Seriously. Is it almost September? This was not the agreement, this was supposed to be an endless summer. And all you A-Holes down there in the Antipodes are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, enjoying longer days and shorter nights. I don’t need to tell you where you can take that, but it’s dark and it smells. I have no patience for the changing of seasons when it means I’m going to be benching Number One and busting out the headlight.
I’m not going to lie to you; the Vuelta is my least-favorite race of the year. Part of it is the parcours-it’s hard enough to get excited about flat sprint stages in the Tour, but these stages in central Spain that go down a straight freeway for hours are just too much for my brain to find interesting. Hey look! There’s another shrub! Wasn’t he a President at one point? There will be some redeeming points of the race, I’m sure, and the shit-steep climbs they dot along the route are certain to be highlights of the season. But after you do the math, this is the grand tour with the weakest field, the worst route, and-most damning-the strongest signal that Summer is coming to an end on the half of the world that matters.
I can’t be bothered to sort out the route and what stages are going to matter, but I’ll tell you this: for the last few years, the winner of the Vuelta VSP has won the VSP GC. A few years back, @Marcus complained that he only lost the VSP because @Nate used the second Rest Day Swaps to his advantage to take the win, but after heavily increasing the penalties, he kept losing. Typical of a man who posts photos of his todger on a Cycling site. (@Nate, your win was clean according to the VCI.) Speaking of which, at worst the Vuelta will distract from Pat McQuaid and his bid for losing the UCI Presidency.
He has a strong lead in the 2013 Anti-V competition, however.
Check the start list, get your picks in, and don’t Delgado this baby; it could be your ticket to the shop apron. Bon chance.
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@Chris
I would also like to see Sanchez make a move. But he won't. And Horner's blood might be sludgy, but I bet it is from his secret stash of Big Macs. There, I said it. I'm sticking with the naive thought that he is clean -- at least now.
I'll give Horner the benefit of the doubt based on he's simply done less all year than the other's due to injury and is therefore basically fresher. I'd love to believe that things really are getting better in cycling. Re the comments on Wegelius elsewhere, the one's I feel for are those that were clean and would have been at the top had others not cheated but of course that is impossible to determine the relative differences if the field had been level.
@Teocalli
Bit like Cobo, you mean.
In all seriousness though, I'd agree with everything else in your post. It must have been shit to know you were good enough but couldn't compete without doping. I doubt I would have had the strength to say no in that situation.
I've got a carbone for Horner.
Updated standings based on Roche moving up a few days back - cracking stage today.
@Chris Yeah, I hate to say it because I really like him, have met him, and he was a super nice guy to us. But I remember seeing him racing in Stillwater MN and he was a big, thick, muscular rider. Then a few years later he was a super wispy thin little thing and back to winning in Europe.
Based on Valverde catching him before the line, Nibali looked like he went too hard to stay with J-Rod and Horner and blew up a bit.
Saturday is going to be mayhem.
@Collin
Fuck me! He's going to do it, isn't he?
Hats off to the race, though. This has been one amazing nail-biter of a race!!!
Go NIBBLES!!! Hang on, Man, even if it's by your teeth!
This course has really brought out something special. Almost every mountain stage (of which there are been many) has been entertaining.
I wonder if everyone will wait until Saturday or if tomorrow is going to be flat-out racing the whole day. There are bonus seconds scattered all over the course.
@frank
Saturday is going to be a John McClane body count!
All I wanted was one Pepsi, just one Pepsi....
Three seconds...the next few days will be pretty good!!