Ryder does it!

Hi All,

I thought my pseudo-reverse jinx of mentioning how Team Garmin always finishes 2nd in Grand Tour stages worked nicely when Tyler Farrar won Stage 11 of the Vuelta D'Espana on Wednesday morning. This came about 12 hours after my comment. But the unbelievable happened again today in Stage 12, when Canadian Ryder Hesjedal once again got in a breakaway, and this time managed to hold on for the stage win!

Today's Stage 12 was the first of a trio of mountain stages expected to really break open this year's Vuelta. It was a difficult day, with three Category 1 climbs. Hesjedal got into the breakaway today, and managed to just barely stay away from the main peloton as the last hill of the day, a 13 km finishing climb, greatly reduced their lead. But Hesjedal outmanoeuvred his opponent with a late surge, and won his first Grand Tour stage. It was also the first ever win for a Canadian at the Vuelta D'Espana and the first Grand Tour stage win for a Canadian since Steve Bauer in the 1988 Tour de France.

Quite a dry spell for Team Garmin (0 Stage wins in Grand Tours the last two years) is now definitely over after back to back stage wins. And the Canadian drought is also over. Quite a day in Spain today...

I was actually planning on posting this Velonews story on Ryder that appeared on Thursday (they called him Mr September) as a nice feature in today's Bikey, but now it needs to be edited to include Stage Winner!

Great job Ryder!

More coming in a bit...triathlon Worlds start soon!