One Tour Ends and Another Begins.

Once again the weekend offered an embarrassment of competitive cycling to cover. The Vuelta reached a climax with a final chance for anyone to close the gap on Contador on Saturday. The summit finish on the Bola del Mundo brought out attacks from all the Spanish contenders but, despite the best efforts of Rodriguez and Valverde, Contador hung on to keep the leader's jersey all the way to Madrid on Sunday. In terms of other results, Gilbert showed the return of his form to take a stage win on Friday with pace that, despite being perfectly positioned, Sky's sprinter Ben Swift just couldn't contend with.

Orica Green-Edge wrapped up the climbers competition with Simon Clarke in the polka dots, and also found time to make a music video.

As one race ended another was beginning. The highly anticipated and higher profile than ever Tour of Britain kicked off with a sprinter's stage that still saw a Sky win even after Cavendish was caught in a crash. With my reporting restricted by railway wi-fi, I'll bring you more on this as it develops.

Also in the UK, the Paralympic cycling concluded with the crazy mess that is the hand cycling relay where the power of Zanardi couldn't hold off a win from the US.

Remember the DH World Champs last weekend? This is how Minnaar won it:

Minnaar Turns Carbon Into Gold from santa cruz bikes on Vimeo.

Still sticking with competition, but from a different angle, this video should either make you wantto grab a bike and go 24 hour racing. Or not at all.

bikes in the forest. from Sixth Row on Vimeo.

Oh one more thing. Apparently this is the future of cycling in London.

A