The surprising thing is that it took this long

A team like that should have won five stages already. Had the keen eyes of the members of the Roster Verification Unit in the FGBC's Low Stakes Gambling Dept. not clued into the fact that Dallas's original roster submission was illegitimately stacked to the gills with talent, he would have bagged himself a stage win today. But those guys are pretty sharp. There is not a whole lot that gets past them. So while his original team appears to have won today, it doesn't count. We're just keeping track for the sake of having one more thing to talk about. You never know when you're going to run out of topics. All of this is good news for Chris A. He had the highest point totals among the legitimate teams today, with 310. Naomi's 280 point day was good enough for second place. Matt and Olli had 275 points each to finish in a tie for the day's final podium step.

That's two big days in a row for Olli. As a result, he now finds himself just 20 points off the overall lead. Halberto is still holding on, but it looks like his days might be numbered. Rachel has dropped down to 3rd place. But the biggest casualty today was Johnny S. He dropped from 3rd place all the way down to 8th.

In the real race, Tyler Farrar finally got his grand tour win. Good for him. Tomorrow is the second rest day. And after that, it's time for some fireworks. We will be treated to three massive days in the mountains that should very well decide who wins this thing. It's still very wide open. There are six main contenders, all within a minute of each other: Valverde, Evans, Gesink, Danielson, Basso, and Sanchez. Any one of them has to be reckoned a legitimate for Vuelta glory. It should be fun to watch them battle it out.

Full results here.