Giro and Tour presentations:

The 2011 season ended on Saturday, but everyone who is everyone in the Blogsphere is already talking about the 2012 Giro d'Italia and the 2012 Tour de France. Therefore, I must talk about it too.

So. The Italian race was presented on Sunday, one day after the Giro di Lombardia. The live broadcast from Milan started with some moving images of Wouter Weylandt's career, from his Giro victory in 2010 to his tragic death this year. Auro Bulbarelli was the first one to speak and he introduced a video that shows the place where WW Special lost his life four months ago. On that damned little wall now there is a big 108, on the other side of the road instead there are flowers, cycling jerseys, hats, written messages, pictures and a big, red heart. Bulbarelli also takes the chance to remind everyone that Wouter's wife, An-Sophie, gave birth to the little Alizée Weylandt last month. A joyful event that was shadowed by the fact that the little baby will never know her father and by the fact that, right now, poor An-Sophie is unemployed.

After remembering Wouter, RAI decided to show us the images of last year's race. In that way we all had the chance of remembering touching moments like Tiralongo's victory, great attacks like Nibali's one in the Gardeccia stage, great deeds like the one of Vasil Kiryenka on Colle delle Finestre, nervous moments like the ones of the Ulissi-Visconti fight and breathtaking seconds like the ones that led to Bart De Clerq's first victory.

Many of the riders who rocked the cycling stage during the season attended the presentation and they were introduced at the end of the video. The young Battaglin looked incredibly shy, whereas Guardini looked more comfortable in his very nice suit. Cavendish opted for a white trousers + white shirt + white sweater combo, whereas Van Den Broeck chose a terribly shiny suit. Nibali looked as classy as usual, whereas Scarponi and Cunego looked pretty shabby in their Lampre sweaters. Rujano decided to wear a leather jacket, Kreuziger sported a shiny golden tie, Nieve wore his favourite sweater, the one he probably wears at home when it's cold outside. Hushovd wore a suit too, just like Ballan and the goofy Daniel Martin (please, tell me my eyes were wrong when they told my brain that he was wearing leather trousers!!). Fuglsang looked hot even if he was sporting a very casual look whereas Basso probably hadn't shaved for at least one week. Boasson Hagen decided not to wear a jacket over his shirt, whereas Garzelli looked as classy as usual. Also Johnny Hoogerland should have taken part in the presentation, but he and his tazi probably got lost in the Milan fog.

Alberto Contador was the last rider to be introduced and he found himself on the Giro stage after being put inside a black cylindre which was later lowered onto the stage. Conti came out of the cylindre with nonchalance and in that moment I thought that Alberto is a really extraordinary person: he didn't even blush red when he went out of that thing!

After all the riders (Johnny Hoogerland excluded) had arrived on the stage, the Giro presentation finally began. First of all, RAI had to show a a threatening video message in which Pat McQuaid stated something like: 'The future of the Giro depends on what the UCI does'. I took it as a threat, and I'm afraid I wasn't the only one.  A few seconds later, the 2012 parcours of the Corsa Rosa was eventually shown.

As known, next year edition of the pink race will take off with a 8.7 kms long ITT in Herning, Denmark. Also the second stage of the race will take place in Herning, whereas the third one will be raced near Horsens. Herning is the place to be next May, no doubts about that.

The first rest day of the race arrives after just 3 day and will allow the riders to move from Denmark to Verona, where they'll face a 32 kms long TTT (please Geox, find yourself some decent time trialists in time for this stage!!). During the presentation an Italian journalist complained about the fact that next year the Corsa Rosa will start from Denmark but won't have any stage in the South of Italy but, of course, his critics were ignored.

After the TTT, the riders will face many hilly stages that may end up being very tricky for the GC. The most interesting stages of the first 10 days of race will probably be the Lago Laceno, the Assisi and the Sestri Levante ones. In particular, the stage to Lago laceno has a summit finish, whereas the other two stages will offer us a lot of fun thanks to the hilly terrain. The second week of race will end with two tough stages: the first one goes from Cherasco to Cervinia, the other one instead will see the riders starting their daily fatigue in Busto Arsizio ('Svarione degli Anelli', anyone?) and finishing it in Lecco after facing tough climbs like Valcava.

The third week will begin with a hilly stage to Pfalzen, followed by a tough day in the Dolomites during which the riders will have to face Passo Giau before riding downhill towards Cortina.

The penultimate stage of the race has an uphill finish to Alpe di Pampeago, whereas the last one is terrific: during it in fact the riders will have to face Tonale, Aprica, Mortirolo and Stelvio. Apropos, how will the supporters find enough free space on the Mortirolo? The road is so narrow and the supporters will be so many!

On the last day of race the remaining riders will end their fatigue in Milan after a 31.5 kms long TT. In this way, we're likely to be glued to the television until the very last stage of the Giro.

So, what do I think of this parcours? Well, let's say that I quite like it because it seems a good mixture of hilly stages, historical climbs and interesting sceneries. The Giro winner won't have to be a super time trialist, but he'll have to be ready to solve every problem that he might have during the hilly stages and he'll have to be a super climber in order to resist the terrible last stage. This Giro is more human than the ones of the last years (it even has 400 kms of transfers less than the 2011 one) and hopefully it will be very exciting.

Let's now talk about the 2012 Tour de France, which was presented this morning. First of all, some fashion remarks: some riders (Cadel Evans above all) looked very classy (and me approved), some others instead decided wearing a suit without a tie. No leather jackets were spotted amongst the crowd.

The Schleck brothers both wore a suit, even if they surprisingly chose different colours for their shirts: blue for Andy (did he steal the idea from Voeckler?), white for Frank. At least, this year we didn't have to stand OGL's beige shirt. Gilbert looked very classy, whereas there was something wrong with Van Den Broeck and Hushovd's shirts: Jurgen seemed to suffocate in his one, whereas one could tell from Hushovd's look that the room where the presentation was held was extremely hot. Anyway, enough fashion for today.

The 2012 TdF will begin with a 6 kms prologue in Liége, followed by two sprinters stages (hello crashes!). The 4th stage is likely to be entertaining, just like the 7th one, which has a summit finish. The last climb of that stage is short (5.5 kms) but steep (9%), so we'll surely have fun watching it.

After a hilly stage, the riders will tackle the second TT of the race, which is said to be hilly and is 38 kms long. On the following day the athletes will have to climb the Col de la Colombiere, but then they'll have to face 40 kms of descent and flat terrain before reaching the finish-line. Then, on the following day, the menu offers us an epic stage featuring Col de la Croix de Fer, col de la Madeleine and La Toussuire. YAY! (yes, Chris Anker Sorensen and I are already looking forward to that day :P).

After the second summit finish of the race, we'll have to wait until the 16th stage before we can see some important mountains again. In fact the Pau - Bagneres-de-Luchon has historical climbs like Aubisque, Tourmalet, Aspin and Pereysourde on its menu.

24 hours later, the last summit finish: the riders in fact will have to climb up to Peyragudes. On the following day, the athletes will be busy fighting against the clock for 52 kms. After this last fatigue, they'll finally be able to take part in the traditional parade on the Champ Elysées.

So, what do I think of this Tour? Honestly, I don't really like it. I prefer climbers above time trialists and this new Tour seems perfect for this latter category of riders. 3 (3!) summit finishes, many flat / hilly stages, 96 kms against the clock: no, me doesn't like this parcours. Apparently, the 2012 trend for GTs want them to be more human and 'easier'. I think that this is the right road for the Giro d'Italia, but not for the TdF. 96 kms against the clock, are you kidding me?

Anyway, of course this is just my opinion. Now I just hope that Menchov will be invited to the Tour (the parcours suits him in an amazing way), that Schleck will race the Giro (96 kms against the clock to wear the yellow jersey, have you heard me?) and that next season will be better than this one. Let's hope so!!