The Arroyo and Kiryienka Show

Another day, another successful breakaway at the Vuelta. This time David Arroyo was the lucky winner. After sucking Vasili Kiryienka's wheel over the last 10 km, he shot past the impressive Belarussian in the final 100 metres and claimed and easy victory. Nice. Apparently, Arroyo was only there in an attempt to set up Valverde for a stage win and some bonus time to put him ahead of Gesink. That didn't happen. Good old Valv.Piti will have to earn it the hard way now in tomorrow's uphill ITT. Nick Nuyens led home the peloton to take third place. No significant changes in the GC. Go to CN and Pez if you want more.

Arroyo and Kiryienka both happen to be on my team. My boys Gesink, Mosquere and Zaugg also finished in the top 20. So it was an Andy-like 420 point day for me. I'd say that pretty much clinches it, but that would be like uttering the words no-hitter when a potential one is in progress. So I'll just let you draw your own conclusions. Dallas (again!) was second with 240 points. The cellar is a distant memory, as he's lept over both Hal and Ian and into 3rd last place. Brad was third, with 210 points. He just might give Arlene a run for her money. But for now the GC remains the same.

Tomorrow should be fun. All of a sudden I find myself rooting for Levi.

Stage 19 Results:

Chris 420
Dallas 240
Brad 210
Vic 135
Paddy 65
Arlene 60
Matt 60
Jonny B 55
David 45
Ian 30
Hal 15


Overall Standings:

Chris 2821
Vic 2336
Arlene 2185
Brad 1988
Paddy 1858
Jonny B 1731
Matt 1724
David 1492
Dallas 1327
Ian 1224
Hal 1154