Well, I was thoroughly stumped for what to say about Saturday's semi-critical time trial... yes, I can look up the leaderboard, but unlike the Tour -- when we all knew exactly who would be in the top five -- I have very little to say about the time trial abilities of, say, Valverde or Kashechkin. To be nice, I will refrain from talking about Carlos Sastre. Really, besides Vino and maybe Karpets, I can't detect much in the way of time-trialing class. FWIW, though, here is the official Vuelta site's list of the favorites and their start times:
-David Millar (GB-SDV) 12.33
-Vladimir Karpets (R-CEI) 13.47
-Manuel Beltrán (DSC) 13.49
-Danilo Di Luca (I-LIQ) 13.51
-Janez Brajkovic (Sl-DSC) 13.53
-Alexandre Vinokourov (K-AWT) 13.55
-Gómez Marchante (SDV) 13.57
-Carlos Sastre (CSC) 13.59
-Andrey Kashechkin (K-AWT) 14.01
-Alejandro Valverde (CEI) 14.03
OK, that helps some. I'd forgotten about Millar. But then, the mathematician in me having long since died in a haze of alcohol and useless facts, I turned to Cycling.TV to see exactly when I need to tune in... and that's when things got ugly. Their coverage kicks off at 4:30am. Have fun y'all! See you for the replay!