The only things you can rely on these days with any degree of certainty are death, taxes, and Burke Swindlehurst making the final group in the Gila Monster stage of New Mexico’s Tour of the Gila bicycle stage race. Utah’s homegrown nice guy badass flyfishing book reading espresso drinking loud music listening to pro cyclist got his mugshot in the the sports section of nytimes.com because he was once again in the final group duking it out for the win in Pinos Altos. That’s Burke, second from left between race leader Levi Leipheimer, and Lance in the middle. Burke has won this stage three or four times (maybe it’s five, if anyone can correct me, please post a comment) over the last 15 years. People in Silver City, New Mexico have statues of him in little ad hoc shrines, paying homage to the quiet and unassuming pilgrim who comes to town every year to slay the dragon. Of course the NYTIMES story is all about Lance, Lance, Lance, and how he was supposed to win, but he didn’t, and oh boy, I guess there are chinks in his armor and he might not be able to win the Tour. Whatever. I’m just glad for Burke to come away with an excellent 4th place overall and to have made all his Utah amigos proud. If you want to follow Burke and his adventures, he’s a pretty steady micro-blogger on Twitter. Follow @slctbird.

Davey Sprocket rocked it in the critical Amgen Tour of California Solvang individual time trial. Last rider on the course Levi Leipheimer won by 9 seconds, which will make it hard for Z to take the race lead, but at least while Leipheimer was on course, Dave clocked the fastest time. He beat Mick Rogers by 14 seconds, which will put him into second place overall. Cyclingnews.com has preliminary results, more to follow, but it looks like the overall contenders are starting to shake out.