Vuelta a Espana

Today my favorite race, la Vuelta a Espana, starts.  I spent around 7 months in Granada, Spain a few years back.  Learning some of the culture and the language was a great experience, and oh yeah, living 20 minutes from the base of Pico de Veleta made for plenty of interesting riding, or suffering was more like it.  If you left from the center of town you could ride uphill for more than 2 hrs., and that was if you were really fast.  Anyway, when you finally did get up to the top it was a great view and then you got to descend for about a half an hour passing as many cars as you could.  This is the Moviestar team for this year's addition of la Vuelta.  That naked, hairy guy was a last second replacement for an injured rider.  Turns out he is their GC man, so be looking for him attacking out of the peloton on some of the harder climbs.  He doesn't appear to be much of a time trialist.  Adios amigos.