YES!!!!

Stage 7



Its the crunch stage of the race, and Uran will be aiming for a victory. And the attacks came on the penultimate climb


Horner gets a gap over Nibali who in turn got a gap over Uran, Wegmann, Grivko and O'Grady. Not content with this, Uran attacks again with 4.5km to go


He looks to close in on Nibali but the win seems to be gone


As Chris Horner celebrates taking the Stage + GC


Unable to challenge Nibali, Uran is battling for 3rd as he cracks with 300m to go


He fades to 6th - and 7th overall - but it is still a decent result as the World Championships preparations continued


1 Chris Horner CAISSE D'EPARGNE 4h08'37
2 Vincenzo Nibali T-MOBILE TEAM + 1'05
3 Fabian Wegmann GEROLSTEINER + 1'14
4 Andriy Grivko FRANÇAISE DES JEUX + 1'29
5 Stuart O'Grady DISCOVERY CHANNEL s.t.
6 Rigoberto Urán DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 1'52
7 Filippo Pozzato LIQUIGAS + 2'29
8 Luca Paolini LAMPRE - FONDITAL s.t.
9 Ivan Rovny LAMPRE - FONDITAL s.t.
10 Dainius Kairelis BARLOWORLD s.t.
11 José Joaquín Rojas CAISSE D'EPARGNE s.t.
12 Giovanni Visconti TEAM ASTANA s.t.
13 Sébastien Joly TEAM CSC + 2'47
14 George Hincapie DISCOVERY CHANNEL + 2'57
15 Kim Kirchen LIQUIGAS s.t.
16 Yuri Trofimov COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE s.t.
17 Pieter Weening RABOBANK s.t.
18 Maxim Belkov BARLOWORLD s.t.
19 Óscar Sánchez BARLOWORLD s.t.
20 Heinrich Haussler GEROLSTEINER s.t.

GC
1 Chris Horner CAISSE D'EPARGNE 30h09'33
2 Vincenzo Nibali T-MOBILE TEAM + 1'07
3 Fabian Wegmann GEROLSTEINER + 1'19
4 Stuart O'Grady DISCOVERY CHANNEL + 1'26
5 Andriy Grivko FRANÇAISE DES JEUX + 1'40
6 José Joaquín Rojas CAISSE D'EPARGNE + 1'59
7 Rigoberto Urán DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 2'14
8 Luca Paolini LAMPRE - FONDITAL + 2'43
9 Ivan Rovny LAMPRE - FONDITAL s.t.
10 Dainius Kairelis BARLOWORLD s.t.
11 Giovanni Visconti TEAM ASTANA + 2'46
12 Filippo Pozzato LIQUIGAS + 2'49
13 Sébastien Joly TEAM CSC + 2'55
14 Pieter Weening RABOBANK + 3'04
15 Yuri Trofimov COFIDIS, LE CRÉDIT PAR TÉLÉPHONE + 3'05

Unlucky with Uran, but to qoute deadpool YES!!!!

Rund um die Nurnberger Altstadt

Just another warmup race, and there was a blow to Geraint Thomas who crashed and picked up an injury


The german race may be hilly, but its not really hilly enough for Uran. He makes the winning move in the race, and can be happy with 3rd place, unable to match the sprints of Juan van Heerden and Fabio Sacchi.


Gavazzi led in the peleton for 5th, with Ivan Stevic taking a top 10 finish

1 Juan Van Heerden CONTINENTAL TEAM DIFFERDANGE 4h02'42
2 Fabio Sacchi TEAM MILRAM s.t.
3 Rigoberto Urán DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
4 Dimitry Kozontchuk ACTION - UNIQA s.t.
5 Nico Keinath TEAM 3C-GRUPPE LAMONTA s.t.
6 Mattia Gavazzi TEAM WIESENHOF FELT s.t.
7 Alberto Loddo TEAM MILRAM s.t.
8 Robert Wagner TEAM WIESENHOF FELT s.t.
9 Elia Rigotto TEAM MILRAM s.t.
10 Ivan Stevic DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
11 Allan Davis TEAM MILRAM s.t.
12 Mirko Lorenzetto TEAM MILRAM s.t.
13 Marcus Ljungqvist TEAM LPR s.t.
14 Marco Zanotti ELK HAUS - SIMPLON s.t.
15 André Schulze TEAM WIESENHOF FELT s.t.

Nice to see this back! Unlcuky with Thomas..

Stage 16



Aleksandr Pliuschin finds himself in an unexpected position at the start of the day - in the race lead. Just as it was looking like Luis Leon Sanchez was starting to pull away, the Spaniard crashed out on Stage 15 in a meaningless sprint stage.


Moving straight to the descent of the penultimate climb, and several riders had tried to get away over the top. No attack from Pliuschin despite Pereiro making a move, and it seemed justified - although Roberto Heras did go clear


De la Fuente helped to bring back the gap a little in the descent


Heras started to pull away again on the climb, and Sastre attacked. Sastre is only around a minute behind Pliuschin omn the GC, but his TT skill is such that we are less worried about him, and more worried about Pereiro who is at just 18 seconds. Pereiro again made a move but could nto got anywhere, so Pliuschin followed the next attack, which came from Zubeldia


But as Sastre moved towards Heras, Pliuschin barely managed to get a gap on the chasing group which formed, with Igor Anton sitting on the back of it.


Sastre is able to catch Heras


Pliuschin is maintaining a gap on the chasers, hoping to at least gain something on Pereiro


That was pretty much how it stayed, with Heras taking the win over Sastre


Its 3rd for Pliuschin, gaining 9 seconds on the chase group while keeping in the race lead by 8 seconds over Sastre


1 Roberto Heras TEAM ASTANA 5h21'56
2 Carlos Sastre TEAM CSC s.t.
3 Aleksandr Pliuschin DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 1'09
4 Theo Eltink SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR + 1'18
5 Alejandro Valverde CAISSE D'EPARGNE s.t.
6 Matija Kvasina UNIBET.COM s.t.
7 Óscar Pereiro UNIBET.COM s.t.
8 Haimar Zubeldia SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR s.t.
9 Igor Antón DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
10 Manuel Lloret DISCOVERY CHANNEL s.t.
11 Riccardo Riccò BARLOWORLD s.t.
12 José Angel Gómez Marchante TEAM CSC + 3'24
13 Damiano Cunego TEAM ASTANA s.t.
14 Samuel Sánchez TEAM ASTANA s.t.
15 Carlos Barredo RABOBANK s.t.
16 David De la Fuente DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
17 Levi Leipheimer RABOBANK s.t.
18 Emanuele Sella DISCOVERY CHANNEL s.t.
19 Mauricio Soler RABOBANK + 3'43
20 Gilberto Simoni SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR + 4'36
21 Danilo Di Luca T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
22 David Blanco CAISSE D'EPARGNE s.t.
23 Mauricio Ortega SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR s.t.
24 Francesco Bellotti BARLOWORLD + 5'53
25 Xavier Zandio CAISSE D'EPARGNE s.t.
26 Matthias Ruß GEROLSTEINER s.t.
27 Hector Orlando Mesa CAISSE D'EPARGNE s.t.
28 Thomas Lövkvist TEAM MILRAM + 6'37
29 Fran Pérez DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 6'50
30 Koldo Gil SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR + 7'06
31 Serafín Martínez RABOBANK s.t.
32 Ezequiel Mosquera KARPIN GALICIA + 7'27
33 Leonardo Bertagnolli LIQUIGAS + 7'38
34 Laurens Ten Dam UNIBET.COM s.t.
35 Gianni Meersman DISCOVERY CHANNEL s.t.
36 Luca Mazzanti EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI + 8'02
37 Alejandro Ramírez CAISSE D'EPARGNE + 8'16
38 Saul Raisin DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 8'35
39 Gorka Verdugo EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI s.t.
40 Evgeni Sladkov BARLOWORLD + 8'51
41 Tiago Machado CAISSE D'EPARGNE + 9'09
42 Gerhard Trampusch BARLOWORLD + 9'18
43 Bernard Sulzberger DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 9'40
44 Ugaitz Artola KARPIN GALICIA s.t.
45 Paolo Savoldelli LAMPRE - FONDITAL s.t.
46 Héctor Guerra CAISSE D'EPARGNE + 9'57
47 Dioni Galparsoro EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI + 10'12
48 Alexandre Botcharov DISCOVERY CHANNEL s.t.
49 Alessandro Vanotti LIQUIGAS s.t.
50 Ignas Konovalovas DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 11'17

GC
1 Aleksandr Pliuschin DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED 60h21'56
2 Carlos Sastre TEAM CSC + 8
3 Óscar Pereiro UNIBET.COM + 28
4 Roberto Heras TEAM ASTANA + 2'45
5 Riccardo Riccò BARLOWORLD + 4'32
6 Haimar Zubeldia SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR + 5'04
7 Igor Antón DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 9'57
8 Theo Eltink SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR + 11'18
9 Levi Leipheimer RABOBANK + 13'21
10 Manuel Lloret DISCOVERY CHANNEL + 13'34
11 Matija Kvasina UNIBET.COM + 13'47
12 Samuel Sánchez TEAM ASTANA + 14'21
13 José Angel Gómez Marchante TEAM CSC + 18'24
14 Mauricio Ortega SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR + 19'29
15 Damiano Cunego TEAM ASTANA + 19'37
16 David De la Fuente DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 21'14
17 David Blanco CAISSE D'EPARGNE + 21'15
18 Carlos Barredo RABOBANK + 22'32
19 Mauricio Soler RABOBANK + 22'42
20 Danilo Di Luca T-MOBILE TEAM + 22'50

Well done

Stage 17

Flat stage, and it comes to a sprint of course. Anuar Manan picks the Euskaltel train


And it is a good choice, with Alzate leading into the final kilometre


Manan goes for it, and he is not the only one


From left to right, Valverde, Alzate, Manan, Van Avermaet and Boonen


Van Avermaet takes it on the line - and Manan is unfortunate to be pushed out of the Top 3, 4th by milimetres.


1 Greg Van Avermaet PREDICTOR - LOTTO 4h38'34
2 Tom Boonen QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
3 Alejandro Valverde CAISSE D'EPARGNE s.t.
4 Anuar Manan DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
5 Carlos Eduardo Alzate EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI s.t.
6 Juan José Haedo TEAM CSC s.t.
7 Claudio Corioni AG2R PRÉVOYANCE s.t.
8 William Bonnet TEAM MILRAM s.t.
9 Francesco Gavazzi LAMPRE - FONDITAL s.t.
10 David Kopp GEROLSTEINER s.t.
11 Beñat Albízuri EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI s.t.
12 Robert Förster PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.
13 Daniele Bennati LAMPRE - FONDITAL s.t.
14 Riccardo Riccò BARLOWORLD s.t.
15 Javier Benítez TEAM MILRAM s.t.
16 Gert Steegmans T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
17 Paolo Bettini QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
18 Lucio Capozzi BARLOWORLD s.t.
19 Assan Bazayev CRÉDIT AGRICOLE s.t.
20 Bart Dockx PREDICTOR - LOTTO s.t.

GC
1 Aleksandr Pliuschin DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED 65h00'30
2 Carlos Sastre TEAM CSC + 8
3 Óscar Pereiro UNIBET.COM + 28
4 Roberto Heras TEAM ASTANA + 2'45
5 Riccardo Riccò BARLOWORLD + 4'32
6 Haimar Zubeldia SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR + 5'04
7 Igor Antón DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 9'57
8 Theo Eltink SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR + 11'18
9 Levi Leipheimer RABOBANK + 13'21
10 Manuel Lloret DISCOVERY CHANNEL + 13'34
11 Matija Kvasina UNIBET.COM + 13'47
12 Samuel Sánchez TEAM ASTANA + 14'21
13 José Angel Gómez Marchante TEAM CSC + 18'24
14 Mauricio Ortega SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR + 19'29
15 Damiano Cunego TEAM ASTANA + 19'37
16 David De la Fuente DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 21'14

bloody close their

Just read through the whole 3rd season . Quality of this story hasn't gone down very nicely written. Keep it up

Pliuschin FTW!

I'm really turned up to see the outcome of the Vuelta

3 Lander Tour

Another step in Uran's Worlds preparation, while Stevic is here due to the flatter stages.

Stage 1

German champion Andreas Klier almost pulled off an upset, but Rigotto takes the win, with Stevic 3rd


1 Elia Rigotto TEAM MILRAM 4h17'11
2 Andreas Klier GEROLSTEINER s.t.
3 Ivan Stevic DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
4 Daniel Musiol TEAM WIESENHOF FELT s.t.
5 Mattia Gavazzi TEAM WIESENHOF FELT s.t.
6 Fabio Sacchi TEAM MILRAM s.t.
7 Zdenek Stybar AGRITUBEL s.t.
8 Sebastian Schwager SKIL - SHIMANO s.t.
9 Olaf Pollack GEROLSTEINER s.t.
10 Brett Lancaster TEAM MILRAM s.t.


Stage 2

Pagliarini of Regiostorm leads the sprint. Stevic is well placed, and makes his move


Allan Davis is looking to give Milram another win though, as they take the bend


Its going to be a close one - photo finish!


Stevic has taken it!


1 Ivan Stevic DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED 3h44'41
2 Allan Davis TEAM MILRAM s.t.
3 Olaf Pollack GEROLSTEINER s.t.
4 Erik Zabel TEAM WIESENHOF FELT s.t.
5 Fabio Sacchi TEAM MILRAM s.t.
6 Luciano Pagliarini TEAM REGIOSTROM - SENGES s.t.
7 Sebastian Schwager SKIL - SHIMANO s.t.
8 Elia Rigotto TEAM MILRAM s.t.
9 Tor Inge Myrold TEAM 3C-GRUPPE LAMONTA s.t.
10 Mattia Gavazzi TEAM WIESENHOF FELT s.t.
11 Zak Dempster SOUTHAUSTRALIA.COM - AIS s.t.
12 Kenny Van Hummel SKIL - SHIMANO s.t.
13 Daniel Musiol TEAM WIESENHOF FELT s.t.
14 Peter Möhlmann TEAM REGIOSTROM - SENGES s.t.
15 Matthew Goss DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.

GC
1 Ivan Stevic DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED 8h01'24
2 Elia Rigotto TEAM MILRAM + 8
3 Allan Davis TEAM MILRAM + 16
4 Andreas Klier GEROLSTEINER s.t.
5 Olaf Pollack GEROLSTEINER + 20
6 Fabio Sacchi TEAM MILRAM + 28
7 Mattia Gavazzi TEAM WIESENHOF FELT s.t.
8 Sebastian Schwager SKIL - SHIMANO s.t.
9 Daniel Musiol TEAM WIESENHOF FELT s.t.
10 Luciano Pagliarini TEAM REGIOSTROM - SENGES s.t.

Good win

Stage 18

The penultimate mountain stage, and the Vuelta is still tightly balanced with 30 seconds separating the Top 3.



While Uran is warming up for the Worlds in Germany, Konovalovas is here in the Vuelta, and is in the breakaway today


Its a good tactical move this, for when we reach the mountain at the end of the stage, the gap is huge! Konovalovas and Flecha are the strongest of the group


But the Lithuanian is soon moving into a solo lead


Some distance back, Pliuschin is involved in the first attacks, forming a group with Ricco and Zubeldia


Pereiro and Sastre wait 5km before making their moves


And Pereiro manages to get a gap on Pliuschin's group


A response is needed, and here goes the Moldovan


The TV cameras switch to the top of the climb though, as Konovalovas celbrates victory!!!


This is his first win for DFL, and infact his first win in his career (If we ignore the simulated Lithuanian champs)!


Pliuschin linked up with Pereiro, and so no important time loss looks set to be the case for Pliuschin


They come intogether, 6th and 7th, some 10 minutes after Konovalovas


1 Ignas Konovalovas DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED 3h54'31
2 Juan Antonio Flecha RABOBANK + 3'56
3 Robert Förster PREDICTOR - LOTTO + 5'43
4 Ersilio Calogero TEAM MILRAM + 6'01
5 Bastiaan Giling LIQUIGAS + 6'25
6 Óscar Pereiro UNIBET.COM + 10'35
7 Aleksandr Pliuschin DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
8 Riccardo Riccò BARLOWORLD + 11'07
9 Haimar Zubeldia SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR s.t.
10 Carlos Sastre TEAM CSC s.t.
11 Manuel Lloret DISCOVERY CHANNEL s.t.
12 Héctor Guerra CAISSE D'EPARGNE s.t.
13 Roberto Heras TEAM ASTANA + 12'51
14 Danilo Di Luca T-MOBILE TEAM s.t.
15 Igor Antón DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 13'41
16 Matija Kvasina UNIBET.COM s.t.
17 Alejandro Valverde CAISSE D'EPARGNE s.t.
18 Theo Eltink SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR s.t.
19 Gilberto Simoni SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR + 14'04
20 Carlos Barredo RABOBANK s.t.
21 Paolo Savoldelli LAMPRE - FONDITAL + 14'14
22 Blaise Sonnery AG2R PRÉVOYANCE s.t.
23 Mauricio Soler RABOBANK s.t.
24 Marco Marzano LAMPRE - FONDITAL s.t.
25 Xavier Zandio CAISSE D'EPARGNE s.t.
26 Alejandro Ramírez CAISSE D'EPARGNE s.t.
27 Hector Orlando Mesa CAISSE D'EPARGNE s.t.
28 Sergio Ghisalberti TEAM MILRAM s.t.
29 Samuel Sánchez TEAM ASTANA s.t.
30 Emanuele Sella DISCOVERY CHANNEL s.t.
31 Patrice Halgand CRÉDIT AGRICOLE s.t.
32 Damiano Cunego TEAM ASTANA s.t.
33 Pierre Rolland CRÉDIT AGRICOLE s.t.
34 Mauricio Ortega SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR s.t.
35 Pavel Brutt QUICKSTEP - INNERGETIC s.t.
36 Fran Pérez DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
37 Joost Posthuma AG2R PRÉVOYANCE s.t.
38 Thomas Lövkvist TEAM MILRAM s.t.
39 David De la Fuente DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
40 Constantino Zaballa CRÉDIT AGRICOLE s.t.
49 Saul Raisin DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
50 Bernard Sulzberger DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.
59 Rafaâ Chtioui DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED s.t.

GC
1 Aleksandr Pliuschin DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED 69h05'36
2 Óscar Pereiro UNIBET.COM + 28
3 Carlos Sastre TEAM CSC + 40
4 Roberto Heras TEAM ASTANA + 5'01
5 Riccardo Riccò BARLOWORLD + 5'04
6 Haimar Zubeldia SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR + 5'36
7 Igor Antón DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 13'03
8 Manuel Lloret DISCOVERY CHANNEL + 14'06
9 Theo Eltink SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR + 14'24
10 Matija Kvasina UNIBET.COM + 16'53
11 Levi Leipheimer RABOBANK + 17'00
12 Samuel Sánchez TEAM ASTANA + 18'00
13 Mauricio Ortega SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR + 23'08
14 Damiano Cunego TEAM ASTANA + 23'16
15 David De la Fuente DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 24'53
16 David Blanco CAISSE D'EPARGNE + 24'54
17 Danilo Di Luca T-MOBILE TEAM + 25'06
18 José Angel Gómez Marchante TEAM CSC + 25'51
19 Carlos Barredo RABOBANK + 26'01
20 Mauricio Soler RABOBANK + 26'21
21 Emanuele Sella DISCOVERY CHANNEL + 27'35
22 Matthias Ruß GEROLSTEINER + 27'59
23 Hector Orlando Mesa CAISSE D'EPARGNE + 30'19
24 Koldo Gil SAUNIER DUVAL - PRODIR + 30'42
25 Alejandro Valverde CAISSE D'EPARGNE + 31'19
26 Laurens Ten Dam UNIBET.COM + 31'32
27 Thomas Lövkvist TEAM MILRAM + 31'40
28 Alejandro Ramírez CAISSE D'EPARGNE + 31'47
29 Héctor Guerra CAISSE D'EPARGNE + 33'11
30 Tiago Machado CAISSE D'EPARGNE + 33'59
31 Ignas Konovalovas DFL - CYCLINGNEWS - LITESPEED + 35'01

Brilliant day for DFL and Konvalovas

This story is amazing.

Konovalovas' stats please

great tactical sense you have SN

Magnific victory

Thanks all

In keeping with Vuelta tradition, you must now lose the jersey by over a minute, then recover it in the final time trial.

It is the Vuelta way, SN-san

*bows*

now go get that GC!