By now you already know about Sammy Sanchez' sneaky win at today's Vuelta stage 13, where the favorites briefly joined the battle on the eve of the big time trial, before conceding another 8 seconds to maillot oro Alejandro Valverde. Sanchez was the story today with a dashing escape in the last 8km, but all eyes are rightly on tomorrow's not so flat time trial, where the top 10 will probably shuffle itself around somewhat.
In other race news, Stephane Auge took today's Polish Tour stage on a long break with Aaron Olson, while Daniele Bennati held on to the overall lead through the last inconsequential stage of the race. The ride gets rough for the last two stages this weekend. Among the climbers/contenders on hand are Stefan Schumacher, Stefano Garzelli, and Yaroslav Popovich.
- After yesterday's optimism, Thomas Dekker has now been ruled out for the worlds. Found a fracture in his wrist after all, from his crash in Poland.
- Two notes from CN's coverage of Germans. As reported in another thread, Jens Voigt is not looking to be on the move, however much he and T-Mob might wish. A contract is a contract, says that cheapskate Riis.
- Also, now a prosecutor in Germany is looking into bringing
attention to himselffraud charges against Jan Ullrich. Apparently every child molester, tax cheat and errant driver in Bonn has been locked up, and the local prosecutor can now get down to the serious business of preserving the People's right to good sports viewing. Seriously, Ullrich's beyond defending if the charges are true, but even I -- who devotes a sizable chunk of my brain to an unhealthy obsession with Pro Cycling -- have to admit that it doesn't make for a national priority, however fun and cool it may be.
- Last... BiciRace kicks off the Worlds preview rounds!