championships course and was dominated by a big breakaway that included both Paolo Bettini (Quick Step) and Daniele Bennati (Liquigas) as well as Voigt. None of his companions were able to catch Voigt as he cruised to his first ever stage win in the Giro d'Italia.

It was once again piano for the peloton as conserving energy for tomorrow's stage was crucial. Once again, the fireworks will reappear for the final push through the Alps. The Italians will have a hard time defeating a team like Astana who are so experienced at delivering a win in a grand tour. They might be more interested in consolidating their positions considering none of them can time trial better than Alberto Contador (Astana). Don't forget, this race ends with a final individual test to Milan on Sunday. We look forward to seeing Levi Leipheimer cap this Giro for Astana with a stage win of his own.

Click for larger image.

Top 10 Results for Stage 18
1 Jens Voigt (Ger) Team CSC..............................................3.22.46
2 Giovanni Visconti (Ita) Quick Step........................................1.07
3 Rinaldo Nocentini (Ita) AG2R La Mondiale
4 Gabriele Bosisio (Ita) LPR Brakes
5 Daniele Bennati (Ita) Liquigas..............................................2.04
6 Paolo Bettini (Ita) Quick Step
7 Félix Rafael Cardenas Ravalo (Col) Barloworld
8 Alan Perez Lezaun (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi
9 Mauricio Alberto Ardila Cano (Col) Rabobank
10 Joaquin Rodriguez (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne............................2.06

See the complete results here.

First let me start out by saying that I've backed myself into a corner and have set a precedent that I may not be able to sustain. This will be my 3rd straight post for the Giro and have started to establish daily updates. I'll try my best to continue this routine to at least the end of the Giro.

Today's stage was marked more for its crashes than anything else. A major spill in the middle of the stage brought down favorite Riccardo Riccó (Saunier Duval – Scott), David Millar (Slipstream Chipotle) and teammates Brad McGee and Stuart O'Grady (Team CSC). While Riccó rejoined the peloton, McGee had to abandon because of a broken collarbone. Although O'Grady finished the stage, he had to leave the Giro because of his own broken collarbone. Too bad for CSC.

Daniele Bennati (Liquigas) won today's stage by beating 80 year old (seriously, how old is he?) Erik Zabel (Milram) and Danilo Hondo (Serramenti PVC Diquigiovanni-Androni Giocattoli) in a sprint. (Boy that's a long team name!)

Back at the finish, it was confirmed that Riccó broke his finger. There was clearly something wrong with him as he spent the majority of the remainder of the stage at the back of the peloton, staring at his hand whenever Italian TV showed him. CyclingTV's commentators kept commenting on this. They were clearly annoyed at how much of a baby Riccó acted. We'll see how this affects him later on.

Tomorrow's stage is a bit more interesting in that it includes another short but sharp climb before the finish. Look for another puncher to claim the day.

Bennati wins!
Top 10 Results for Stage 3:
1 Daniele Bennati (Ita) Liquigas.........................5.37.01
2 Erik Zabel (Ger) Team Milram
3 Danilo Hondo (Ger) Serramenti PVC Diquigiovanni
4 Thomas Fothen (Ger) Gerolsteiner
5 Alberto Loddo (Ita) Tinkoff Credit Systems
6 Koldo Fernandez De Larrea (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi
7 Tiziano dall'Antonia (Ita) CSF Group Navigare
8 Marlon Alirio Perez Arango (Col) Caisse d'Epargne
9 Mark Cavendish (GBr) Team High Road
10 Oscar Gatto (Ita) Gerolsteiner

See the complete results here.

RCS recently announced the official start list of this year's Giro. Arguably the hardest Grand Tour on paper will be off to a rock'n start just based on who will be lining up on May 10th. You can view the start list here.

As you can see, Astana is bringing everyone including the kitchen sink in order to prove they are the strongest stage race team. What will make it hard is the fact that these such riders have not had any formal preparation for this competition. Typically, riders train for months in advance of a 3 week tour so a lot will be unknown. Some good signs include Kloden's recent win at the Tour de Romandie and the early season successes of both Contador and Leipheimer. I'll be watching closely on cycling.tv.

I personally would be interested in seeing how 36 year old Gilberto Simoni does. I've always been impressed with the way he rides in the Giro. Despite his growing age, he always seems to shine in his home tour. Other top picks of course, include defending champ Danilo Di Luca but I personally think he's a one hit wonder in grand tours. Speaking of one hit wonders, you can add Jose Rujano to that list too. Apparently, having pressure is not his cup of tea as he hasn't done sh*t since the '05 Giro.

As I continue to browse up and down the start list, no team really stands out other than Astana. Di Luca's team is untested but they do have 2-time winner Paolo Savoldelli waiting in the wings if DiLuca falters. Saunier Duval-Scott will bring a stacked team including Riccardo Ricco and Leonardo Piepoli but they can't seem to challenge for the GC so it will be stage wins only. Too bad CSC won't bring Andy Schleck as he would have added another dynamic to the race. But I'll be rooting for the 2 US based teams, High Road and Slipstream Chipotle to do good things. They won't be GC contenders but stage wins are more than possible.

So we have it. A stacked field for the Giro in terms of individual cyclists but no one team seemingly strong enough to control things except for Astana. For most people, this makes for an exciting race. Stay tuned as I follow the race and provide my personal highlights and opinions to all.

Ciao!