American Levi Leipheimer (Astana) won today's 42.5km time trial stage at the Vuelta! He becomes only the 5th American to win a stage in the Spanish tour and only the 2nd American ever to wear the leader's golden jersey (Floyd Landis was the other).

Leipheimer gained a good chunk of time off of his other GC rivals, including teammate Alberto Contador. He sits at least 30 seconds ahead of any other favorite. Tonight's team meeting should be interesting in determining the next course of action for Team Astana. Astana comes into this race with their full support for Contador but this amazing ride changes the dynamic a bit. I think Astana will likely hedge their bets by supporting both riders and may the best cyclist win!

See the results of this stage here.

This past week, we learned that ASO bought into a significant stake of Unipublic (49% to be exact), the organization that controls the Vuelta. This continues the negative trend in pro cycling as we see ASO becoming a monopoly in the sport. With ASO controlling a large number of the major races, they have effectively become the Microsoft of cycling. I see many similarities between ASO vs UCI and Microsoft vs all other software companies. Microsoft uses bullying tactics to get their way; ASO uses bullying tactics to get their way. Microsoft buys their competitors; ASO buys their competitors. But before we totally blame ASO (or Microsoft) for all of this mess, we have to consider how they became the Goliaths of their industries.

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