Eat Dirt, Valverde!

OK, I know it's childish to gloat, but honestly,  who wouldn't?

In Paris-Nice,  stage 7, Levi Leipheimer (sitting third in GC)  took a tumble on a gravelly corner when his rain jersey got tangled up with his front wheel. Oops - these things happen. He had to swap bikes,  and the new bike was not set up correctly for him, which didn't help him get back onto the peloton. Then he took another tumble - not his fault - and Movistar, hearing about this, put the hammer down and surged away, making it harder and harder for Levi to catch them. On the wrong bike, he was clearly struggling to keep up with his team, most of whom were with him, pulling him back to the peloton. But they were getting there.

Then there was another crash, into a parked motorcycle that was - to be fair - doing his job: he'd stopped on the apex of a corner to protect a Lampre rider who had just that moment fallen off right there. Unfortunately,  although most of the Omega QS riders got round the obstacle, one of them, Dries Devenyns, couldn't avoid running up the back of the motorcycle, (doing a painful-looking face-plant as he did so) closely followed by Levi. Aagh! Blood!

Movistar were still pulling like a train, and this third crash meant that most of the Omega team came in over 9 minutes down on the main peloton.

Now, this wasn't bad sportsmanship: Levi was not in the yellow jersey, he was not leading the GC, Movistar were not obliged to slow down for him - but it was a pretty mean thing to do, and there was a bit of hissing amongst the peloton.  And on the sofa, from LLB and I. Neither of us are particular fans of Levi or or Omega, but it was a bit mean.

Then in stage two of Catalunya, Velverde of Movistar crashed, and guess who went to the front and swept the peloton away? Yup, Omega.

Go, boys!