What it's all about: [beeeg h/t Ruthann]

UPDATE: Youtube has a bunch of stuff, but here's a homemade one I really like:

Alessandro Ballan (via velopeloton)

ED: Reposted. Deadline in 25.5 hours...

Two weeks ago I announced a new contest: the Angliru Quick Challenge, where you pick the top five finishers of Saturday's epic Vuelta a Espana Stage 13 and hope to win a prize from the illustrious Podium Cafe swag-bag. Follow the link for details, but the essence is:

• Gotta be registered with the site to play
• Pick the top five stage finishers, in order, by Friday noon
• Whoever scores the highest from our complex points system wins!

I had directed that you send in your submissions by email, and a few of you have, but I think it'd be more fun to have people submit by commenting on this post, so you can debate the matter, and avoid picking the same guys as Drew. If you've emailed me, you're in (though you can join the fray here too). If not... well, we know how the race is shaping up for Saturday, so let's get started.

on the flip...

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Time once more to start clearing out the official, 1990s-ish Podium Cafe schwag bag and to launch another contest. I'm getting to like this idea. Look for more contests, including at least one based on offseason transfers. Anyway, without further ado, say hello to the Podium Cafe Angliru Quick Challenge!

Prerequisites to playing: You must be registered with the site, though doing so is easy and I believe can be done entirely without alphanumeric characters, for you privacy warriors. That's it; this contest has nothing to do with the Virtual Directeur Sportif. Lurkers, join and play!

How it works: Guess the top five finishers of stage 13 of the 2008 Vuelta a Espana, the ride to the Alto de l'Angliru, taking place on Saturday, September 13. Whoever does the best job of guessing wins a schwag item of their choice.

Nuts and bolts: This is a first of its kind, but the basics are: picking the winner is worth 25 points; picking the other four slots is worth 20 points for each correct selection. Correctly picking a rider for one of the top five slots, but not the right one (e.g., if you pick Contador to win but he comes second), is worth 5 points. Tiebreakers will be done poker style, e.g. picking 1, 2, and 3 beats 1, 3, and 4. But that's only for tiebreakers.

How do I enter? Send your five names, specifying the order, by email to podiumcafe@yahoo.com. Mention "Angliru" in the subject line, for ease of spam-sifting. Do this by Friday, September 12, noon Pacific. I will accept changes to early entries right up until the deadline, just as we do with the VDS. Try to keep them to a minimum, but do feel free to swap out Rider XXX after he crashes on stage 2.

Open Thready!

The British are cleaning up the track events: Gold for Wiggins, Gold for Romero, Gold and a world record in the team pursuit. Chapeau!

More photos and stories from Utah on the way. At Downer's Grove the critters are fighting out the U.S. national crit championship today. Action in the Tour of Portugal is firing up. And I hear there's still a bunch of stuff going on in Beijing. Something about people who run and jump fast. Why run, when you could ride a bike? Wheels are good.

Anyway, anything you want to talk about on this lovely Sunday (actually, it's super duper foggy here, which in it's own way, is plenty lovely), post away, my friends. I'll be back later to check on your work ;-)

Travel day Friday... you won't hear much from me. However, there's the Tour of Utah and Volta a Portugal for on-road action (and potentially on-scene reports); Olympic track events; and best of all, Gavia's massive Gossip to chew over. I'll be on vacation for the next week-plus, but there's wifi, and blogging still counts as a good time in my book. So I won't be MIA.

Since I opened this thread, use this for the non-Cycling Olympic chatter that I just know Crashdan is anxious to get going. Happy Friday; Ciao for now!

Enough with the doping related stories, time to focus on the racing again and get down to brass tacks for purposes of our predictions and rank speculation.  Now the topic of who has a chance to win is far above my pay grade, so I've chosen to focus on who has absolutely no chance to grab the brass ring in Beijing.

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Open Thread!

Your favorite Tour moments, random comments, and whatever you want to talk about on a Sunday afternoon.

Open Thread!

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Get lost in the history of the Tour de France, on video...

L'Histoire du Tour : Martigues-Narbonne plage 1981 (via letourdefrance)

L'Histoire du Tour : Lourdes-Hautacam 1994 (via letourdefrance)

Birthday Greetings from Joe Cocker (via jakepride)