Vuelta stage 5

Well la Vuelta finally got boring. If you believe that then I have a hammer with your name on it. Send me your address and I'll get that shipped out to you.

Flat stage, which means bunch sprint, which also means in la Vuelta rolling hills. Seriously nothing is flat in Spain. The peloton has been inundated with heat and climbing, so they were content letting the break of four get a 6:30 lead, but then Gilbert sent Omega to the front to keep them within a usable gap. The sprinter's teams also helped keep the break to a workable gap, with bunch sprint on the menu today.

14k to go the break was consumed by the peloton and the sprinter's teams went to the front to push the pace into the 50kph+ range. Taxi please. That is fast, even for a short distance, but 13-14k to go at 50kph+ after being in the saddle over 150k. I can't wrap my head around that. ????

Cavo has no lead out, HTC used all their matches and left Cav to fend for himself. It worked for him after he lost Renshaw in France. Cavo launches at about 400m and is gone, but then Tyler launches on the left and brings Fernandez with him. Tyler and Fernandez catch Cav just before the line and take One Two from him. Way to go Tyler.

Now don't believe the hype, or should I say excuses. No excuses, you either do or you don't. Tyler won and that is all there is to it, no water cooler talk about this or that. Watch the highlights, and be your own judge. I will tell you that in cycling you are only as good as your last race. Period.

Photo: © Roberto Bettini