Nuggets about Radioshack + Leopard

Radioshack + Leopard = Reotard?

Shack + Trek = Shrek?

Radioshack + Nissan = Raiden?

Too tired to actually write much about the merger... other than the observation that a team with the Schlecks, Cancellara, Horner, Kloden, Brajkovic, Busche, Fugalsang is going to be a force next year. Still don't see that much support for Cancellara in the Classics though.

One thing is becoming apparent... the UCI World Tour teams are quickly being divided into the Haves and Have-Nots. Garmin, BMC, and now Radioshacktreknissanleopardtreknissanradioshackluxembourgschleckbruyneel are the Haves. The rest are the Have-Nots.

The Angliru and other thoughts

The Angliru!

Though I had mentioned that the Vuelta is the "ugly sister" of the grand tours, it has some climbs that really are spectacular. The most iconic of the climbs is the Angliru... a beast of a climb in northern Spain that marked the summit finish of Stage 15 yesterday. The overall climb is 12.5km with an average of 10.1%. Think that sounds bad? Well, the final 6km of the climb average over 13% with ramps of 23%. Even the pros use mountain bike gearing to get up climbs like this. There are many climbs in Europe that I want to tackle... this is not one of them. To be perfectly honest, I wouldn't be able to ride up the entire climb and would certainly have to walk parts of it.

I won't dwell on the results of the stage from yesterday. I'll just say that Cobo's climb was impressive. Impressive enough that some people are questioning him and his authenticity. I can't say that I agree with them... their doubts are simply based on the fact that Cobo hasn't lead a grand tour in the past. Unless some evidence comes up that suggests that something is suspicious, I'd prefer to think that Cobo actually earned the right to wear the leader's jersey