2013 Vuelta a España - Tour of Spain

He was quite blatant. Along the lines of... " yes I'm surprised by the performance. He's 42 with no track record and just ridden away from the 4 best climbers in the sport who are all at the peak of fitness.

Nibs just said he didn't expect his form to be that good and just let him go thinking he'd blow and be reeled in.

Purito just said that there's hope for him that he can also ride that well when he's 42.

Both veiled hints at the performance I reckon but just not a blatant as Valverde.. Which is rich coming from him..

I think the translation is 'what is he on and why don't I have some of that?'. Quite amusing when dopers complain about others performances, I think Basso said something along similar lines about Wiggins in 2012.

I do feel that generally teams and riders were on best behaviour during the TdF, probably from an edict from the organisers/police, 'do not dope during the 100th edition or we will lay the smacketh down on you in the worst way', but during the Giro and Vuelta it's back to business as normal.

In other news they're thinking of turning over Santa's positive from the Giro, because the amounts of EPO in his blood were tiny, but apparently consistent with micro-dosing. The circus rolls on, the clown is still in charge and the credibility of the sport is fucked.