Russian on towering climb

I was just noticing today's stage profile on the Vuelta. Stage 4 would not seem any arousing were it not for this towering climb, jeez, that road opens up to the sky like the mouth of a whale. Lagos is touted as the most emblematic climb of the 3 week race. Congrats to Piepoli, the climber from Italy and the Russian Efimkin. (Its a bit ironic though that Piepoli was aquitted from "doping allegations" for taking the same medications as Petacchi did prior to the Tour de France. Doping decisions are all over the place...)

I have been attentive to Rebellin's results. 5th in stage 2, 4th in stage 3 and not a bad result for stage 4. Overall, he's 64th in the classification, just one down Paolo Bettini! Thats awesome. Watch out for these two guys, among my favorite cyclists. I should be watching some more bike races, have no time really. School's getting in the way! :(

Vuelta a Espana 2007

Folks, I almost forgot. The last great Tour of the year is still to be contended. This mega 3 week race, beginning on Sept 1. is a wide open field again like the TDF. Contador and Valverde are not there, Astana is out... who else who else? Paolo Bettini, yeah! No I mean, he's racing. Isn't that awesome?!

Whats interesting though, will be the sprint contention between Boonen and guess who... Alessandro Petacchi. Yup, he's back I hear. Zabel's there too. The game between the sprinters will be the best to watch, I should say. This is better than the Tour de France, really. Let's hope there are no doping stories.

I love the official website, its got something obviously different to it than what the French put out this summer. Cadel is racing, I can't believe he has the strength to do one of these monstrosities again...Solid climber that he is , he will be cautiously watched by many riders on the mountains, mainly Carlos Sastre.. I sort of feel they are equal in their abilities.

Apart from those names, one of my all-time favorite riders Davide Rebellin of Italy is on the Tour, for team Gerolsteiner. It'll be a pleasure to watch him dance his pedals, I'll be fully supporting him. Denis Menchov is sure to be on the list of possible contenders for the title.

Watch it on cycling.tv!