Egoi Blows into Gold

In Basque mythology, Egoi is the divinity who is identifed with the southern wind. Whether it was at Egoi Martinez's back or blowing in Levi's face, the gods smiled kindly on Martinez today. He got himself in the winning breakaway. And while he only finished 10th on the stage, he was still 6.41 ahead of Leipheimer. And so once again little Levi's time in gold is short lived. Martinez now leads the race by 11 seconds. Not to be overlooked is the stage win by Greg Van Avermat, a promising young Belgian sprinter of whose name we will no doubt be hearing a lot more in the future.

Over in the FGBC Pool, Vic has apparently had enough of Arlene creeping up behind him. Just as it looked like he was about to lose his once mighty lead, he takes the stage with a solid 240 point day. That pushes his lead back up to almost 200 points. We have not heard from David in a while. But he's back in the news today, missing out on the victory by just 5 points today. Matt was third with 150 points. Arlene and Paddy remain second and third in the GC. Don't miss the most exciting race within the race at the moment, namely the fierce battle being played out between Hal, Matt, and Brad. The three of them are separated by just a single point.

Stage 9 Results:

Vic 240
David 235
Matt 150
Ian 120
Jonny B 120
Hal 90
Arlene 75
Paddy 20
Dallas 0
Brad 0
Chris 0


Overall Standings:

Vic 1366
Arlene 1190
Paddy 978
Chris 956
Jonny B 911
David 822
Hal 779
Matt 779
Brad 778
Ian 604
Dallas 507

OTT: Be/Non, Garlic