Rodriguez moves into the hot seat; Froome slips away

Rodriguez opens up a gap on the stage and the GC. Photograph: Sirotti

Joaquim Rodriguez who managed to fight off his fast rivals against the clock yesterday, extended his lead today and now sits in prime position to win his first Grand Tour. There's a lot of racing still to go and enough climbs for a bad day to be had, but one thing is clear, the terrain ahead is all to the liking of Rodriguez and his victory today showed why he's looking confident.

Yesterday's individual time-trial was the best shot for Chris Froome to win this years Vuelta. He needed to go out and ride like he did in the Tour and at the Olympics and put serious time into his opponents. Alberto Contador would always be a tough nut to crack, but this is where his Vuleta would ultimately be won and lost. And as it turns out, it would appear this is where it was lost.

To be fair to Froome he came out of that time-trial just 18 seconds behind race leader Rodriguez, but with no time-trials to come and Rodriguez looking as strong as anyone in the mountains even that gap was going to take a big effort to overcome.

Four way battle in the Vuelta GC

Three of the 'big four' minus Chris Froome grind to the top of Saturday's final climb. Photograph: AFP Photo

The Vuelta hit its first rast day today, which was fine by me as I was back into work after a nice weekend in which I, for once, had the free time to sit down and watch both stages. That sort of stuff is becoming all to rare, so when I realised I had a free weekend I jumped on the computer to see what kind of stages lay ahead for my viewing pleasure. I almost got a nasty scare.

I misread the stage schedule at first and thought it said the rest day was on Sunday. I began cursing the race organisers for not putting everyone's weekend and a rare opportunity to put aside a couple of straight hours to watching the race on TV, only to find out it was my error and that I should curse myself for giving myself such a nasty shock.

Four way battle

Saturday was a 'high mountain' stage according to the stage guide which precisely the words a cycling fan loves to watch when they look to see what the stage they're about to watch has in store. And it didn't disappoint.

What now? Leave the record book empty, that's what

Armstrong congratulates Ullrich on a solid second place, or as of today, potentially, the Tour de France victory. Photograph: Robert Laberge/Getty Images

Safe to say that when I whittle your way through the entire cycling pyramid and discount anyone who doped or who I suspect of doping, I have just become the Tour de France champion ... SEVEN times.

You've all heard the news by now that rather than facing the evidence, or having it presented to the wider public, Lance Armstrong has ran away and accepted whatever the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) decide to throw at him. The evidence we all hope will still come out allowing those few with their heads still buried in the sand to come up for a gasp of reality, but until it does this is Armstrong saying, 'You can take my titles, but my PR machine will ensure you don't take my good name'.

Do I think Armstrong doped? Absolutely. I'd love to see what evidence they have once and for all, but from what I've heard the evidence they do have is pretty serious and they have more than enough sworn witness testimony that was made before a Grand Jury of the United States government that suggests to me he's hardly the innocent boy in all of this. Not to mention the fact everyone he pummeled into the ground for seven straight years were doped to the eyeballs themselves. That of course should lead me to point out that despite being stripped of his titles today, he still won those Tours given who he beat along the way. Going after Lance is correct so long as the same standard applies to others from which evidence exists. Bjarne Riis and Jan Ullrich have admitted to doping yet remain the 1996 and 1997 champions, while there's a stack of evidence against the now deceased Marco Pantani who won in 1998. And what of Alberto Contador who still retains his victories from 2007 and 2008?

The fun hasn't stopped; The Vuelta is underway

You wouldn't want to be a cycling fan living in the south of Spain

Just when you thought you couldn't get anymore good cycling this fine summer -- what with an fantastic Giro d'Italia in the early days of the summer that now seems oh-so-long-ago, and then a Tour de France that itself seems longer ago than it really is thanks to the Olympic games which offered us two weeks of wheel-to-wheel action from the road race, to the time-trial, the track cycling, the BMX and on the final days of those brilliant London games, the mountain bike race -- this past weekend seen the start of another Grand Tour: the Vuelta a España.

The route itself has the potential to throw out lots of drama and right from the beginning. The climbs come early, and as we have seen, they're testing enough to separate the contenders from the rest and let us know before the race is even a week old just who will be contending for the red jersey.

British cycling is in the midst of its finest year in history. A golden age and the crest of a high wave, though don't tell anyone too loudly that this is the 'crest', but it's seen British track cyclists clean up at the World Championships earlier in the year and dominate the track at the Olympics, a British winner of the Tour de France for the first time ever thanks to Bradley Wiggins and the same man winning Gold in the Olympic time-trial. Throw in the dominance of the British team in general at the Olympics and how quickly England's failure at the European Championships -- remember those? -- back in June has subsided into forgotten memory. Even Andy Murray's Olympic Gold allowed everyone to forget his defeat at Wimbledon just a few weeks before on the same court to the same man he beat in his Gold medal game.

Winning a series; and signs that the season is ending

This week was the final race in the Tuesday night series at Kelso Park. I'm gonna miss that series. 12 races, of which I took part in 10, throughout this fine summer went by like the summer itself, much too quickly. After winning two of my first three races up there in the Sport category, I never tasted victory again, but I apparently rode consistently enough through most races -- even including that July dip in form when my brother came to visit and we spent more time eating out than out on a bike training, but with no regrets, of course -- to finish the 30-39 age class in first place.

If I'm honest, I don't remember the last time, if ever, that I won a mountain bike series? I might have when I was in my teenage years at the North Down CC winter mountain bike races that my dad and uncle would run and that would take place in far more hostile conditions to those I had to adapt myself to on these hot balmy Tuesday evenings, but I can't be sure. I think I did, so I'll choose to say I did, but I may not have and if it is the case that I did but just forgot about as a teenager is apt to do on the belief you'll do it again and again anyway, then I won't make the same mistake twice.

It's been a fun season of mountain biking and these Tuesday night races have allowed for me to do more racing this year than I have since I was about 15, and even then this might be the most in a single year ever. It was nice to win twice in this little series even, as I say, if it was a mid-week series sport category, but it's something that feels good no matter what the standard is and having not done that on a bike for about 15 years, it sure felt good and you remember why you enjoyed it before and wonder why you allowed yourself to wait so long to do it again.

Slippery when wet in Buckwallow

A great days racing at Buckwallow today. No hills on the course which suits me just fine, but a technically challenging course in parts with plenty of mud after a lot of rain earlier in the weekend. I finished sixth.

I probably could have went harder the last lap but didn't see a single other rider to push me on and decided to just enjoy it ... and keep a lookout for the bear. There had been reports of a bear being seen on the course the day before and so I figured it was worth keeping a little energy in reserve, just in case!

I didn't get practicing the course before hand for they had cancelled the Saturday pre-ride due to the weather and not wanting several hundred mountain bikers ripping up the course a day before they needed to, which meant many of us rode it blind. I never like riding a course blind ... you have no idea what's coming up around the next corner and whether or not to conserve something for a hill that might suddenly appear. I was assuming this course might have at least one big climb to rip me apart, but it didn't. Had it been very dry it would have been a super fast lap, but was it was with the mud, most energy was spent making sure the bike stayed upright.

The King of Britain

The peoples champion. Bradley Wiggins.

The pressure on Bradley Wiggins doubled on Saturday afternoon when the British team failed to deliver Mark Cavendish to Gold in the road-race, but you'd hardly have known it. As if it were scripted, as if just behind our camera's a director was sitting on a chair shouting 'lights, camera, action', Brad Wiggins ride in Wednesday's time-trial was never in doubt, and as he powered through Bushy Park, with the road lined either side, ten deep, by flag waving excitable British fans with the Olympic Games on their home turf and their finest cycling hero on his way to glory, it became the image of the games thus far. Wiggins crushed his opposition and with it took his forth Olympic gold, and seventh medal in total to make him the most decorated British Olympian ever.