King Contador

Everybody's expected him to win the Vuelta all the way along. But with yesterday's race up the fabled Angliru, Alberto Contador seemed as interested in cementing his legacy among cycling's royalty as he was in taking control of the GC. Either way, he ended up doing both yesterday with a rather assertive win. He finished 42 seconds ahead of Valverde, who bounced back nicely from his disaster on the previous stage, and moved back up to 5th on the GC. Why is it that he seems to ride best only after he's imploded and taken all the pressure off himself? Sastre conceded 1:32 on the stage and sits in third place overall at 3:01 back. Levi the little worker bee managed a decent ride himself, even after dedicating himself to Contador on the day. He's still in second place overall after finishing as the fourth fastest man up the mountain. The big loser of the day was Igor Anton. Heralded as a serious challenger heading into the stage, the young Euskatel rider crashed on the final descent, broke his collarbone, and is now left to think about what might have been.

Over in the FGBC Vuelta Pool, the Impaler wins his second consecutive stage with 225 points. My boys Gesink, Mosquerra, and Zaugg worked together up the mountain and finished back-to-back-to-back in 6th, 7th, and 8th, netting me a second-place finish on the stage with 210 points. Matt finished in third on the strength of King Contador's 175 points. In the race for the overall, it's all shaping up rather nicely. Only 40 points now separate the top three teams. Vic still has the lead, but Come On Arlene and yours truly are charging hard. Unfortunately, we both lost Anton. But it's still shaping up the be a hard fought battle for the overall bragging rights. If Valverde continues to hang in there and Boonen sticks around to contest the upcoming sprint finishes instead of bolting to focus on the World Championships, Vic just might be able to hold on. But even without Anton, Arlene has Sastre and I still have Mosquerra, Gesink, and Zaugg in the top 10.

Stage 13 Results:

Brad 225
Chris 210
Matt 175
Arlene 145
Vic 125
Paddy 90
Jonny B 75
Dallas 65
David 60
Ian 20
Hal 0


Overall Standings:

Vic 1716
Arlene 1685
Chris 1676
Paddy 1368
Jonny B 1271
Brad 1258
Matt 1184
David 1117
Hal 1079
Ian 934
Dallas 632