he didn't fall off his bike

The Tour of Spain ended yesterday with no surprises to speak of. The Rabo web site gives the news of the final stage: "Menchov does not fall off his bike and thereby wins the 2007 Vuelta, thanks partly to an exceptionally good team that did an enormous amount of work for him." The photo shows the three overall winners during a promenade moment before the bunch assembled for the sprinters' mad dash for the finish line.

{click image to view full size; source: http://www.lavuelta.com/07}

Menchov won the competition for best rider in the mountains and for best overall ("combinada" in Spanish). He almost won top place in the points competition as well (winner of most intermediate sprints). He also won the critical time trial on Saturday.

Joost came in 12th in time trial. He said he'd hoped to be one of the top five finishers but, but after all his work in the last few stages, he didn't have the legs for it.

You can read Rabo's wrap-up on their web site. 23/09: Chronicle of successful Rabo Vuelta. It begins thus: "The Rabo ProTeam performed extremely strong in the 2007 Tour of Spain. The cleverly assembled team achieved all of its goals: stage victories for sprinter Oscar Freire and the final victory for Denis Menchov."

Despite (or maybe because of) frequent and thorough testing, there were no drug scandals this time.