*Valverde's CONI suspension may have been a blessing in disguise.

*Valverde and Sammy Sanchez both succeeding in the Vuelta while skipping the Giro and the Tour (though for quite different reasons) makes one wonder how Ivan Basso could have done without the Giro.

*Moncoutié can climb a mountain in Spain, but apparently not in France. What the fuck, dude?

*If Mark Cavendish never existed, Team Columbia would still win a ton of stages in stage races.

*Andy Schleck's not quite ready. He's still guaranteed to win a Grand Tour or five or ten before he hangs it up, but the first might not be as soon to come as we thought.

*He could miss the entire 2010 season and still be as likely to win a Grand as Cadel Evans. Talk about a bridesmaid.

*Whether he has the rainbow jersey or not, Cancellara can still make you his bitch in the time trial.

*The next two Grand Tours might have beginnings as boring as this one did (2010 Giro and 2010 Tour are also starting in the Netherlands), though hopefully they'll have a better crop of sprinters than this Vuelta did.

*The combination classification remains pretty pointless. This'll make six years in a row it's won by the GC winner.

*Robert Gesink continues to impress. We need a Grand Tour that he and Andy both start and both finish (Gesink crashed out of this year's Tour de France).

*Has Damiano Cunego finally figured out he's better off as a stage hunter?

*Tyler Farrar can get it done with the whole cycling world watching.

*Though his team is going to win this year's team classification, one can't help but wonder if Ezequiel Mosquera might have made some of these Vuelta podiums he's just narrowly missed the last few years if he had stronger support riders.

*Overall success and stage success seem to be conflicting agendas. Only two of the final top ten won a stage, and one of those was a breakaway.

*You could probably win a lot of bar bets asking who were the only two Spaniard to win a stage at this year's Vuelta.