Stage 1

The organisers sure didnt wait long before sending the race into the mountainous terrain


After Chtioui and Konovalovas misjudged and went too slow, Pliuschin was up on the course


Kvasina was leading at the finish by 0 seconds over ortega and 1 second over Heras - but Pliuschin flew up the climb and took the lead by a huge 36 seconds!


Manuel Lloret - 27 seconds behind Pliuschin


The ever-present Alejandro Valverde -14 seconds behind


Luis Leon Sanchez - 7 seconds behind


Carlos Sastre - 13 seconds behind


With the likes of Di Luca, Cunego and Ricco failing - former winner Gomez Marchante was the last rider who could prevent a DFL victory - and he couldnt do it! 34 seconds down


Another former winner, Igor Anton, was the penultimate rider across the line and he was very pleased with 5th - 26 seconds down


But Aleksandr Pliuschin has done it! Just like he won the opening stage of the 2008 Giro, he has won the opening stage here - a Golden start for the Moldovan!

1 Aleksandr Pliuschin DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED 15'52
2 Luis León Sánchez DISCOVERY CHANNEL + 7
3 Carlos Sastre TEAM CSC + 13
4 Alejandro Valverde CAISSE D'EPARGNE + 14
5 Igor Antón DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 26
6 Manuel Lloret DISCOVERY CHANNEL + 27
7 Óscar Pereiro UNIBET.COM s.t.
8 Haimar Zubeldia SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR + 30
9 José Angel Gómez Marchante TEAM CSC + 34
10 Matija Kvasina UNIBET.COM + 36
11 Mauricio Ortega SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR + 37
12 Roberto Heras TEAM ASTANA + 38
13 Damiano Cunego TEAM ASTANA + 41
14 Laurens Ten Dam UNIBET.COM + 44
15 Theo Eltink SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR + 45
16 Levi Leipheimer RABOBANK + 46
17 Thomas Lövkvist TEAM MILRAM s.t.
18 Tiago Machado CAISSE D'EPARGNE + 47
19 David De la Fuente DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 48
20 Julián Rodas TEAM ASTANA + 50
21 Riccardo Riccò BARLOWORLD + 51
22 Samuel Sánchez TEAM ASTANA s.t.
23 Hector Orlando Mesa CAISSE D'EPARGNE + 52
24 Emanuele Sella DISCOVERY CHANNEL + 53
25 Carlos Barredo RABOBANK s.t.
26 Mauricio Soler RABOBANK + 54
27 Fran Pérez DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
28 Danilo Di Luca T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
29 Héctor Guerra CAISSE D'EPARGNE + 55
30 Xavier Zandio CAISSE D'EPARGNE + 57
31 Matthias Ruß GEROLSTEINER + 58
32 Alejandro Ramírez CAISSE D'EPARGNE + 59
33 Paolo Savoldelli LAMPRE - FONDITAL s.t.
34 Jakob Fiedler T-MOBILE TEAM + 1'02
35 Gilberto Simoni SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR + 1'03
36 Sébastien Rosseler QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC + 1'04
37 Gerhard Trampusch BARLOWORLD + 1'06
38 David Blanco CAISSE D'EPARGNE s.t.
39 Sebastian Langeveld GEROLSTEINER + 1'07
40 Jérôme Coppel AG2R PRÉVOYANCE s.t.
41 Evgeni Sladkov BARLOWORLD + 1'08
42 Saul Raisin DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 1'09
43 Sergio Ghisalberti TEAM MILRAM + 1'10
44 Tim Gudsell FRANÇAISE DES JEUX + 1'11
45 Koldo Gil SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR s.t.
46 Rinaldo Nocentini AG2R PRÉVOYANCE + 1'12
47 Shaun Higgerson FRANÇAISE DES JEUX s.t.
48 Volodymyr Dyudya TEAM MILRAM + 1'13
49 Joost Posthuma AG2R PRÉVOYANCE s.t.
50 Blaise Sonnery AG2R PRÉVOYANCE s.t.

Perfect Start! Nice to see Kvasina in 10th too

Strange for a first stage though (or prologue?).

Nice work out there. In my Jelly Belly story in the same season I had the same prologue. It is crazy though.

Great win by Pliuschin!

Nice start

Stage 2

Oh look, another very early mountain stage!


Despite the daunting look, the climb is actually 55km long as a bareable gradient. Alexandre Pliuschin hopes to enjoy his time in the Golden jersey (long may it last!) while Ignas Konovalovas gets his first chance to test out his national champions jersey.


The two riders who were to lead over the climb are in teams battling relegation. Other perhaps Cofidis have gone about it the wrong way by only bringing 4 riders - one of them is Kleynen, who takes the first KoM jersey. Euskaltel's Mazzanti is with him


With 85km to go, the duo hold a 14 minute lead - but Kleynen crashes in the descent


Raisin, Sulzberger, Perez and De la Fuente hit the front and descend at full speed to decrease the gap


Mazzanti is going well though, he has a 9 minute lead still as the descent ends, 35km to go!


Konovalovas joins the chase and the combined efforts of the team help to rapidly decrease the lead


Amazingly, Mazzanti is caught! 6km to go.


Despite the flat run in, its going to be only a 1km dart to the line to decide victory


Anton and Pliuschin are right at the front


But so is Barloworld's Ricco and the Italian takes the stage. Pliuschin 2nd, Anton 5th.


1 Riccardo Riccò BARLOWORLD 4h19'27
2 Aleksandr Pliuschin DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
3 Alejandro Valverde CAISSE D'EPARGNE s.t.
4 Evgeni Sladkov BARLOWORLD s.t.
5 Igor Antón DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
6 Luis León Sánchez DISCOVERY CHANNEL s.t.
7 Francesco Bellotti BARLOWORLD s.t.
8 Gerhard Trampusch BARLOWORLD s.t.
9 Danilo Di Luca T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
10 Óscar Pereiro UNIBET.COM s.t.
11 Emanuele Sella DISCOVERY CHANNEL s.t.
12 Tiago Machado CAISSE D'EPARGNE s.t.
13 Carlos Sastre TEAM CSC s.t.
14 Xavier Zandio CAISSE D'EPARGNE s.t.
15 Nicki Sörensen TEAM CSC s.t.
16 Maarten Tjallingii T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
17 Roberto Heras TEAM ASTANA s.t.
18 Laurens Ten Dam UNIBET.COM s.t.
19 Manuel Lloret DISCOVERY CHANNEL s.t.
20 Levi Leipheimer RABOBANK s.t.
21 Haimar Zubeldia SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR s.t.
22 Carlos Barredo RABOBANK s.t.
23 Julián Rodas TEAM ASTANA s.t.
24 Alessandro Vanotti LIQUIGAS s.t.
25 Damiano Cunego TEAM ASTANA s.t.

GC
1 Aleksandr Pliuschin DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED 4h35'19
2 Luis León Sánchez DISCOVERY CHANNEL + 7
3 Carlos Sastre TEAM CSC + 13
4 Alejandro Valverde CAISSE D'EPARGNE + 14
5 Igor Antón DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 26
6 Óscar Pereiro UNIBET.COM + 27
7 Manuel Lloret DISCOVERY CHANNEL s.t.
8 Haimar Zubeldia SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR + 30
9 José Angel Gómez Marchante TEAM CSC + 34
10 Matija Kvasina UNIBET.COM + 36

super riding and what a start to the vuelta!

but how did you take 9 minutes from mazzanti in 29 kilometres? he must have run out of energy completely

I would argue that the awesomeness of DFL is capable of such a chase any day (But yes, he almost certainly ran out of energy)

For once we have a rider with a realistic chance of a victory here in Plouay: Rigoberto Uran


His job was to keep safe in the early part of the race as the rest of the team protected him. One of the pre-race favourites John Gadret did not have such a devoted team though. He crashed early on and had to chase solo back to the group. He made it back, but would struggle and eventually finish a long way down


Another early faller was the big favourite for the race! Frank Schleck hit the deck, through noones fault but his own


CSC teammates dropped back to help him, but he would never regain contact


With 43km to go the break had been caught and 6 men made their moves: Gusev, Pineau, Cataldo, Labbe, Hermans and Rovira


Uran wated another 10km when Rodriguez and Kirchen attacked, the 6 previous attackers were still close by, but Kirchen failed badly and couldnt even get clear of the pack


Giovanni Visconti was another to attack and he took a small gap over a group of 10, including Uran


Visconti was caught and it became Philippe Gilbert's turn to go clear


He got caught as the group thinned to 10 with Liquigas' Ben Hermans losing contact.


By 12km to go it is clear that one of the 10 will win the race. Gilbert, Cataldo and Wegmann attack, as do some of the others


Noone gets clear but Uran seems to be in a bit of difficulty at the back


Rovny waits for the small section to end before putting in a move


The rest of the move are indecisive and this is Urans chance to make the most of the small blue bar he has left, he attacks


He gets a gap on the group but cant catch up with Rovny before the sprint begins


Gilbert leads out the sprint behind but Uran looks far enough away from them


So can Uran close down Rovny? It seems unlikely


And it is Ivan Rovny who wins GP Plouay


With his goal of the Worlds and Lombardia still to come, Uran can be very pleased with a 2nd place


1 Ivan Rovny LAMPRE - FONDITAL 5h58'55
2 Rigoberto Urán DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
3 Giovanni Visconti TEAM ASTANA s.t.
4 Fabian Wegmann GEROLSTEINER s.t.
5 Jaume Rovira AG2R PRÉVOYANCE s.t.
6 Philippe Gilbert RABOBANK s.t.
7 Vladimir Gusev QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
8 Joaquim Rodríguez CAISSE D'EPARGNE s.t.
9 Jérôme Pineau EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI s.t.
10 Dario Cataldo BARLOWORLD s.t.
11 Bert Grabsch T-MOBILE TEAM + 3'04
12 Ben Hermans LIQUIGAS s.t.
13 Pierrick Fédrigo CRÉDIT AGRICOLE s.t.
14 Gerald Ciolek T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
15 Tom Stamsnijder T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
16 Sergei Ivanov TEAM ASTANA s.t.
17 Benoît Vaugrenard T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
18 Mark Cavendish T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
19 Jean-Marc Marino CRÉDIT AGRICOLE s.t.
20 Leonardo Duque CRÉDIT AGRICOLE s.t.
21 Kim Kirchen LIQUIGAS s.t.
22 Eros Capecchi LIQUIGAS s.t.
23 José Joaquín Rojas CAISSE D'EPARGNE s.t.
24 José Iván Gutiérrez SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR s.t.
25 Martin Gilbert T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
26 Karsten Kroon LIQUIGAS s.t.
27 Christophe Kern T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
28 Sylvain Chavanel COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE s.t.
29 Yvan Muratet CRÉDIT AGRICOLE s.t.
30 Pablo Lastras CAISSE D'EPARGNE s.t.
31 Sébastien Joly TEAM CSC s.t.
32 David Arroyo SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR s.t.
33 Heinrich Haussler GEROLSTEINER + 5'24
34 Fumiyuki Beppu DISCOVERY CHANNEL s.t.
35 José Rujano DISCOVERY CHANNEL s.t.
36 Tomas Vaitkus DISCOVERY CHANNEL s.t.
37 Rémy Di Gregorio DISCOVERY CHANNEL s.t.
38 Wim Van Huffel DISCOVERY CHANNEL s.t.
39 Cândido Barbosa EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI + 5'58
40 Nikolas Maes RABOBANK s.t.
41 Johann Tschopp BOUYGUES TÉLÉCOM s.t.
42 Ivan Stevic DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
43 Matteo Carrara BOUYGUES TÉLÉCOM s.t.
44 Arnaud Coyot DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
45 Edwin Orozco BARLOWORLD s.t.
46 Francis Mourey FRANÇAISE DES JEUX s.t.
47 Damien Gaudin LIQUIGAS s.t.
48 Piotr Mazur SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR s.t.
49 Bauke Mollema SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR s.t.
50 Tadej Valjavec UNIBET.COM s.t.

Nice 2nd

Konovalovas' jersey looks awesome!

I drove that mountain from the vuelta stage by car

Agreed, it looks totally awesome

Stage 3

3rd stage, 3rd mountain stage


A 13 man breakaway went away but that was down to 10 once the major climb began


8 and a half minutes is their lead with 26km of climbing to go, so of course we are chasing


Chtioui, Sulzberger and Manan began the chase on the flats with Konovalovas joining in on the early slopes before De la Fuente and Perez hit the front


De la Fuente is on a great day and weakens the peleton as the gap to the leaders shortens


With 17km to go, Pliuschin takes a drink and Valverde takes the opportunity to attack. Pliuschin is quick to respond though nevertheless, as are Pereiro and LL Sanchez


Valverde will have hoped his attack to have beaten all, but Pliuschin is able to match him as they start working through the early breakaway already


Pliuschin powers on, going solo ahead of all his rivals


LL Sanchez, Pereiro and Sastre are with Valverde as the break continue to be negotiated


And with 12km to the summit, Pliuschin has moved into the lead. In 14km, 8 and a half minutes has gone completely.


Pereiro soon leaves them while behind more of the big guns have joined Valverde's group: Zubeldia, Leipheimer, Ricco and Heras. A strengthened chase or a sign of a weak chase?


It seems a sign of a weak chase, Pliuschin had pulled out a 1'45 advantage!


Try as hard as they might, that gap isnt going to come down


Superb victory for Pliuschin - already establishing himself as favourite for this race?


1'50 later and Heras takes 2nd ahead of Pereiro and Ricco


Reigning champion Igor Anton had no hope of even trying to follow the attacks when they went, and perhaps waited too long for trying to limit his losses. He did manage to ride away from the group behind him though in the final kilometres, taking 10th on the stage


1 Aleksandr Pliuschin DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED 4h13'55
2 Roberto Heras TEAM ASTANA + 1'50
3 Óscar Pereiro UNIBET.COM s.t.
4 Riccardo Riccò BARLOWORLD s.t.
5 Alejandro Valverde CAISSE D'EPARGNE + 2'03
6 Luis León Sánchez DISCOVERY CHANNEL s.t.
7 Levi Leipheimer RABOBANK s.t.
8 Carlos Sastre TEAM CSC s.t.
9 Haimar Zubeldia SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR s.t.
10 Igor Antón DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 4'47
11 Theo Eltink SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR + 5'17
12 Danilo Di Luca T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
13 Manuel Lloret DISCOVERY CHANNEL s.t.
14 José Angel Gómez Marchante TEAM CSC s.t.
15 David De la Fuente DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
16 Gilberto Simoni SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR s.t.
17 Emanuele Sella DISCOVERY CHANNEL s.t.
18 Matija Kvasina UNIBET.COM s.t.
19 Samuel Sánchez TEAM ASTANA s.t.
20 Carlos Barredo RABOBANK s.t.
21 Matthias Ruß GEROLSTEINER s.t.
22 Koldo Gil SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR s.t.
23 Damiano Cunego TEAM ASTANA s.t.
24 Mauricio Soler RABOBANK s.t.
25 Mauricio Ortega SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR + 6'29
26 Fran Pérez DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 6'51
27 Pierre Rolland CRÉDIT AGRICOLE + 7'23
28 Paolo Savoldelli LAMPRE - FONDITAL s.t.
29 Thomas Lövkvist TEAM MILRAM s.t.
30 Steve Zampieri COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE s.t.
31 Julián Rodas TEAM ASTANA s.t.
32 Sergio Ghisalberti TEAM MILRAM s.t.
33 Marco Marzano LAMPRE - FONDITAL s.t.
34 Laurens Ten Dam UNIBET.COM s.t.
35 Gerhard Trampusch BARLOWORLD s.t.
36 Alejandro Ramírez CAISSE D'EPARGNE s.t.
37 Nicki Sörensen TEAM CSC s.t.
38 Andrea Tonti AG2R PRÉVOYANCE + 8'03
39 Xavier Zandio CAISSE D'EPARGNE s.t.
40 Hector Orlando Mesa CAISSE D'EPARGNE s.t.
41 Tiago Machado CAISSE D'EPARGNE s.t.
42 Blaise Sonnery AG2R PRÉVOYANCE s.t.
43 Michael Rasmussen CAISSE D'EPARGNE s.t.
44 David Blanco CAISSE D'EPARGNE s.t.
45 Pasquale Muto RABOBANK s.t.
46 Francesco Bellotti BARLOWORLD s.t.
47 Ugaitz Artola KARPIN GALICIA s.t.
48 Rinaldo Nocentini AG2R PRÉVOYANCE s.t.
49 Héctor Guerra CAISSE D'EPARGNE s.t.
50 Igor Pugaci UNIBET.COM s.t.


GC
1 Aleksandr Pliuschin DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED 8h49'14
2 Luis León Sánchez DISCOVERY CHANNEL + 2'10
3 Carlos Sastre TEAM CSC + 2'16
4 Alejandro Valverde CAISSE D'EPARGNE + 2'17
5 Óscar Pereiro UNIBET.COM s.t.
6 Roberto Heras TEAM ASTANA + 2'28
7 Haimar Zubeldia SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR + 2'33
8 Riccardo Riccò BARLOWORLD + 2'41
9 Levi Leipheimer RABOBANK + 2'49
10 Igor Antón DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 5'13
11 Manuel Lloret DISCOVERY CHANNEL + 5'44
12 José Angel Gómez Marchante TEAM CSC + 5'51
13 Matija Kvasina UNIBET.COM + 5'53
14 Damiano Cunego TEAM ASTANA + 5'58
15 Theo Eltink SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR + 6'02
16 David De la Fuente DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 6'05
17 Samuel Sánchez TEAM ASTANA + 6'08
18 Emanuele Sella DISCOVERY CHANNEL + 6'10
19 Carlos Barredo RABOBANK s.t.
20 Danilo Di Luca T-MOBILE TEAM + 6'11
21 Mauricio Soler RABOBANK s.t.
22 Matthias Ruß GEROLSTEINER + 6'15
23 Gilberto Simoni SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR + 6'20
24 Koldo Gil SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR + 6'28
25 Mauricio Ortega SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR + 7'06
26 Fran Pérez DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 7'45

Great riding with Pliuschin

Stage 4

A restbite from the mountains on a flat stage, but not without incident though as Valverde punctures with 174km to go


Chtioui, Sulzberger and Perez take it upon themselves to hit the front of the peleton. Not very sporting? Nonsense! Its a great opportunity to get rid of a GC rival.


This is particularly the case as Caisse d'Epargne have not sent any riders back to help him!! All he has is the company of Nicki Sorensen, who had also punctured.


It takes a long maintained effort from the DFL trio to break Valverde, and they are later helped when other teams step in to completely chase down the breakaway. All 3 would feel the price for the efforts as they ran out of energy later on, but it is a price worth paying as Valverde loses 18 minutes!

So, onto the sprint. Manan is on a +5 day and takes Boonens wheel .. only he cant keep up


In turn Boonen cant keep up with the stage winner, Thor Hushovd.


Manan labours to 16th, joining Goss as a rider who is ultimately not cut out to be a ProTour sprinter. One of them will definately leave the team at least, so Manan has the rest of the Vuelta to save himself

1 Thor Hushovd CRÉDIT AGRICOLE 4h37'45
2 Tom Boonen QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
3 Claudio Corioni AG2R PRÉVOYANCE s.t.
4 Juan José Haedo TEAM CSC s.t.
5 Ersilio Calogero TEAM MILRAM s.t.
6 William Bonnet TEAM MILRAM s.t.
7 Carlos Eduardo Alzate EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI s.t.
8 Riccardo Riccò BARLOWORLD s.t.
9 David Kopp GEROLSTEINER s.t.
10 Greg Van Avermaet PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
11 Paolo Bettini QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
12 Volodymyr Dyudya TEAM MILRAM s.t.
13 Geert Steurs PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
14 Francesco Gavazzi LAMPRE - FONDITAL s.t.
15 Gustavo Domínguez KARPIN GALICIA s.t.
16 Anuar Manan DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
17 Beñat Albízuri EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI s.t.
18 Daniel Foder QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
19 Andrea Moletta GEROLSTEINER s.t.
20 Rinaldo Nocentini AG2R PRÉVOYANCE s.t.
21 Javier Benítez TEAM MILRAM s.t.
22 Ronny Scholz GEROLSTEINER s.t.
23 Francesco Failli TEAM MILRAM s.t.
24 Kenny De Haes PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
25 Theo Bos LAMPRE - FONDITAL s.t.
26 Pedro Horrillo LAMPRE - FONDITAL s.t.
27 Robert Förster PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
28 Danilo Di Luca T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
29 Luca Mazzanti EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI s.t.
30 Gert Dockx PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
31 Lucio Capozzi BARLOWORLD s.t.
32 Jesús Herrada EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI s.t.
33 Nico Eeckhout TEAM CSC s.t.
34 Matija Kvasina UNIBET.COM s.t.
35 Gert Steegmans T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
36 Thomas Lövkvist TEAM MILRAM s.t.
37 Aleksandr Pliuschin DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
38 Andrea Tonti AG2R PRÉVOYANCE s.t.
39 Markel Irizar EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI s.t.
40 �ngel Vicioso PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.

181 Rafaâ Chtioui DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 16'27
183 Nicki Sörensen TEAM CSC + 17'39
185 Alejandro Valverde CAISSE D'EPARGNE + 18'51
187 Fran Pérez DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 24'27
188 Bernard Sulzberger DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 28'39

GC
1 Aleksandr Pliuschin DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED 13h26'59
2 Luis León Sánchez DISCOVERY CHANNEL + 2'10
3 Carlos Sastre TEAM CSC + 2'16
4 Óscar Pereiro UNIBET.COM + 2'17
5 Roberto Heras TEAM ASTANA + 2'28
6 Haimar Zubeldia SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR + 2'33
7 Riccardo Riccò BARLOWORLD + 2'41
8 Levi Leipheimer RABOBANK + 2'49
9 Igor Antón DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 5'13
10 Manuel Lloret DISCOVERY CHANNEL + 5'44
11 José Angel Gómez Marchante TEAM CSC + 5'51
12 Matija Kvasina UNIBET.COM + 5'53
13 Damiano Cunego TEAM ASTANA + 5'58
14 Theo Eltink SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR + 6'02
15 David De la Fuente DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 6'05

Two things:

1) Thats awesome, Valverde down 18 min.
2) That pun with your name was very very painful, honestly "Not very sporting? Nonsense!" is Smoothie-like

But great riding all around by DFL

*bows

Thanks.

It does look good, now whens mine going to be ready

Caisse epic fail!