Vino at the Vuelta

Finally, some good news for Alexandre Vinokourov at a Grand Tour as he won the Vuelta a España on Sunday. Of course, living in America, I did not see a lick of TV coverage, but that's a rant for another day. If it weren't for the Operacion Puerto investigation, and the poor way it has been handled so far, Vinokourov, and his entire team, would have been able to compete in the Tour de France. Five of his Astana-Wurth team mates were implicated in the spanish doping investigation, which left Vino's team without enough riders to compete, so he was out too. Then those five team members were cleared the week after the Tour de France ended. The Tour, as it was, was exciting anyway, because it seemed nobody wanted to win it, until the final week with Floyd Landis' gutsy, and perhaps tainted, performances in the alpine stages. But what if Vino were in the mix? The Kazakh is fearless and we know that he will even attack his own team mates to win mountain stages like he did last year when he was on T-Mobile. At least he got some vindication with his performance in the Vuelta.

Team Discovery Channel also made up for their disappointing showing in the Tour de France, showing their weakness in the post-Armstrong era, by winning the Team prize. And Egoi Martinez won the King of the Mountain prize, which made this Vuelta a very successful one. So, there is hope after all, but they better choose a big boy soon. The signing of Levi Leipheimer will make things very interesting for Discovery next year, and hopefully Levi will break through with the superior support and technology that Discovery uses during training and races.

Floyd Landis made an appearance on the final day to support his former team mates on Phonak, and maintained his innocence. I have not written much after the investigation went to the USADA, which is the only body that can strip Landis of his Tour de France title. It really is all up to the lawyers now.