It’s been a quiet weekend, cycling wise. At least controversially speaking. Mostly people have been talking about the Landis verdict, which I’ve already covered. But also, over the weekend, the Vuelta ended. I mentioned earlier that fewer people are watching the Vuelta than the other two Grand Tours. Well, it turns out I’m one of them. For most of the three weeks, I’ve watched as many stages as I could. Except for the final stage yesterday.

I was distracted by several things, none of them pressing or important. And somehow time got away from me and I completely forgot to watch the race. I blame, at least in part, US tv for not showing the races. What better things do they have to show in the morning? Fishing? Paid programming? I mean, seriously. Of course, I could have gotten decent enough coverage on cycling.tv, but as many of you know I don’t like their commentators. And even if I did, their price is far too much for me to be able to afford right now.

So I worked around it, but it also meant that I sometimes forgot to watch. Like yesterday. I don’t necessarily feel bad about missing the final stage. But at the same time, watching the final stage gives me some sort of closure on the race. Maybe next year.

What I do hope, and what we saw this year, was that a lot of riders who hand’t consistently raced the Vuelta were there. I’d like to see more of these “big names” (regardless of how big they are — from van Goolen to Chavanel to Menchov) racing in Spain. It does good things for both the race and cycling in general.

Next up — Worlds. Who knows what’ll happen or who’ll race. I’ll try to watch, but again, it’s not on TV, so that makes it hard.