Saturday, February 19, 2011

Volta ao Algarve stage 3

I'm still a little sickened that Contador is racing.  I must be the only one that is upset by the under rug swept this whole fiasco has become.  I've got nothing, all I can say is...Really?  I don't even want to follow the races that he is competing in, I find it disgusting, and it makes me ill to see his name in the results without a DNF or DNS next to it.  I'm a little whiny right now, so forgive me for my snide remarks.

Steve Cummings Team Sky super-domestique stepped out of the water-carrier role today on Alto do Malhao and took a win from some respected climbers.  Normally one who is riding in support of the team leader, Steve was green-lighted by DS Sean Yeates to go for the win.  Cummings will once again be called upon this year to shepard team leaders Wiggins, Rogers, and Flecha.

The Queen stage had plenty of drama and a breakaway that was only given a 4:00 leash that was eventually caught with 46k to go.  They endured several categorized climbs and an uphill finish that Cummings took from Van Garderen (HTC) and Contador (Saxo).  Gilbert was dropped and passed the leader's jersey to Cummings.  Tejay Van Garderen of HTC is an upstart American who was given a spot on the squad for the Vuelta last year and finished a respectable 35th.  Not bad for a 22 year old American who cut his teeth in the trenches with Rabobank's Continental squad.  He finished 9th GC in this race last year for HTC, I think he will do better this year sitting in 4th just 12sec down.

1 Stephen Cummings (GBr) Sky Procycling 4:56:19
2 Tejay Van Garderen (USA) HTC-Highroad
3 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Saxo Bank Sungard
4 Rein Taaramae (Est) Cofidis, Le Credit En Ligne
5 Tony Martin (Ger) HTC-Highroad
6 Tiago Machado (Por) Team RadioShack 0:00:06
7 Simon Gerrans (Aus) Sky Procycling 0:00:16
8 Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Pro Team Astana
9 Andreas Klöden (Ger) Team RadioShack
10 Ryder Hesjedal (Can) Team Garmin-Cervelo

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