Vuelta - Stage 8

Do we get a stage podium badge for seven equal firsts? Is there seven tools for one each, or are the folks at Halfords generous enough to fork out one each? I quite had my eyes on one of these....

Well done Chris, I had a good day too - just a Konig away from a win but I'm now up to 4th in East Anglia although only by a narrow 2 points, so you don't need to look over your shoulder quite yet !

WOOP! Joint first on the stage, second stage win (i'm calling it that) of the month. First full house for aaaages (I think). Didn't see it - was commentating on Cambridge Utd v Tamworth for Community radio! (Now thats harder than it looks...)

And I thought I'd done well! Still 180 points inc 20 penalty points, podium +'full house badges, not too bad!
Onwards and upwards...

Yes my mistake I transferred nibbles in after the deadline , mollema didn't score and Martin didn't start

I'm sure I had roche, konig , majka, zubeldia, Horner , valverde

Not so now

Chiv also had Martin who didn't start and Mollema who didn't score

Thats because this is the team I believe Chiv had: 1,3,8,11,12,14

Fluked a full house, thanks to Edet and Arndt

Hmmmm, I don't know where Chiv is, but 7 stage winners today

1 Scorekeeper scorekeeper 226
1= Gmancervelo Gmancervelo 226
1= bretagne s�ch� yann le coz 226
1= BMC (Bald Manc C___) Racing bradders1980 226
1= cherrypicked cherrypicked 226
1= The Pigeons chrisdstripes 226
1= Radio Bank guinunes 226

Its going to be confusing with jersey's tomorrow, Will Konig be in the mountains and Horner in the Allround??

1,2,4,5,6,7,9 for me plus wherever mollema finished

I guess 2,3,5,8,10,13,14 will be solid, my only non-scorer will be LL Sanchez. In hindsight going Konig over Uran and keeping Horner like Chris did would have been the best combo. So he could win the stage in my opinion.

3,5,8,10,11,14 knew i should of picked a netapp rider!

Nice of belkin to not show up

Nibali slips to fourth on GC

1 Nicolas ROCHE Ireland TST 29 31:39:30
2 Christopher HORNER United States RLT 42 +17
3 Daniel MORENO FERNANDEZ Spain KAT 32 +17
4 Vincenzo NIBALI Italy AST 29 +18
5 Leopold KONIG Czech Republic TNE 26 +29
6 Haimar ZUBELDIA AGIRRE Spain RLT 36 +30
7 Alejandro VALVERDE BELMONTE Spain MOV 33 +31
8 Rigoberto URAN URAN Colombia SKY 26 +42
9 Rafal MAJKA Poland TST 24 +52
10 Joaquin RODRIGUEZ OLIVER Spain KAT 34 +1:03

1 Leopold KONIG CZE TNE 26 4:09:46
2 Daniel MORENO FERNANDEZ ESP KAT 32 +1
3 Nicolas ROCHE IRL TST 29 +5
4 Thibaut PINOT FRA FDJ 23 +5
5 Ivan BASSO ITA CAN 36 +5
6 Bart DE CLERCQ BEL LTB 27 +8
7 Igor ANTON HERNANDEZ ESP EUS 30 +13
8 Alejandro VALVERDE BELMONTE ESP MOV 33 +19
9 Joaquin RODRIGUEZ OLIVER ESP KAT 34 +19
10 Rigoberto URAN URAN COL SKY 26 +23
11 Christopher HORNER USA RLT 42 +23
12 Rafal MAJKA POL TST 24 +23
13 Domenico POZZOVIVO ITA ALM 31 +23
14 Haimar ZUBELDIA AGIRRE ESP RLT 36 +23
15 Sergio Luis HENAO MONTOYA COL SKY 26 +27
16 Vincenzo NIBALI ITA AST 29 +27
17 Warren BARGUIL FRA ARG 22 +31
18 Ivan SANTAROMITA ITA BMC 29 +40
19 Yohan BAGOT FRA COF 26 +40
20 David ARROYO DURAN ESP CJR 33 +40

Not so good for my team, now Ive seen Chris has 1,2,3,5

Sprint 2
1 Piedra
2 Hupond
3 Nerz

Sprint 1
1 Busche
2 Anzanza
3 Nerz

I made 5 changes and still have 5 transfers left

Also managed 2 in the break...

Alejandro Valverde
Rigoberto Uran Uran
Carlos Alberto Betancur
Daniel Moreno
Domenico Pozzovivo
Rafal Majka
Jorge Azanza
Haimar Zubeldia
Francis De Greef

Gap now up to 3.00

I've gone with the big guns.

Nibali
JRod
Valverde
Horner
Roche
Basso
Zubeldia
Arroyo
Lasca

Cataldo, De Weert, Gastauer, Ferri, De Greef, Azanza, Howes, Huzarski, Hupond, Meier, Busche, Nerz, Piedra and Intxausti
Have a lead of 1.55

I needed the last 2 days to be more standard sprint stages really - as it was I didn't gain much of an advantage over people who kept more GC guys in. (In fact, thats exactly what happened in the TDF - I should probably have learnt from that...)

Anyway, used all my transfers this morning (7) to get the below - boring but hopefully effective. Being able to bank transfers is DEFINITELY an advantage in races like this (and well worth the tenner) but I've abjectly failed to take advantage so far

Valverde
Nibali
Roche
Moreno
Horner
Pozzovivo
Konig
Basso
Zubeldia

2 probable transfers lined up for tomorrow (no prizes for guessing one of them)...

There have been a number of escape attempts but Astana don't seem to want to let anybody go.
All together after 25km