David Millar proved a man of his word today in Toledo. He said he was aiming to win the time trial in this penultimate stage of the Vuelta and that's just what he did, setting a fast early time over the the 27.8Km course that was never bettered.
It was a good day too for the Australian Cadel Evans, whose barnstorming TT ride turned a 14 second deficit on Ivan Basso into a 40 second advantage over the Italian, in the process bumping him down into fourth place. However, the man with probably the biggest smile on his face as the race heads for the final stage in Madrid tomorrow is Alejandro Valverde. The Caisse D'Epargne rider did enough to cement his hold on the golden jersey and barring some act of the gods he will stand on the top step of the podium tomorrow.
Winning the Vuelta will be the crowning achievement of an impressive season for the Spaniard and will leave the UCI with something of a headache should it decide to make the ban imposed on him by the Italian cycling federation worldwide and do so retrospectively… at this rate he will probably win the world championship too, just to make things really interesting.
However, although the race may belong to Valverde the day was Millar's. The Briton put in a superb effort to give a textbook demonstration of how to win a grand tour time trial – at no point were his times bettered by any of the riders that followed including the big name favourites. Millar's winning margin was a healthy 5 seconds over Samuel Sanchez of Euskaltel with Cadel Evans a further 4 seconds back in third place. Millar's win was another milestone in an impressive summer for his Garmin Slipstream team who have made real progress as a force at the top level, a fact which may continue to exert a pull on his team mate Bradley Wiggins.
Top 20 Vuelta Stage 20
1) David Millar (Garmin-Slipstream) 0:35:53
2) Samuel Sánchez (Euskaltel-Euskadi) 0:00:05
3) Cadel Evans (Silence-Lotto) 0:00:09
4) Gustavo César Veloso (Xacobeo Galicia) 0:00:20
5) Roman Kreuziger (Liquigas) 0:00:30
6) Philippe Gilbert (Silence-Lotto) 0:00:34
7) Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d'Epargne) 0:00:36
8) David Herrero (Xacobeo Galicia) 0:00:37
9) Jesús Del Nero (Fuji-Servetto) 0:00:40
10) Lieuwe Westra (Vacansoleil) 0:00:43
11) Maciej Bodnar (Liquigas) 0:00:44
12) Vasil Kiryienka (Caisse d'Epargne) 0:00:49
13) Fredrik Kessiakoff (Fuji-Servetto) 0:00:55
14) Frantisek Rabon (Columbia-HTC) 0:00:56
15) Christophe Riblon (AG2R La Mondiale) 0:01:01
16) Koos Moerenhout (Rabobank) 0:01:02
17) Stijn Devolder (Quick Step) 0:01:03
18) Ivan Basso (Liquigas)
19) Dominik Roels (Milram) 0:01:16
20) Juan José Cobo (Fuji-Servetto) 0:01:23
Top 10 on General Classification after Stage 20
1) Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d'Epargne) 84:10:32
2) Samuel Sánchez (Euskaltel-Euskadi) 0:00:55
3) Cadel Evans (Silence-Lotto) 0:01:32
4) Ivan Basso (Liquigas) 0:02:12
5) Ezequiel Mosquera (Xacobeo Galicia) 0:04:27
6) Robert Gesink (Rabobank) 0:06:40
7) Joaquím Rodríguez (Caisse d'Epargne) 0:09:08
8) Paolo Tiralongo (Lampre-NGC) 0:09:11
9) Philip Deignan (Cervélo TestTeam) 0:11:08
10) Juan José Cobo (Fuji-Servetto) 0:11:27
I listened to the BBC R4 prog "Should cyclists stay in their lane" and it was pretty much what you'd expect from the BBC, a well-informed cyclist...
Yep. Another scumbag using the ''truly remorseful'' defence. He will be out in months and free to get on with his life, unlike his victim. And...
Of course you don't actually want to spend money intended for infrastructure on infrastructure, you want to spend it on plans for infrastructure,...
My bet is that all these tires popping off are from people with bad pressure gauges or they're simply just putting too much air in on purpose. ...
You have to add images via a reply to yourself after the topic is created. One at a time too.
“Plus, riders who pair CarBack to their smartphone using the Trek Accessory app can enjoy even more features, including the ability to see the...
Had a Kona Blast sometime around the turn of the century, that was a pretty decent mountain bike for not much money....
David9694 - you were right! These new autonomous vehicles really are conspiring to run out of control!...
Decathlon have the Garmin Varia RTL515 on offer at the moment for £129.99: https://www.decathlon.co.uk/p/rearview-radar-varia-rtl515-65-lumens/_/R-...
So when you said "all Jews" you didn't actually mean all Jews, just religious ones. However even that distinction is erroneous, as you must surely...