Vuelta Stage 10 - Tony Top in Tuesday's Time Trial

Fuck me if Tony Martin didn't go and win the time trial! What a huge surprise!  Whoda thought it?

Somewhat suprising was the poor TT performance from Chris Froome, who was expected make gains on most of his GC rivals, but he apparently started too fast and blew.

Also suprising, was Quintanna crashing hard, losing about 3 minutes and saying goodbye to the Red Jersey.  Most suprising of all was Alberto Contador finishing in fourth spot for the stage and taking the race lead.  I can only assume he has had some excellent medical support since he broke his leg at the Tour.

Time trial scores time, and a good showing from yesterday's losers, dudes riding using good substances, but not quite as good as Enrico666.

TEAM	DIRECTEUR	RANK	SCORE
ENRICO 666	Erik Mortier	1	224
dudes riding using good substances	drew	2	223
Pincko Pro Cycling	Richard Pinckney	3	219
Flying Hutchmen	Hutch	4	211
Chanbots	Evil Dr Chan	5	199
Mungo Cycling	Mungo	6	186
KLOEFEKAPPERS FC	Jan Van Belleghem	7	102
Sunburn-Roadrash	Trey	8	100
Rouleurs	tdm911	9	97
Froosers	Warwick Anderson	10	75
Bile Beans	Vestan Pance	11	71
Smugblokes	Mr Smug	12	66

Vuelta Stage 9 - Winner Wins

As my blog backlog clearing continues, it's time for Stage 9.  I know it was a while ago, but let's pretend like it just happened....

I've been waiting a while, but finally the tag-line that writes itself has come to pass, as Winner Anacona won a stage.  Plucky Colombian climbers are ten-a-penny these days, but it's the first big win I can recall for the plucky Colombian climber.  He's certainly a much better rider than his lesser know brother Loser Anacona.

As Anacona crossed the line, the GC rivals were slogging it out on the final climb.  Looking good were Contador and Quintanna, looking a bit worse were the Froome-Dog and Valverde.

Plucky Colombian climber Anacona missed out on the race lead by only 9 seconds, but in the end, the Red Jersey went to Plucky Colombian climber Quintanna.

Scores for the day reveal a good showing from the Froosers and a bad showing from dudes riding using good substances.

TEAM	DIRECTEUR	RANK	SCORE
Froosers	Warwick Anderson	1	192
Sunburn-Roadrash	Trey	2	137
Chanbots	Evil Dr Chan	3	111
ENRICO 666	Erik Mortier	4	106
Rouleurs	tdm911	5	105
Smugblokes	Mr Smug	6	99
Flying Hutchmen	Hutch	7	98
KLOEFEKAPPERS FC	Jan Van Belleghem	8	97
Mungo Cycling	Mungo	9	73
Pincko Pro Cycling	Richard Pinckney	10	70
Bile Beans	Vestan Pance	11	59
dudes riding using good substances	drew	12	48

Vuelta Stage 8 - Bouhanni Best, Sagan Sighted

If you're after up-to-date cycling news, I suggest a cycling news site, like cyclingnews.  If however you're after a late round-up of Stage 8 of the Vuelta and it's impact on the Tour De Pance scores, then you've come to the right place.  So, it turned out that stage 8 was another one for the sprinters, with Nacer Bouhanni bagging another stage ahead of Michael Matthews.

And, surprisingly, not far behind at all was Peter Sagan, who finally scored a few points for the Bile Beans.

Not a terrible day for me then, but it still wasn't enough to help me get the better of Mungo (or the Rouleurs and Chanbots).

TEAM	DIRECTEUR	RANK	SCORE
Mungo Cycling	Mungo	1	315
Rouleurs	tdm911	2	311
Chanbots	Evil Dr Chan	3	307
Bile Beans	Vestan Pance	4	294
Froosers	Warwick Anderson	5	243
dudes riding using good substances	drew	6	236
Flying Hutchmen	Hutch	7	236
KLOEFEKAPPERS FC	Jan Van Belleghem	8	207
Smugblokes	Mr Smug	9	191
Sunburn-Roadrash	Trey	10	179
Pincko Pro Cycling	Richard Pinckney	11	170
ENRICO 666	Erik Mortier	12	106

I could go and work out how the overall scores looked after Stage 8, but it's too much trouble and I seem to recall the the Evil Dr Chan was still winning.

Vuelta Stage 7 - De Marchi Time

The observant amongst you may have noticed that Alessandro De Marchi has spent much of the summer up the road in breaks.  He always got caught before the finish line before, but today his persistence paid off and he won stage 7.

The Froome-Dog made another one of his frequent trips to the asphalt.  He may have some new scars to impress the chicks with, but he also managed to steal a few seconds over the other GC boys at the end of the stage.

New boys to the Tour De Pance peloton, Pincko Pro Cycling earned the most points for the stage....

TEAM	DIRECTEUR	RANK	SCORE
Pincko Pro Cycling	Richard Pinckney	1	391
ENRICO 666	Erik Mortier	2	363
Sunburn-Roadrash	Trey	3	276
dudes riding using good substances	drew	4	263
Bile Beans	Vestan Pance	5	223
Rouleurs	tdm911	6	219
Chanbots	Evil Dr Chan	7	219
Froosers	Warwick Anderson	8	197
Smugblokes	Mr Smug	9	177
KLOEFEKAPPERS FC	Jan Van Belleghem	10	177
Flying Hutchmen	Hutch	11	160
Mungo Cycling	Mungo	12	108

And the Evil Dr Chan is still reigning over us with his Chanbots in the overall.

TEAM	DIRECTEUR	RANK	SCORE
Chanbots	Evil Dr Chan	1	1920
Mungo Cycling	Mungo	2	1644
Rouleurs	tdm911	3	1550
Bile Beans	Vestan Pance	4	1402
dudes riding using good substances	drew	5	1344
Froosers	Warwick Anderson	6	1280
Flying Hutchmen	Hutch	7	1262
ENRICO 666	Erik Mortier	8	1226
Pincko Pro Cycling	Richard Pinckney	9	1223
KLOEFEKAPPERS FC	Jan Van Belleghem	10	1128
Sunburn-Roadrash	Trey	11	1062
Smugblokes	Mr Smug	12	930

As the weekend approaches, we should be in for some quality racing to keep us fans glued to the TV.