La Vuelta

Ah yes, that shining example of clean cycling…Chris Horner

You really have to take extra care in the health of really really old people. :)

No wonder he's had a difficult season after breaking ribs and puncturing a lung.

I don't see what contracting bronchitis has to do with being clean or not.

nothing…it was just a jab at Horner/Lampre and their connection with MPCC.

Anyone know what (if any) TV coverage we'll get? Sportsnet was really spotty with Le Tour this year.

If you've got a UK VPN, ITV4 are streaming a daily 1hr highlights programme…

Sportsnet isn't doing too badly so far. PVR is picking up 2 hours a day, starting about 100 km after each day's start. They did cover the full TTT also. The series recording also randomly picked up the Women's XC world cup from Meribel … bonus!

Watching Ryder claw his way up the overall standings, a few spots higher each day.

The last 10km usually gets posted on Steephill.tv

Nice to watch the final action. Kinda would like a good 30 minute recap that I can put on the headphones in the office to catch more of the stage action. I also much prefer the Eurosport announcers.

Bummer Orica isn't doing a Backstage Pass for this grand tour.

Tough day for Ryder today, but that's bike racing.

I've said it before … Team Garmin does a shitty job of protecting their leader and putting him in good positions in the peloton. I've seen it happen often - Ryder stuck at the back of the peloton and something happens that creates a split in the peloton. A crash, tough technical section, or the lead of the peloton just starts a hard pull. And every time, Ryder gets stuck in the back trying to play catch up.

That's just poor team tactics!

That's just poor team tactics!

Yeah, you just can't ever take your eyes off the ball in a grand tour. Especially when Contador is involved.

Maybe Ryder should look up?

Not exactly a great advert for a large distracting piece of tech mounted on your handle bars.

I've said it before … Team Garmin does a shitty job of protecting their leader and putting him in good positions in the peloton. I've seen it happen often - Ryder stuck at the back of the peloton and something happens that creates a split in the peloton. A crash, tough technical section, or the lead of the peloton just starts a hard pull. And every time, Ryder gets stuck in the back trying to play catch up.

That's just poor team tactics!

This … the way Ryder has generally succeeded in the past seems to be when he has broken away clean from leader group. He probably doesn't have a lot of those days left in his aging body. Garmin support has always tended to be weak. Their poor TTT showing in the first stage seems to only highlight this problem. Daniel Martin is probably the go-to guy on Garmin right now (as I think may have always been the plan) …

Good day for Ryder today … gets to wear a red number plate tomorrow.

Made an amazing comeback after bad crash.

Cameraman running over his bike didn't help things.

Eventful TT today. That was a pretty spectacular crash by any standard.

"I was feeling great in the uphill, but at that point of the descent my bike simply did not brake enough," Quintana said. "Before the turn, I was tightening my shoe, which was a little bit loose, but I think that didn't have an effect on my crash. The thing is that I kept braking for quite long, but it wasn't enough because the bike didn't stop, and I crashed.

"Fortunately, I could avoid having a bigger crash and I did not hurt myself really badly. My left ankle hurts and I also have blows all over my body, but I hope it's nothing serious. This is cycling. I lost some time and I might be switching to help out Alejandro so we can conquer the overall podium.

"Crashes happen in cycling. We must overcome them. My intention is to recover and continue the race looking at trying to finish on the podium. As for the consequences of my crash, we’ll see how I feel tomorrow morning.”