Volta ao Algarve stage 5

Photo credit © João Dias

The Volta ended with a 17.2k TT that Tony Martin (HTC) decided to destroy.  Must feel good to go out and crush a final stage TT and end up with the overall.  Martin, the German national TT champ is a pretty good TT man and the only one close was Lieuwe Westra (Vacansoleil) 5sec off the pace.  Tiago Machado of RadioShack put down an impressive TT in front of his home country in 3rd 26sec off of Martin's time.  Tejay Van Garderen (HTC) and  Andreas Kloden of RadioShack were both 30sec down, but Tejay's GC position before the stage was good enough for 2nd overall. HTC did well for themselves racking up the top two spots on the podium.

The more I think about it, and the more I talk about it, the sicker I get.  I know there is nothing I can do about it other than gripe and complain.  Contador.  As if his pistolero salute was not obnoxious enough, now I have to deal with him back in cycling.  He was given a hall pass by the Spanish Federation of Sport.  Yes, I know why they did it and I don't blame them -ok I do blame them, why would they sideline their own especial golden goose.  Keep him in the mix and keep the money train right on schedule.  We can't blame the Spanish, blame the Euro/Dollar.  It's all about money.

That being said, I am excited to note that Contador slipped out of the third and last podium spot and had to settle for fourth.  I know I am childish, but it did make me smile a little.

Stage
1 Tony Martin (Ger) HTC-Highroad 0:20:53
2 Lieuwe Westra (Ned) Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team 0:00:05
3 Tiago Machado (Por) Team RadioShack 0:00:26
4 Jesse Sergent (NZl) Team RadioShack 0:00:27
5 Andreas Klöden (Ger) Team RadioShack 0:00:30
6 Tejay Van Garderen (USA) HTC-Highroad
7 Luis Leon Sanchez Gil (Spa) Rabobank Cycling Team
8 Sébastien Rosseler (Bel) Team RadioShack 0:00:31
9 Thomas De Gendt (Bel) Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team 0:00:39
10 Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) Quickstep Cycling Team 0:00:42

Overall GC
1 Tony Martin (Ger) HTC-Highroad 18:48:45
2 Tejay Van Garderen (USA) HTC-Highroad 0:00:32
3 Lieuwe Westra (Ned) Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team 0:00:39
4 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Saxo Bank Sungard 0:00:41
5 Andreas Klöden (Ger) Team RadioShack 0:00:46
6 Tiago Machado (Por) Team RadioShack 0:00:47
7 Stephen Cummings (GBr) Sky Procycling 0:00:53
8 Rein Taaramae (Est) Cofidis, Le Credit En Ligne 0:00:59
9 Luis Leon Sanchez Gil (Spa) Rabobank Cycling Team 0:01:04
10 Thomas De Gendt (Bel) Vacansoleil-DCM Pro Cycling Team 0:01:05