My Blog

Random Post about Random Things:

2012-02-03T15:54:00.000+01:00

Ladies and gentlemen, the last two weeks have been full of interesting things, both in the world of cycling and in my offline life. For example, me passed her IT exam and her Russian exam and had to face two earthquakes in three days, whereas Contador got two victories and Basso got married. Anyway, let's go in order.

Let's start this post by talking about the uninteresting thing: me. Last Thursday, at 9.06 am, I was woken up by the noise produced by my bedroom door, which was shaking. At first I thought my cat was trying to open it, but then I realised that also my bed was shaking, therefore I understood that my cat had nothing to do with what was going on. Here's the faithful reproduction of what went through my mind during those seconds: 'Uhm, the bed is shaking, as well as the door, so I suppose we're having an earthquake. Shall I get up and find shelter under my table desk? Naah, this earthquake doesn't seem so dangerous right now. If it gets more violent, I'll get under that table. Otherwise, I'll just stay here. Geez, stupid earthquake, you're not allowing me to sleep as long as I'd like to!!' Yes, these were my thoughts during those 10 seconds - and yes, I'm much better than Joyce at using the 'streams of consciousness' technique.

About 48 hours later, however, we had our 'Earthquake, take 2' special show. I had just come home after my IT exam and, while walking down the corridor in my house, I heard that the door of the shower was shaking. Still, the lights in the bathroom were off. So I screamed to my sister: 'Hey, what are you doing in the bathroom?' Surprisingly, my sister appeared behind me and told me: 'I'm not in the bathroom'. Less than a second later, she screamed: 'What the f**k?', whereas my mum yelled: 'Earthquake' and I went: 'Geez, again!'. Luckily this earthquake didn't last long and didn't cause damages either. As soon as it ended, sister said she wished the earthquake had destroyed her school, whereas I started laughing while thinking about my poor best friend, who was facing her IT exam in that very same moment. In the evening I phoned her and she told me that taking that exam 'was a weird experience. The computer screen started shaking, just like the lights and the windows. Still, I remained calm and kept on doing the exercises. We had just 30 minutes to do them all and I wasn't going to fail the exam just because of a stupid earthquake'. Nice way to see things, isn't it?

However. Whereas last week was the 'earthquake festival' here in the North of Italy, this week instead has been a true 'snow festival' in the whole country. The funny thing is that the schools here in Bergamo didn't close, because 'the roads inside and outside the city are perfectly clean, so there's no danger for the students who must take the bus to get to their schools. The only dangerous area is the one around **** (aka miss Fede's village), since the main road there is already covered in ice '. How. Lucky. However, luckily in these days I don't have to go to university, so right now I'm enjoying the Christmas atmosphere, drinking a lot of hot chocolate and hoping that the roads in the Upper City won't be covered in ice when university starts again. The Upper City of Bergamo in fact is full of uphill and downhill little roads, which can become extremely slippery when it rains. Considering this fact, I really don't want to think about how slippery the roads there can get when they're covered in ice.

Anyway, enough about me: let's now talk cycling. I have many different things to tell you about, so let's start immediately.

First of all: the 27th of January was the 'Memory day', aka the day of the year dedicated to the memory of the poor people who died in the Nazist lagers during World War II. Perhaps you don't know it, but one of the people who saved the lives of many Jewish during the war was a cyclist, a certain Gino Bartali. Between 1943 and 1944 in fact the Italian cyclist rode his bike from Florence to Assisi (380 kms) on about 40 occasions. During those 'trainings' he wore a jersey with his name on it, so that people could recognise him. Even the German soldiers would recognise him and they often stopped him in order to ask him some cycling-related questions. Bartali used to answer and, then, he continued his long journeys. Luckily no one ever controlled his bike, since the TdF winner used to hide false identity cards and false passports under its saddle and inside the handlebars. Then, when he reached Assisi, Bartali gave the false identity cards to the nuns of a local convent, which took them to Jewish people who, thanks to those false IDs, could safely travel to the South of Italy, which at the time was already controlled by the Allies. Thanks to Bartali's journeys, about 800 people could be saved. As well as travelling to Assisi, Bartali often travelled also to Genova, where an international fund raising organisation used to give him some money for the Jewish Community of Florence. Moreover, when the Nazists first reached Florence, Bartali hid 4 Jewish people inside his house. A true hero, on and off the bike, that's for sure (read more here ).

After telling you this story, which I considered very important, let's start talking about Tour de San Luis, cyclo-cross and more.

First of all: the cyclo-cross World Championships in Koksijde. I could watch just the recaps of the race, so I can't describe you how it actually unfolded. Still, I know who the winners of the different categories were. The Junior Men Race was won by Mathieu Van der Poel (Netherlands) in front of Wout van Aert (Belgium) and Quentin Jauregui. The winner, Van Der Poel, comes from a very special family: his father Adrie in fact was cyclo-cross World champion sixteen years ago, whereas the father of his mother is (fasten your seatbelts) Raymond Poulidor.

The women race was won by Marianne Vos (what a surprise...), who ruled the race and crossed the finish-line 37" earlier than her teammate Van Den Brand and than the Belgian Cant.

During the men competition the Belgians eventually took revenge on the Dutches and took the first 7th positions in the race. The winner was Albert, second (with a delay of 24") was Peeters, third was Pauwels. First non-Belgian rider was Czech Radomir Simunek, 8th.

On to the Tour de San Luis, the first stage was won by Francesco Chicchi. The Italian sprinter was considered one of the possible Italian leaders for the Copenhagen Worlds, but last year he had a very disappointing season and didn't win any race. Luckily, this seems a much better year for the Omega Pharma rider, who outsprinted JJ Haedo and Richeze. While talking about the 1st stage of Tour de San Luis, a special mention goes to the hail and the rain that caused the riders to pull to the side of the road and seek shelter from the storm.

Also the second stage of the race was won by Francesco Chicchi. This time the Italian outsprinted his teammate Boonen and Jake Keough. "I was supposed to help Boonen's sprint in the end, seeing as that was what we had decided during the morning meeting," Chicchi told Cyclingnews. "I started the sprint with Jimmy Casper and Tom right on my wheel. About 300 meters from the finish line I looked behind me and I didn't see Tom anymore". Tommeke added: "With one kilometre to go I thought I'd lost the sprint. There was a little incident and I lost maybe 10 or 15 spots and Chicchi didn't see me. I came back to the front on Casper's wheel, then I was on Chicchi's wheel. He started the sprint, then I started my sprint, and in the last 50 metres we saw each other side-by-side. We both put our hands up, none of us jumped, and it was nice".

The third stage of the race had some climbs on its menu and its final winner was Alberto Contador, who outsprinted Leipheimer in order to get the victory on the top of Mirador del Potrero. Tour de San Luis' organisers had done their best to secure Alberto's presence in their race and the Spaniard paid him back in a great way.

Vincenzo Nibali, who finished in the top 10, was pretty angry after that stage. 'Contador says he has 7.5 kgs of extra weight to lose and that he's just started training, Leipheimer says he's just started training too. Am I the only fool who starts training hard already in the middle of the winter and then gets these results?', he asked a Gazzetta's journalist.

The 4th stage was a 19.5 kms long TT, which was won by Leipheimer. Second in the race was Nibali, 3rd was Stefan 'the doper' Schumacher. I usually give a second chance to every rider (Riccò included), but please don't ask me to do the same with Schumacher. Before being banned in 2008 in fact he had already resulted positive to the anti-doping at least twice, but on both these occasions he said that diarrhea had altered his blood-results and, surprisingly, judges believed him. I've always thought that this was simply ridicolous and, when Schumacher was eventually banned, I actually considered it a great relief. Now he's back, and I'm not happy about it. However.

On the following day the riders had to climb up to Mirador del Sol and Alberto Contador won once again. This time he outsprinted local rider Daniel Diaz and Leipheimer. Watching Leipheimer and Contador (who're both targeting the Tour) racing so well, so early in the season, me would like to compare them to some other riders I know way too well. Still, I know that that comparison would just make me angry, so I'll leave it to you, my dear readers. Alright, I know that right now Conti wants to show he doesn't need Spanish steaks to win races, but I think that the fact that both he and Leipheimer are already on such a good form is pretty impressive. Anyway.

The 5th stage of the race was won by Elia Viviani, who outpsrinted JJ Haedo and Guardini. Italy has a lot of faith in these two young sprinters, which are both very talented and have already achieved many victories. Actually, Gazzetta adores them so much that it can't stop praising them. Let's hope this won't put too much pressure on their shoulders!

The last stage of the race was won by Tom Boonen, who's determined to do well during this season. In an interview to la Gazzetta' the Belgian also said that he's just gone back living in Belgium. 'Lore (his girlfriend) told me she wanted to work in Belgium', Tommeke told the Italian newspaper, 'so we decided to move back there. If bad weather creates me problem, I'll simply go training in Spain'.

Second in the stage was Guardini, third was Richeze. Boonen's teammate Leipheimer won the GC ahead of Contador and Daniel Diaz.

Let's now talk about three little random news, just like I often do on this blog. First of all, Ivan Basso has recently married his wife Micaela with a religious ceremony (the couple had had his civil marriage already 11 years - and 3 sons - ago). The ceremony was very simple and it was attended by a few selected guests. Basso told a Varese newspaper that marrying Micaela 11 years ago was his biggest victory (*chorus of 'how sweet!!!' from all over the world*).

Second news, some of you may already know that Cadel Evans and his wife Chiara have recently adopted Robben, a little African boy. Talking to 'la Gazzetta' about this choice, Evans has said: 'Now everything is different. After training I don't stop for a cappuccino anymore, because I know that Robben is home with Chiara, waiting for me'. How sweet!

After this sweetness-immersion, something funny: Katusha's General Manager Hans-Michael Holczer has promised that, if Menchov wins the Tour de France, he'll walk all the way from Paris to Moscow (source: Cyclingnews). Perhaps I could join him, couldn't I? :P

Last but not least, a sad news: last week Mino Baracchi, creator of the 'Trofeo Baracchi', passed away in his hometown, Bergamo. The Trofeo Baracchi originally was an individual time trial race for amateurs, but from 1949 it became a two person team time trial race and it was open also to professionals. The last edition of the race was ran in 1991 and it was won by Toni Rominger. Amongst the champions who won this special race there were Fignon, Saronni, Moser, Hinault, Maertens, Gimondi, Petterson, Ocana, Mercx, Anquetil, Stablinsky, Motta, Baldini, Coppi, Magni and Defilippis. The race was Fausto Coppi and Eddy Mercx's last one and was won by Moser 5 times.

Tour Down Under Resume + Australian National Championships Resume:

2012-01-23T22:10:00.003+01:00

It's been another busy week here at miss Fede's place, with all the exams-preparation going on and a respectable amount of my time being spent insulting those who caused the Costa Concordia's tragedy. I spent a day on Isola del Giglio some years ago and I'll always remember it as one of the best days of my life. The sea was simply wonderful and, when I dived into the cold, high water next to some rocks, far from the main beach of the island, I immediately discovered a marine paradise . Colourful fish, sea stars, even a spiny lobster, all living peacefully in the wonderful clean water. And now, this amazing scenery is likely to be destroyed by a tragedy caused by a few stupid people. And don't even get me started about all the people who lost their lives because of someone's stupidity and arrogance!

As far as my exam preparations is concerned, the first exam of my university career was last Wednesday. My professor hasn't corrected my test yet, but I'm pretty optimistic about my mark.

As far as my other exams are concerned, I'm having a 'How to use a computer' test this week and an 'Italian Language' test in 10 days time. In these days however I'm also studying 'Linguistics', which I find very fascinating and interesting, and 'Italian Literature', the most hateful and useless subject I have to study this year.

However. After giving my 50 cents about Isola del Giglio's tragedy and after giving you some useless, boring info about how my university life is going, let's start talking cycling. Or, better, let's start talking about the the Australian National Championships and about all the stages of Tour Down Under.

AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS:

Also this year the big cycling season has taken off in Australia. A few days before the beginning of TDU, the land of the kangaroos chose its new national RR champion in a 162 kms long race. Said race was won by Simon Gerrans, who is the only Aussie to have won a stage in every single Grand Tour. Gerrans won the race with 2" of advantage on Matthew Lloyd and Richie Porte.

Right after getting the victory, GreenEdge's Gerrans was extremely happy. "This is one of my proudest moments in cycling", he told Cyclingnews. The Flying Aussie also had a special mention for his team, which had 16 riders (!) lined up at the start of the race in Buniyong. That, according to Gerrans, created extra pressure around the GreenEdge guys, since everyone expected them "to try and win the race and really utilise the guys that we had." GE eventually had a very active role in the race, with guys like Durbridge, Bobridge, O'Grady and Meyer taking part in every important action.

Whereas GE had 16 riders taking part in the Australian Championships, poor Matthew Lloyd was the only Lampre rider to take part in the race. Still, the Victorian was eventually second. Lloyd was very happy with his result, especially because it marked the end of a terrible period for him. In fact in the last 12 months Matthew (who had won the Australian National Championship back in 2008) has been hit by a vehicle twice while training and, most important, he has been fired by his former employers, team Omega-Pharma Lotto. Now, however, Matthew is 'back in the hood' (quote by himself) with Lampre and he's incredibly happy about that.

The third rider to cross the finish-line after Gerrans and Lloyd was Richie Porte, who was the protagonist of a super effort towards the end of the race. During the last lap of race (each lap was 10 kms long) in fact he, Gerrans and Lloyd formed a breakaway. All of a sudden, however, Lloyd launched a solo attack and Richie was the one who closed the gap from his Lampre colleague. After the race Richie congratulated Gerrans on the new victories and had many good words for his new Sky teammates Hayman, Sutton and Rogers.
4th in the men race was Adam Hansen, 5th instead was an-inform Will Clarke.

The women national championship was won by Amanda Spratt, a 19 year-old who races for GreenEdge. Spratt launched a solo attack with 30 kms to go and crossed the finish-line 45" before Tiffany Cromwell and Rachel Neylan.

As for the TT races, the winner of the women competition was Shara Gillow, who had won the national TT championship also in 2011. The Green Edge rider got the victory ahead of Taryn Heather and Bridie O'Donnell, whereas Amanda Spratt was 4th. The men race instead was won by neopro Luke Durbridge. Luke is the U23 World Champion in the discipline and at the National Championships he rode 7 seconds faster than his GreenEdge teammate Cameron Meyer, who took the silver medal. "I train all the time with Cam and we were sort of trash talking each other leading into it, we're really good mates", the 20 year old said about besting his teammate. Third in the race was Michael Rogers, whereas 4th was another neo pro, Michael Hepburn. 5th was Richie Porte, 6th was Cameron Wurf and 7th was Travis Meyer, who has just come back racing after he underwent surgery on his left external iliac artery in July.

One of the pre-race favourites, Jack Bobridge, crashed within the first km of the race and had to retire from the race.

TOUR DOWN UNDER:

A few days after the Australian Championships were raced, some of the biggest stars of the ProTour took part in the Down Under Classic in Adelaide. The race was always controlled by the sprinters' team and the 9 brave rider who tried to go on a breakaway never gained more than 25" of advantage on the peloton. However one of the breakawayers, neo pro Nathan Haas, got some good results by winning 3 of the intermediate sprints. The race was strictly controlled by Lampre, Rabobank and Lotto Belisol. When Mark Renshaw punctured in the last lap, Rabobank's place at the front was taken by Sky.

Lotto Belisol's lead-out train (which was formed by Jurgen Roelandts, Marcel Sieberg, Adam Hansen and Greg Henderson) was simply perfect and André Greipel managed to get the victory ahead of Edvald Boasson Hagen and Heinrich Haussler. After the finish-line, the German had good words for his team and for Greg Henderson in particular. "I think the guys were awesome. I just needed to stay on the wheels. I saw Rabobank and Sky - they couldn’t pass so I think that meant we have a lot of horsepower in our team", Greipel said after the race. Greg Henderson had some very good words for his captain too, as after the race he told Cyclingnews: "You know how much power he’s got. I’m leading out at 70km/h and he just comes past me. I just don’t understand how anyone can go so fast. You’ve seen it. He’s right up there with the likes of Cavendish. The two are going to have a great rivalry this year".

4th in the race was Rojas, whereas 5th was the surprising Steele von Hoff.

After the Down Under Classic, the ProTour cycling season officially took off with Tour Down Under's first stage, which featured 149 kms from Prospect to Clare. The riders had to race in a terrible heat and often had to deal with the strong headwind. 4 brave men (Rohan Dennis, Marcello Pavarin, Martin Kohler and Eduard Vorganov) formed a breakaway right after the beginning of the stage and the last of them, Rohan Dennis, was caught with 15 kms to go. O'Grady did a great job at the front in order to close the gap from the adversaries, whereas his teammate Durbridge couldn't fully help him because he had problems caused by the heat.

The road that led to the finish-line was slightly downhill, so that the peloton reached a very high speed and that Will Clarke decided to launch a brave but useless solo attack. With 800 meters two Vacansoleil riders touched each other's wheels and crashed, causing a domino effect inside the peloton. As a consequece of the crash, Jurgen Roelandts broke a vertebra, whereas 40 year old Guesdon broke his hip. The French rider wanted to end his career on the 8th of April, after Paris-Roubaix, but his plan is now in doubt. "The doctors seemed optimistic about his quick recovery but it's difficult to envisage that he'd be on the start line of Paris-Roubaix in less than three months from now", FDJ ds told Cyclingnews. Then he added: "Fred wasn't emotional about the accident and the consequences. During the time I spent with him, he didn't talk about cycling at all. He never said it's game over. He was happy to be treated very well and his only concern was that he couldn't talk to his wife who was at work with no mobile phone." Let's hope Guesdon will manage to recover quickly then!

Anyway, let's go back to the race. Right after the crash, all the riders who hadn't crashed had to recreate the lead-out trains for their captains. Greipel was very far from his Lotto teammates at that point, and Petacchi launched an early sprint in order to surprise his adversaries. Still, Greipel was much faster than the Italian and he got the victory in front of him and Hutarovich. Right after the finish-line Greipel didn't look very happy and he had some critics for Petacchi. "I’m lucky that I won today," the German told Cyclingnews. "There was a massive crash with 800 metres to go. My pedal got touched and I lost positions from about 5th to 20th, but I managed to bridge the gap. Then Petacchi went from left to right, he didn’t care about the crash. He’s a big star but he shouldn’t do this. Two of my team-mates crashed as a result. All I care about after winning this stage is how they are". The Lampre rider denied any wrong-doing and the race commissaries agreed with him.

4th in the stage was Fabio Sabatini, whereas 5th was Bennati. You can watch the highlights of the day here.

The second stage of the TDU led the riders from Lobethal to Stirling. 1000 meters after the beginning of the 148 kms long stage, the brave Martin Kohler and former LT rider Will Clarke went on a breakaway together. The two young, hard-working guys were allowed an initial 11 minutes advantage. Kohler's goal of the day was getting the leader jersey, which at the beginning of the stage was on Greipel's shoulders. After winning two intermediate sprints (thus getting some seconds of advantage on Greipel in the GC) and with still many kms to go, the Swiss rider decided to return to the peloton, whereas Will Clarke continued his lonely adventure at the head of the race. With 20 kms to go Clarke still had 10 minutes of advantage on the peloton, which now started to race in order to catch the Tasmanian. With 10 kms to go Clarke's gap on the peloton was down to 4 minutes and 20", and with 5 kms to go it was down to less than 3 minutes. Still, Will really gave it all and eventually managed to win the stage after climbing the Stirling hill for 4 times. The UNI SA rider was worn out after the stage and he didn't even have the strength to raise his arms while crossing the finish-line. After the finish-line, the Tasmanian told Cyclingnews: "This is unbelievable really. This is the biggest win of my career. It's my first win in the WorldTour. I knew my form was good - but this is unbelieveable. Kohler probably thought it was not worth keeping going but the peloton gave me more time and I thought 'you guys have to chase me hard to catch me'. I was dying in the last ten kilometres. Team Manager Dave Sanders was telling me to go for GC. It's amazing that a breakaway rider can stay away for so long. It's sort of my speciality to keep going".

Second in the stage was Michael Matthews, whereas 3rd was Simon Gerrans. 4th was Valverde, 5th was Boasson Hagen. The peloton reached the finish-line 1'02" after Clarke. You can watch the highlights of the stage here .

The 3rd stage of TDU led the riders from Unley to Victor Harbour. As soon as the stage began, Eduard Vorganov, Jan Bakelant, Thomas de Gendt and Matt Brammeier went on a breakaway. However, the 4 riders had to abandon their hopes of victory with about 40 kms to go. The most active teams at the front were GreenEdge (who had Matthew Goss as main sprinter), Lotto Belisol (Greipel's team), RadioShack-Nissan (Bennati's team) and Rabobank (Renshaw and Matthews' team). The stage winner was eventually decided by a bunch sprint, in which André Greipel showed all his power once again. The German outsprinted Hutarovich and Boasson Hagen, who suffered a puncture in the last part of the race. 4th was Renshaw, whereas 5th was the eternal McEwen. Daniele Bennati was 8th, Jacopo Guarnieri was 6th. By achieving this victory, André Greipel got back the leader jersey from Martin Kohler. In spite of this, the Lotto rider told Cyclingnews that this year he wasn't going to win the final GC of the race. "The Willunga stage [Stage 5] is too hard for me to win GC this year", he sincerely admitted. "With two stage wins, we've already reached our goal. We can't have everything and we just take it day by day". As well as saying that, Greipel also dedicated his victory to Jurgen Roelandts, who broke his sixth cervical vertebrae during the first stage of the race.

While Lotto was happy with the day's result, Rabobank was frustrated because its riders had missed a podium spot. The team's main sprinter for the day should have been Michael Matthews, but the Australian couldn't follow his lead-out man, Mark Renshaw, who eventually got the 4th position in the sprint. After the stage, Renshaw said that that was completely normal. "Michael and I still have to sync a little bit – we're definitely not on the same level as myself and Cav, but that comes with time", he told Cyclingnews. Matthews, on the other hand, was very angry with himself. "Mark did an awesome lead-out but I just wasn't there to finish it.It's just experience: it's my first time trying to follow him…I'm really disappointed.", the young rider told Cyclingnews.

The 4th stage led the riders from Norwood to Tarunda. After 28 kms of race McCarthy, Kadri, Ruben Perez and Smukulis formed a breakaway. They were caught with 29 kms to go, at the bottom of a Cat. 1 climb called 'Mengler Hill'. Rohan Dennis was the first rider to reach the top of the climb, followed by Javi Moreno, Simon Gerrans, Thiago Machado, Jack Bauer and Linus Gerdemann. In the meanwhile, Greipel was struggling at the back of the peloton and he eventually got dropped. BMC made a good job trying to make the race hard for Greipel and just 40 riders didn't get dropped on the Merger Hill climb.

The race eventually ended with a sprint between the riders who hadn't got dropped on Merger Hill. Michael Matthews tried to win in order to get the leader jersey, but 4 guys were faster than him: Boasson Hagen, Bennati, Ciolek and Freire, with the Spaniard taking the victory ahead of the Italian and of the German riders. "It was a difficult finale. I knew I had a really good chance to win," Oscarito told Cyclingnews after getting the victory. "The race was hard, it was better for me. I'm happy to score the team's first victory of the year after joining Katusha".

Greipel eventually crossed the finish-line 7 minutes after Freire, together with many other riders.

Martin Kohler was very happy to be back in the leader jersey, whereas Michael Matthews claimed that he wanted to get the ochre jersey for himself on the following day. "The jersey I want is Ochre," he told Cyclingnews after the stage. "I'll try to get it tomorrow. It's unfortunate that I missed it today by only two seconds. Not having the jersey today takes a lot of pressure off you but it's also better to be ahead of everyone else."

The 5th stage of TDU led the riders from McLaren Vale to the Old Willunga Hill and had a uphill finish. The breakaway du jour was formed by O'Grady, Miyazawa, Haas, De Gendt, Fenn and Goddaert. Going into the final 75 kms Lotto, Radioshack and BMC tried to create some echelons. Matthew Lloyd and other 30 riders lost contact from the main peloton, but they managed to get back on the leader group after some kms. In the meanwhile, the breakawayers's advantage was getting smaller and smaller as a consequence of BMC, Movistar and GreenEdge's hard work at the front. As soon as the first climb up to Willunga hill began, Garmin's Haas said goodbye to his breakaway companions and launched a solo attack. He was the first rider to get on the top of the climb, followed by De Gendt and by Rohan Dennis, who sealed himself the King of the Mountain Classification by topping the climb in the third position.

With 20 kms to go, Voigt and Rojas started working hard at the front of the bunch. That caused the end of Haas' lonely and brave adventure at the front and reduced the number of riders in the main bunch to 20. These twenty riders were Dennis, Machado, Madrazo, Gerrans, Bakelandts, Rogers, Valverde, Boasson Hagen, Gutierrez, Pate, B. Sulzberger, Matthews, Kohler, Rojas, Ballan, Thomas, Moreno, Bauer, Ciolek and Gerdemann.

At the bottom of the final climb Sulzberger punctured, whereas Dennis, Pate and Machado attacked. Movistar however soon closed the gap between those riders and Valverde and did the same when Michael Rogers attacked. Simon Gerrans was the following rider to launch an attack and this time only Valverde could resist the Aussie. The Spaniard eventually outsprinted the GE rider, who received the ochre jersey as consolation prize for not winning the stage. "It’s such a big deal for GreenEdge to take the lead into the last stage in their first world tour outing so I’m thrilled and really rapt with the whole team’s performance, they have really supported me all week so I really can’t thank the guys enough", Gerrans told Cyclingnews after the stage.

Valverde was very happy too after the stage and, just like Gerrans, he thanked his teammates for their hard work. "My team has been perfect today. I couldn't have won without them. It's a really emotional moment for me. This win is for all those who have supported me during my time off the bike. The stage suited me", he said in an interview to Cyclingnews. "We put the team at the front, and to finish it off - it's a perfect comeback for me". Alejandro seems to be as fast and as strong as he was back in 2008 and I'm sure that not many riders welcomed the news of his victory with joy. After all, we shouldn't forget that Valverde has been one of the strongest Classic riders of the last few years...

The last stage of the TDU took place in Adelaide and was just 90 kms long. The day started with a very particular situation, since Gerrans and Valverde were 1st 'ex aequo' in the GC. Still, the ochre jersey was on the Australian's shoulders because of the number of placements he had collected during the race.
As soon as the last stage began, a very big breakaway was created by B. Sulzberger, McCarthy, Durbridge, C. Meyer, Maaskant, Hansen, Lagutin, Hayman, Izagirre, Trentin, Cimolai, Van Avermaet, Cimolai, Voigt, Bonnet and Jorgensen. Unfortunately for GreenEdge, this break was soon caught by the peloton, led by Rabobank. Before of the second intermediate sprint Bakelandts, Sicard and Cameron Meyer formed another breakaway and this time they managed to stay clear from the peloton for a while. Sicard and Bakelandts eventually gave up with 6 kms to go, whereas C. Meyer launched a solo attack with 4 kms to go. Still, Lotto, Lampre and Liquigas weren't going to let Meyer win and they pulled hard in order to catch him. The stage winner was decided by a bunch sprint once again, and once again the stage winner was André Greipel, who outsprinted Renshaw and Petacchi. Gerrans eventually won the overall classification.

So, this was my little resume of the Australian races that took place in the last few days. Unfortunately I could just read the race reports on the newspapers and on some websites, so I apologise if there are any mistakes in my post. Moreover, if you haven't had enough about Australia yet, I suggest you two interesting links:
- on http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/gallery-riders-get-the-chance-to-meet-adelaides-other-locals you can find a selection of photographs showing some riders playing with kangaroos and koalas before the beginning of TDU.
- on http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/wouter-mol-on-his-2012-tour-down-under-as-the-obscure-pro instead you have a very funnny story about Wouter Mol's TDU. In fact it seems that this yar Wouter was adopted by many Australian supporters, who decided to keep a special eye on him and even gave him some presents.

That's really all for the moment, folks. Have a good evening!

The 2012 season is beginning: list of the ProTour teams with their rosters and their kits

2012-01-14T18:28:00.000+01:00

Ladies and gentlemen, the off-season officially ends in 24 hours time (or less) and me still hasn't written that famous 'pronounciation post' I had promised you months ago. Oh, anger. Unfortunately me is pretty busy at the moment, since on Wednesday I'll face my first university exam ever. And guess what? Yes, it's a Russian exam. And yes, I'm getting crazy working on it. The other day I spent two hours crawling (yes, crawling) in the university bibliotheque, looking for a book about the topic of the exam (why all the Russian books have to be on the lowest shelfs?). Teacher had said that it would have helped us to understand the topic of the exam, but unfortunately it just helped to get even more confused. Oh, panic.

By the way, I've decided to take a break from studying, so here I am, looking for news about the cycling world. Recent articles say that Contador's TAS sentence has been postponed again, that Frank Schleck might race the Giro and that Acqua&Sapone guys are mad at Giro's new director because he didn't give them a wildcard. My 50 cents about these facts? First, I just hope the Contador's case will come to an end soon. And yes, I hope Alberto will be cleared. In fact, what would happen if he was banned? In my opinion, that would be just a terrible bad blow for cycling. Instead, if Alberto was cleared, we could just stop talking about that case and start discussing something else. Oh, and talking about Conti's case: Becca has recently suggested that Riis had his team camp held in Israeli because one of the judges who will decide Contador's fate actually comes from there. Fascinating theory, isn't it?

On to the Schleck/Giro telenovela, I do think that Frank has the skills to win the Giro. However, I also think that Jakob Fuglsang (who's been preparing the Corsa Rosa since last year) would probably go nuts if he was told that in May he'll have to work as a helper for Frankie... Actually, Jakob has already expressed his discontent with the team situation in some interviews and I think his feelings are completely understandable. Still, I don't think the Dane has to worry about Frankie racing the Giro. After all this time, in fact, I've finally understood that the brothers consider the Italian race just as a 'consolation prize' (copyright by Figgy ;)) for those who are unable to win the Tour. After all, better go to California and make the sponsors happy rather than win a useless race like the Italian one.

On to the Giro's wild cards, I really do not understand Acquarone's choices. In fact, I would have given wild cards to Colnago, Androni, Farnese Vini and I would have chosen Acqua & Sapone over Team NetApp. This latter team has a really interesting project, I know, but I think it's evident that its riders aren't actually as strong (or, at least, as famous) as Acqua&Sapone's Garzelli and Betancur. Acquarone said that he didn't give a wild card to A&S because he wanted to give a prize to the young German team, which seems to care a lot about the Corsa Rosa. Still, I think that sport is sport, and that people should just pay attention to the cyclists's values when it comes to inviting them at races. Poor Garzelli (who won the Giro a few years ago) wanted to end his career during the 2012 Giro, but now he'll have to choose whether to continue for another year or to end his career during another race. Personally, I think Stefano would have deserved a bit more respect and consideration, given all the emotions he gave to the supporters in the last few years.

Anyway. After giving my 50 cents about these matters, let's talk a bit about the teams that will surely take part in every important race of 2012: the ProTour teams. Since I haven't blogged at all during the last week, here's a long post featuring a description of every team of the 2012 proTour. Enjoy!

AG2R: The French team has a good roster, just like last year. Although Cyril Dessel stopped racing and Le Lay and Champion changed team, during the winter Ag2r signed some good riders like the Italian sprinter Manuel Belletti and the Frenchman Jimmy Casper. Moreover the team gave a contract to the neopro Berard and to some less known guys, like Gazvoda, Zargari and Shpilevsky. As well as those riders, the 2012 roster of the team includes Bérard, Bonnafond, Bouet, Cherel, Dupont, Elmiger, Gadret, Gastauer, Georges, Goddaert, Hinault, Houanard, Kadri, Krivstov, Lemarchand, Minard, Mondory, Montaguti, Nocentini, Peràud, Perget, Ravard, Riblon and Roche.

Although the French team is often underestimated, I think it has the right skills to surprise the supporters throughout the year. Gadret is an exceptional climber and perhaps he could give la Vuelta a go. Also Dupont and Roche are very good GC riders, whereas guys like Riblon and Casper know what it takes to win GT stages. Moreover the roster features talented guys like Elmiger, Cherel, Gastauer, Kadri and an expert rider like Nocentini, who wore the yellow jersey for many days during 2009 TdF.

As far as the 2012 kit is concerned, it is the same as last year's one.

BMC: Bmc is probably one of the strongest team of the 2012 ProTour and, in my opinion, it is surely the most complete one. During the off season the team lost Kristoff, Kroon, Louder, Beyer, Murphy, Barton, Butler and Zahner, but it signed some other promising guys. As far as the North Classics are concerned, BMC can count on Thor Hushovd, Alessandro Ballan, George Hincapie, Manuel Quinziato and Mark Burghardt. Talking about the Ardenne Classics instead the BMC roster includes His Majesty Philippe Gilbert, Greg Van Avermaet, Mathias Frank and good all rounders like Santambrogio and Santaromita. As far as GTs are concerned, instead, BMC can count on Evans, who is one of the biggest favourites for the 2012 Tour de France. Moreover, BMC has an interesting rider like Taylor Phinney and some great time trialists like Van Garderen, Pinotti and Bookwalter. The team also includes fast guys like Blythe and Cummings, all rounders like Lodewyck, Morabito and Schaer, young guns like Roe, Wyss, Eijssen and Kohler and more experienced riders like Moinard. In my opinion, on paper this is the best team of 2012.

As far as the 2012 kit is concerned, it is very similar to 2011 one, as you can see in this pic by Pinotti: http://twitpic.com/81p5bw .

EUSKALTEL EUSKADI: The Basque team is ready to rock the climbs also this year, after a very successful 2011. De Larrea, Castroviejo, Aramendia changed teams, while Sesma and Isasi retired. Their places on the team were taken by good old Astarloza (who is back after his ban), Cobedo, Garcia Ambroa and Saez de Arregi. The team is as good as usual and it's ready to give it all on the GT climbs. In fact this year Anton and Nieve have a favourable parcours in the Vuelta, whereas Samuel Sanchez could try his luck at the Tour (don't forget that he was 4th there a few years ago).

The team also features guys like Azanza, Bilbao, Cabedo, Cazaux, Izagirre, Landa, Martinez de Esteban, Minguez, Oroz, Perez Lezaun, Perez Moreno, Urtasun, Velasco, Verdugo, Txurruka and the promising Sicard.

Of course the 2012 kit is the same as it was in 2011, in 2010, in 2009, in 2008, in 2007 and so on ;)

FDJ: The French team lost Meersman and Sulzberger, but it signed Veikkanen, Rasch, Boucher and the neopros Ellissonde and Demare. I'll surely keep an eye on this latter rider, because he was the winner of the 2011 U23 Worlds in Copenhagen. As far as the other riders are concerned, FDJ's roster includes talented guys like Offredo (who last year did very well in the Classics) and Jeannesson (who lost the TdF white jersey on Alpe d'Huez). Moreover the team features Roy (who doesn't remember his breakaways during the 2011 TdF?), Pinot, Pineau, Roux, Bonnet, Boucher, Bouhanni, Chainel, Courteille, Ellissonde, Gerard, Ladahnous, Mourey, Rollin, Soupe and Vaugrenard. Also Vichot and Delage are on the team, just like the experienced Guesdon (who won the 1997 Paris-Roubaix), Geslin as well as the fast Hutarovich. Another important rider on the roster is 'The Nose of France', mr. Fedrigo. I missed him during last year TdF and I can't wait to see him racing in a GT again!

As for the kit, the 2012 one is almost identical to the 2011 one.

GARMIN CERVELO: Garmin lost some important riders during the off-season, especially because most of the Aussies on the team decided to sign a contract for Green EDGE. Still, the biggest name to leave the team was Hushovd, who decided to sign for BMC. However Garmin was very active on the market and signed a lot of interesting guys. While Bobridge, the Meyer brothers, Wilson, Hushovd, Lancaster, Dean and Rasch all left the team, Garmin decided to give a contract to LT/Radioshack's former riders Wegmann, Rosseler and Hunter. Moreover it signed Fernandez, Howes, Rathe, Haas, Bauer, Kreder, Dekker and Alex Rasmussen, who had been fired by HTC last year.

Garmin is as good as usual as it still has some very good riders. As far as sprints are concerned, we have Farrar, Fischer, Rasmussen, Haussler (which hopefully will overcome all the problems he's had in the last years!) and Hunter. As far as TTs are concerned, instead, the team features guys like Danielson, Rosseler, Millar, Talansky (keep an eye on him this year!) and Zabriskie. The team also has some good climbers like Daniel Martin, Le Mevel and Vanmarcke (I expect good things from him), young guns like Stetina and Navardauskas and some good Classic riders like Vansummeren and Maaskant. Garmin also decided a second chance to Thomas Dekker (who was one of the most promising young riders back in 2007) and has on its roster good all rounders like Danielson, Howes, Bauer, Klier, Kreder and Rathe, as well as a GC rider like Vande Velde.

As for the kit (http://www.slipstreamsports.com/), it is NOT the same as 2011, as it is white and covered in argyle patterns (team Sky and the rest of Cycledom thank the Garmin designers for making their lives easier during the 2012 season).

GREEN EDGE: This team is the biggest news of the 2012 season. Green Edge has some excellent Australia) sprinters like Goss (winner of 2011 Sanremo), Bobridge, Cooke, Davis, Dean, Lancaster and the Meyer brothers. The team also features Beppu and good old Robbie McEwen, as well as Daryl Impey, who is back at a top level after his awful crash at 2010 (or was it 2009?) Tour of Turkey. As far as the Classics are concerned, Green Edge is ready to rock the cobbles together with the young Keukeleire and Langeveld and the experienced O'Grady. As far as the GTs are concerned, we have talented guys like Weening, Sulzberger, Vaitkus, Wilson and Gerrans, the famous 'climbing sprinter'.

The team also signed Mouris, Kruopis, Teklehaimanot, Albasini, Docker, S. Clarke, the good time trialist Tuft, HTC's Howard and two exceptional neo pros, Michael Hepburn and Luke Durbridge. Don't tell anyone, but I'll bee rooting a lot for Michael this year!!

As for the kit, you can see it on http://procyclingtv.com/first-look-greenedges-cycling-kit-for-2012/ :)

KATUSHA: After talking about the Australian national team, let's talk about the Russian national team. My future employers, ehm, sorry, the Katusha guys have improved their roster a lot during the off-season and this year they're likely to get their best results ever. Although Pozzato, Karpets, Vanderbergh, Hoste, Ovechkin, Trusov, Mironov, Pliuschin and Arguelyes left the team and Ivanov (winner of 2010 Amstel) retired, the Russians have signed a few great riders this winter. Who? Well, first of all there is Freire, a guy who's won a few important races in the last 10 years. Then they signed Menchov, who this year is one of the TdF favourites. Moreover they gave a contract to Vicioso (winner of the 3rd stage of the 2011 Giro), Florencio, Kritskiy, Tsatevich, Belkov and Haller. Katusha also signed the neo pro Selig (who already got a pro victory during his stagiaire period at Leopard Trek), Lampre's Spilak and the promising Smukulis. As well as those new riders, the 2012 team roster features some good all rounders like Brutt, Caruso, Horrach, Ignatenko, Isaichev, Kuschinskiy, Losada, Porsev, Trofimov, Vantomme and Vorganov, who will give a big hand to the team leaders during the GTs. Moreover, the Russian team can count on the promising sprinter Galimzyanov, on the experienced Paolini and Ignatiev and on a great climber like Rodriguez.

As for the 2012 kit, it is almost completely red and it doesn't featured the skyline of Moscow anymore. Here's a pic of it: http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/katusha-announces-new-kit-sponsors (ps: why didn't they take a pic of Menchov rather than of Freire?!?)

LAMPRE: The Italian team during the winter break has lost Gavazzi, Kasheckin, Spilak, Kondrut and Balloni, whereas Loosli retired. On the other hand, this team signed interesting guys like the young Cimolai, the brave Stortoni, the neopros Anacona and Graziato, the good sprinter Viganò, the talented climber Possoni and the good old Matthew Lloyd, who was second during the Australian National Championships. As far as the rest of the roster is concerned, Lampre features some great sprinters (and lead out guys) like Petacchi (of course), Hondo, Bole, Bono, Marzano, Mori and Spezialetti. Moreover the team can count on all rounders like Bertagnolli, Buts, Kvachuk and Righi and on a talented guy like Ulissi.

The Italian team also includes Cunego (who last year showed some very good things), Niemiec (please, let him go for the GC in the Vuelta!) and Scarponi, who still hasn't decided whether he'll race the Giro or the Tour. Moreover, the Italian team features Adriano Malori, a very promising Italian time trialist.

As for the kits, it is the same as 2011.

LIQUIGAS: The green team (yes, the kit is the same as in 2011) has a very talented roster also this year. After losing Cimolai, Guarnieri and Ponzi, Liquigas signed two very good neo pros (Agostini and Moser), the promising Sarmiento, the fast Ratto and the young Canuti. The 2012 roster features also some good all rounders like Agnoli, Agostini, Bodnar, Da Dalto, King, Longo Borghini and the experienced Vanotti. The team also has a great sprinter like Viviani, an exceptional helper like Szmyd and some very young and talented guys: Peter Sagan (don't forget that he was born in 1990!) and his brother, Nerz, Paterski, Koren, Marangoni and Capecchi (winner of a stage during the 2011 Giro). As for the GTs, Liquigas has Basso and Nibali. Ivan will go for the Giro, whereas Nibali still hasn't decided his schedule. The team also features a good time trialist like Duggan and a good climber like Salerno.

LOTTO BELISOL: Lotto lost a lot of strong guys during the winter, given that Bakelandts, Gilbert, Blythe, Lodewyck, Voucher, Veikkanen and Vandousselare left the team and Aerts retired. Still, the team managers decide to invest on the young riders and signed 4 neo pros: Van der Sande, Bulgac, D. Vanendert and Cordeel. The team also signed Billie, Vangenechten, Henderson, Bak, Meersman, Sohrabi, Van Leijen and Robert.

The 2012 team is formed by lots of good all rounders and by some very talented climbers. As for the sprints, the team will be able to count on Greipel, Hansen, Henderson, Roelandts and Sieberg. Moreover the team will be able to count on all rounders like Bak, Debusschere, Deahaes, Dockx, Kaisen, Lang, Neyens, Reyens, Vandewalle and Willems. Moreover, Lotto has kept some of the most talented climbers of the former Omega Pharma Lotto. In fact Lotto Belisol features in its roster Bart De Clerq (winner of a stage at 2011 Giro), De Greef, Van Den Broeck and Jelle Vanendert (winner of a stage at the Tour). Don't underestimate this team when it comes to winning mountain stages at the GTs! You can see their kit on http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/lotto-belisol-releases-more-2012-kit-pictures .

MOVISTAR TEAM: Movistar has great expectations on the 2012 season and it can count on a very competitive roster. Although it lost Garcia Acosta (who retired), Perez Sanchez and Pasamontes, in fact, during the winter the Spanish team signed Vuelta winner Cobo, Italian eternal promise Visconti and the 2009 Vuelta winner Valverde. Alejandro was one of the best and complete Classic riders before his ban, will he still be competitive after all those months? Let's hope so. The team this winter also signed Herrada, Bazan, the promising Castroviejo, Quintana and Karpets. Movistar can count on a competitive GT team, given that its roster includes climbers like Amador, Arroyo, Bruseghin, Erviti, Intxausti and the above mentioned Valverde and Cobo. The Spanish team also features Pardilla, Plaza Molina and a fast all rounder like Ventoso. Moreover it features a very good time trialist (Konovalovas), a wonderful (I can't think of any better adjective to describe him) rider like Kiryenka, a good sprinters like Rojas Gil and a super strong all rounder like Lastras. Moreover the team features interesting all rounders like Samoilau, Costa, Gutierrez, Herrada, Iriarte, Madrazo, Moreno Bazan, Plaza Molina and Sanz.

As for the kits, you can see it here: http://www.velonation.com/News/ID/10800/Photo-gallery-Riders-show-off-2012-Movistar-and-Team-Sky-kit.aspx . Btw, can I say that I don't like the Italian national jersey at all? The traditional one is better!

OMEGA-PHARMA QUICKSTEP (not to confound with Lotto Belisol): OPQ has a very interesting line up, which is a good mixture of good old Quick Step and good old Omega. This winter the team lost De Maar, Seeldrayers, Malacarne, Engels (who retired), Reda, Robert, Van Impe, Cappelle and Tratnik, but it signed some very good riders like neo pro Trentin (one of the strongest Italian neos).

As for the Classics, OPQ can count on Tom Boonen and Chavanel. As for the sprints, OPQ can count on Ciolek, Steegmans and Chicchi, whereas the team will be very competitive during the TTTs thanks to guys like the Velits twins, Grabsch, Rabon, the Velits twins, Leipheimer and Toni Martin. As for the GTs, OPQ can count on Leipheimer, Cataldo, Toni Martin and on one of the Velits twins (I can't remember which one :P) who, in my opinion, are likely to do very well at the Tour. As for the rest of the team, it is formed by excellent all rounders like Terpstra, Brammeier, Bandiera, Fenn, Devenyns, Golas, Pineau (winner of a stage during the 2008 Giro), De Weert, Devenyns, Kwiatowski (who is a very promising rider), Pauwels, Vandenbergh, Vandewalle, Van Keirsbulck, Vermote, Maes, Golas and Zdenek Stybar. You can see the team kit on http://www.omegapharma-quickstep.com/ . Why does it remind me of Leopard Trek's one?

ASTANA: Astana was very active during the winter and it signed some very good young riders. On the other hand, it lost Di Gregorio, Clarke, Vaitkus, Davis, Stangelj and Lorenzetto (those two latter riders actually retired).

As far as the sprints are concerned, this year Astana can count on Gavazzi, Guarnieri and Bozic. As for the Classics, the Kazakh team will rely on the eternal Vinokourov, on Gasparotto and on Maksim Iglinskiy. Still, this team will have its best line up during the Grand Tours. In fact Astana roster includes lots of young promising guys like Brajkovic, Kiserlovski, Masciarelli, Kreuziger and some older guys like Vino and Kasheckin. Moreover the team includes excellent climbers like Seeldrayers, Silin and Kessiakoff and a great helper like Tiralongo. The rest of the team is former by good all rounders like Bazayev, Dyachenko, Fofonov, Grivko, Gruzdev, Kangert, V. Iglinskiy, Murayev, Nepomnyachsniy, Renev, Zeits and Petrov (who won l'Aquila stage of 2010 Giro).

The kit is the same as usual.

RABOBANK: This winter Rabobank lost Weening, Langeveld and Freire, but it gave a contract to Mark Renshaw and to two promising young guns, Bol and Keldermann. The 2012 roster is very good, as it features good sprinters like Boom, Bos, Brown, Renshaw, Matthews and Breschel. I really can't wait to see what Renshaw, Matthews and Breschel will do this year, so I'll keep an eye on them throughout the season. The team also includes promising GT riders like Gesink, Kruijswijk and Mollema and some great stage winners like Luis Leon Sanchez. Moreover the team includes very good all rounders like Barredo, Clement, Flens, Garate, Leezer, Martens, Niermann, Tjallingii, Van Emden, Van Winde, Verneltfoot and Wynants.

The kit is the same as 2011.

SAXO BANK: Saxo Bank let Cooke, Porte, Didier, Larsson, Steensen and Bellis go and I'm very sorry about all these departures. On the other hand, it signed Juul Jensen (who's already attracted the attention of many fangirls ;)) , Paulinho, Pires, Lund, Margaliot, Kroon, Vinther, Miyazawa and Cantwell.

The team features some very talented young riders like Boaro, Juul Jensen, Majka, Marycz (can't wait to see him at the Giro!), Pires and Tanner. Moreover it features two sprinters (los Haedos) and lots of great all rounders, which will support Contador throughout the season. Amongst them we have Gustov, Hernandez, Lund, Navarro, Noval, Tosatto, Paulinho and Nicki Sorensen. As for the Classics, Nuyens will try to rock the cobbles again together with Klostergaard, whereas Kroon and Chris Sorensen will do their best in the Ardennes.

As far as the kit is concerned, you can see it here: http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/photos/gallery-saxo-bank-show-off-2012-team-kit/201063 . I really like it, even I don't really love the eagles. Still, theybrought a lot of good luck last year, so I can understand why they didn't delete them from the jerseys ;)

SKY: During the winter Gerrans, Henderson, Cummings, Augustyn, Possoni, Downing and Pauwels changed team, whereas Arvesen, Cioni and Carlstrom retired. On the other hand, Sky gave a contract to the neo pro Puccio, to Siutsou, to Henao, Rowe, Porte, Pate and, dulcis in fundo, Eisel and Cavendish.

As for the sprints, this year Sky can count on the World champion, on Eisel, Dowsett, Appollonio, Stannard, Sutton, Swift, Hayman and Hunt. During the GTs instead it will be able to count on Wiggins, which will be supported by great climbers like Froome, Henao, Lovkvist and Uran and by excellent all rounders like Barry, Zandio, Rogers and Porte, who could also try his luck at the Giro. Moreover Sky can count on Thomas, Flecha and Boasson Hagen for the Classics and on some talented time trialists for the TTTs (amongst them we have Pate). Other talented all rounders are Knees, Kennaugh and Rowe.

The kit is the same as usual.

VACANSOLEIL: 2010 cycling market wasn't very good with Vacansoleil, as both Mosquera and Riccò were soon fired. Still, this year the Dutch team gave a contract to some very good guys like supporter's hero Van Hummel, the talented Denifl and Valls, the former SB rider Larsson and the former LT Mortensen. Moreover Vacansoleil signed Boeckmans, Lindeman, Markus, Marczynski, Morajko, Novikov and Van Impe, whereas it lost Golas, Mouris, Bozic, Belkov, Van Leijen and Gardeyn.

The 2012 roster includes strong Classic riders like Leukemans, Devolder, De Gendt, Poels and Westra, Carrara, De Gendt, Lagutin, Marcato and Hoogerland. Moreover the team can count on Roman Feillu and Pim Lighthart's sprinting skills and on other talented guys like Veuchelen, Selvaggi, Pavarin and Keizer.

The kit hasn't been officially unveiled yet.

So, that's all for the moment (and, probably, for the rest of the week). Let's ready to the start of the season folks!

PS: I'm having troubles with answering comments, so I'll try doing it tomorrow. Apologies!

2012 Cycling Season: Radioshack Nissan Trek Presentation + 2012 Calendar:

2012-01-07T22:18:00.000+01:00

Ladies and gentlemen, the 2012 cycling season is ready to start - or, better, it has already started for some riders, like the surprising 17 year-old Caleb Ewan, who has recently won the second stage of Jayco Bay Cycling Classic ahead of a tough guy like Allan Davis.

While someone has already resumed racing, for some other teams it is still 'presentation time' - and yes, I'm talking about Radioshack Nissan Trek. In this random post me offers you some useless thoughts about this team and a list of races we can look forward to in 2012. Enjoy!

1. RADIOSHACK NISSAN TREK (or what else it is called) ROSTER + NEW KITS:

Exactly one year ago, me was a thrilled Italian supporter who couldn't stop thinking about the launch of team Leopard Trek. Although the project never really hooked me, after the team presentation I decided to give Becca's boys a chance. All the secrecy surrounding the new team had annoyed me, just like the whole 'we're the best team of the world' propaganda. Still, as I already said, after the team presentation I felt much happier about that new team and I was really looking forward to the first races of the season. Unfortunately, Leopard Trek turned out to be a very good team, but with some fatal flaws: Cancellara for example didn't have anyone to help him in the North Classics, whereas the tactics of the team seemed a bit, well, 'strange' on a few important occasions.

During its first year of life in the world of Cycledom, Leopard Trek had just one important result: the Tour of Lombardy, in which the surprising Swiss Oliver Zaugg took the first victory of his career. As far as the other results, we have a second place in Sanremo, a second place in Flanders, a second place in Roubaix, a second and a third place in Liége, a second and a third place at the Tour, a third place in the TT Worlds in Copenhagen. Many other teams would love to have a season like that, but unfortunately mr. Becca (and the supporters) weren't satisfied. So what did the Luxembourgian businessman decide to do? Simple: he had his team melted with RadioShack, he had Bruyneel as new ds and he created a brand new team. Said team, just like Leopard Trek last year, is considered one of the strongest teams of 2012. Still, will the Schleck brothers manage to win any race this year? Will Cancellara take back his crown of TT World King? Will Kloden and the good old Lance's boys get good results too? These are just some of the questions to which the 2012 cycling season will bring some answers.

In the meanwhile, Becca's boys have presented their new jerseys, which are a fusion of LT and Radioshack's old kits. Judging from the kits, it seems that this year there will be about 26 Luxembourgian national champions in the peloton - seriously, do you think that a short-sighted supporter like me will really be able to tell Frank Schleck's jersey from the ones of his teammates? If you do, well, I must thank you for your esteem, but I really have to tell you that you're overestimating my sight-skills. However, apart from the little '30 Luxembourgian champions in just one peloton' problem, I think we can say that the designers at team LT did a decent job. The shorts are black (*sighs of relief coming from all over Cycledom*), the jerseys have maintained a stripe of LT's famous light blue (yes, girls, now it's official: we won't have to throw away our blue nail polishes and, most importat, we can keepon sporting them at races!!) and they've added just a very little stripe with Radioshack's colours on. After all, things could have been much worse.

On to more serious things, let's talk about team Radioshack's roster. As far as sprints are concerned, the Luxembourgish team can count on Daniele Bennati (will he manage to have a crash-free season? We hope so!), Hayden Roulston and the German champion Robert Wagner. The boys for the North Classics are Cancellara (of course), Hermans, Monfort, Rast and Posthuma. As far as the Ardenne's Classics are concerned, everyone's attention will be on the Schleck brothers, who will surely be helped by strong guys like Didier, Fuglsang, Gerdemann, Popovych and Voigt.
Talking about the Classics, I hope Oliver Zaugg will be able to go for himself on a few occasions this year. After his victory in Tour of Lombardy, the boy'd fully deserve it!

On to the other riders, we have climbers like Rohregger, Zubeldia and Machado, who last year came to the Giro with great hopes. As for the GC riders, as well as the Schleck brothers we have two tough guys like Horner and Kloden. Add the young Fuglsang and Machado, and you have a super strong team for the Grand Tours.

Talking about the rest of the roster, Irizar is a good rider who defeated cancer back in 2002 (more on: http://autobus.cyclingnews.com/news/?id=2003/feb03/feb28news2) . Sergent is a very young time trialist who's already ahd good results. Other young riders are the fast Nizzolo, the promising Oliveira, the American road race champion Matthew Busche, the 23 year-old Ben King, the 24 year old Toni Gallopin and the neo-pro George Bennett. Talking about Bennett, you can check out his blog on http://georgebennettcycling.blogspot.com/ . Last but not least, Radioshack has also signed one of the best breakawayers out there, the young Jan Bakelandts. Great choice guys!

Still talking about team Rant, on http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/andy-schleck-maintains-tour-de-france-focus there's a lovely article in which Andy Schleck explains his 2012 goals. The key sentences of the article are the following ones: "I've been three times second in the Tour so I think it would be a step back in my career if I say 'I'm not going to win the Tour, so I'll try and win the Giro' .I want to win the Tour. I don't want to go back and start with the Giro and see if maybe I can go back and reach the level to win the Tour. If I never win the Tour, then maybe I might choose the Vuelta or the Giro one year, but for now the goal stays like it was last year. I want to go for the Tour and that's priority. The Giro is a beautiful race and so is the Vuelta. But nothing else for me in the whole world of cycling is the Tour de France and it never will be." In other words, Andy doesn't want to focus on any GT apart from the Tour, because for him no other race is as important as the French competition. Actually, mr. Schleck said that racing the Giro would be 'a step back in his career'. Luckily guys like Contador and Menchov don't see things in this way, otherwise their cvs could be much worse!

2012 CYCLING CALENDAR:Talking about calendars, however, let's forget team Radioshack for a while and let's focus on the 2012 cycling season. Here in fact you have a list of the most important/beautiful races of 2012. Enjoy!

January: the 2012 cycling season will officially take off on the 15th of January with the beginning of Tour Down Under. Many riders are already in Australia, ready to start the race, and amongst them we have Davide Viganò, who's ready to give it all for his new captain Alessandro Petacchi. Apropos: the Italian still hopes to be able to ride the 2012 Olympic race in London and is determined to win some Giro stages in front of Cavendish. We'll see some nice sprints this year!

Immediately after the end of Tour Down Under, a new race is ready to begin: I'm talking about Tour de San Luis, which will have a very good start list also this year. Moreover, in these days the roads of New Zealand are choosing the new national cycling champions of the country. Allez Leopards! (yes, I know, that's an old-fashioned battle scream, but it had just begun to grow on me :P)
February: to the cycling supporter in me, February is probably one of the worst months of the year. After the excitement of the first races, in fact, we have a few competitions which me can't usually watch because of irrelevant things like school and so on. However, said competitions are the Tour of Qatar, which begins on the 5th of February and usually has a wonderful start list full of amazing sprinters, and the Tour of Oman. This year this latter race will include the Schleck brothers in its start list. Considering that last year the only mountain stage of the race was won by Gesink, perhaps we can hope to see the brothers getting good results. Other February races are le Tour de Langwaki (where Guardini last year got some amazing victories), Giro di Sardegna (which I really love), Het Nieuwsblad, Trofeo Laigueglia and Gp Costa degli Etruschi.
March: Fasten your seatbelts, ladies and gentlemen: March is the cycling month, no doubts about that. The cycling season ends its warm up with Eroica, Paris-Nice and Tirreno-Adriatico, then it definitely takes off with Milan-Sanremo. Last year 'La Primavera' (one of my 2 favourite Classics) was simply wonderful, with Goss taking a great victory and Scarponi racing at his best. This year we're likely to see a different Classicissima, since Cavendish has already said he wants to win it. Still, he'll have to beat lots of tough guys in order to get the victory ;)
After 'la Primavera', the calendar continues with E3 Prijs Vlaanderen Harelbeke, which is the appetizer of the North Classics: right after that race in fact we'll have Gent-Wevelgem, one of the most fascinating races of the year.
April: April is a holy month for cycling supporters and this year it begins with fireworks: on the 1st of April in fact Nick Nuyens will be fighting to win his second Tour de Flanders and show that his 2011 victory wasn't just a matter of luck. Amongst his adversaries there will be the usual known faces: Cancellara, Hoste, Gilbert, Chavanel, Hushovd, Devolder... Will Boonen and Pozzato reach their top form too? Time will tell. A week after Flanders, Paris-Roubaix will offer a one-way ticket to history to a lucky rider: who will receive the cobblestone-prize one year after Van Summeren?
As the cobblestone riders will fight against each other in the north of Europe, the climbers will be battling in Vuelta al Paìs Vasco, which begins on the 2nd of April. Thirteen days later they'll race Amstel Gold Race and they'll try to beat the unstoppable Philippe Gilbert. And remember, this year AGR is like a general proof of the Worlds race: don't forget that the 2012 World champion will be decided by the Cauberg!
Right after AGR, the climbers will face Fleche Wallonne and Liége, the Queen of the Ardenne's Classics: will Valverde be back at his top level after 2 yearsof ban? Will the Schleck brothers manage to improve their 2011 result? And will Phil Gil win again near to his home? These are just some of the questions that will be answered in about 4 months time :)
May: As known, May is the Giro-month. This year the Italian race is less difficult than usual, but it includes some terrible stages anyway. Amazing, isn't it? However, as usual, don't expect too many good riders to arrive in Italy in May: after all, the money of Tour de Gila and Tour of California will be calling!
June: This year June is a very rich month. As well as the Tour appetizers (Tour de Suisse and Dauphine Libére), this year the Tour de France itself begins in June. Hopefully that will bring good luck to a certain Luxembourgian rider born in June 1985... :P
July: Look out, look out, dear readers! This year July offers us the Tour of Poland, the Tour de France and, surprise surprise, the Olympic road race! This time the scenery is London and the parcours is for sprinters: will Cav manage to win the olympic title less than one year after winning the Worlds? Will Petacchi be allowed to race? Will Freire end his career after winning the Olympics? Or will a breakaway surprise us all?
August: Given the amount of hours that we'll spend watching cycling races in July, August offers us a whole week of rest from super important races. Then, on the 6th of August we have Eneco Tour starting, whereas a week later we have la Clasica de San Sebastian. Sea, heat, riders who will be tired because of the Tour and the Olympics... After la Clasica, we'll remain in Spain for la Vuelta: in 2011 the Spanish GT was extremely exciting and I'm sure things will be the same also this year. The month ends with GP Plouay and the Hamburg Classic.
September: The last month of the season, unfortunately, is already here. It takes off with the Canadian races (Québec and Montreal), it continues with the Worlds in Valkenburg (will Phil Gil win?) and it will end with the Giro di Lombardia. And guess what? The Schlecks may even decide to race it!
October: The 10th month of the year will offer us Tour of Beiing as well as the wonderful Paris-Tours (which now inheritates the title of 'race of the falling leaves' from Lombardia) and some Italian races like Giro dell'Emilia. Then, it will be time to talk about 2013 ;)

So, this is a quick resume of what is waiting for us behind the corner. I'll obviously do my best to follow all the best races on television and I'll also try my best to go watching a few races live. So far I think I'll go just to one/two stages of the Giro, to Tour of Lombardy and perhaps to Milan-Sanremo and Giro dell'Emilia. Still, it's a long way to October and last year taught me not to plan anything too early. So, let's just daydream about the upcoming season - and hopefully we'll find ourself sitting on a climb in September, waiting for the riders to ride past us, before we can even realise it.

2011 Cycling Awards decided by moi:

2011-12-27T18:38:00.000+01:00

Ladies and gentlemen, 2011 is ending and all the important cycling awards have already found a winner. Still, it's time to relive some moments of this last cycling season through the usual 'Cycling Awards of the year decided by moi' post. Have fun readers!

Best performance: Deciding this year's best performance is pretty difficult, isn't it? Btw,here's my top 3: 1. Andy Schleck's victory on the Galibier: that was a true masterpiece, which brought Little Bro a great victory on a historic climb and which was achieved at the end of a very stressing Tour de France. Simply amazing.

2. Gilbert's victory in Fleche Wallonne: it's hard to pick one of Gilbert's 2011 victories and saying that it was his best one. Still I must admit that, until he won Fleche Wallonne, I didn't think Philippe could win the three Ardennes Classics in the same year. Then that victory came and I realised that yes, Philippe could make it.

3. Contador's victory on Etna: on that day Alberto rode so fast that I even thought he was a doper. Like him or not, one can't deny that Alberto is probably the greatest rider of his generation.

Best team: Just like every year, deciding the winner of the Best Team Award is very difficult. Leopard Trek got a lot of podiums and won Tour of Lombardy, Saxo Bank won the Giro d'Italia and the Tour of Flanders, BMC won Paris-Roubaix and the Tour de France, Omega-Pharma Lotto won the three Ardennes Classics. The glorious HTC team instead won Milan-Sanremo, the road race and the TT at the Worlds. Talking about the Worlds, how can we forget about Monia Baccaille's great leadout work for Giorgia Bronzini? And what about the surprising Tour de France raced by the Europcar guys? As you can see, it's hard to decide the winner of this award. Therefore, let's transform it into a 'Best Team: in memoriam' award and let's choose HTC as winner.

Best sprinter: just like last year, the best sprinter award goes to Mark Cavendish for winning the Worlds. Still, a very special mention goes to Thor Hushovd and to his amazing Tour de France - apropos, can we still consider him a sprinter after what he did in the Pyrenées?

Best TT riders: Hear ye, hear ye, this year this award goes to Toni Martin, the new World champion!

Best young rider: After what he did on Alpe d'Huez this summer, I think this award absolutely has to go to Pierre Rolland. Look out for this boy in 2012!

Most exciting moment of the year: 2011 was a very exciting year and it's hard, if not impossible, to choose just one exciting moment. I personally go for Andy Schleck's victory on Le Galibier, whereas the second place in this category goes to Bart De Clerq's victory in the Giro d'Italia. Seriously, the OPL rider almost caused me a heart attack on that day! Last but not least, I think other exciting moments were Goss' victory in Sanremo and Van Summeren's one in Roubaix.

Craziest moment of the year: Nuyens winning Tour of Flanders with Riis laughing like a mad scientist inside the team car and hugging people at random.

Most exciting Grand Tour of the year: Probably Vuelta a Espana. Unfortunately I couldn't watch it and, if I had to make a choice between Tour de France and Giro d'Italia, this year I'd go for Tour de France. Contador's strength in fact 'killed' the Corsa Rosa, whereas the Schleck-Evans battle and Voeckler's toughness made the 2011 Tour de France very exciting to watch.

Worst moment of the year: Unfortunately, this is an easy choice. Wouter Weylandt's death during the Giro is still in everyone's minds, just like Tondo's tragic loss. We miss you guys! <3

Worst cycling-related moment of the year for Fangirl: Vinokourov breaking his femur at the Tour and Johnny Hoogerland being hit by that Tour de France car.

Worst polemic of the year: I go for the Crostis polemics: after all this time, thinking about it can still break my day. Although, now that I think about it, I must admit that even Riccò's last doping case has the ability of upsetting me after all this time. And don't get me started about Geox betraying all its riders or UCI sponsoring Tour of Beijing!

Most surprising rider of the year: Thomas Voeckler, JJ Cobo and Chris Froome. Who expected the Frenchman to keep the yellow jersey after the Galibier stage? And who expected those other two guys to end up on la Vuelta's podium?

Most moving moment of the year: I pick two moments, without giving them a rank: Kiryenka's victory on Colle delle Finestre and Farrar's victory in Tour de France. So moving!

Most unlucky rider of the year: Mauricio Soler, no doubts about that. Although now he's fine, his crash during Tour de Suisse was simply shocking and it probably put an end to the career of this strong Colombian climber. Second in this classification is Matti Breschel: not only did the poor thing miss the Classics this year, but he also missed the Worlds in his home-country! The third place instead goes to Marco Pinotti and Craig Lewis, who both ended their season in May because of a terrible crash during the Macugnaga stage of the Giro. 4th instead is Johnny Hoogerland (protagonist of the famous barbed wire crash), whereas 5th are all the guys (Van Den Broeck, Gesink, Wiggins, Vinokourov) who crashed hard during the Tour.

Best race I saw live this year: The San Pellegrino stage of the Giro (apropos, shall I remind you my catastrophic encounter with Denis Menchov? :P)

Best woman of the year: Marianne Vos. Although she was second in the Worlds for the 4th (or was is the 5th?) time in a row, she simply ruled the Giro d'Italia femminile. Chapeau!

Most breathtaking Classic of the year: Oh gosh, that's a difficult choice. I go for Tour of Flanders, followed by Milan-Sanremo and Tour of Lombardy (Nibali's attack during it was great). Fourth place goes to Paris-Roubaix, whereas the 5th place goes to Fleche Wallonne and Amstel Gold Race ('Go Andy, gooooooo!').

Ok, these are my awards. Of course everyone is free to disagree and toinvent new prizes! ;)

It was three years ago today...

2011-12-19T22:04:00.000+01:00

...miss Fede taught her blog to play / they've been going in and out of style / but they're guaranteed to raise a smile/ So may I introduce to you / the act you've known for all these years/ The Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Baaaand!

Ok dear readers, sorry for that. After all this time you've probably got to know me quite well, so you'll probably forgive me this moment of craziness. After all, this is a happy day, isn't it? I mean, it's 'My Blog''s third birthday, isn't that quite a thing? It's time to party-party-party-party girls!! Come on, let's have some (virtual) champagne and lets put on some good music (ok, perhaps 'good' isn't the best word to define David Guetta and Lady Gaga's songs, but I think you've understood what I meant...)!

Geez, three years. Oh God, has it really been so long since I started this blog? I feel old! Well, ok, perhaps 'old' is a bit exaggerated. Still, I must admit I feel 'changed'. On paper, 3 years look like a very short period of time. But in life, 3 years are a huge amount of days, some of which have been bad, some of which have been good. In the last 3 years of my life everything has changed for me, even if perhaps it doesn't really show. Even if I'm still a curly girl with a strange pair of looking glasses, even if I still love Bob Dylan, even if I still spend the whole month of July cheering on some unknown readers while eating lots of ice-cream, I've changed. And also this blog, which is a kind of 'image' of me, has changed.

My first few posts on this blog were awful and they're likely to enter the history of the Blogosphere as 'the worst written Christmas posts ever'. During that cold month of December 2008 I had reflected very carefully about the chance of creating a blog (I was afraid it would have taken me too much time to keep it updated :P), but in the end I decided to set off on this adventure. And now, three years later, I don't regret that choice at all, because that adventure has allowed me to 'meet' some amazing people who I would have never met otherwise. People with whom I don't simply share a passion, but with whom I also share part of my time, of my worries (who doesn't remember my famous Maturità rants? ;)) and of my joys. People with whom I have the chance to laugh about things that my friends would never understand and people with whom this year I've had the chance of grieving with on some very sad occasions. Cycling is a family and my blog is a little window on this amazing world, with all its amazing people and followers.

2011 hasn't been a good year for me, nor has it been a good year for cycling. A few days before Milan-Sanremo a relative of mine passed away, two days before Flanders one of my parents had a heart attack (don't worry, now they're fine). Then, on a sunny day of May, Wouter Weylandt's life came to an end and I found myself in front of this very same computer screen, crying my eyes out, mourning the same loss as you all. The same happened a few days later, when we all mourned the loss of Xavier Tondo. In the haze of unanswered questions following these two deaths, there was one little thing that cheered me up: the way in which we, people of Cycledom, gathered together as a family in order to get through those hard moments. In those days, we showed everyone that we're a big, colourful family formed by many different people with many different backgrounds, many different problems, but just one passion: cycling.

During the last three years I've grown up, just like my blog and just like you all, my dear readers. In that quiet, cold winter evening in 2008 I was a nervous high school student who was afraid that her blog would have never been read by anyone and whose biggest problem was 'what am I going to do on New Years' Eve now that my best friends are off to Berlin?' . Now, even if the New Year's Eve problem has remained (with a difference: this year my friends are off to Madrid :P), I'm a much more mature girl and this probably (hopefully) emerges also from my posts. Even if sometimes I write silly things (see the song above for further confirmation of this), at least in these days I don't write just about my favourite cyclist, but I write about cycling in general - and, in my opinion, that's an improvement.

Unfortunately, also as a consequence of events concerning my off-line life, me was unable to blog as much as usual this year. I had lots of great blogging projects in my mind, but I simply couldn't find the time to write them down on this web pages lost in the Blogosphere. This autumn for example I would have liked to write a few posts about some famous athletes (not just cyclists) of the past, I would have liked to write another pronounciation post, I would have liked to organise a poll about the 2011 cycling season. I would have liked to write a joyful post when Menchov signed with Katiusha (it was high time baby!) and I would have liked to write a post about the Bergamo stage of the Giro. Unfortunately, I didn't have the time for all those things.

Hopefully next year I'll be able to offer you (and myself) more posts in comparison to this year. Luckily, the start of the new cycling season is right behind the corner and Milan-Sanremo, Tour of Flanders, Gand-Wevelgem and all the others races are ready to accompany us once again through another year, full of problems, laughs and bittersweet moments.

While waiting for 2012, therefore, let's raise a glass of (virtual) champagne to cycling, to the riders and to all the amazing people who are part of the cycling family. Thank you for this year, my dear readers, and all of the best for the upcoming one. Have a lovely evening everyone! (*turns off the computer while singing 'Happy Birthday to my blog'*) Cheers! ;)

2012 Teams, 2010 Liége and more random news:

2011-12-08T19:06:00.000+01:00

Ok, I know. My previous post was written almost a month ago and me hasn't replied the comments of my readers for more than three weeks, a thing for which I deeply apologise. Still, I must admit that in the last few days I have been very busy and that, perhaps, in these last few months my 'blogging motivation' isn't the same as before. However, in the last few days there have been lots of interesting news going around Cycledom and in this post I'd like to talk briefly about them.

First of all, the team RAnT training camp has started. La Gazzetta keeps on writing articles about Andy Schleck's possible participation in the 2012 Giro d'Italia, but it seems that Bruyneel and his clan don't want the Luxembourgian to waste time in Italy next May. However, cyclists usually anounce their schedules at this time of the year, so we'll have to wait just a few weeks to solve the Giro-enigma that surrounds Andy and his team.

Talking about the 'waiting' topic, in January we'll discover if Contador really did dope during the 2010 Tour or not. Personally, I don't care anymore about the TAS decision, but I just want to lave this horrible story behind. Come on, it can't take a jury more than a year to decide whether a person is guilty or not!

On to another topic, here's the final roster of the Radioshack Nissan Trek Something Else Team. We had to wait 3 months, but at least now we're ably to read it (*chorus of 'it was high time' coming from all over the world):

Jan Bakelants (Bel)
Daniele Bennati (Ita)
George Bennett (NZl)
Matthew Busche (USA)
Fabian Cancellara (Swi)
Laurent Didier (Lux)
Jakob Fuglsang (Den)
Tony Gallopin (Fra)
Linus Gerdemann (Ger)
Ben Hermans (Bel)
Chris Horner (USA)
Markel Irizar (Spa)
Ben King (USA)
Andreas Klöden (Ger)
Tiago Machado (Por)
Maxime Monfort (Bel)
Giacomo Nizzolo (Ita)
Nelson Oliveira (Por)
Yaroslav Popovych (Ukr)
Joost Posthuma (Ned)
Gregory Rast (Swi)
Thomas Rohregger (Aut)
Hayden Roulston (NZl)
Andy Schleck (Lux)
Fränk Schleck (Lux)
Jesse Sergent (NZl)
Jens Voigt (Ger)
Robert Wagner (Ger)
Oliver Zaugg (Swi)
Haimar Zubeldia (Spa)

A good team, no doubts about it, even if it'll be hard for Bruyneel to find just one GT leader for next year Tour. Horner, Fuglsang, Kloeden, los Schlecks... Who's the best? I don't know. And I don't even know who will help Cancellara during the Spring Classics, since Leopard Trek fired its few good Cobbleriders in order to get itself 2 other GT men :P Oh, and talking about Fuglsang, did you know that he's the rider who raced the most this year? Amazing Jakob!

On to another topic, Quick Step has recently unveiled its 2012 kit. I don't really like the jerseys, whereas I love the shorts, which slightly remind me Saxo Bank's ones. By the way, what's the thing with light blue this year? Leopard Trek had it in its kits, Saxo Bank had it too, and now Quick Step has chosen it as new colour for their jerseys. It's good to be original, isn't it?

Talking about good old Saxo Bank, the boys right now are in Israel, having fun at the beach, building schools, promoting peace in the Middle East and covering their bodies with a horrible-looking black substance (pictures at: http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/photos/gallery-contador-and-saxo-bank-train-in-israel - beware, it features pics of shirtless Uncle Bjarne!!!).

Talking about another team, Rabobank has recently presented its 3 teams (the men, the women and the Continental one). The team has chosen to keep its 2011 kit, which next year will be worn by the following riders: Bauke Mollema (Ned), Bram Tankink (Ned), Coen Vermeltfoort (Ned), Dennis van Winden (Ned), Jetse Bol (Ned), Jos van Emden (Ned), Lars Boom (Ned), Laurens ten Dam (Ned), Maarten Tjallingii (Ned), Rick Flens (Ned), Robert Gesink (Ned), Stef Clement (Ned), Steven Kruijswijk (Ned), Theo Bos (Ned), Tom-Jelte Slager (Ned), Tom Leezer (Ned), Wilco Kelderman (Ned), Carlos Barredo (Spa), Graeme Brown (Aus), Grischa Niermann (Ger), Juan Manuel Garate (Spa), Luis Leon Sanchez (Spa), Maarten Wynants (Bel), Mark Renshaw (Aus), Matti Breschel (Den), Michael Matthews (Aus) and Paul Martens (Ger). Maarten Wynants couldn't attend the team presentation because of the birth of his second son, whereas Gesink became father of a baby girl a few hours ago. Congratulations to those two riders, to their families and to the little 'new entries': may they have a long, happy and serene life! :D

Talking about the 2012 Rabobank team, I'm curious to see what Kelderman will do next year. Moreover I hope that bad luck will stop haunting Breschel and Gesink and I hope that Matthews and Renshaw will get some good victories. In addition, I can't wait to see what Kruijswijk and Mollema will do during the upcoming Grand Tours - they're so talented!

Rabobank women's team instead is formed by Marianne Vos (Ned), Thalita de Jong (Ned), Roxane Knetemann (Ned), Iris Slappendel (Ned), Rebecca Talen (Ned), Annemiek van Vleuten (Ned), Monique van der Vorst (Ned), Liesbet de Vocht (Ned), Sarah Düster (Ger), Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (Fra), Lauren Kitchen (Aus) and Tatiana Antosjina (Rus). A very strong team, which features Her Majesty Marianne Vos, the great Classic rider Van Vleuten, the young Ferrand-Prévot and the miracle-athlete Monique van der Vorst, who has recently recovered the use of her legs after spending more than 10 years on a wheelchair (read more about her amazing story on: http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/rabobank-womens-team-signs-miracle-athlete-monique-van-der-vorst). Seriously, look out for this team next year!

Talking about another team, Geox has recently given up hope of finding a new sponsor. This means that guys like Cobo and Menchov now are officially unemployed and that the same worths for less famous guys who will surely have a tough time finding themselves a new equipe at this time of the year. So far the riders who've already managed to find a new contract are the following ones: Mauricio Ardila and Fabio Duarte (Colombia-Coldeportes), Fabio Felline (Androni Giocattoli), Matteo Pelucchi (Europcar), Daniele Ratto (Liquigas), Xavier Florencio (Katusha), Daniele Colli (Team Type 1), and Matthias Brändle (Team NetApp). Let's hope everyone else will manage to find a decent team too!

After talking about the 2012 cycling teams (or, at least, after talking about few of them), let's now talk about 2010 Liége - Bastogne - Liége, the one that was won by Vinokourov in front of Kolobnev. Apparently, UCI thinks that Vino paid Alexander Kolobnev 100 000 euros to let him win the race and, in order to demonstrate their point, the UCI guys published parts of e-mails that the two riders wrote to each other ( http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/emails-between-vinokourov-and-kolobnev-published ). Imo these e-mails are rather creepy because of many reasons. First of all, it seems that Kolobnev almost considers Vinokourov as some kind of divinity. Moreover, Kolo seems to dislike the Belgian riders ("Even my wife was not too uneasy by the fact that I was second, because you were the first"; "My only comfort is that you won and not one of the natives"). Moreover, Vino's passage about God ("You have done everything properly, do not worry. As you say, the Earth is round and God sees everything ... So, again thank you. You, this year you will win the championship finally, I believe. Do not worry about the agreement, I will do it”) slightly reminds me of the mafia, whereas Vino's words to justify his payment reminds me a lot of mr. Berlusconi (“I often make payments left and right, sometimes I lend money, but I never offered to buy the win from Kolobnev" - Vino, would you please lend me 100 000 euros? Come on, I'm the founder of the AAVL, aren't I?). Scary, isn't it?

I remember that in the last kms of 2010 Liége Kolobnev did behave in a petty strange way and that at the time some chronists stated that he made big mistakes that cost him the victory. After reading these e-mails, I think we can understand why he made them :P

So, that's all from me for the moment. University is keeping me busy but, as I wrote in my reply to Auntie Coug's comment, I'm really having a good time in these days. So, don't worry for me if you don't see new posts coming up - it just means that I'm too busy to write. Have a good evening everyone and have a great weekend! (and sorry for this far-fetched post - I just needed to check whether I was still able to write something decent about cycling :P)

Random post about random things (politics, Schleck, Contador, Bob Dylan, Schleck, random randomnesses...)

2011-11-17T23:04:00.000+01:00

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen! To your joy, miss Fede is back blogging again.

A few noticeable things have happened over the last few days: for example, Italy has managed to create a decent government for the first time in 19 years (*chorus of 'allelujah' coming from all over the world...hey, the Frenchmen and the Germans look really relieved!*). It was high time, wasn't it? Still, I don't think that Berlusconi will remain far from the goverment for a very long time. That man is like a cat, he's got 9 lives (however, cats usually have a true fur, whereas Silvio's hair are made of plastic).

On to another important thing that has recently taken place: on Monday evening I went to Bob Dylan's concert, which was simply amazing. I went there with my father and two of his friends and we managed to find four tickets for the concert just 5 minutes before the beginning of the concert. This happened because a few days before the concert we phoned the ticket-selling agency, but they told us that the concert was sold out. Still, dad and his friends decided to go to Milan anyway, hoping that someone would sell us a ticket there. Luckily, in the end our choice paid off :)

Dylan's concert actually started after that Mark Knopfler, the former guitarrist of Dire Straits, had played for about 90 minutes. In fact Mark and Bob are on tour together this year and during the concert they even played two songs together.

It's not the first time I go to a Dylan's concert, but this time I must say that Bob looked really good. He sang (of course), he danced (well, kind of :P), he played the armonic, he played the guitar, he played the piano and he also gave us a few nice solos on the piano, on the guitar and on the harmonic. Amazing. Moreover, Dylan (or shall I call him Robert?) played wonderful songs like 'Leopard-Skin-Pill-Box Hat' (together with M. Knopfler), 'Tangled Up in Blue', 'Desolation Row', 'Ballad of a Thin Man', 'Simple Twist of Fate', 'It's all Over Now Baby Blue' ,'All Along the Watchtower' and 'Like a Rolling Stone'. Not bad, is it? (ok, I confess it: I'm a Dylan's fanatic)

Talking about other things that have happened over the last few days, here's a sad news: my crush has decided to move to Trieste and attend university there. As you can understand, I'm a disappointed girl right now - and my disappointment becomes even bigger if you think that all the boys in my Russian class are thinking about stopping learning the language. Shocking, isn't it?

Anyway, enough talks about me. Let's now talk a bit of cycling. First of all, Contador's hearing takes place in a few days time, but the judges will till us their opinion on Steak-Gate just in 3 months time (no comment on that). Paolo Tiralongo will go to Losanna for Contador's hearing, since he was amongst those who dined with Contador on that famous evening of July 2010. Interviewed by la Gazzetta, the Astana rider said: 'In those days I was Contador's shadow: we used to do everything together. On that famous evening, Contador, some other teammates and I went to dine after that Vinokourov and my Kazakh teammates had already eaten. They told us that the food served by the hotel wasn't very good, so we decided to have that famous steak cooked. It was a delicious piece of meat which a friend of Alberto had brought to him a few days before'. Asked about the Losanna's hearing, Tiralongo stated: 'When Alberto asked me to go there as a witness and help to defend him, I immediately said 'yes'. We didn't do anything wrong on that occasion'. Time will tell if the judges agree with Paolo or not. I'm personally tired of Steak-Gate and, right now, I hope Contador will be cleared (no, I haven't become crazy): in fact cycling would receive a very bad blow if its best athlete was banned for one or two years after winning 1 Tours de France and 1 Tour of Italy in the last 16 months.

Talking about another rider, Andy Schleck has been recently cited and fined for driving his car too fast. This may sound like a great gossip, but remember that our boy wasn't driving at 250 km/h, but at 101 km/h. After all, it wasn't too fast, was it? (I just hope he wasn't driving in a village when he reached that speed!) Actually, this isn't a nice period for young riders who are enjoying their off-season: whereas Andy got fined for speeding, the other day Euskaltel rider Romain Sicard had a a very strange adventure with some policemen. In fact the 23 year old rider was stopped by a few policemen after he was spotted while trying to put a traffic sign in the boot of his car (http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/sicard-detained-by-police-after-drunken-prank). Once they stopped him, the police officers also found a traffic cone in the back of his car. Later they found out that Sicard had been drank too much on that evening.

Poor Romain has recently apologised to the supporters, the team and his sponsor for his 'immature behaviour' - still, I think this story will haunt him for a while once he gets back in the peloton.

Still talking about Andy Schleck, one last news: he may come to the Giro next year. In fact Bruyneel thinks that Andy can't win the 2012 TdF (96 kms against the clock and 3 summit finishes, I repeat: 96 kms against the clock and 3 summit finishes!), so he thinks OGL should start thinking about taking part in the Giro. Becca is said to agree with Bruyneel (actually, rumours suggest that mr. Leopard got very angry at Andersen & Co. when he first saw LT's line-up for the 2011 Giro), while Merckx (who is a friend of the Schleck family) has told 'la Gazzetta' that Andy should really come to Italy next May, because 'a victory in the Giro worths more than a 2nd placement in the Tour'. Ivan Basso instead has said he'll be happy if Andy decides to race the Giro, but he has also said that the Luxembourgian will have to fight hard to win the race. I agree with Basso and I'd like to add one thing: if you come to Italy, dear Andy, do it because you want to win. Italian supporters prefer Contador to you and, if you came to Italy just in order to train, you'd lose all their respect. If you don't want to come here and try winning, you'd better go to the Tour of California. Is it clear?

Ok, enough serious news for the moment. To end this post, here's a list of interesting links:
- http://marleen888.tumblr.com/ : this is the link to Ride On's Marleen tumblr :)
- http://cyclistsandmore.tumblr.com/: this is the link to the tumblr of our other Marleen, another great cycling lover :)

- http://www.speedskating-online.com/ : ok, I know, mine is a blog about cycling, not about other sports. Anyway, here's the link to a website run by a great cycling lover with a very big passion for speedskating - take a look, and have a good night!

Fun in Curaçao:

2011-11-07T17:58:00.000+01:00

Ok dear readers, miss Fede is back blogging again. I had promised you a post about cycling market, but the amount of pics coming in from Curaçao have made me changed my mind. Therefore, here's a little post about the place where every cycling fangirl of the world would like to be right now. First of all, however, let me tell you about a great discovery I made this morning: in Russia they don't say 'cousin', but they say something which, translated in English, would sound a bit like 'brother once removed' - in Russian, 'dvojurodnyj brat'. Therefore, if your Russian teacher wants you to tell her what you did yesterday, and yesterday you had to go to the baptism of 'the son of the cousin of your father', well, just make up that you went to the cinema with a friend. Or, better, just say that you spent the day resting. It's a lie but, at least, thanks to it you won't look like an idiot while trying to repeat the 'dvojurodnyj brat' thing.

Ayway. Enough about me for the moment. Let's talk serious stuff - the Curaçao Amstel Gold Race, for example. Of course I know that you, dear readers, aren't interested at all in the race itself, but I think it is interesting to notice that, this year, Andy Schleck's good results include a second placement at the Tour de France and a second placement in this amazing race by the sea. Seriously, the guy is becoming a living second placement. However. First in the race was Marcel Kittel, whereas 3rd was Johnny 'Barbed Wire' Hoogerland. All in all, a great podium.

On to the usual show that the riders put up for photographers ~~and fangirls~~ every year, this time there were at least 6 things to notice about it:
1. no dolphins appear in the pictures published on Cyclingnews / Corvos/ Tim De Waele's websites. Shall we start getting worried??

2. after many years of playing with the dolphins/ jetskiing/ scuba-diving / sunbathing/ playing with the dolphins, the riders could finally enjoy some new exciting activities like fighting with pillows while staying in a very precarious position by the pool. This fun activity apparently replaced the one previously known as 'playing with the dolphins' - the poor marine creatures, in fact, were probably fired by their employers after they asked for a higher wage.

3. there was one rider (Marcel Kittel) who wasn't as skinny as the other ones. In fact, dear girls, I'm happy to tell you that his arms are actually thicker than mine. I feel happy!!!

4. there was one rider (Johnny Hoogerland) whose legs were much more impressive than the ones of the other riders. Apparently, that cursed barbed wire left its marks.

5. Andy Schleck brought his girlfriend along - yes girls, he has a girlfriend and they've been a couple for quite a while now. Btw, they're so cute together!!

6. Contador didn't go to Curaçao because on Sunday he and his long-time girlfriend Macarena were busy getting married. Mrs. Contador looked gorgeous on that day and miss Fede obviously takes this chance to wish her and her husband a happy, long and serene life together.

As far as the things-who-never-change-under-the-Curaçao-sun are concerned, instead, I think we definitely need to underline Frank Schleck's eternal skinnyness (is this a word, I wonder?). Still, I must admit I am extremely shocked by the lack of pictures in which the riders play with the dolphins - so shocked that I'm going to end this post here and search for some more news about the dolphins' fate. Hopefully I'll discover that those funny creatures are on strike or that they've become so shy that they now refuse to appear in the photos from the island - or, more likely, I'll just find out that silly me has forgotten to check an important cycling website full of Curaçao pictures.

About cycling market and university life:

2011-10-30T23:22:00.000+01:00

As some of my faithful readers have probably noticed, in these last few weeks me hasn't blogged as much as usual. Moreover, I haven't even answered some of my readers' comments (I'm so, so sorry!!!). The only thing I can say in my defense is that, as predictable, university life is really wearing me out: every day I attend my first lesson at 9 am and 4 days pro week I walk out of the classroom at 5 pm. Luckily on Tuesday I have just a Russian lesson, so I'm ready to come back home already at 11 am (that's why I've started to love Tuesdays!). Still, finding the time to blog isn't easy, even if I have free Saturdays and (almost) free Tuesdays: in the weekend in fact I'm usually too tired to do anything but going out with friends, and on Tuesdays I'm too busy studying Russian. Talking about that subject I must say that, as @ Brenda had predicted, the number of my fellow students is decreasing day after day, especially now that our Russian teacher has started explaining 'difficult' things and has started telling us that we need to study at least 20 new words pro day if we want to learn the language well.

As far as my German lessons are concerned (our friend @ Barbara asked me about it some time ago and I excuse myself for replying her question just now), during the lessons we read newspaper articles, then we translate them. In the end, we study the new words. Those lessons are actually pretty boring, but I realise they're actually more useful than it seems.

On to other lessons, I've begun my computer classes. And, surprise surprise, I'm terrible at them - so terrible that I'm even considering the chance of not passing the exam on the first try. Another exam that pretty worries me is the 'Italian Language' one: you get a text and you must correct the grammar and insert some words (this part of the text is called 'Fill the gaps!'). I know, this exam sounds easy, but the difficulty of the task actually depends on the topic of the text: give me a text about cycling and I'll do a great job, give me a text about Great Britain's economical system and I won't be able to insert two correct words in a row.

On to other classes, I like my Linguistics class, whereas I hate the Italian Literature one. I've never really loved the subject and the other day, when our professor said: 'Let's start our lecture about Manzoni', I almost had a heart attack. Geez, I've been studying Manzoni since I was 10!

As far as my classmates are concerned, I adore my Russian lessons because they make me feel as if I still were at high school: everyone knows everyone and we often talk all together. However, I must admit that the atmosphere of these lessons has been slightly ruined by the arrival of many new entries and by a few discoveries I've recently made (aka: my crush has got a girlfriend and they seem to get on extremely well, whereas the other boy I like isn't straight). As far as the other lessons are concerned, some Linguistics students are simply hateful, whereas some guys in my German class are extremely lovely. Well, I think we can say that those two classes compensate each other ;)

Anyway, enough about boring university stuff: let's now talk a bit about cycling market - or, better, let's talk about the latest news regarding Team RaNT, Geox, Vacansoleil, HTC and GreenEdge (more teams will follow in the next days).

The last coup de scene has seen Geox stating that they're not going to sponsor Menchov & Co. anymore.

The thing about Geox is that not only was it meant to be a longtime project (just like Leopard Trek), but that the riders found out about the loss of their main sponsor just a few days ago. And, whereas Menchov and Cobo probably won't have problems in finding themselves a new important team, I'm afraid we can't say the same about guys like Kump, Mizbani or Furdi.

Imo, Mr. Geox never got over the fact that his team wasn't invited to the Tour de France and that's why he probably decided to end his cycling adventure after just one year. Unfortunately it takes a while to create a winning cycling team (ask Becca, Radioshack and Sky for further information) and those who aren't patient enough soon lose all their interest in the sport. Mr. Geox wanted his riders to win the Tour already this year: they didn't even get the chance to try winning it, so he got immediately fed up. What a mature behaviour, isn't it? If I can make a suggestion, mr. Geox, try becoming the sponsor of an Italian soccer team: buy a few good players, pay the referees some money and you'll see your team getting good results in no time (still, this recipe may not work in the Champions League matches :P).

After talking a bit about Geox, let's talk about the team of another lovely millionaire: Team RaNT. There are interesting news about this team, since it looks like most of the former LT riders are doing their best to escape from it. According to Cicloweb, in fact, Denifl and Mortensen are off to Vacansoleil, Lund and Pires have signed for Saxo Bank (I see a bald Danish ds laughing!!), Klemme and Stamsnijder are off to 1t4i (tu quoque, banana boy!), Feillu is off to Saur, Clarke is off to a team called 'Champions Syst.' (or something similar), Pedersen has signed for Christina Watches, Wegmann is off to Garmin and Viganò has chosen to ride for Lampre. I'm pretty sad about Clarke's decision, because the boy had talent and I would have liked him to remain in a top level team for another couple of years. I'm also sorry about the fact that Wegmann and Viganò are off to new teams, even if I can understand them: Fabian's year (both from the professional and from the personal point of view) has been terribly influenced by the death of his roommate Wouter Weylandt, so I think he really wanted to change team in 2012. As far as Viganò is concerned, I completely support his choice of going to Lampre. There he'll have the chance of riding for experienced riders like Petacchi and Hondo and he'll finally get all the media attention he deserves.

As far as the 'new riders' list is concerned, instead Cicloweb claims that the new entries who've already signed a contract for Team Rant there are Bakelandts and Roulston (right now, the Jan-fan in is screaming all her joy). Also Selig has signed a contract for the team and this obviously makes me really happy.

After confusing you with this long list of arrivals - departures (seriously, it feels like being in an airport here!), let's write a little resume. So, next year Team Rant should be formed by the following riders: Andy Schleck, Frank Schleck, Fabian Cancellara, Linus Gerdemann, Daniele Bennati, Joost Posthuma, Maxime Monfort, Jakob Fuglsang, Jens Voigt, Robert Wagner, Giacomo Nizzolo, Oliver Zaugg (former Leopard riders), Chris Horner, Andreas Klöden, Gregory Rast, Ben King, Matthew Busche, Tiago Machado, Ben Hermans, Jesse Sergent, Yaroslav Popovych, Markel Irizar Haimar Zubeldia (former Radioshack athletes), Tony Gallopin, Laurent Didier, Gianni Meersman and Rudiger Selig (new entries). The leaving Leopards instead are: Viganò, Wegmann, Klemme, Stamsnijder, Clarke, Lund, Pires, Pedersen, Mortensen, Denifl, O'Grady and Feillu. Nice, isn't it?

Let's now talk about another team: the glorious HTC-Highroad. Gretsch and Degenkolb are off to Skil Shimano (or how else will it be called), whereas the Velits twins, Rabon, Grabsch, Brammeier and Toni Martin have already signed a contract with Omega (something tells me that Omega will be very dangerous in the TTTs :P). Ghyselinck is the only one who's signed a contract with Cofidis, whereas Pinotti and Van Garderen will be teammates at BMC. Goss, Howard and Albasini are off to GreenEdge, whereas Renshaw has betrayed Cavendish in order sprint for Rabobank in 2012. The promising Smukulis is off to Katiusha, whereas Eisel, Pate, Cavendish and Siutsou have all signed a contract for Team Sky.

Good luck to all those riders and also to the ones (Fairly and Lewis) whose future team is still unknown!

After talking about mergers, retiring teams and so on, let's welcome with a loud applause one of the new superteams of the 2012 season: team Green Edge. Said team will have a great roster and so far it has given a contract to: O'Grady (Stuey, I already miss you!), Bobridge, the Meyer brothers, Weening, Langeveld, Gerrans, Mouris, Simon Clarke, Tuft, Cooke, Wilson, Vaitkus, McEwen, Beppu, Albasini, Goss, Keukeleire, Howard, Sulzberger, Lancaster, Davis, Dean, Docker, Kruopis, Meier, Impey, Durdribge and Hepburn. If you still haven't found a team to support in 2012, here's the perfect equipe for you: it has two excellent neo pros (ok, I admit it: I have a crush on Hepburn :P), some great experienced riders (O'Grady, McEwen, Tuft, Cooke), some people who've recently got very important results (Bobridge, the Meyer brothers, te Sanremo winner Goss) and some Classics riders (Weening, Langeveld, Keukeleire). Moreover, there are some fast sprinters (go go Impey!!) and some good all rounders (Albasini, I'm talking about you). The only flaw in this great team? The lack of a GC contender. Still, I think I like it even this way ;)

Last team I'm going to examine tonight, Vacansoleil: this very likeable team has freed Belkov, Mouris, Golas and Van Leijen, but it has given a contract to some important riders like supporters' hero Kenny Van Hummel, the Austrian promise Denifl and the strong Swedish time trialist Larsson. I am soooo looking forward to watching Hoogerland and Van Hummel racing for the same team!!!

So, that's all for tonight - I'm going to talk about the other teams soon, so stay tuned. In the meanwhile, have a great week!

Rest in Peace Marco:

2011-10-23T18:03:00.000+02:00

Today the weather in Italy is simply perfect: the sky is blue and the sun is shining. Unfortunately, not many people are enjoying it, because of a sad news that reached Italy this morning: Marco Simoncelli, one of the most talented Italian motorcyclists, passed away while racing the GP of Malaya. Marco was 24 and leaves his parents and his girlfriend Kate.

I'm not really keen on motorcycling, but I knew Simoncelli because Gazzetta used to dedicate a lot of articles to him. Moreover, he was easy to recognise because of his curly wild hair and he was pretty well known amongst students because last year he wrote a column for 'Smemoranda', one of the most popular Italian notebooks. From that column he came across as a very likeable, lively and down-to-Earth guy. He clearly loved his job and he died while doing what he liked the most.

Of course I think it's useless to say that Simoncelli's tragedy made my mind go back to that damned 9th of May, when Wouter Weylandt passed away on Passo Bocco. Even if Marco and Wouter had different stories and practised different sports, today I feel the same pain that hurt me 5 months ago.

I'm really lost for words and I cannot accept what has happened. Rest in peace Marco and may your family and your girlfriend have all the strength of the world in order to get over this hard moment.

Giro and Tour presentations:

2011-10-18T16:06:00.000+02:00

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!!

Zaugg takes his first victory at the Tour of Lombardy:

2011-10-17T22:24:00.000+02:00

Saturday, 1 pm: I am on the top of Valcava, the steepest climb of this new 'Giro di Lombardia' which, according to many experts, is probably harder than the ones of the previous years. The air is cold (there are about 5 degrees), but the sun is shining: not a typical Lombardy day, then. Still, many trees have already lost their leaves and this reminds me once again why the Giro di Lombardia is also known as Race of the Falling Leaves. Some old competitions are connected to the period of the year in which they're traditionally raced and this is true for important Classics like Milan-Sanremo ('la Primavera'), Paris-Tours and for the races of the North, which take place in the so-called 'Holy Week of Cycling'. The Tour of Lombardy unfortunately may lose its nickname next year, when it will be raced at the end of September. Give that this year on the last Sunday of September we had about 20°, I'm afraid that the so called 'Lombardy weather' (characterised by cold, rain and fog) will soon become a memory. Anyway.

The riders have just started the Valcava climb and I have enough time to think about all the things that have changed during this last, crazy season. Two riders have abandoned the peloton forever, another rider has spent 4 long months in a hospital. Some riders have had a year full of glory, some haven't. Still, one thing remains the same: Andy Schleck was second in a Grand Tour. Years pass, that placement remains.

After a short await, the first riders appear. Van Summeren is the first one: he's suffering and, as I see him pass, I think about all the things he's shared with us on a crazy day in April, when he won Paris-Roubaix and he proposed to his girlfriend. Arashiro watches the wheel of the rider in front of him and is probably wondering why he had to go on a breakaway. Pasqualon spits, Corioni looks tired: Valcava is a hard climb and the cold weather is not helping the riders. The soigneurs in a BMC car take a look at the riders at the front and so do the supporters. Someone screams, many people clap their hands, an old man tells the riders that the climb is almost over.

A few seconds later, the peloton arrives. Liquigas is pulling, I recognise Ballan just because of the screams of the man next to me. My mum and I recognise Lovkvist, my dad recognises Chris Anker Sorensen. I get a glimpse of Mollema and Sivstov and I think of HTC Highroad: Kanstantin is the only HTC rider who hasn't retired from the race yet and as I saw him ride by I think of the history of that glorious team.

A few seconds later, a Leopard Trek rider - is he Denifl? - rides right next to me and I think about all the problems that this team has had so far. Wouter's death in May, the lack of important victories, the merger with Radioshack... I also think about the fact that Mortensen and Denifl are off to Vacansoleil, whereas Lund is back to Saxo Bank and Fabian Wegmann has signed a contract with another team too. A strange year, for FabWee: his son was born in June, but that joyful event was shadowed by the thought of his roommate Wouter who, at the moment of his death, was awaiting the birth of his first child too.

All the riders in the peloton have already ridden past me as my mind goes back to the race. A QuickStep rider receives a sticky bottle from his team car, Tosatto works hard to get back to the main group. I see Nick Nuyens and I see a photographer taking a picture of Berard right in front of me. Wouter Mol is clearly exhausted and, as soon as he reaches the top of the climb, he turns his bike backwards and he stops: his season ends here, in Valcava, just like the one of many QuickStep riders and of a Liquigas rider who doesn't even bother reaching the top of the climb. The man in green in fact simply catches his rain jacket, puts it on and starts riding on the fast downhill road that directly leads to Lecco. A Movistar car drives up the climb as the smell of car brakes becomes almost unbearable. I think of Tondo and Soler and of this crazy cycling season once again.

Less than 10 minutes after the beginning of the show, the 'Fine Corsa' car arrives and puts an end to my cycling season 'live'. Two hours later, I watch Nibali trying to make a deed between Ghisallo and Lecco. Still, Vincenzo is unlucky: Rogers gives it all and, once he's run out of energy, Thomas Lovkvist sets a hellish pace at the front. Vincenzo gets caught a few kms before the beginning of the last climb. Lovkvist soon reaches the bottom of his energy tank too, just like his teammate Uran. A terrible strategy for Team Sky, just like for team Katiusha: they both had some of the strongest riders, they both let victory slip away.

As I think of this, Basso tries to make the difference on the Villa Vergano. Still, on the steepest part of the climb the strongest rider is Oliver Zaugg. The Swiss rider knows he has the form of his life and he knows he's attacked in the right point: he gives everything he has in order to get his first victory ever, he gives everything he has in order to exploit this extraordinary moment of his career. Oliver never looks back, he just keeps on pushing the pedals and telling himself that he can make it.

After a breathtaking solo ride, Zaugg arrives in Lecco: one curve, another curve, and then he sees the finish-line. Martin, Pozzovivo, Niemiec and Rodriguez are far from him, so Oliver can finally raise his arms and scream all his joy: I, Oliver Zaugg, a modest helper, have finally made it to the top of my sport.

After the finish-line the Swiss rider doesn't look particularly moved, probably because he still hasn't realised what has happened. Journalists want him to say something, he replies their questions in perfect Italian. On the podium, Oliver enjoys the crowd, the sun, the champagne, the trophy and the kisses of the miss: this is his moment, this is the fairy tale of the helper who finally becomes a champion - a fairy tale that cycling often offers to his supporters.

In the meanwhile, Italian journalists complain about Nibali. He shouldn't have attacked on the Ghisallo, he shouldn't have done that, he shouldn't have done this. Vincenzo tries to defend himself from the very same people who, a few kms earlier, seemed unable to stop praising him. Journalists criticise Liquigas, no one talks about Sky and Katiusha's terrible tactics: Lovkvist was amongst the strongest this afternoon, but he had to sacrifice himself in order to help (?) Uran (19th); on the other hand, Katiusha made a mess with Paolini's attacks on every single descent of the race.

But still, critics are useless now. The season is over, Oliver Zaugg has got the first victory of his career in the last race of the 2011 year. From tomorrow everyone will start thinking about the new Giro, about the Tour presentation, about the cycling market. Still, today is Oliver's day: he's raced as a champion, let him enjoy this triumph. Well done man!!

Random Randomness du October:

2011-10-12T18:58:00.000+02:00

After a long period of silence, miss Fede has finally taken up blogging again. Said period of silence was mainly due to the that the Italian academic year began just last week, so that in the last few days me has been terribly busy trying to follow every first-year lesson and trying to understand my timetable (this may sound easy, but I assure you it is one of the most complicated things I've ever done). Moreover, me has been recently shocked by a few school-related discoveries that I've made this week. Here are some of them:

1. the university canteen is a great place, but unfortunately it is always extremely crowded. It opens at midday and you must be outside it at 11.59 am if you want to secure yourself a comfortable table and a warm dish of pasta. In fact, if you arrive at that magic building at 12.05 (like I did the other day), you can say 'adieu' to your hopes of eating something warm and tasty - or, better, you can say 'adieu' to those hopes unless you decide to spend 30 minutes of your precious one-hour break in the long queue that goes from the entry of the building to the room where they actually give you the food.

2. Jesus could multiply food, but the beginning of the academic year can multiply the number of those who decide to study Russian. At the beginning of our little Russian course in September in fact we were about 60, at the end of it we were about 35/40. The other day instead just 28 people attended our first Russian lesson of the year, whereas yesterday we were just 23. This morning, instead, 90 (90!!!) people turned up at our first lesson with the Professor that will teach us every secret of the Russian language in the next two years. The annoying thing is that most of these people didn't attend the September course, so that now we have to face every topic very slowly so that they can understand it too. Moreover, having so many new people at our lessons risks to destroy the nice atmosphere of comradeship that we had managed to create during the September course. Geez, I had just started to recognise every single Russian classmate of mine, and now 60 new people start attending the lessons too. That's so confusing!!

3. Never talk loudly next to the 'safety exits' of the university buildings. In fact, they may suddenly turn out to be classrooms, just like it happened the other day (I was talking to a friend, friend started talking loudly, Professor came out of the classroom and told friend off, me looked shocked because friend and I both hadn't realised we were right outside a classroom).

4. Never say 'You don't need a degree to do that!' (one of my favourite sentences!) when you're in a university building. In fact, a Professor could hear you and be offended by that sentence.

5. At some hours of the day, going to the Upper City by foot takes you less than going there by bus. Amazing, isn't it?

Of course, in the last few days I've also been shocked by a few cycling-related events: Pozzato winning a race in a great way, the Giro and the Tour stages being leaked, Cyclingnews calling the Cavendish/Sky affaire 'the worst kept secret in cycling'... Anyway, let's go in order.

First of all, a 'Team RAnT' update: Geoffrey Lequatre has signed a contract with Bretagne Schuller. Right now the Radioshack riders who still need to find themselves a contract for next year are: Bewley, Popovych, Rovny and Selander. Also Gianni Meersman and Toni Gallopin (who both signed a contract with RS a few months ago) are still 'lost in the merger'.

Talking about Team RAnT, I really do hope that next year it will include Oliver Zaugg. The Swiss ride, although he's never won any race since he's turned pro, is a great helper and last Saturday he showed us his class at Giro dell'Emilia, one of the hardest races of the year. Unfortunately the LT rider found on his way an incredible Carlos Betancurt, a young Colombian rider who got his first victory in the pro rankings by dropping Oliver on the San Luca climb. Second in the race was Mollema (the poor thing thought he had won...), while third was Uran.

Talking about Betancurt, I think it's nice to remember that this boy sends all the money he earns to his familiars, who still live in Colombia. Nice guy, isn't he?

Another important Italian race du fin de saison is the GP Beghelli, which was won by an amazing Pozzato. I often joke about Pippo, but this time I really can't say anything about his victory: the Katiusha rider in fact put in an amazing attack and won in a very classy way. Hopefully this is a good sign for his future.

As some of you probably know, in the last few days there have been other two important races: Paris-Tours and Tour of Beijing. Paris - Tours was won by Greg Van Avermaet, who outsprinted the good Marco Marcato. The Vacansoleil rider gave it all once again, but unfortunately luck is never good to him. Hopefully, things will change on Saturday, during the Tour of Lombardy.

Talking about the Tour of Beijing, get ready to answer some questions. First of all: did you know that this is the only race that is completely organised and sponsored by the UCI? And did you know that in May the riders said they would have boycotted it because of Radio-Gate? And then, did you know that next year the Tour of Lombardy will change date in the calendar, so that the Tour of Beijing will become the last race of the season? And did you know that Paris-Tours, in spite of its beauty and tradition, isn't part of the ProTour anymore? I love cycling, but when I see these things I can't help but think that my favourite sport is governed by a panel of selected idiots. Paris-Tours has got history and tradition on his side, Tour of Beijing hasn't got anything but the money - and a spot in the ProTour, of course. The whole ProTour systems leaves me disgusted and the fact that the Tour of Lombardy next year will be raced one week after the Worlds almost make me puke. 'Why?' You may ask. 'In that way, the Schleck brothers may race it! Aren't you happy??' No, unfortunately I'm not happy. I'm not happy because, if Tour of Lombardy changes date, I wonder what will happen to amazing races like Giro dell'Emilia or Giro del Piemonte, which are usually used as a 'training' for the Tour of Lombardy. Thinking that these races may be forgotten by everyone leaves me sad and angry, especially if I think that all these moves are made in order to promote the Tour of Beijing. Pollution and supporters kept far from the cyclists on the one hand, passion and great landscapes on the other one. Money and ProTour points on the one hand, history and tradition on the other one. What do you prefer? I have my answer, Pat McQuaid and the other UCI guys have their own. And you?

Oh, and talking about the Tour of Beijing: I couldn't see any stage of it because I didn't have any free morning last week. But still, I've read on la Gazzetta that, although the race was perfectly organised, the supporters were kept very far from the riders. This obviously reminded of the 2008 Olympics, when you could hear the riders screaming at each other because there were no supporters along the route of the race, so that the only sounds one could hear via television were the screams of the cyclists. Anyway, I realise I'm digressing.

On to another news, Riccò has recently confessed blood doping and now he risks to be banned for 12 years (yes, Evil Me considers this a happy news).

Another breakout news instead announces that Cavendish and Eisel are both off to Team Sky. Cyclingnews called it 'the worst kept secret of cycling', but in my opinion nothing can beat the 'secrecy' of the Cancellara-Leopard Trek affaire.

Last but not least, my 50 cents about the Giro/Tourleaks: I don't trust these rumours and, more important, I think they're useless. One can match two cities on a map in a hundred different ways, but in order to know the true route of those two Grand Tours we'll surely have to wait until next week. Then, finally, we'll be able to start ~~complaining~~ talking about ~~the suits worn by the athlets attending the events~~ the race parcours.

So, that's all from me for the moment. Have a great weekend and a great tour of Lombardy everyone!

Random post about random randomness: RadioSchleck, Giro d'Italia and more

2011-10-02T17:38:00.000+02:00

Good day everyone, dear readers! Exactly one week after the end of the Worlds, miss Fede is blogging again. Unfortunately there isn't much to blog about, apart from the RadioSchleck (nickname by Ania :))-related news. Bruyneel's equipe in fact has just signed Machado and Didier and this makes me wonder once again who is on the 2012 team and who isn't. So here's a little scheme that, hopefully, will help us understand what may happen to our favourite riders in the next few months.

RADIOSHACK:

In her last few posts miss Fede focused her attention just on Team Leopard's riders, whereas she never paid attention to the RS athletes who are losing their jobs. Therefore, here's a little scheme that will help us understand what may happen/has happened/is happening to the riders who have been racing for the Shack in 2011.

2011 roster (28 riders): The riders of the 2011 Radioshack team have beem: Beppu, Bewley, Brajkovic, Busche, Cardoso, Deignan, Hermans, Horner, Hunter, Irizar, King, Kloden, Kwiatowski, Leipheimer, Lequatre, Machado, McCartney, McEwen, Murayev, Oliveira, Paulinho, Popovych, Rast, Rosseler, Rovny, Selander, Sergent and Zubeldia.

Riders who are changing team (12): Many Shack riders decided to find a new team as soon as they found out about the merger with LT. These guys are Cardoso (off to CajaRural), Brajkovic and Murayev (Astana), Rosseler, McEwen, Hunter and Beppu (GreenEdge), Leipheimer and Kwiatowski (Omega Pharma - Quickstep), Paulinho (Saxo Bank), McCartney and Deignan (Team United Health Care).

Riders who are not changing team (11): So far it seems that the riders who will keep on riding for Bruyneel are: Horner, Rast, Zubeldia, Kloden, Hermans, Sergent, King, Machado, Busche, Irizar and Oliveira.

'Lost in the merger' riders (5 + 2): Right now, the 'lost in the merger' riders are Bewley, Lequatre, Popovych, Rovny and Selander. Moreover, Gianni Meersman and Toni Gallopin had signed a contract with RS before the merger was done, so that now they still don't know anything about their future.

LEOPARD TREK:

2011 roster (25 riders): Andy and Frank Schleck, O'Grady, Clarke, Denifl, Pires, Feillu, Klemme, Voigt, Wegmann, Cancellara, Wagner, Gerdemann, Stamsnijder, Posthuma, Zaugg, Lund, Fuglsang, Mortensen, Pedersen, Bennati, Viganò, Nizzolo, Rohregger, Monfort.

Changing team (1): As known, Stuart O'Grady has recently signed a contract with GreenEdge.

Riders whose contract is expiring (4): Right after everyone got to know about the merger, Becca said that the riders who had a 1 year contract with him would have been 'let free' (translation from Beccansense: 'be fired') at the end of the 2011 season. According to this statement, the guys who will surely be forced to change team at the end of the season will be Feillu, Pires, Pedersen and Rohregger.

Riders who are not changing team (16 + 1): The cyclists who are sure they'll be racing for Bruyneel in 2012 are los Schlecks, Cancellara, Voigt, Fuglsang and the new entry Laurent Didier.

Apart from these names, nothing is clear about the future of the other LT riders. In fact Radioshack will offer 11 new riders to Mr. Becca's new project, whereas 5 LT riders are 100% sure they'll be racing for Bruyneel next year. As well as these 5 lucky guys (plus Didier), also other 11 LT riders will keep on racing together with the most famous brothers of the peloton. However, now the question is: what are the names of these lucky cyclists? Unfortunately, no one can answer that question yet. Rumours say that Gerdemann and Wegmann were both offered a contract by Katiusha, but they refused the offer. As far as the other riders are concerned, nothing is known.

Riders 'lost in the merger': At the end of the day, the riders who will surely have to find a new team are Feillu, Rohregger, Pedersen and Pires plus other three athletes whose names are still unknown.

So, this is what we can say so far about the Radio Schleck affaire. This post is likely to be updated day after day in the next few weeks, so keep an eye on it.

Talking about the next few weeks: although the weather doesn't show it, autumn has already begun. In 2 weeks time the cycling season is over and, after the pics from Curaçao will be posted throughout the Blogosphere, every single cycling blogger will have to find ideas in order to keep themselves and their readers busy during the off-season. In the meanwhile, Cougar Girl has already had a wonderful idea: take a look at her new post at http://eisenandy.blogspot.com/2011/10/andy-and-frankie-just-another-day-in.html and you won't be able to stop laughing out loud!

As far as me is concerned, I already have some winter-related ideas, which include a 'Pronounciation post!', perhaps featuring some Russian names - you can't imagine my surprise when I discovered the correct pronounciation of the surname 'Petrov'!!

Anyway, it's still a long way before the end of the cycling season, and I'm sure that interesting news will keep us busy until then. However, in the next 2 weeks don't bother wondering whether the Schleck brothers will take part in the Tour of Lombardy or in other races like that: in fact Andy and Frank have already ended their season which, according to themselves, was another great success. 'Two brothers on the TdF podium, we entered history!!' Two riders wasting so much talent, you've entered history! Ok, apologies for the bitchy moment.

Still talking about 'entering history': the new Giro d'Italia was said to be 'more human' than in the previous editions, but the new race director, Michele Acquarone, said that the penultimate stage will feature the Mortirolo and the Stelvio. Of course, said news was welcomed by a loud 'WTF?!?' from all over the world (and from mr. Jakob Fuglsang in particular :P). Of course, I agree with everyone who thinks that this penultimate stage is way too extreme. People want cycling races, not carnages!!

After writing a completely useless post ~~which may include some big maths mistakes~~, miss Fede now salutes you and wishes you a good evening: it's time to study a few new Russian words and to get ready for the new academical year, which begins tomorrow. Hasta pronto!

Unstoppable Cavendish takes the rainbow jersey!!

2011-09-25T19:56:00.001+02:00

First of all, let's say that I'm not in a very good mood right now. I couldn't see the Worlds 'live' (I've just finished watching the recordings), I didn't sleep enough last night and I must learn how to write every letter of the Cyrillic aphabet in corsive characters before tomorrow. Therefore, I hope you will forgive me for the bitchy moments that I'll have while writing this post.

So, the Copenhagen Worlds 2011 - also known as the only Tour de France flat stage that was raced at the wrong time of the year (today, 25th September 2011) and in the wrong part of Europe. Seriously,in my opinion the only difference between the Copenhagen Worlds and the boring flat stages of the Touris the fact that the winner of a TdF flat stage usually receives a yellow jersey, whereas the cyclist who won today's special stage received a special rainbow jersey.

To prove you that I'm not joking when I say that today's Worlds race was just like a TdF stage, I'll give you 3 proves:

First: HTC ruled the race, just like it usually does at the Tour.

Second: the last 2 kms of race featured 8 traffic islands, one roundabout and a curve with 800 meters to go - just like at the Tour.

Three: Thomas Voeckler attacked.

Anyway, back to 'seriousness'. During the whole race (which lasted 5 hours and 40 minutes) I counted three thrilling moments: the final sprint, the crash that destroyed Hushovd's hopes of winning another edition of the Worlds and the moment when they showed Bjarne Riis next to his super-hot son. Yes, these were the three top moments of the race. Every single breakaway in fact looked hopeless even before it was created, especially because the whole British team worked extremely hard in order to chase every man that managed to break clear from the peloton. The funny thing is that, since Great Britain didn't look strong enough, with 18 kms to go someone (the Irish rider Brammeier) decided to help Wiggo & Co. in their attempt of chasing the brave riders (Voeckler, Lodewyck, N. Sorensen and Hoogerland) who had just managed to create the last, desperate breakaway. Of course, the British/Irish poursuivants succeeded without problems.

The last 5 kms of race were the only exciting things of the day. Great Britain looked perfect, Australia was struggling to find a place in the sun for Goss, Italy and Spain were desperately trying to create a leadout train. Sagan was in the first part of the peloton, Boasson Hagen was invisible, the cameras still hadn't caught a glimpse of Farrar's face.

And in the end, after about 5'39" hours of race, the final sprint began: Cavendish ruled it, Goss arrived second, an amazing Greipel was third. Fourth was a super surprising Cancellara (well done to Barbara who yesterday evening included both him and Cav in his 'top favourites' list!!), 5th was Roelandts, 6th was Romain Feillu. The underestimated Bozic was 7th and he crossed the finish-line right before Boasson Hagen, Freire and Farrar. Sagan was 12th, Bennati was 14th. Frank Schleck didn't finish the race whereas his brother Andy didn't bother taking part in it because of some strange connections between his wisdom teeth problems and a possible heart muscle infection (his words, not mine!).

Anyway. The 2011 Worlds have come and gone and they'll always be remembered as the race with the easiest parcours of the last 10 years. Cipollini, who won the rainbow jersey in Zolder in 2002, said that this year the parcours was even easier than on that occasion. As an Italian chronist said, 'this year the roads of the Worlds Championship didn't choose the World Champion of cycling, they chose the World Champion of sprinters'. Of course we all know that Cavendish is a champion (he won Sanremo in 2009 and everyone knows that La Primavera isn't an easy race at all), but this parcours was simply too easy to be fun/good: not a hill, not a climb, not a slope. Nothing. I personally compared it to a TdF stage, but with a difference (as well as the 'colour of the jersey' one): in the TdF you need also a lot of luck to win a flat stage and, even if you fail winning the first bunch sprint of the race, you can give it another try about 24 hours later. This afternoon, instead, it was a matter of 'do or die': those who weren't lucky enough or who had problems with their leadout trains will never get a second chance.

Talking about 'having problems with your leadout train': Italy made a mess in the last kms of race, but I think everyone expected that. Bennati is a good rider, but not a champion, whereas Modolo and Viviani are still too young to win a World Championship. Criticising the boys is useless, because Bettini created the best possible team for this Worlds. And if you're disappointed because the Azzurri didn't win any medal, then go ask the Italian Cycling Federayion why they didn't allow us to bring Petacchi to Copenhagen.

So, the 2011 Worlds week is over. Now some riders will go on holiday, whereas some will keep on fighting until Tour of Lombardy. In the meanwhile, cycling market and polemics will surely keep us busy: Cancellara and Fuglsang in fact have recently announced that they've signed a contract with team RaNT (chorus of 'Nooooooo!!' coming from the fangirls of the whole world), whereas Teutenberg, Bronzini and Vos reacted openly to Pat McQuaid's words about the creation of a 'minimum wage rule' for women riders. The UCI president in fact has stated that the women's movement 'hasn't developed enough' to deserve a rule like that. Of course, these words are going to create a very hot debate in the next days.

PS: LeopardTrek's information system gave us another special moment this afternoon. In fact, right after the race, on their Facebook page they published an article called 'Cancellara takes the bronze medal also in the Road Race!' Amazing, isn't it?

Giorgia Bronzini does it again!!!! (post including random predictions for tomorrow):

2011-09-24T19:36:00.000+02:00

6th July 2011:

The 5th stage of Giro Donne ends in Piacenza and Giorgia Bronzini (who wears the World Champion jersey and was born in that town) would love to win. In the finale she does everything she can to get the victory, but an amazing Marianne Vos (who is wearing the Maglia Rosa) outsprints her right before the finish-line.

'I'll be honest: yes, I wanted to win this stage', the 27 year-old Italian said right after the finish-line. 'Piacenza is my hometown and winning a stage in front of my people, with this jersey on, would have been amazing. Still, right now Vos is the strongest rider of the field. Being outsprinted by a great champion like her is a honour'.

As if the defeat hadn't been enough hard to take, Giorgia's day got even worse when she was told about the death of Carly Hibberd, an Australian rider who was run over by a truck on the morning of that sunny summer day. A true hellish day for Giorgia, who didn't manage to get any victory during the Giro Donne and who has recently stated that the rainbow jersey so far has been a heavy burden for her, especially because since last October she's become one of the most 'marked' riders of the female peloton.

24th September 2011:

Almost three months after that sunny and sad Italian day, Giorgia Bronzini started the women road race in Copenhagen with a very good team surrounding her. The day before the race she had told Gazzetta that, in her opinion, Vos and Teutenberg were the main contenders for the rainbow jersey, 'but', she added, 'there are also other 4-5 girls who can do well in a bunch sprint and Monia Baccaille and I are amongst them'.

The day on the saddle flew away slowly and quickly at the same time. One hour of race and await, two hours of race and await, three hours of race and await, and all of a sudden you find yourself with 10 kms to go and you realise that the race is ending. A Canadian, Clara Hughes, is showing a lot of power and braveness by attacking on her own. The Dutch girls are already preparing their leadout train for Marianne Vos, who also this year has a lot of pressure on her shoulders. The 24 year-old in fact had won a lot of races this season and, on paper, the Copenhagen parcours has always seemed perfect for her. Marianne this afternoon was as determined as never before because, in a certain way, the Worlds are a 'cursed' race for her. She won them in 2006 (her first year amongst the pros), but then she got the silver medal every year for the following 4 editions of the race. This afternoon she had the chance of ending this curse, and she wanted to grab it. She was ready.

Also Ina Yoko Teutenberg was determined to get a victory. The German rider in fact is already 37 and this morning she absolutely wanted to give her country another gold medal to be proud of. That's why Germany was working hard in the finale of the race, that's why everyone paid attention to the white jerseys at the front of the group.

With less than 6 kms to go, Clara Hughes was caught and an Italian, D'Ettorre, tried to create problems to the Dutch and to the German girls. A few meters later, a crash involved three Italian riders and that looked like the end of the rainbow ambitions of the Squadra Azzurra. Still, two girls were still up and running: Giorgia Bronzini and Monia Baccaille.

The Dutch women prepared a perfect sprint for Marianne Vos, but Monia Baccaille painted a true masterpiece in the last meters of race. In fact, she found a little hole between an athlete and the barriers and she went there without any fear. Bronzini followed her and she found herself at the head of the race. She was so cold-minded that she even managed to wait for the perfect moment to start her sprint and the perfect timing (just like Baccaille's perfect leadout) eventually paid off: Giorgia raised her arms happily, while Vos, second for the 5th time in a row, broke into tears. Third was Teutenberg, the rest didn't count.

Right after the finish-line the Italians started jumping and screaming. Their joy was impressive if compared to the sad looks on the faces of the Dutch girls. These are the names of the golden girls of Italian cycling: Scandolara, Guderzo, Cecchini (this girl was born in 1992!), Cantele, Bronzini, D'Ettorre (who comes from l'Aquila), Baccaille and Longo Borghini.

Right after the finish-line Bronzini was enthusiastic and she said that this victory is even better than the one she got last year. 'In Geelong Marianne Vos had made a big mistake in the final sprint, whereas this time she was perfect, just like Teutenberg. But still, I was faster than them'. The girls also had the chance of singing the national anthem for the Italian tv and they were extremely happy for their teammate's success. 4th victory in the last 5 Worlds for the Italians, 5th silver medals in the last 5 Worlds for Vos. Happiness on one hand, disappointment on the other one. That's life, that's sport, that's cycling. And that's an amazing edition of the Worlds. Bravissime ragazze!!!!

ELITE MEN ROAD RACE:

After talking about the Women Road Race, let's talk briefly about tomorrow's race. Unfortunately I may not be able to see it because I must go to my cousin's baptism. When I discovered about that, I started rabbiting on about people who plan important events on the day of the Worlds and at first my dad agreed with me. Then, however, he changed his mind. 'You don't remember the day when you were baptised, do you?', 'No, I don't', I obviously answered. 'Well, perhaps you should know that you were baptised on the day when Bugno won his second World title. Mum and her relatives were eating, you were sleeping, my four brothers, my father and I were in front of the restaurant's tv watching the race. And your uncles were screaming like mad'. How nice, isn't it? The day of my baptism, and everyone was celebrating Bugno. But still, I could take it as a divine sign, couldn't I? ;)

Anyway. Tomorrow's Worlds race will be 'attackers against sprinters'. The attackers will be the riders from Switzerland, Denmark, Holland, Kazakhstan, Ireland, Luxembourg, Austria, Lithuania, Poland, Czech Republic, Canada, Croatia, Ukraine, Portugal, France (Feillu isn't in a good form yet), Colombia, Venezuela and Sweden. With respect talking, those who may actually try creating a dangerous breakaway are the Swiss, the Swedish, the Canadian, the Dutch, the Irish, the French and the Danish teams. Belgium, Belarus and Italy have some fast-but-not-too-fast riders (Van Avermaet, Hutarovich, Visconti, Oss, Viviani, Gilbert), so they'll probably attack too.

Unfortunately the attackers's chances aren't many. In fact the sprinters teams will be much more (and, if I can say it, much better) than the attacker's teams. Just read this list: Argentina (the Haedo brothers plus Richeze), Slovakia (Sagan), New Zealand (Henderson and Dean), Japan (Arahiro and Beppu), Russia (Galimzyanov), Slovenia (Bole and Bozic), USA (Farrar), Germany (Degenkolb, Greipel, Kittel), Great Britain (Cavendish), Australia (Cooke, Gerrans, Goss, Haussler), Spain (Hushovd, Boasson Hagen) and Spain (Freire, Rojs, Lastras). As you can see, all the strongest teams have at least one good sprinter. I think it will be difficult to create a winning breakaway, although many will try doing it: Hoogerland, Gilbert, Chavanel, Cancellara, Voeckler surely will try creating problems to the sprinters and, if they all go on a breakaway together, an Italian could join them too, thus making the action even more interesting. Unfortunately, tomorrow the important breakawayers will be chased by guys like Martin, Grabsch, Wiggins, Rogers, Martin / Peter Velits, Phinney and Talansky. Nice, isn't it? Therefore, miss Fede believes that tomorrow the race will end up in a bunch sprint. And, in particular, she thinks that tomorrow's finale may have the following podium: Boasson Hagen, Freire, Sagan. Still, she has to admit that also Farrar (who is veeery underestimated in these days), Goss, Bozic and Galimzyanov will be up there tomorrow.

As you can see, there isn't any Italian in my 'favourites list' in case of bunch sprint. After all, everyone knows that we Italians are scaramantic people.... ;)

So, my top 3 for tomorrow is: Boasson Hagen, Freire, Sagan. What about you? ;)

Some thoughts about the Copenhagen Worlds and the start list for tomorrow's main race:

2011-09-23T22:25:00.000+02:00

First road races at the Copenhagen Worlds and first medals for the French and the British riders. The junior road race was won by Lucy Garner, who outsprinted Belgium Druyts and Denmark Siggaard in a very powerful way. Best Italian rider was Beatrice Bartelloni, 8th, whereas Rossella Ratto was 11th.

The young Bergamask rider, who is one of the most talented athletes out there (no, I'm not saying that just because she goes to my former high school and knows some of my former teachers, absolutely not!), tried to break away from the group in the last part of the race, but was caught with 600 meters to go.

As far as the U23 road race is concerned, Arnaud Demare was the main favourite for the victory. That boy isn't just good-looking, he's also extremely fast: this year, for example, he managed to get a victory in the pro category by outsprinting Hutarovich. Not bad, is it?

Amongst the main contenders for the victory there were also Australia Michael Hepburn (who, however, this afternoon never looked as good as he did in the TT) and Italians Sonny Colbrelli and Filippo Fortin. This afternoon Italy did its best to make the race exciting, but unfortunately the Copenhagen parcours doesn't love attackers. In fact, it doesn't have any climb and nor does it have any little slope, so that it is impossible to create big gaps between attackers and chasers.

In spite of Italy's efforts, the U23 World champion was eventually decided by a bunch sprint. Filippo Fortin was in a great position with 500 meters to go, but then he made a timing mistake and he got just a 6th place (he was extremely disappointed after the finish-line). The victory went to Demare (who burst into tears on the podium, how cute!) and the silver medal went to another Frenchman, Adrien Petit. The French leadout train was simply perfect, also thanks to the fact that Petit is a pro rider, therefore he is used to the confusion typical of massive sprints. The bronze medal eventually went to a British rider, Andy Fenn. The British leadout train was very good as well, whereas the Aussies (who raced very well until the final km of race) had some problems in the last few hundreds of meters.

After the finish-line, Demare looked simply overjoyed, with all his team surrounding him. Italians, on the other hand, were extremely disappointed. Of course the fact that our athletes still haven't won any medal is creating a bad atmosphere amongst Italian supporters and journalists and this caused some people to start criticising the Danish parcours and the UCI rules regarding the U23 World Championships. Petit in fact is already a pro, just like some other riders who took part in this afternoon competition (Betancourt and Brandle, for example). The Italian Cycling Federation has never liked the rule that allows young pros to compete against their less mature colleagues, so that the Italian team for the U23 Worlds has always been formed just by 'true' U23 riders. A very noble choice, some might say. Still, right after the race a jounalist pointed out that, if Italy hadn't taken that ethical decision a long time ago, 4 of the the Azzurri racing in Copenhagen this afternoon could have been Andrea Guardini (10 victories this year, he outsprinted both Cavendish and Boonen in one stage at Tour of Oman), Elia Favilli (3rd both in GP Costa degli Etruschi and in one stage at Tour of Turkey), Matteo Pelucchi (who this year has won la Clasica de Almeria) and Fabio Felline (who is 20 and who has won a Brixia Tour stage this season). This of course really makes me wonder how the race would have unfolded if Italy hadn't been so 'noble' and had taken some pros to Copenhagen too.

As far as the critics to the parcours are concerned, instead, many Italian people think that it is too easy (a journalist even described it as 'insignificant') and too dangerous. Unfortunately, I must admit I agree with these critics. Of course no one is criticising the Danish organisation of the race or things like that, but in Italy this kind of parcours isn't actually really loved (yes, I know, we're not impartial critics at all). However, to me the Copenhagen parcours reminds me of the Tour de France stages for sprinters - you know those long, boring, sunny stages when nothing happens but the crashes, don't you? Actually, to say it even better, that parcours would remind me a TdF stage for sprinters if only the TdF was raced in Holland. The Danish Worlds in fact have a very simple parcours, but the roads are often narrow and, most important, they are full of dangers. An Italian journalist counted 8 traffic islands along the parcours, I counted also a roundabout. Still talking about Italians, the national coach Bettini underlined the fact that the Danish barriers are very old-fashioned and dangerous, since their bases risk to make the riders crash if they ride too close to them.

A few months ago, while talking about this year Worlds, 'The Cricket' said that the Danish parcours is like a Northern Classic and that therefore the wind and the rain may have a very important role during the race. However, the weather forecasts say that the sun will shine on the Danish capital on Sunday, so that the weather won't help the Azzurri in making the race more exciting. Actually, I must mention that Bettini has recently stated that this year the Azzurri won't try to make the race exciting, but that they will just wait and see how things unfold. I don't really believe this fact, especially because unfortunately we don't have the fastest sprinter of the bunch, so on Sunday we'll be obliged to make the race become as difficult as possible. Moreover, an edition of the Worlds without la Squadra trying to take the race into its hand wouldn't be a true edition of the Worlds :P

Still talking about Sunday, Bettini also said that the race may actually be decided by crashes. These words sound really evil, but I'm afraid Paolo is right in saying that. In fact, amongst the athletes on Sunday there will be many unexperienced riders, who might have problems with all the curves and the traffic islands featured on the daily route. Moreover, the pressure and the nervousness will be almost unbearable, given that there are many teams who think they can win the race and that they will all try to be at the front of the peloton.

However. So far I've talked just about what will happen on Sunday. But still, we must remember that tomorrow there is also the women road race and that it will be a very exciting one. Will Giorgia Broizini manage to defend her rainbow jersey on a parcours that seems to suit her? Will Teutenberg show tht she's the fastest woman on Earth? And will Vos finally manage to win the rainbow jersey? Or will she get her sixth silver medal in a row? While waiting to know the answers to these questions, here you can find the start list of the road race. Enjoy!

WOMEN ROAD RACE:

Italy: Bronzini, Baccaille, Cantele, Cecchini, Guderzo, Longo Borghini, Scandolara, Tagliaferro. A good, solid team ready to defend Bronzini's rainbow jersey. Italians have won this race for three times in the last 4 years and the 2009 world champion, Tatiana Guderzo, will race also tomorrow (although the parcours doesn't actually suit her, she's a very good all-rounder). Longo Borghini and Scandolara are young, Cantele is experienced, Baccaille is fast: a very good team, let's hope they'll get a good result tomorrow!

Netherlands: Blaak, Brand, Bras, Gunnewijk, Van Vleuten, Vos, Wild. Vos is the eternal Worlds-favourite and she's never missed a podium spot in this race. Marianne is fast and experienced, Wild is another fast rider, Van Vleuten and Blaak are very solid athletes. Great team!

Germany: Arndt, Becker, Brennauer, Duester, Haeusler, Teutenberg, Worrack. The German team is very good as well and it has one of the main favourites for the race: Ina Yoko Teutenberg, who last year won every single flat stage at the Giro. Arndt and Hausler are very good Grand Tour riders, but tomorrow they'll work for Ina.

Sweden: Fahlin, Johansson, Lindberg, Mustonen, Olsson, Soederberg, Thomasson. A good team for Sweden, who will probably have Emma Johansson as a captain.

Great Britain: Armitstead, Colclough, Cooke, Laws, Martin, Pooley, Willianson. Another very good team, this one. Lizzy Armitstead is very fast (she is also a great pistard), Nicole Cooke is the Olympic champion, Pooley is an amazing climber who can work well for her team.

Russia: Bubnenkova, Burchenkova, Kozonchuk, Martisova, Zabelinskaya. A good team, but the Russian riders probably aren't as fast as some other ones.

USA: Cliff Ryan, Farina, Miller, Neven, Olds, Stevens. Olds, Steven and Neben are all pretty fast. The Americans can be dangerous, look out!

Belgium: De Vocht, Arys, De Vuyst, Henrion, Polspoel, Verbeke. Verbeke is an excellent Northern Classic rider and De Vocht is pretty fast.

Australia: Gillow, Gilmore, Hosking, Maclean, Ryan, Spratt, Whitelaw. Gillow, Gilmore, Hosking, Whitelaw: Australia doesn't lack of sprinters!

Canada: Hughes, Kirchmann, Numainville, Ramsden, Shaw, Whitten, Willock. Will the Canadians get a medal after their TT disappointment (they were 4th - for two seconds!! -, 5th and 7th)?

France: Biannic, Cordon, De Saint, Ferrier-Bruneau, Krasniak, Lesueur. For the first time since 1921, Jeannie Longo isn't part of the French team. Amazing, isn't it?

Lithuania: Cilvinaite, Janeliunaite, Juodvallkyte, Leleivyte, Sosenko, Sosna.

Luxembourg: Hoffman, Lamborelle, Schauss.

New Zealand: Villumsen.

Ukraine: Pavlukhina, Riabchenko, Vysotska.

Switzerland: Aubry, Hohl, Schwager, Schnider.

Poland: Jasinska, Brzezna, Kapusta,

Norway: Moberg, Nostvold, Thorsen.

Denmark: Jensen, Leth, Rasmussen.

Spain: Mazaga, Morales, Chafer.

Copenhagen Worlds, Time Trials: The Aussie and the Germans take it all

2011-09-21T22:45:00.000+02:00

1921: a Swedish rider, Gunnar Skoeld, wins the first edition of the cycling world championships for amateurs.
1927: the first professional cycling world championships take place in Germany and they're won by an Italian, Alfredo Binda.
1931: Copenhagen hosts the cycling world championships for the first time. This year the road race actually consists in a 172 kms long individual time trial. The winner is Learco Guerra, also known as 'Human Locomotive'.
1958: female riders can take part in the Worlds for the first time. The first woman to be named 'World Champion' is a Luxembourgian, Elsy Jacobs.
1994: for the first time, the world championships host two races for each category of riders: the time trial and the road race.

The world championships have been one of the most important races of the cycling calendar for a very long time now. Every year they take place in a different city and every year they manage to thrill everyone: the few selected riders who get to represent their country in such an important competition, the national coaches who cross their fingers while hoping that one of their riders will cross the finish-line in first, the journalists who (once in a while) can afford themselves to support their compatriots openly, the supporters who follow the race (from their houses or from behind the barriers) in a very patriotic way. This is the magic of the Worlds, this is the reason why this race is so important.
In these days the whole world of cycling is focused on Copenhagen, the Danish city that is hosting the Worlds for the 5th time in their history. Copenhagen was actually the cradle of this competition, since the first edition of the race saw the light in the Danish city almost 100 years ago. Since then, many things have changed: the riders aren't amateur anymore, the bikes are much better than the ones of he 1920s and the race has become much more important.
The 2011 Copenhagen Worlds took off with the time trials. Those who had the honour of 'breaking the ice' were the young girls of the Junior category. Amongst these girls there was the European champion Rossella Ratto, from which Italy expected a good performance. The parcours was 13.9 kms long and it was completely flat and the fastest girl to complete it was Jessica Allen, who ended her successful ride towards the gold medal 19 minutes after starting the time trial. Allen is Australian (she comes from Perth) and she was the last rider in the time trial's start list. The third-to-last girl down the start ramp was Elinor Barker, British, who lost the gold medal (or, better, won the silver medal) for just two seconds. Third, with three seconds of delay from Allen, was a German, Mieke Kroeger. A very exciting race for the viewers, especially if we consider that the first and the third rider were eventually divided by just 3 seconds. However, it must be said that Jessica, Elinor and Mieke were clearly the strongest ones on Monday: The Dutch Thalita De Jong, for example, ended her race 15" down on Allen, whereas Ratto (5th) needed 31" more tha the Australian to finish her race.

On Monday afternoon, the actors on the Worlds stage were the U23 male riders. The race was exciting and Michael Hepburn's time was the best one for a lot of time. The Australian is a very talented rider, who was second in this year GP Liberazione and who is also an excellent pistard. Unfortunately, the 20 year-old wasn't careful enough in one of the last curves of the parcours, so that he crashed and he even had to change his bike. That caused him a time loss of about 35" - 40" which, however, didn't prevent him from getting a wonderful bronze medal as a reward for his efforts.
As the last riders started their races, Hepburn started to fear that his time wasn't good enough to get a victory. In particular, Rasmus Christian Quaade, a very strong Dane, looked determined to win the race in front of his people. Eventually, he managed to set the best time for just 10" and he lived the last moments of the time trial on the 'winner's chair'. Unfortunately for him, Rasmus was forced to leave that seat soon: Luke Durbridge in fact rode the time trial of his life and he won the race easily (he needed 36" less than Quaade to end his time trial). 'Durbo the Turbo' was born in Perth in 1991 and is one of the youngest riders that ever won the U23 time trial race at the Worlds. The first day of race at Copenhagen, therefore, ended with the Aussies getting two gold medals and a bronze one and with the Danes getting a good silver medal. Australia is great at finding new talents and the Australian way of creating little champions is great: first the young guns must race on track, then they can take up a career on the road. There is no doubt: the Australian way of time trialing really rocks. Actually, over the last two days everyone had to admit that the German way of time trialing isn't that bad either - but let's go in order.

The second day of the Worlds took off with the Junior time trial for male riders. The winner was the surprising Dane Mads Wurtz Schmidt, who set the fastest time at all intermediate sprints. Mads, 17, was a debutant in the Worlds and he rode 4" faster than James Oram from New Zealand. An Australian, David Edwards, was third, thus showing everyone that the Aussies have a wonderful training ground.
In the afternoon, the task of thrilling the viewers was up to the female riders. Some of the favourites were Villumsen (who had been third in the race for two times), Arndt, Teutenberg, Hughes, Neben, Vos (of course...), Johansson and Cantele. Pooley, last year winner, was considered a favourite too, although the parcours actally didn't suit the small British athlete (she is 157 cms tall).
Clara Hughes, a 39 year-old rider from Canada, set a very good time halfway through the race, just like her compatriots Tara Whitten and Rhae Christie Shaw. Unfortunately, the Canadians weren't lucky at all: Whitten in fact ended the race in 4th (she missed the bronze medal for just 2"), Hughes was 5th and Shaw was 7th.
Noemi Cantele, one of the favourites, never found a good rhytm and even crashed on the slippery asphalt. Vos and Teutenberg never threatened Hughes' time and, in the end, the ones who could do better than the Canadian were three of the last riders to start: the former Dane (now she races for New Zealand) Linda Villumsen, the Engineer Emma Pooley and the great Judith Arndt. In the end, the German rider won the gold medal in front of Villumsen and Pooley, thus becoming one of the few riders to win both the Worlds road race and the Worlds time trial. Moreover, this athlete also won a world title in the individual pursuit back in 1997. A champion, isn't she?

As the second day of Worlds ended with Arndt's great performance, the Elite men were ready to face the flat parcours in the center of the Danish town. Italy expected a top 10 result by Malori, but Adriano couldn't find the rythm, whereas Pinotti got a good result, especially if we consider that he resumed racing in August after breaking his pelvis in May. After all, it is known that Italians give much more attention to creating climbers and Classic riders rather than time trialists... On the other hand, some countries (Australia, Germany, Denmark) focus also on training some good time trialists.
On the eve of the race, people talked a lot of the battle between Cancellara and Toni Martin: the Swiss hasn't won many races this year, whereas the German policeman has won many time trials. Some even thought that the Swiss rider wouldn't have taken part in the race in order to avoid being beaten by the German, but that eventually didn't happen: Fabian is a champion, not a coward.
One of the fastest riders halfway through the race was Dyachenko, who looked slightly uncomfortable on 'the winner's chair'. However, as the last group of riders started the race, things soon changed. Larsson never managed to find a good rythm, whereas Grabsch was using a very hard gear, thus managing to get a very fast time. The Danish support for Jakob Fuglsang gave everyone googlebumps, just like the look on Toni Martin's nervous face at the start. Cancellara, however, looked even more nervous than the German: he knew he wasn't at his best, but he wanted to defend his title of world champion. However, it soon looked obvious that Martin was much faster than the Swiss. The HTC rider didn't take a lot of risks in the last part of the time trial and always used a very hard gear. Cancellara, on the other hand, took some risks, made a few mistakes on some curves and, most important, he never looked in a great shape. Even his position looked bad, since he kept on moving his spine.
In spite of that (and in spite of the fact that he almost went down after a curve), Cancellara managed to take the bronze medal anyway. Second was a relaxed Bradley Wiggins, whereas first was an unbeatable Toni Martin.

After three days of race, he verdict is clear: Germans and Australians have some very good time trialists: Germany is the present, Australia (and Denmark) are the future. New Zealand has a good training ground too, whereas Italians and Spaniard lack of young guns and of trainers. But still, that's a problem of mentality and I don't think this will change anytime soon.
Tomorrow the Worlds will allow us a day of break, then we'll have three days full of emotions thanks to the road races. Forza azzurri!!!!

PS: Miss Fede is very busy with her Russian course in these days, so she can't blog very often. However, she promises she'll answer the comments on her last post as soon as she can: stay tuned.
Moreover, miss Fede thanks http://pahope.tumblr.com/ for publishing on her great tumblr one of miss Fede's Schleck-related sentences, which was apparently reblogged by many other tumblritas (full list to follow, sorry but it's late and I need to sleeeeep!!): thank you girls, being quotated by you was a honour (but seriously, I don't think my sentences are actually that good)!
Anyway. It's late and I need to sleeep. This Russian course is killing me. I have 5 hours of it everyday and other 2/3 hours of study when I get home - it's not easy to study all those things, especially because they are written ~~in cyrillic~~ in one way and they are pronounced the other way around. However, I think I'll survive ;)
Hasta la vista, dear readers, and spokoĭnoĭ nochi to everyone!! (no, it's not an insult, it means: 'have a quiet night!')
PS2: After seeing Cancellara's result, I think that a bald Danish man was probably laughing out loud while looking like a mad scientist - and no, I'm not talking about Nygaard :P

Random post about the Worlds, Team RaNT, Wegelius and mr. Schleck:

2011-09-16T17:48:00.000+02:00

After a very busy week, miss Fede is finally back with a new post (*chorus of 'yay!s' coming from all over the world*). Unfortunately she couldn't write anything earlier because in the last few days she's been very busy. In fact, on Tuesday miss Fede officially became a university student by attending her first Russian lesson at uni (*chorus of 'it was high time!!' coming from Denmark, Holland and many other countries*).

Before talking about that experience, let me tell you one important thing about Italian university: here in Italy, the academic year begins in October (*imagines the scandalised look on her readers' faces as they read this*). 'Why have you already started going to uni then?', I hear you wonder. Well, easy: the people who have decided to take up an unknown language at the 'Foreign Languages and Literatures' faculty of my university have to attend an intensive language course during the month of September. Let's make an example: a friend of mine (who has studied Spanish, French and English at high school) has decided to take up Chinese. Therefore, this month she has to attend an intensive Chinese course. On the other hand, given that I decided to take up Russian, this month I have to attend an intensive Russian course. Nice, isn't it?

So far I've attended just two lessons, which were both very interesting but also slightly frightening. One of our professors in fact is extremely kind and funny, whereas the other one is much stricter and, sometimes, she can also be a bit annoying. For example, she put on a scandalised look when a girl asked her what the word 'шоколад' ('schokolad') meant. 'I thought it was obvious that it means 'chocolate!' I mean, it is the same word as in German!' Of course the girl didn't know a word of German, so she was pretty angry when the professor answered her in that way. But still, I must admit that, in comparison to the behaviours of some of my high school teachers, that wasn't a very rude reply at all.

Anyway, back to my first days at uni. One of the things I'm proud of is that I managed to find my way to the uni without problems on the first day of lessons. The Languages faculty of Bergamo in fact owns three different buildings in the Upper City and that's where the lessons take place. On the one hand, this is very good because the buildings are all very old and fascinating (a friend of mine said that 'going to school in the Upper City is a bit like going to Hogwarts', and I agree) and because they are all in a very quiet area. On the other hand, getting lost in the medieval streets of the city is terribly easy. That's why I was so happy when I didn't get lost on the first day of lesson.

The second day was actually a bit different. I went to the place where the lessons were supposed to take place but, 5 minutes before the beginning of the lesson, I understood I was in the wrong place (in fact there was just another person in the classroom with me :P). I asked for info and I was told that the lesson had been moved to another building. Of course that made me panick, but luckily a kind classmate helped me to find my way to the other building and we managed to arrive there on time.

Yesterday, on the other hand, I did get lost. The funny thing is that I didn't lose my way in the Upper City, but in the university building itself. In fact yesterday I had to take my first uni exam. This exam is called 'evaluation test' and every rookie has to take two of these tests: the first one regards the knowledge of a foreign language, the other one aims to test the rookie's knowledge of the Italian language. If someone doesn't pass one or two of these tests, they can start attending the lessons anyway. But still, they have to take these tests once again in May. If they pass these exams in May, everything is ok. Otherwise, they can retake these tests in September. If they fail them also on this occasion, they fail the whole year and they have to attend the first-year lessons and pay all the first-year taxes all over again. Quite frightening, isn't it?

Anyway. I had my German evaluation test yesterday (I think I've passed it, but I'm not sure yet) and the funny thing is that, after I got out of the classroom (we were on the second floor), I had problems finding my way to the exit. Seriously, it took me 15 minutes to get out of that cursed building! What an embarassing experience.

This morning instead I had my Italian evaluation test. I'll receive the results on next Friday, so I'm pretty nervous right now. In fact, the test looked ok to me, but everyone else found it extremely complicated. Now, was I so lucky to get 'the lucky sheet', or did I find it easy because I made everything wrong? I mean, even people who are good at Italian told me that they found it really difficult!

However, I realise I've been digressing way too much. So, let's talk cycling now ;)

First topic du jour, the Worlds: the most important one-day race of the year takes place next Sunday in Copenhagen and, of course, everyone right now is in a very patriotic mood. The parcours looks easy on paper, but the Italian coach Paolo 'The Cricket' Bettini has said that it is actually more difficult than it seems.

One of the main contenders for the final victory is Cavendish, who has recently won a stage in Tour of Britain. Hushovd, who was reported to have come down with a bad cold, has recently won a ToB stage too, whereas Gilbert has won both GP de Wallonie and GP Québec. Sagan, on the other hand, won three Vuelta stages, while Bennati showed that he's in a good form too. Amongst the main contenders for the rainbow jersey then there are also Goss, Farrar, Greipel, Modolo and Kittel, not to mention good old Freire and Boasson Hagen. Amongst the riders who won't take part in the Worlds instead there are Tom Boonen (who had a bad crash at la Vuelta) and Matti Breschel. The Copenhagen parcours would perfectly suit the Danish rider, but unfortunately he won't be able to take part in the race because of two broken fingers. Heal fast, Matti: we're all hoping bad luck soon stops following you!

Talking about the Danish team, it must be taid hat they're having a tough time in these days: first, in their Worlds leader broke two bones; then, they discovered that Alex Rasmussen has been fired by Garmin-Cervélo for missing three doping controls. As a consequence, Denmark has now become one of the few teams that will try to avoid a final bunch sprint. In fact, the Danish riders for the Worlds will be Michael Morkov, Chris Anker Sørensen, Nicki Sørensen, Jakob Fuglsang, Anders Lund and Lars Bak - they're all great riders, no doubts about that, but unfortunately none of them is as fast as Cavendish or Farrar. Therefore, I think the Danes will try to create a winning breakaway - or, at least, they'll try to avoid a massive bunch sprint.

As far as other teams are concerned, the Canadian riders will be Dominique Rollin, Svein Tuft (who will take part in the TT race as well) and David Veilleux. The Spaniards will have a good team formed by Oscar Freire (who has said he'll retire if he doesn't win in Copenhagen), Barredo, Garate, LL Sanchez, Erviti, Lastras, Rojas, Flecha and Reynes.

Talking about Spanish riders and retirements: Carlos Sastre has recently announced he'll retire. After the 2009 Giro Carlos has been struggling with getting good results and I think he's right in retiring now. After all, he will always be remembered as the man who won the 2008 TdF against the odds.

On to another team, the Swiss team will be formed by Cancellara, Albasini, Kohler and Rast. The Aussie team instead will be formed by Clarke, Cooke, Gerrans, Haussler, Goss, O'Grady, Hayman, Sutton and Rogers. A remarkable exclusion is Mark Renshaw's one, since the Aussie is a great leadout man and he's recently showed that he can win sprints as well.

As far as Germany is concerned, the national team will be formed by Burghardt, Ciolek, Degenkolb, Hondo, Kittel, Sieberg, Wegmann and Greipel. A great roster, isn't it?

Belgium will have Phil Gilbert, Roelandts, Kaisen, Lodewyck, Van Summeren, Van Avermaet, De Weert and Leukemans. A good team, which will hopefully give Italy a hand in making the race harder than expected.

Holland will have a good team too and will hopefully help Switzerland, Belgium, Denmark and Italy in their attempt of creating some problems to the fastest men of the peloton (Cav, I'm thinking of you). The Dutchies will be Gesink, Mollema, Boom, Hoogerland, Ligthart, Poels, Terpstra, Weening and Tjallingii.

Russia will bring Galimzyanov, Isaichev, Porsev, Ignatiev and Gusev to Copenhagen, whereas the French team will be formed by Voeckler, Chavanel, Dumoulin, Offredo, Kadri, Gallopin, Ravard, Roux and Romain Feillu.

Italy will have Bennati, Modolo, Belletti, Gatto, Visconti, Viviani, Gavazzi, Oss, Paolini and Tosatto: a great team, in my (partial) point of view. Bennati and Modolo in fact can play their cards in case of a bunch sprint, whereas Viviani, Visconti, Gatto and Belletti are fast and solid riders, just like Gavazzi and Oss. Paolini is a fast man too and he and Tosatto will have to use their experience in order to decide the team's strategy during the race (in fact, the riders aren't allowed to use radios at the Worlds). Personally, I'm very happy with the Italian team, although I can understand Ponzi's disappointment in learning that he had been excluded from the roster. But still, I think Bettini preferred the experienced Gavazzi to the young Ponzi, who is one of the most talented Italian riders anyway.

On to other teams, the Americans will have Farrar, Bookwalter, Busche, Duggan, King, Louder, Phinney and Talansky; Great Britain instead will have a team formed by Cavendish, Cummings, Froome, Hunt, Millar, Stannard, Thomas and Wiggins.

As far as other teams are concerned, I'm going to write a start list including all the teams in the next days. Therefore, stay tuned - the Worlds fever is taking over ;)

After talking briefly about the Worlds, let's talk about a rider who is retiring at the end of this year - and that rider is Charles Wegelius, one of the most hilarious men who ever joined Twitter. The 33 year-old rider (who has always been a great helper) became a pro in 1999 and since then he's worked for many important riders,. But still, Charly has never got an individual victory. “One of the big regrets is that I never won a race. I was part of three team time trial winning teams but that is not like winning alone. I went very close this year at the Vuelta Asturias on a mountain finish but finished third after Constantino Zaballa passed me in the final kilometre", Charly has recently told Cyclingnews. Best wishes for your future, Charly!!

Let's now talk about another rider who is apparently doing everything he can to become one of the least loved riders in Cycledom. Unfortunately, I'm talking about Andy Schleck. As we (and poor Figgy in particular) know, our boy had a wisdom tooth removed on the 5th of September. That operation forced him to skip GP Québec and Tour of Wallonie - and now our boy has announced that he won't be able to take part in the Worlds either. And all because of that wisdom tooth. I know that wisdom teeth are very annoying, but unfortunately the only feeling that people get from all this tooth-thing is that Andy is making up excuses because he wants to go on holiday as soon as possible. Or, at least, that's the feeling I get. I don't know if it's a problem of mine, but I have the feeling that Andy is self-destroying himself with some of his behaviours. Amongst the French journalist he's known as 'Andyfferent', amongst his colleagues his nickname is 'Torcicollis', some supporters think he's the worst guy of the peloton as far as creating race strategies is concerned. Moreover, the owner of his team thinks that he can't win a Tour unless he has a super ds telling him what to do. Personally, if I were him, I'd ask myself a few questions...

Anyway, end of the bitchy moment du post. On to another topic, let's talk a bit about Team RaNT. First news, Fuglsang has stated that he was disappointed by the way the merger was done. Second news, Didier is joining this new team. This of course means that another LT rider will soon find himself without a team. Now, we all know that O'Grady is going to GreenEdge (perfect timing, Stuey!), that Voigt has already signed a contract with Team Rant and that, apparently, those whose contract won't be renewed will be Pires, Feillu, Rohregger and Pedersen. Add Fuglsang (given his latest comments about the merger, I think he'll soon change team) and you have 5 riders from LT without a contract. Add Didier to Team RaNT, and another LT rider loses his contract. Now we just need to guess who. Luckily, news are expected to arrive within 24 hours. I'm looking forward to them!

Oh, and apropos: am I the only one who thinks that Rohregger terribly deserves having his contract renewed? :P

Vuelta, Padania and the Leopard Trek / Radioshack affaire:

2011-09-10T16:26:00.000+02:00

Ladies and gentlemen, miss Fede is happy to announce you that she's finally come back from her great holiday in Senigallia, a seaside town located in 'shitty Italy' - as someone called it a few days ago.

My holiday was excellent, although reading the newspapers everyday caused me to get very angry almost daily - and not just because of political / economical reasons. Anyway, let's go in order and talk about cycling.

First of all I must say that, as predictable, I won the virtual bet that I had made with my father: in fact, the tv in our little flat in Senigallia didn't broadcast the Vuelta. As a consequence, no cycling races for me in the last two weeks. However, I did manage to keep myself in touch with the cycling world thanks to 'la Gazzetta dello Sport' and, in this way, I soon realised that my Vuelta predictions were terribly wrong. In fact Antòn was dropped during the first mountain stage, whereas Rodriguez and Menchov couldn't get any good result. Nibali was the most active rider in the first 10 days of race, but then he couldn't keep the pace of Wiggins on the hardest Spanish climbs. Nevertheless, I really loved his racng style in that first week of competition. Vincenzo in fact always manages to make races become exciting and he attacks whenever he has the chance. He probably isn't the best climber out there (nor is he the best time trialist), but the boy has passion and determination. Moreover, when I watch him racing I have the feeling that he wants the race to be exciting and entertaining for the supporters - a thing that I completely approve. So, Vincenzo: don't get angry because of your final GC result because you've made us dream sweet dreams anyway ;)

Unfortunately for us Italians, Nibali wasn't the only 'azzurro' who had problems during the Spanish race: Scarponi in fact abandoned the race after a few stages ('I don't know what's going on, I feel tired', he told la Gazzetta) and Petacchi and Bennati still haven't won anything. The young Gavazzi, on the other hand, shone two days ago, when he won the Nojas stage ahead of Vandewalle.

So far, however, the riders who have had the best results in this Vuelta are Chris Froome and Juan José Cobo: in fact the Kenyan rider won a mountain stage and is now second in the GC, whereas JJ 'Buffalo' Cobo is the race leader with just two stages to go. Wiggins, instead, is 3rd: hadn't he broken his collarbone in July, I believe he would have been on the TdF podium.

Talking about other races: the Tour of Colorado saw some good victories by Viviani and Oss and an interesting breakaway by Schleck the Younger, whereas Gilbert has recently won GP Quebec. That man is a monster, no doubts about that!

Another competition who's receiving a lot of attention in these days is the so-called 'Giro di Padania', which is a stage race organised by the Northern League, an Italian right-winged party which would like to cut Italy in two parts: Padania and the South. The people who are part of this party are a bit, well, odd and they show their peculiarities even during this race: after every stage in fact the daily winner gets a 'golem' which represents a cyclist riding in front of the Cervino, whereas the second rider to cross the finish-line receives a shield which, if necessary, can become a spade (everyone would love to own one, right?); the third rider instead receives a M-shaped pyramid (no, I'm not drunk, it's written on the website of the race) with some runes on. As if this wasn't enough, the race started from the Monviso, where the son of the leader of the party, Renzo 'The Trout' Bossi, took some water from the 'Holy River Po' and put it in a little bottle. Some of you may think that the Northern League is just a little party formed by strange people who read too many medieval books, but unfortunately some Italian ministers belong to it and even make some laws. One of the most important members of the party, the above-mentioned 'Trout' (son of the party lader Umberto), had to take the Matura exam three times before being able to pass it. Nevertheless, he earns 12.000 euros pro month because he's a politician. And guess what? The money of his wage obviously derive from the taxes that we poor stupid people pay. Yes, sometimes I need to quote our beloved first Minister: Italy is a really shitty country.

Anyway, after explaining what the Northern League is, let's go back to the Giro di Padania: given its political origin, this race has recently been sharply criticised. The Italian Cycling Federation couldn't change its name and many riders decided to take part in it because, all in all, this race offers an interesting parcours and takes place right before the Worlds. Unfortunately for these riders, in the last days they had to bear lots of insults ('Sons of b****es', 'Betrayers' and 'Bastards' were the most popular ones), they had to be careful not to ride over people laid down in the middle of the roads and a neo pro, Sonny Colbrelli, was even punched on the eye by a 'supporter'. Unfortunately, as usual the ones who take the worst consequences of others' actions are the riders, whereas the politicians simply hide themselves in their big cars with a private chauffeur. Oh, and by the way: so far the race has seen victories by Modolo, Viviani and Basso.

Anyway. After talking about Giro di Padania and Vuelta, let's face a news that really shocked me when I first read it on la Gazzetta. Said news regards the merge between Leopard Trek and Radioshack.

Now, the few people who have been reading this blog since it was created on a cold afternoon back in 2008 may have noticed that, year after year, my attitude towards the Schleck brothers has changed. At first I was the usual Fangirl who just cares about her heroes, but then (luckily!!!) I slowly became a true cycling supporter and I soon learned to criticise even my favourite riders. As I faced these changes, my favourite cyclists grew older and, last year, they changed team. And, as some of you might have noticed it, I never really accepted this change. At first in fact I thought that everything was too secret, then the team PRs started to blow their own trumpets and in the end the ds often seemed unable to make the riders work as a team. Apparently I wasn't the only one who noticed these things, so that the owner of the team, mr. Flavio Becca, recently chose to change things in order to make things better. So, what did our man do? Simple: he had Leopard Trek merged with Team Radioshack.

Now, first question raised by this move: if Becca wanted to improve his team, why merging Leopard with Radioshack when he could have merged it with HTC Columbia? Wait a moment and you'll have a possible answer to this question.

According to la Gazzetta (also known as 'The queen of the rumours which later turn out to be oh so true'), Becca wanted the Shack and Leopard to merge because he was disappointed by the lack of good results that his team had during this season. In particular, at the end of theTdF the disappointed Becca referred to his team by saying: 'I feel like the owner of an excellent airplane with a great crew but without a commander'. Moreover, mr. B was reported to believe that Andy Schleck can't win a Grand Tour without a great ds on his team car. Therefore our man started to look for a great ds who could create a good race strategy for his little Luxembourgian jewel. And whom did he find? Johan Bruyneel, who has always liked Andy and who probably promoted 'Merge-Gate'. In fact, by merging RS and LT los Schlecks got a great ds (a cunning man like Bruyneel) and Becca got the chance of improving his team and sharing the team's costs with an important sponsor.

Unfortunately, there's a little problem in this great economical move: LT in fact has about 25 riders, whereas RS has about 9 riders. And, according to UCI, one single team can have just 28 riders plus 2 neopros pro year. This means that, halfway through September, about 6 former riders from Leopard Trek or Radioshack will find themselves without a contract - and I don't even want to talk about all the bus drivers, soigneurs and so on that will lose their jobs because of this merge (amongst the guys who were fired by LT there is also Brian Nygaard).

Talking about the riders, it is already known that nor Leipheimer nor O'Grady will join this new team (which is called 'Radioshack Nissan Trek' or something like that) because they are heading towards other teams. Apparently, the former Radioshack guys who will be racing for this new team in 2012 may be: the evergreen Chris Horner; ol' Armstrong's helper Kloeden; Janez Brajkovic; Matt Bussche; Markel Irizar; Ben King; Nelson Oliveira; Jesse Sergent; Haimar Zubeldia.

Personally, I would have avoided keeping Horner, Kloden and Brajkovic: can you imagine next year TdF team? Schleck, Schleck, Kloden, Horner, Brajkovic, Kloden, Cancellara, Zubeldia and Voigt. On paper it looks great, but who will sacrifice himself for the others?

Anyway, back to the riders' contracts. The part related to Leopard Trek former athletes looks really tragic: in fact Bruno Pires, Thomas Rohregger and Martin Pedersen are likely to be fired because they all signed a one-year contract. Other riders, instead, found out about the merge just thanks to the media. Amongst those guys there are strong riders like Brice Feillu, Tom Stamsnijder, Joost Posthuma and Jakob Fuglsang. In particular, la Gazzetta claims that the Danish rider may leave Leopard next year. In my opinion, if this happened, it would be a shame: Jakob in fact is one of the best young riders out there, so I think that giving a contract to Horner and not to him would be a very stupid move.

Still talking about Leopard former riders, it is said that even Cancellara might leave los Schlecks. In this way, the Leopards who would end up racing for RNT would be: Daniele Bennati, William Clarke, Stefan Denifl, Linus Gerdemann, Dominik Klemme, Anders Lund, Maxime Monfort, Giacomo Nizzolo, Andy Schleck, Frank Schleck, Davide Viganò, Robert Wagner, Fabian Wegmann, Oliver Zaugg and Jens Voigt. That would leave 3 free spots for some new riders. Given that this summer RS already signed Galoppin, Kruopis and Meersman, and that LT signed Rast and Hermans, now I really wonder who amongst these 5 riders will see his new contract disappear all of a sudden.

As you can understand, this new super team already seems to have lots of problems. Moreover, as if this wasn't enough, I'll add another problem myself. And that problem is: all the team's sponsors are American. Therefore, I think I can already say 'farewell' to the chance of seeing the Schleck brothers racing the Giro or la Vuelta next year. And talking about the Schleck brothers: they often talk about values like friendship and loyalty, but the way they're abandoning the people who last year believed in their new team project (and risked their career because of that) really lets me down. Kim Andersen, Nygaard, Fuglsang, the soigneurs, even the bus driver... They all abandoned their safe jobs in order to start a new adventure, but now they've been let down. I don't know if the brothers are actually involved in this merge but, to be honest, this whole story leaves me angry. Cycling isn't about love, friendship and loyalty, it's about money and success. Too bad that people often pretend to ignore this fact and even manage to take in other people by doing so.

Luckily, there is at least one happy news to cheer us up in this strange month of September: a few days ago in fact An-Sophie De Graeve, girlfriend of the unforgettable Wouter Weylandt, gave birth to the couple's first child. The baby girl was named Alizée, measures 51 centimetres and weighs 3.6 kg . I really wish a lot of strength to her mum and I wish Alizée a long, happy and serene life: little one, your father (and every single cycling supporter on Earh) will always be with you <3

La Vuelta: crashes, victories and heat

2011-08-25T22:27:00.002+02:00

Spain is a hot country, everyone knows that. And that is the reason why Spaniards are known in the world for their very particular daily routines. For example, they have lunch at 2 pm, they dine at 10 pm and their shops are usually closed from 2.30 pm to 5.30 pm. These three hours of the afternoon are usually dedicated to the so called 'siesta', aka the moment of the day during which people can relax and defend themselves from the hot temperatures outside their houses. Unfortunately, the three hours of the siesta are also the hours in which cycling races usually take place. Now: take the wonderful Spanish cities, take some of the best riders of the world and have them racing in Spain in the warmest afternoons of the year. To make this recipe even better, add a few climbs and shake everything with energy. Then, serve this dish to all the cycling supporters you know: they'll surely approve. Oh, and if they ask you the name of this tasty dish, tell them that it's called 'Vuelta a España' and that they can have a free sample of it every day for three weeks between the end of August and the first half of September.

So far the 2011 edition of la Vuelta has been very exciting and also very moving. Drama, excitement, sufference, joy: this is cycling, this is la Vuelta.

The third stage of the race was a very exciting one: whereas in other competitions you must wait at least one week before you can start experiencing some emotions not connected to riders crashing and retiring, the Spanish competition is known for its exciting and always thrilling parcours. On Monday, for example, people expected the race to end with a bunch sprint. Instead, 5 brave and strong riders (Irizar, Lastras, Chavanel, Pydgornyy and Edet) attacked after 6 kms of race and successfuly exploited the hilly terrain of the stage in order to stay out of the peloton's reach for the rest of the day.

After 90 kms of race, the unlucky Edet was dropped by his companions because he had been stung by an insect. In the meanwhile, Cavendish and Kittel were having problems too and they soon got dropped by the peloton. They eventually crossed the finish-line 12 minutes after the winner (and together with tough guys like Taylor Phinney, Toni Martin and Nick Nuyens). This sudden defaillance obviously caused the alarm-level in the heads of Cannonball' supporters to raise. The Manx rider in fact showed he's not in a very good form already in the TTT, when he got dropped from his teammates. Will Mark manage to get back into shape before the Worlds? That is the question everyone would like to answer.

As Cav and Kittel were struggling, Team Leopard tried to defend Bennati's leader jersey. On the last climb of the day, however, the peloton lead was taken by team Sky, which did their best in order to set a good pace at the front.

With about 13 kms to go, the breakaway still had an advantage of about 1' 30" on the main peloton and Chavanel, Irizar, Pydgornyy and Lastras all started to dream of the stage victory. The Movistar rider was particularly keen on getting this victory, especially because his last victory before Monday dated back to 2008. Not a flattering thing for a rider who has improved a lot in the last few years and who has often been close to getting prestigious results... Lastras was aware of that and, right before the end of the last climb, he laucnhed a strong attack, thuis dropping Chavanel & Co. Pablo gave it all in the last kms of race and he eventually managed to cross the finish-line in triumph. Even in this great moment of joy, however, the Spaniard had a thought for some colleagues of his who aren't in the peloton anymore. In particular, Pablo dedicated his victory to his teammates Xavier Tondo and Mauricio Soler and to the Belgian rider Wouter Weylandt. "I think that I won today because of the expertise that I've built up as a veteran rider, I think it was a good win", the Movistar rider told Cyclingnews after his victory. "I really wanted to raise my arms at the finish today and I dedicate the win to Xavi Tondo and to my teammate Soler who is very ill, as well as to all the friends who have been lost this year". As well as winning the stage, Lastras also managed to get the leader jersey. In fact the former owner of the red jersey, Daniele Bennati, ended his day on the saddle 3' 06" after Lastras. However, 'The Panther' was in good company: also Denis Menchov, Steven Kruijswijk and Robert Kiserlovski finished the stage with him, 23" later than the other GC contenders.

On the following day, the riders had to face the Sierra Nevada climb. A tough day for the riders, not just because of the heat and of the toughness of the final climb, but also because of the memories.

Exactly three months before, in fact, the Movistar rider Xavier Tondo lost his life in a garage atop of Sierra Nevada, a few meters far from the finish-line of Tuesday stage.

Benoit Inxausti, who was with Xavier on that day, finished the stage 18' after the winner. 'I still remember a lot of what happened on that day. I would prefer not to remember it, but I can't help it. And tomorrow, I'll remember that moment in an even worse way', the young rider said at the end of Monday's stage.

The first uphill finish of the Vuelta wasn't clement with the riders who weren't in a good form. With 10 kms to go, halfway up the final climb, Igor Antòn (one of the main contenders for the overall victory) lost contact from the rest of the peloton and ended the stage 1' 38" after the winner. Mark Cavendish, on the other hand, got retired with 40 kms to go. 'I'm tired and I want to sleep', he said as he hopped on his team car, before hiding his head with a towel in order to get shelter from the photographers.

As the last climb began, the breakawayers du jour were caught and Liquigas took the lead. With 5 kms to go, however, Chris Anker Sorensen managed to escape from the peloton. The Danish rider was followed just by Daniel Moreno and really gave it all in order to get a victory for his newborn daughter Laerke. Unfortunately, in the end the stage winner was Moreno, who got the victory by outsprinting Chris in the last few meters of race. In spite of that, Sorensen was pretty happy after the stage. 'It’s huge to finish second on Sierra Nevada and I’m naturally proud of the result. The team put me in a great position at the foot of the climb. Rafa Majka was close to me and his attack created the opportunity for me to launch a counter-attack. Moreno was simply stronger than me. I tried to drop him with 1.5 kilometers to go, but he remained with me and maybe he was even fresher than me. However, I have no regrets and I will try winning again'.

As most of the GC contenders seemed to ride on the climb without many problems, the race leader Lastras ended the stage 18 minutes after Moreno and 17 minutes after Chavanel, who became the new leader of the race.

On the following afternoon, another tough climb was waiting for the riders: the Valdepenas de Jaén wall, which is 2 kms long and whose central slopes have an average of 24%. With about 8 kms to go, David Moncoutié went on a solo attack. He got caught with 2 kms to go, after that Liquigas had chased him at a very fast pace. When Dani Moreno attacked in the steepest part of the wall, the only ones who could follow him were his captain (and favourite du jour) Joaquin Rodriguez, the surprising Wout Poels and Vincenzo Nibali. Unfortunately the Liquigas rider isn't as good as Rodriguez at riding on extremely steep climbs, so he soon had to abandon the rear wheel of the Spaniard who, led by Moreno, managed to get a prestigious victory on one of the hardest short climbs of Europe.

Bauke Mollema was a great 4th, whereas Scarponi was 5th, Fuglsang was 7th, Roche 8th and Menchov (who usually prefers longer climbs) was 14th. Sylvain Chavanel grit his teeth and managed to keep the leader jersey for another day.

Today's stage saw the peloton riding towards the amazing city of Còrdoba and losing some important riders. Kurt - Asle Arvesen's retire was caused by the consequences of his surreal crash of the day before, when he hit a child who was picking up a water bidon in the middle of the road. At that point the riders were riding at 75 kmph and, as a consequence of the crash, Arvesen's bike got shattered and Kurt-Asle suffered some bruises. The child suffered some bruises as well, but he didn't break any bone. The Sky rider managed to finish yesterday's stage, but this afternoon he decided to retire from the competition. The Norwegian has no broken bones and has promised that he would do his best to make it to the Norwegian line-up for Copenhagen Worlds. That in fact would surely be the perfect way to end his amazing career.

Unfortunately, Arvesen wasn't the only one who crashed badly in the last few hours and who had a lot of bad luck during the whole season. In fact, a breakout news says that Matti Breschel (who crashed during today's stage) has two broken fingers and isn't likely to take part in the Worlds.

Talking about crashes, however, it must be underlined that la Vuelta isn't experiencing the same amount of crashes as the Tour. Of course this is a consequence of the fact that the riders are less nervous and stressful in the Spanish race, but the hilly terrain of the first few stages surely helped the peloton to avoid the dangerous situations that supporters had to witness during the first week of the Tour de France 2011.

As some riders abandoned the race and some other ones tried their luck by going on a breakaway (Taylor Phinney was amongst them), some sprinters (Haussler, Farrar, Petacchi, Haedo) lost contact from the main group. As a consequence, Bennati's team started to set the pace in the final kms, but the situation changed when, with about 20 kms to go, David Moncoutié attacked on on the 'Alto del catorce por ciento' ('Mountain of the 14%'). The Frenchman was soon joined by Toni Martin, Kevin Seeldrayers and David De La Fuente, whereas Liquigas took control of the main peloton. In the last few kms, the whole Liquigas team set a hellish pace on a downhill road and this caused a split in the peloton. Four Liquigas riders (the team leader Nibali, Peter Sagan, Valerio Agnoli and Eros Capecchi) found themselves at the head of the peloton together with an intruder, Pablo Lastras. Behind them, Chavanel understood that his leadership in the race was in danger and gave it all to limit his time loss. With him there were Rodriguez and Toni Martin, one of the best time trialists of the world.

Liquigas rode a superb TTT towards Cordoba, whereas the chasers couldn't get any closer. When the final sprint was launched, Sagan easily won in front of Lastras, whereas Agnoli made a big mistake. In fact he crossed the finish-line in third, thus stealing the bonus of 8" from his captain. Nibali looked slightly angry at that but, after all, everyone knows that it's hard to think things through when you're riding at 75 kmph and adrenaline is running through your body. However, at the end of the day, Liquigas can surely be happy with what they've achieved. So far Nibali has raced like a true champion, since he attacked whenever he could and he had his team working really well. Antòn has already got a big delay in the GC, but it's still too early to count him out of the race for the podium. Scarponi has hidden himself while waiting for the stepper climbs, whereas Rodriguez has showed a lot of strength. Moreover, Joaquin has a very good helper, Daniel Moreno. Denis Menchov, on the other hand, doesn't seem to have a good team behind him, but I'm sure he'll slowly start gaining time in the GC. The Russian in fact usually improves his form in the second / third week of a GT, so Nibali should paying a lot of attention to him in a few days time.

As far as the Worlds-favourites are concerned, this Vuelta seems to bring bad luck to them. Haussler and Farrar haven't got any good result yet, Cavendish, Goss and Breschel all retired. Kittel hasn't had any reat gresult either, whereas the only sprinter who really did shine was Peter Sagan. This Vuelta is his first GT and, although he's the youngest rider of the Spanish peloton, he's already won a stage. If he's improved his resistance in the longest races, it will be hard to defeat him in Copenhagen.

As far as other races are concerned, GP Industria e Commercio was won by Giovanni Visconti. Second was the exceptional Simone Ponzi, whereas third was Manuel Belletti.

As far as the Tour of Colorado is concerned, instead, the prologue was won by Gretsch. Fifth was an amazing Jens Voigt, whereas Basso received very harsh critics for his 52nd placement. Imo Gazzetta was pretty disrespectful towards him and Juraj Sagan, since that newspaper began the (little) article about ToC by saying: 'Ivan Basso is as good as Juraj Sagan. It sounds like a heresy, but it's true. Ivan isn't better than Sagan (...) and we're not talking about Peter, but about Juraj, who is much less talented than his brother'. It's always so nice when people are respectful towards the riders!

The second stage of ToC, however, was won by Levi Leipheimer. Second was the strong Henao, third was Frank Schleck. Given the condition of Schleck and Leipheimer, perhaps someone should remind these guys that at this time of the year there is another race going on, that it's called Vuelta a Espana and that is one of the most important races of the world. If someone is interested, I'll tell them a secret: a victory in the Vuelta is something that people can use to get a better reputation amongst European journalists and it is something that people can write in their CV in caps. Ah, but I was forgetting: the sponsors seem to care more about the American money than about the Spanish traditions.

The third stage of ToC saw the victory of George Hincapie, whereas an excited Van Garderen got the leader jersey from Leipheimer.

So, that's all from me for the moment - and, perhaps, for the month. I'm leaving on Saturday and I won't be back before September the 9th. In the meanwhile, enjoy la Vuelta and use the comment area as you please - and don't forget to take a look at Figbash's reports from the Tour on Bananas about Bikes!!!

PS: who has just come across this webpage by writing 'Menchov, hugs' in Google? And, more important: were they satisfied with what they found?

Vuelta, Hamburg, Cycling Market, Worlds and more:

2011-08-22T14:48:00.000+02:00

Ok dear readers, it's finally time we started talking about la Vuelta and other random randomness. Unfortunately I couldn't write anything earlier because of some little problems connected to university - and, unfortunately, I won't be able to write anything in the next two weeks, because my parents have decided that our family holiday will start on Saturday. And guess what? I still don't know whether during that holiday I'll be able to watch la Vuelta. I mean, Smiley Menchov is climbing the Angliru in a few days time, and I probably won't be able to witness that event. Isn't that annoying?

Anyway, let's start talking cycling before I get too angry. First thing to mention, the Italian races of the last few days, which saw a great Rebellin get a stunning victory in Trofeo Melinda. The other day I read on la Gazzetta that his team doesn't have the biological passport, so I now have an explanation for his last efforts. I usually don't have doubts about riders who ride really well (I never doubted guys like Gilbert, Cancellara, Evans, etc. ), but imo Rebellin's latest results are too good to be true. Riders usually struggle with finding the race rythm again when they come back racing after a 2 years ban, but right now everything looks terribly easy for Davide - just like, in 2009, everything seemed easy for Riccò.

Anyway, let's leave my suspicious thoughts aside. Italian summer races are always nice because they allow supporters (and the head of the Italian team) to uderstand who the best national riders are. And Trofeo Melinda gave us very good news the other day: in fact Moreno Moser, who is a stagiare, went on a breakaway with 30 kms to go and he was caught just 25 kms later. Moreover, another stagiaire (Moreno Battaglin) was 7th, whereas the young Ratto was 4th. It's great to see the Italian young guns riding so well!

Talking about another topic, Gibert has officially signed for BMC which, next year, will have a very competitive team formed by Hushovd, Evans and PhilGil. Although Phil and Thor may have little contrasts during Sanremo and Tour of Flanders, I believe BMC will be the strongest team of the world in 2012. In fact, no one else has 3 champions who can win every Classic and GT stage they want and who can be competitive from February to October.

Still talking about cycling transfers, Leopard Trek has recently given a contract to Gregory Rast, a solid helper. GreenEdge instead has signed the 'climbing sprinter' Simon Gerrans.

A breakout news of the other day instead says that Vinokourov is already planning to come back racing at the Tour of Lombardy. If he really makes it, I may go watching that race with a Vino 4 ever t-shirt on (ok, just kidding).

After mentioning Leopard Trek, let's talk a bit about los Schlecks: after taking part in different criteriums, the brothers are going to race in the Tour of Colorado, which starts this evening. I would have preferred them to race la Vuelta, but los Schlecks seem to prefer the new American races to the traditional European ones: not only did they race the Tour of California in May (when they could have taken part in the Giro), but now they've preferred the Tour of Colorado to la Vuelta. Less pressure, I suppose.

Talking about the good old European races, yesterday the Hamburg Cycleclassics was won by an amazing Boasson Hagen. I think it's strange for him not to race la Vuelta (after all, he's one of the main contenders for the Worlds victory), but the guy surely knows what's best for him. Second in the race was Gerald Ciolek, whereas third was Borut Bozic. Fourth was a great Simone Ponzi, a young Italian who would deserve taking part in the Worlds. Talking about La Squadra, Bettini will have a tough time in deciding the names of the Italian riders who will take part in the Worlds. In fact Paolo would like to create a team formed by guys like Ulissi, Ponzi, Malori and Modolo - but will these young guns be able to resist in a race as long as the Worlds? That is the question.

After talking about the Hamburg Classic, let's talk about la Vuelta, which took off with a TTT in Benidorm. Unfortunately I couldn't see that stage, but of course I do know the result: an amazing Leopard Trek won in front of Liquigas and HTC. There were many crashes on the first stage and amongst the crashers du jour there were also Davide Viganò, David Blanco and Nick Nuyens. Brajkovic, on the other hand, had a mechanical right after the start. Cavendish instead didn't have any crash / mechanical, but he crossed the finish-line 2' 40" after his teammmates. Strange, isn't it?

The first rider to wear the red jersey was a happy Jakob Fuglsang, whereas a disappointed Carlos Sastre created a little polemic inside his team (source: Gazzetta dello Sport). In a few words, Carlos said that the team (ds, managers, so on) doesn't give enough support to their riders. According to some rumours, Smiley Menchov was even less smiley than usual after the TTT (after which he lost 39" from Nibali) and apparently he complained about his team as well. Geox guys must have done something very bad if they really managed to annoy Menchov: he never looks pissed off and he didn't even insult me when I stalked him heavily in San Pellegrino Terme!

Anyway, back to the TTT: another team who lost a lot of time was Sky (37"), who had some problems with riders losing contact from their teammates. Euskaltel did better than usual, whereas Astana was a good 4th (5" of delay from Nibali).

Yesterday the riders faced a 174 kms long stage from la Nucia to Playa de Orihuela. 4 brave riders went on a hopeless breakaway and the bravest amongst them was Adam Hansen, who probably wanted to put a remedy to his poor TTT (he lost contact from his teammates halfway through the stage). Everyone expected the sprinters to battle in the last meters of race, but no one (not even the race chronists and the journalists) had considered a little climb (about 300 meters with an average of 5%) that the rider had to face with about 800 meters to go. Also many riders looked shocked by that little climb and this makes me wonder why they didn't know about it.

HTC started pulling with 10 kms to go and that was a suicide-move. In fact Cav soon found himself with just 4 helpers, whereas other teams still had lots of riders ready to help their sprinters. With about 3 kms to go, Leopard Trek took the lead. Cancellara, O'Grady, Viganò, Bennati: everything was perfect. Unfortunately in the last curve of the race no one could keep Viganò's wheel, therefore Davide found himself at the head of the race, without knowing that his teammates weren't following him (at least, that's what Bennati said). However, Viganò wisely decided to try his luck, but he was swallowed by the peloton on the little climb before the finish-line. At that point HTC and LT's leadout trains broke down and Boonen tried to attack. Unfortunately for the Belgian, it was still too early and he was soon outsprinted by other guys. Sky's Christopher Sutton followed Omega's Reynes as the Spaniard attacked and he outsprinted the Vicente in the last meters of race. Third was Marcel Kittel, whereas 4th was Farrar, 5th Breschel and 6th Bennati.

"I knew it was a hard uphill finish", a happy Sutton told Cyclingnews. "Someone from Lotto accelerated and I jumped on his wheel. I thought, 'This is a long way to go.' But I looked back and no one was there. I thought, 'Alright, I've got this one.' To win today is a dream come true. I can't believe it". Reynes instead almost broke into tears after the finish-line, whereas a happy Bennati received the fourth red jersey of his career.

Today the Vuelta riders will face another flat stage which features a little climb with 13 kms to go. The victory will probably be decided by a sprint, in which Matthew Goss surely won't take part. In fact the HTC rider abandoned the race yesterday because of some physical problems.

La Vuelta: parcours and start list (plus other randomness)

2011-08-18T00:10:00.000+02:00

Lots of things going on in Cycledom in the last few days, my dear readers.

First of all, Rebellin won the Tre Valli Varesine at the tender age of 40. This makes me wonder: if he goes so fast now that he's 40 and that he's not doping, how come that he didn't win the 2008 Olympics? Secondly, one recent news says that just four Swiss and Norwegian riders will have the chance of taking part in the Worlds this year. In my opinion this is absurd, especially if you consider that Iran and Morocco will have the chance of bringing 6 riders each to Copenhagen. Now, does anyone know at least one rider from Iran or Morocco? Personally, I don't. On the other hand, instead, I do know more than 4 riders from Switzerland (or from Norwegy). Cancellara, Bertogliati, Albasini, Frank, Morabito, Schaer, Tschopp Zaugg... It will be hard to pick just 3 of them, won't it?

Another hot topic in these days is cycling market. Talking about that: Langeveld has recently announced he'll join GreenEdge next year, whereas Degenkolb has officially said that he's joining Skil. The Pozzato-saga, on the other hand, has a new coup-de-scene, since Pippo has recently stated that Katiusha is trying to prolong his contract. Was Tchmil brainwashed, me wonders?

Fourth (and penultimate) interesting thing to say, in the last few days some interesting facts took place in the Blogosphere. First of all, our blogmate and Banana-reporter Susanne has recently decided to open her own tumblr. What are you waiting for? Check it out at http://themagicalpen.tumblr.com/ ! For other blog-related fun, take a look also at the last two posts on 'Bananas About Bikes' ( http://bananasaboutbikes.blogspot.com/ ): our banana-reporters Lee and Mar have been to Eneco Tour and to Post Denmark Rundt, so you now have the chance of enjoying their hilarious tales!

Fifth topic du jour (and main topic of this post) is la Vuelta. Oh yes. The last GT of the season starts on Saturday and it features a very nice parcours and a wonderful start list. Let's now take a look at the parcours and at the start - list - and let's also make some random predictions.

PARCOURS:

The 2011 Vuelta takes off with a 16 kms long TTT in Benidorm. The following stage is likely to suit sprinters, who may battle for victory after racing along the Spanish coast for a lot of kms. The second stage features a little climb with 10 kms to go, whereas the third one ends on the top of Sierra Nevada. This will be a pretty important stage, because some riders may have problems due to the fact that the first uphill finish arrives after just 4 days of race. Moreover, the Sierra Nevada isn't an easy climb: in fact it is 23 kms long and has an average of 5.7 %. In addition, at the top of the climb the riders will find themselves at an altitude of 2000 meters. Tough stage, isn't it?

On the following day, the wind may play tricks on the riders. However, the main obstacle du jour arrives in the last 3 kms of race, when the cyclists will have to face the Valdepeñas de Jaén wall, whose ramps' average is (fasten your seatbelt) up to 23%. Joaquim Rodriguez, Igor Anton, get ready for that - Nibali, Menchov, do whatever you can to stay glued to the wheels of the Spaniards.

After these two hellish days, the riders will face a stage ending in the astonishing city of Còrdoba, where the sprinters are likely to fight for the stage victory. That area of Spain is usually very hot and some riders may have problems because of that. The following stage will suit sprinters as well, although the fastest rider will have to sweat a lot in order to resist on the hilly terrain and in the windy and hot heart of Spain.

Next Saturday the riders will face a hilly terrain and one of the steepest walls of the world. The final 3 kms of the San Lorenzo de El Escorial stage in fact have ramps of up to 28 % - guys, be careful not to fall backwards while riding up that wall!

On the following day, some other pain is on the riders' menu: in fact they'll have to face another uphill finish. The last climb, La Covatilla, is 10 kms long and its average is 7.4%. Ouch, my legs are hurting - and I'm not even a rider!

On Monday, the GC riders will have another tough day ahead: a 40 kms long TT in the heart of Salamanca, a wonderful city. Nibali and Menchov will have the chance of gaining some time on their adversaries here, and they should really give their best in this stage: in fact, it is the only TT featured in this year race.

After a well-deserved rest day on Tuesday, the peloton (which, by now, might have lost many riders because of the upcoming Worlds) will head towards Galicia, where the cyclists will face another uphill finish. El Alto de la Manzaneda is 19 kms long and has an average of 6%. The GC riders who don't use their rest day properly will risk to blow up on this climb, so this stage may give us some surprises.

On the following day, the sprinters who have survived the first week of race will be able to show their skills in the stage to Pontevedra. 24 hours later, they'll have to face the Spanish version of Galibier, which is called Puerto de Ancares. Unfortunatey on this occasion the organisers have decided to create a stage 'a la Tour': the toughest climb du jour in fact is placed with more than 60 kms to go.

On the following afternoon, however, the supporters will be able to enjoy the show of the Lagos de Somiedo stage, which features lots of climbs and an uphill finish.

24 hours later, the riders are likely to see mirages as they face one of the toughest climb of Europe: the Angliru. The last 6.5 kms of this climb have an average of 13% and this should be enough to make you understand the difficulties that the riders will face on that day. Luckily the boys will have the chance of resting on the following day. The GC riders will start battling again after two days, when (after the flat stage to Haro) they'll have to face a 212 kms long stage to Pena Cabarga. The boys will have to use everything that's left in their tank in order to survive this long stage, which ends on a climb that isn't particularly steep but that, at this point of the race, may offer us a very interesting show.

The three following stages are likely to award the brave riders who'll choose to go on a breakaway. In particular, the Bilbao and Vitoria stages will be a Basque delirium, since thanks to them la Vuelta comes back in the Basque Country for the first time since 1978.

On the 11th September, in the end, the Spanish GT will be over with the usual parade in Madrid. Bennati won there in 2008 and, if he doesn't abandon the race because of the Worlds, he may win there also this year. Finally, after 3 weeks of pain the riders will be able to get off their bikes. Some will be rejoicing, other ones will be disappointed, but everyone will be happy to have concluded one of the most brutal GTs of the year. And then, the attention of the cycling world will immediately move to Copenhagen.

START LIST:

This year the battle for the overall victory in the Vuelta will be very tough and some of the best riders of the world will all be at the start of the race on Saturday. Here are the line-ups of the teams with some little remarks about them:

AG2R: Roche, Bonnafond, Champion, Dessel, Houanard, Le Lay, Mondory, Montaguti, Perget.

The hilarious Irishman Nicolas Roche is back racing after his knee problems in the Tour. Will he manage to race better than his cousin Daniel Martin? Time will tell. His team is formed by attackers like Dessel and nice guys like Houanard, who'll go looking for stage victories even in the TTT.

Andalucia Caja Granada: Bernabeu, Benitez, Cabello, Lobato, Palomares, Piedra, Ramirez, Roldan, Rosendo.

The Frenchmen offer their wild cards to the French teams, the Italians offer them to the Italian teams, the Spaniards give them to the Spanish equipos. The question is: what team does Bernabeu support?

BMC: Burghardt, Frank, Kohler, Phinney, Quinziato, Santambrogio, Santaromita, Tschopp, Van Avermaet.

A very good team for BMC: attention to them for the TTT! Phinney will be under special observation in the first days of race, whereas the other guys will battle for a stage victory.

Cofidis: Bagot, Edet, Mate, Moncoutie, Monier, Saramotins, Sijmens, Taaramae, Vogondy.

The French team has a good line-up: Moncoutié is a good climber who doesn't fear tough climbs, Taaramae has a very impulsive racing style, Vogondy was born to attack. Monier, on the other hand, is still astonished by his victory in the 2009 Giro ;)

Euskaltel: Anton, Isasi, Martinez, Oroz, Perez Lezaun, Txurruka, Velasco, Verdugo, Nieve.

This will be a very important edition of the Vuelta for the Basque team. Anton wants to win the race after he had to abandon it because of a crash last year, whereas Nieve has showed us his skills during the Giro. The rest of the team will help the team leaders and will attack a lot in the Bilbao and Vitoria stages.

Geox-TMC: Cobo, Blanco, De La Fuente, Duarte, Duran, Florencio, Menchov, Sastre, Valls.

A good team of climbers for Geox. Cobo, De La Fuente, Duarte, the promising Valls... And I still haven't mentioned Carlos 'Carlito' Sastre and Denis 'Smiley' Menchov. Of course I'll be supporting the Russian in the next three weeks and I'm sure he'll do his best to win his third Vuelta. Allez Denis!

HTC - Highroad: Albasini, Cavendish, Degenkolb, Goss, Grabsch, Howard, Martin, Sivstov, M. Velits.

Ok readers: read these names carefully and read the name of the team with respect. This is the last GT for HTC Highroad and this is extremely sad for every cycling lover. Let's enjoy every single action made by the boys in yellow and let's enjoy the stage wins that they're really likely to get. Cavendish, Degenkolb and Goss will use the Vuelta as a preparation for the Worlds, whereas Martin will pay attention to the GC. Look out for this team during the TTT, they're dangerous!

Katiusha: Rodriguez, Horrach, Kuchynski, Losada, Moreno, Paolini, Pliuschin, Trofimov, Vorganov.

A very good line-up for the Russian team. Joaquin Rodriguez is already looking forward to the toughest stages, whereas Pliuschin will surely show us his talent in some breakaways. Moreno is a talented climber too and I'm sure he'll do his best to help his captain. Paolini is extremely likely to take part in the Worlds and in the 2012 Olympics and he'll do his best in this race in order to show that he deserves his place in the sun in the Italian team.

Lampre: Scarponi, Kvachuk, Marzano, Mori, Niemiec, Arrieta, Petacchi, Righi, Spezialetti.

A very good team that can win stages and that can also go for the overall victory with Scarponi. Michele is determined to win this race and to defeat his eternal rival Nibali, whereas Petacchi, if he's had his motivation back, may win some flat stages. Niemiec will surely rock the climbs, the other ones will help him in supporting Scarponi as well as they can.

Leopard Trek: Bennati, Cancellara, Fuglsang, Monfort, O'Grady, Pires, Viganò, Wagner, Zaugg.

The hottest team of the Vuelta is ready to rock the stages and the overall. Fuglsang really shone in his first Vuelta and this year he'd like to repeat himself. The magic couple Viganò / Bennati will rock the sprints (in Daniele we trust!), whereas all the other guys have the skills to go for a stage win. This is the last LT GT for Big Old Stuey and hopefully he'll say 'adieu!' to his teammates with a victory - what about the TTT?

Liquigas: Nibali, Capecchi, Caruso, Da Dalto, Dall'Antonia, Marangoni, Nerz, Sagan, Wurf.

Great, great team. Vincenzo won this race last year, but everything will be tougher this time. I'll obviously support him during the next 3 weeks (the Worlds are approaching, so my sportif patriotism has started to show itself off :P), just like I will support the young and brave Marangoni, the nice Wurf and all the other promising guys on this team. I like Capecchi because I was there when he first won a GT stage at the Giro and I have great expectations for Peter Sagan. Moreover, Fangirl will be watching Dominique Nerz in a very careful way - the boy broke his collarbone earlier in the season and I hope that by now he has fully recovered.

Movistar: Erviti, Vicente, Intxausti, Konovalovas, Lastras, Lopez, Pardilla, Plaza Molina, Samoilau.

While reading the line-up of this team, I couldn't help but think of Xavier Tondo - Vuelta was his home- race and Intxausti was with him on that cursed morning of May. The boys will surely do their best also for him, just like the LT guys will be racing also for WW Special in the next three weeks. Movistar has a good-line up, with a good climber (Pardilla), some good all rounders (Samoilau), a strong sprinter (Lastras) and a great time trialist (Konovalovas).

Omega: Bakelandts, De Greef, De Haes, Dockx, Hansen, Pujol, Reynes, Van De Walle, Van Den Broeck.

When I read that Bakelandts was taking part in this race, I had a sigh of relief. In fact, I was worried by Hoogerland and Roy's absences and I was already wondering who would have taken their place as 'most attacking rider du Grand Tour' during the Vuelta. Well, now the answer is simple: Jan is going to do it. The boy's got a lot of strength, too bad that he's never that lucky with breakaways. Together with him, Omega offer us a good line-up formed by a sprinter like Hansen, an old crush of mine like De Greef and one of the comeback boys du GT: Jurgen Van Den Broeck (right now I'm wondering why I've just typed his name as 'Van Den Brown' :P).

Astana: Kessiakoff, Gasparotto, Kangert, Kashechkin, Kiserlovski, Mizurov, Petrov, Renev.

For the first time, Astana will face a GT while knowing that his founder, Vinokourov, won't race anymore (*girls of the AAVL mourn*). However, Vino leaves behind him a strong team. Petrov knows how to win GT stages, Kessiakoff is a great climber, Kashechkin was Vino's faithful helper back in 2007, Gasparotto is one of my favourite riders and Kiserlovski is the team's hope for the GC. Allez Robert!

Quickstep: Bandiera, Boonen, Cataldo, Chavanel, De Maar, De Weert, Maes, Malacarne, Seeldrayers.

Seeldrayers is back in action after the Giro and is ready to show off his talent. Boonen will use la Vuelta as a preparation for the Worlds, whereas Chavanel will fight with Bakelandts for the 'most combative rider' award.

Rabobank: Barredo, Breschel, Freire, Garate, Kruijswijk, Martens, Mollema, LL Sanchez, Slagter.

A very good line-up for Rabo. Breschel and Freire will rock the sprints, Mollema and Kruijswijk will help each other in the GC (go go guys!), Barredo and Garate are great attackers, LL Sanchez is a victory-addicted in the Tour and Slagter is back in a GT after scaring us all during the Giro 'strade bianche' stage.

Saxo Bank: CA Sorensen, Christensen, Gustov, Haedo, Jorgensen, Majka, Marycz, Nuyens, N.Sorensen.

You've gotta love this team when it features two Sorensens in its line up!! Good old Bjarne offer us an interesting team for this Vuelta. Chris Anker is ready for his first GT as a daddy and he'll surely try to get a prestigious victory in order to dedicate it to Laerke and Michelle. Nicki will help him, Haedo will sprint, Jorgensen will show us his talent (and his cuteness), Nuyens is back from his post-Flanders holiday, Marycz will enter every single breakaway of the race. I really like Jaroslaw and I really hope that he and Chris will manage to win a stage each. Will it be possible?

Skil: Geniez, Doi, Frohlinger, Geschke, Hupond, Kittel, Sprick, Timmer, Veelers.

Will Kittel rule the sprints as he did in Poland? That is the question that everyone wants to answer.

Sky: Arvesen, Cioni, Froome, Lovkvist, Possoni, Stannard, Sutton, Wiggins, Zandio.

Wiggo is another rider who comes back racing after breaking a bone in the Tour. His team is really good: Cioni and Possoni are good climbers, Froome is an all-rounder, Arvesen is one of my favourite riders - too bad that he's ending his career at the end of the season. Lovely Lovkist is back in a GT for the joy of every woman in the world, whereas Sutton and Stannard will try to find a place in the sun during the Spanish sprints.

Garmin: Farrar, Fischer, Haussler, Hushovd, Klier, Le Mevel, Martin, Talansky, Van Summeren. Cyclingnews says that Hushovd will race la Vuelta, but I don't know if they're right. Thor, Haussler, Fischer and Farrar will prepare the Worlds in Spain and it'll be hard to name a captain amongst them. Le Mevel is a strong climber, just like Daniel Martin, who is riding really well in these days. Van Summeren is the boy we've all learned to love in Paris - Roubaix, whereas Talansky is a promising time trialist. Look out for this team in the TTT!

Radioshack: Brajkovic, Busche, Irizar, Kloeden, Lequatre, Machado, Oliveira, Paulinho, Zubeldia. Kloeden and Brajkovic are back after their terrible Tour and, hopefully, after a little pilgrimage to Lourdes (or to Santiago de Compostela). Machado will hopefully race better than he did during the Giro and Oliveira (a promising neo pro) may show us something interesting.

Vacansoleil: Carrara, Devolder, Golas, Keizer, Lagutin, Lighthart, Mosquera, Poels, Van Leiken.

Once again, Cyclingnews tells me that Mosquera will be racing - too bad that I remember reading an article in which Vacansoleil said that Ezequiel wouldn't have taken part in the Spanish race. Mystery! Apart from Mosquera, Vacansoleil has a good line-up: Poels is a strong rider, just like Lagutin. Carrara is fast, Devolder is an all rounder, Lighthart is the Dutch national champion. I'm looking forward to seeing him racing!

So, this was my little intro to Vuelta a Espana. My pick for the final podium is: Antòn, Nibali, Menchov - I'm sure that also Scarponi and Rodriguez will do a great job, too bad that a podium has just 3 spots...

Decision time, cycling market and shaving legs:

2011-08-13T18:18:00.000+02:00

Almost one week after her last post, miss Fede is back blogging (*chorus of: 'It was high time' coming from all over the world*). There have been some important transfer news in the last few days, and I would have liked to write something about them, but unfortunately I was too busy with university papers and important decisions to spend my time writing about O'Grady leaving Leopard or Renshaw leaving Cavendish. On Thursday in fact, after some moments of indecision, I eventually took a big breathe before enroling in the 'Foreign Languages and Literatures' faculty of the Bergamo university.

I was 12 when I first said that I wanted to study foreign languages at uni, so I didn't actually have any doubt about which faculty to choose. Unfortunately, I did have lots of problems when I had to choose which languages (and related literatures) to study in the next two years. In fact, me couldn't decide whether I should have studied German and English, English and Russian or German and Russian.

The first option would have had lots of advantages for me because high school gave me a very good grounding as far as English and German are concerned. Therefore, choosing this language combo at would have surely spared me a lot of hard work at least in the first year of uni.

Unfortunately in my area there are many people who can speak English and German without difficulties, so I decided not to choose this option because, in a certain way, I felt it was too 'obvious' from the 'future employment' perspective. In order to choose something that would have given me the chance of getting a good job without many problems, I eventually decided to study a pretty uncommon language: Russian. This decision wasn't actually that difficult to take and it was the consequence of three facts. First: the university of Bergamo is considered the best one for the Italian students who want to take up Russian. Second: I can already read cyrillic (understanding the meaning of the words is another issue). Third: Denis Menchov is Russian. Really, it was as simple as that.

After deciding to study Russian, it was time of taking another decision: studying German or English together with it? English has always been my favourite language and I've always found it very easy, whereas I've always found German much more difficult (although I've always been good at it too). But still, there is no comparison between my English and my German skills: whereas I can communicate in English without too many problems, I still have problems in speaking German fluently. And, in the end, that's the reason why I've decided to keep on studying German and to abandon English.

I'm satisfied with my languages-choice, but I understood the importance of this fact just when a fellow rookie (who, unlike me, is going to study English and German) told me about what she'll study in her literature courses. Whereas she'll spend her days reviewing our high school notes about Blake, Hamlet and Joyce, I'll have to study Gogol, Dostoevskij and Pushkin. At least, the professor who runs the 'German literature' course seems a big fan of Kafka :P

Anyway. Enough ranting about myself for today. It's cycling time now!

The last few days have been full of decisions not just for me, but also for many cyclists who are changing teams. In particular, HTC Highroad hasn't managed to find a new sponsor for next year and this means that the everyone on the team (ds, riders, soigneurs, bus drivers, etc.) now need to find a new equipe.

Mark Cavendish, the most appealing jewel in the HTC crown, is heading towards Sky, just like Siutsou and Bernie Eisel. Mark Renshaw, on the other hand, has decided to go looking for adventure in Holland. In fact the fast Aussie has decided to join Rabobank and to try to become the main sprinter of the Dutch team.

As far as Cavendish moving to Sky is concerned, people talked about this transfer already last year. After all, it was just a matter of time before the British king of the sprints ended up in the only British team of the ProTour... But still, right now I'm wondering how the ds of that team will manage to create a GT line-up which will be able to support Cav in the sprints and Wiggo in the mountains.

Still talking about fast riders, Thor Hushovd has announced that he's going to race for BMC in 2012. In my opinion this is a wise move because, by leaving Garmin, Thor will finally find a team that will support him completely both during the Classics and during the toughest sprints of the season. At Garmin instead the Norwegian rider had to deal with Van Summeren during the Classics and with Farrar and Haussler during the sprints. Unfortunately, Garmin hasn't appreciated this move and in fact it has decided not to bring Hushovd to la Vuelta. Thor has been shocked by the news because the Spanish GT is the best way to prepare the Worlds, which Hushovd could win also this year. By not racing it, Thor will take part in the Danish race with a big handicap.

Still talking about Garmin, the team is going to lose other riders in the next season. In fact, Jack Bobridge and the Meyer brothers have all decided to join the GreenEdge team, which is a very interesting Australian project. Amongst the guys who have signed a contract with this new team there are also Stuart O'Grady and Pieter Weening, two exceptional riders. O'Grady said that leaving Leopard was 'the most difficult decision of his career', but I think no one can criticise him for his will of joining such an ambitious project. Good luck Stuey!

Talking about national projects: Astana has employed Kashechkin, whereas Katiusha has offered a contract to Angel Vicioso.

As far as French teams are concerned, Di Gregorio is joining Cofidis, whereas AG2R has employed Casper. Tony Gallopin, instead, is joining RadioShack.

A team that has been very active so far in the cycling market is Skil Shimano, who has great expectations for next year. In fact the Professional team has already employed Patrick Gretsch and has offered a contract to Degenkolb who, according to Gazzetta, has received an offer also fromLleopard Trek. The German sprinter is behaving in a mysterious way and has said that he'll reveal his new team during the Vuelta. Given the misteryous behaviour, one could assume that he's joining the Leopards.

Talking about LT, the team has recently employed Ben Hermans, who is a solid helper. Quick Step instead has signed the Velits twins, one of which (I never remember who...) is a very strong GT contender.

Whereas Movistar has wisely employed the Italian hope Visconti, Vacansoleil is likely to become the team with the most loved line-up ever, since it has offered a contract to everyone's hero Kenny Van Hummel. He and Hoogerland together at the Tour, wow!

Talking about the Italian market, one of the big names looking for a contract is Pippo Pozzato. I've already said that LT should employ him, but it actually seems that Poz may end up riding for Farnese Vini. In fact Lampre apparently refused to give Filippo a contract after he said that he wanted the team to employ also his soigneur and his friend Paolini. I think Lampre was right in taking this decision, because Pozzato hasn't had any great result in the last two years and, imo, he should have a more humble attitude towatds those who want to give him a contract.

As far as the retiring riders are concerned, it seems that the cyclists who'll abandon the peloton after October are Arvesen (can anyone tell me more about this?), Cuesta, Noé and Loosli. On the other hand, some fresh air is arriving in Cycledom thanks to the neo pros: Keldermann is joining Rabobank, whereas Stefano Locatelli and Enrico Battaglin are joining Colnago. The promising Trentin instead has signed a contract with Omega, whereas Moreno Moser has become a Liquigas rider. Good luck to these boys!

After talking about serious issues like team transfers and universities, now it's time we relaxed a bit with something funny. And that is: 'Why do pros shave legs?', by fitness expert Scott Saifer. This man writes a fitness column for Cyclingnews and he has recently answered an e-mail about the riders' habit of shaving legs. Talking about that topic, Chris Anker Sorensen once said that pros shave because: 1. it's a tradition. 2. it helps the soigneurs during the massages. 3. 'Teams spend thousand euros every year in order to give us the most aerodynamic bikes. Ruining all these efforts because of a pair of hairy legs would be a bit silly, wouldn't it?'

So, what did mr. Saifer answer to the reader who asked him why riders shave their legs? Enjoy!

Okay, I have to tell you the real reason pros shave their legs. It's because pros shave their legs. There are lots of reasons to do it, but ultimately they do it because all the other riders do it. I've heard that pros shave so that it they crash and have to have bandages, the bandages won't stick to the hair, but I don't believe that most pros plan to crash so while that is a reason to shave, I don't believe that's why they do it. I've heard that hair sticks to asphalt and makes road rash worse as bigger chunks of skin get pulled off, but again, I don't think that's why they shave (...)

It's been said that smooth legs might decrease aerodynamic drag and improve competitiveness. It's also been said that a bit of hair could act like the turbulators on airplane wings, actually deceasing wind resistance by disrupting laminar flow and easing the separation of the air from the leg. Since smooth legs being faster makes intuitive sense, aerodynamics could explain shaving. Some pros do shave their arms as well.

Some riders say they shave because "chicks dig it". Many riders say that the first few days after shaving for the first time sliding between clean sheets is an awesome experience. Maybe some pros are closet sensualists.

Bottom line though is that riders shave because pros shave, and pros shave because pros shave. There are lots of arguable reasons but I don't think individual riders necessarily have reasons in that way. On the other hand, show up at a racing club ride in a new town with hairy legs and see how you are received. You'll be accepted much more readily if your legs are smooth.

After this masterpiece of writing, and while trying not to imagine some riders (Pozzato! D:)sliding between clean sheets while looking entusiasthic, I wish you all a good evening.

Two nice interviews with the Schleck brothers:

2011-08-07T17:33:00.002+02:00

August is a strange month for cycling lovers. The Tour in fact is over, but other races have already tried to take its place in the afternoons of cycling supporters. Tour de Pologne, Tour of Portugal, Tour of Denmark, Eneco Tour... All these races have some good riders taking part in them, but they're usually considered just as a springboard for the Worlds (and for the Vuelta) .

This year the parcours of the Worlds doesn't look particularly difficult, so everyone is paying a lot of attention to the sprinters. Talking about sprinters: Romain Feillu has recently broken his collarbone, Cavendish and all his teammates have lost their main sponsor and Paolo Bettini is thinking about the Italian teams for Copenhagen. He's said that Bennati will be the team leader in the pro race, but he's also stated that Andrea Guardini (who, this year, got 9 victories in the pro category) is likely to become the captain of the U23 Italian team. Still talking about sprinters, Marcel Kittel and Peter Sagan have recently ruled the Tour de Pologne. Yesterday Marcel won the last stage, whereas Peter won the overall classification by crossing the finish-line in second. They both rejoiced as they crossed the finish-line and this created a very funny situation: two young riders with a bright future (and a great present), both rejoicing at the same moment, in the same race, by raising the same arm. Lovely.

However, given that I couldn't follow any of the above-mentioned races in a very careful way, and that imo it's still a long way to the Worlds, here I go with two interviews with the Schleck brothers, which our friend Claudia pointed out in her last comments.

First of all, some of you may know that my first post on this blog was an interview with both the brothers. Given that I still find it very interesting, here it is. Since it was written in 2008, remember that some answers may not be that true anymore. However, enjoy it!!

INTERVIEW 1:

A face to face, frank and sincere, between two very strong riders, that make a whole country dream. They are the Schleck brothers: young, handsome and talented boys. Thanks to them, their parents, their team, their fans from all over the world can dream.A face to face like the “Iene”’s ones (ndr; “Le Iene”-”The hyenas”-is an Italian programme) between two polite boys that want to be "hyenas” just when they’re riding their bikes.
Name?
F:Frank
A:Andy
Date of birth?
F: 15th April 1980
A: 10th June 1985
Ideal weight?
F: 63 kg
A: 65 kg
Height?
F: 186 cm
A: 186 cm
When did you start racing?
F: I started racing when I was 13 year-old. I’ve been racing for the last 15 years.
A: I started when I was 12 year-old, but in a serious way just when I was 16.
What have you done of important in the world of cycling until now?
F: I’ve won an Amstel Gold Race and the Alpe d’Huezs stage in the 2006 Tour de France. I was also 3rd in the 2006 Pro Tour Ranking.
A: Last year I was 2nd in the Giro d’Italia and 4th in the Tour of Lombardy.
What are your goals for the 2008 season?
F: The Ardenne’s classics, the Tour de France, the Olympics, the Worlds and the Tour of Lombardy.
A: My schedule is almost the same: Ardenne’s classics, Tour de France and Olympics.After that race I’ll decide if I’ll continue until the Tour of Lombardy or not.
What is your dream’s race?
F: The Olympics.
A: The Tour de France
A race that you hate?
F: The Tour of Romandy, I don’t have any doubt about this. I really like Switzerland, but I’ve run that race for 3 times and for 3 times I had to retire because of a flu or of an injury.
A: Don’t tell me about the GP of Cholet. I took part in that race twice and I crashed both times. I’ve sworn it to myself: I’ll never take part in that race again.
Who are the most dangerous adversaries?
F: Bettini, Rebellin and Valverde.
A: Contador for the Grand Tours, Rebellin for the classics. Valverde for both.
Your friends inside the peloton?
F & A: The best are our teammates Cancellara, Kroon, Voigt and O’Grady, but they’re not the only ones.
Your enemies?
F & A: We’ve got lots of adversaries but we haven’t got any enemy.
What kind of rider is your brother?
F: We’re very similar to each other, we both go very well in the classics and in the Grand Tours.
A: He’s very intelligent in every kind of race, he can improve in time trials, the only thing for which he doesn’t have talent is the sprint.
Something good about your brother’s personality?
F: He takes things easy, whereas sometimes I think too much.
A: I’m younger than him, but we’re very similar, so I think that when I’ll be his age I’ll be just like him, so I can’t say anything particularly good about his character.
A defect?
F: He’s too untidy.
A: Sometimes he’s too nervous.
Do you envy your brother because of something related to cycling?
F: No, we’re very similar.
A: No. If he was fast, I would have liked to be as fast as him, but he’s not fast, so I don’t envy him anything.
Where do you live?
F: In Mondorf, alone, where also Andy and my parents live.
A: I still live with my parents in Mondorf, but I’ve just bought a house and I’m moving there.
What’s your favourite country?
F: Luxembourg. I really like Italy, but if I lived there with my teammates, I would feel as if I were on a permanent training camp. I’m happier when I’m close to my friends and, first of all, to my family.
A: Luxembourg: I like the mentality and the way of living. But I put Italy at the 2nd place. It’s a very fascinating country.
Do you prefer blonde or dark haired women?
F: Dark haired.
A: Blonde.
What’s your favourite dish?
F: Pizza, fries and hamburgers.
A: French fries and hamburgers.
What’s your favourite sport besides cycling?
F: I like speedskating.
A: Ice-hockey. I played it until I got 17 and I was in the young national team.
Hobbies?
F: Hunting and fishing.
A: Fishing more than hunting.
Who was your hero when you were a child?
F: Johnny Cash and Ray Charles.
A: James Dean.
Your hero in cycling?
F: Bettini, Indurain & Rebellin.
A: Miguel Indurain, without any doubt.
What type of car do you have?
F: A Volkswagen Passat.
A: A Volkswagen Touran.
Politics: Left or Right?
F: Left. Our eldest brother, Steve, is a politician and he’s in the Luxembourgian Socialist Party.
A: Left.
Do you believe in God?
F: Yes. I’m not a fanatic, but I think people need to follow a trace during their life.
A: I’m a believer and a practising Christian.
What will you do when you give up cycling?
F: I love animals. I may do something for them in the future.
A: I hope I’ll have enough money to avoid doing a hard job. I'd like to live in a forest, inside nature, and I'd also like to travel around the world fishing. Fishing is one of my greatest passions.
What would you like to say to the Italian fans?
F: Sooner or later I’ll take part in the Giro d’Italia. I like your mentality, your passion, the big love you have for beautiful things and for cycling in particularly.
A: I want to come back at the Giro and I’m sorry I will not be able to come back already this year. However I’ll come back to win that race.

(Interview by Francesco Cerruti of 'Tuttobici')

After this look back in the past, and after an obvious question about the brothers' taste (Frankie likes dark-haired women and ended up with a blonde, Andy likes blonde women and ended up with a dark-haired one), here we go with a more recent interview , which I've just finished to translate. Enjoy!

INTERVIEW 2:

Tics and tricks for Andy Schleck: On the bike, in the hotel or at the table, the Luxembourgian has some little manias and rituals.
Andy Schleck isn't a monk in shorts. The night we met in Italy, you could tell from his breathe that he had just drunk a beer. We met on the night before a race, so that was pretty surprising. "I train hard to win, but I also enjoy life", Contador's main rival justified himself with a smile. Andy Schleck, 26, still can't choose between success and pleasure.

Schleck spends 6 months pro year travelling and he finds his peace in his house in Mondorf-les-Bains, a Luxembourgian village close to France. He lives in the same street as his brothers Steve and Frank, their parents and the Danish rider Jakob Fuglsang, a family friend. "As he lives in the flat above mine, we often see each other. He loves challenging me at Guitar Hero!", Andy says with a laugh.

Whereas some riders count the number of spaghetti in their plate, Andy has a very personal preparation to the Tour: his mother's French fries. "It has become a tradition", Andy says before admitting that the fries make him gain weight. "But that weight increase is due to the major amount of muscles in my legs, not to an increase of the fats in my body!", he laughs, delighted.

"He doesn't refuse a glass of champagne for a birthday, but Andy is a model of professionalism between March and September", his teammate Maxime Monfort says. "He enjoys life in the winter and in his off-peak periods, but that's what he needs to be at 110% for the Tour".Raised in a rural area, the Luxembourgian has always loved nature: he hunts regularly and he goes fishing in his pond on the Moselle. He usually catches pikes. "I'm the one who catches the fish, but it's my mother who cooks them," says the Epicurean single (ndr; we all know that OGL isn't single anymore, don't we?).

Andy really loves his parents, who live 200 meters far from him. At their home, in the room where Andy lived when he was a teenager, their parents have put all the medals and photos of his successes. "I wouldn't feel comfortable with all those things in my house. However, I'll make an exception: when I win the Tour, the trophy and the medal will end up in my house. I've already booked a place for them!"The Schleck brothers never leave each other. So when Frank, 31, abandoned the Tour in 2010, Andy suffered a lot because of it. "I missed Frank during the stages and especially before and after them. We need to talk, to make signs to each other. When he's not with me, I am worried for him. In March, for example, I was at Tirreno - Adriatico but I was only thinking of his crash in Paris - Nice. Without him, I'm not relaxed. "During the Tour, the brothers share a room and the little manias "of an old married couple," as Andy himself says. "Frank always sleeps by the window, I sleep next to the door."

As well as sharing hotel rooms, the brothers also share a child. Well, almost: Leea is the daughter of Frank, but Uncle Andy is completely crazy about her. "Andy almost spends more time than Frank with the little one," Johnny Schleck, the head of the clan, jokes. "In the evenings spent in hotels far from home, when Frank calls his wife and his daughter on Skype, the one who spends the most of the time time in front of the webcam is Andy!"Andy once had "a good luck necklace", but he lost it in the depths of the ocean during a holiday. During the Tour, he created a little reassuring routine which begins at breakfast: "Bread, a great cheese omelet and a lot of rice. I usually don't eat that much in the mornings, so I must make a big effort to eat a breakfast like that." On the team bus, Andy has a place in the back, between Fabian Cancellara and Stuart O'Grady, who are the two techno DJs of the team. "Techno is good for finding the race rythm". Every day after the stage, Andy authomatically dials the telephone number of his father. "I don't phone him to talk about the race, but to keep in touch with the real world. In the spring, we talked mostly about the Arabian revolutions." After that, it's massage time: the massage is accompanied by music. "It's my soigneur who chooses the songs. This year I really liked the Kings of Leon."The young team Leopard, who is "like a group of friends," often ends dinner with a glass of wine. "It doesn't damage the form. Actually, it's good for the health and for the morale," Andy, delighted to discover the French wines during the Tour, states.Johnny Schleck adds: "At Saxo Bank, Andy and Frank often discussed wines with Bjarne Riis, who has a great wine knowledge". From the Danish manager, the brothers inherited the immense desire to win. But still, this didn't become an obsession.

(Interview by Mickaël Caron - Le Journal du Dimanche)

Some random cycling links (updated with some other Schleck videos):

2011-08-03T16:01:00.007+02:00

Right after the end of the Tour, people often find themselves with nothing to do during the afternoons. Therefore, miss Fede decided to collect a few random links related to cycling (which she collected especially thanks to her kind readers) in order to amuse herself and her readers. Have fun!

VIDEOS:

- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kin72YxiDsg : Kat, a kind Danish reader, has recently updated on YouTube a video in which mr. Jakob Fuglsang gets his daily massage during the Tour. She uploaded it just for us, so let's thank her before starting to drool over the Leopard Trek rider (it's advisable to watch this video when you're alone).

- http://youtu.be/VrNv89dqMP0 : Marleen from 'Ride On!' has kindly pointed out this other video, featuring the Schleck brothers, de Zjonnies and an old car. In it Andy and Frank show their driving skills and, as they drive, they also find the time to damage the vehicle in many different ways.

- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ovgs9CFoFCk : They're everyone's favourite cycling chronists: Christian Paasche and Johan Kaggestad. In this video you'll see them go bananas as Edvald Boasson Hagen wins his second TdF stage of the year. From 0:24, things get really ridicolous and at 0:58 you can see an unknown chronist that sneaks into the Norwegian room and puts his headphones next to Christian's mouth, so that his viewers can realise how hard it is to work next to the Norwegian chronists.

- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3wHT5OJRWg (via miss Sansen): Carlos Sastre and Denis Menchov, together, in just one video: in it they speak English, they talk about their wives and they almost forget for how long they have been married. Moreover, they laugh . In particular, Menchov has a great time while talking about how he met his wife. And the worst thing is that there's nothing hilarious in that.

OTHER RANDOM LINKS:

After watching some videos, here are three other random links:

- http://womanmanfishbicyclemag.tumblr.com/ : the above-mentioned miss Sansen has recently surrendered to Tumblr. Visit her blog in order to read an exclusive 'from Fablish (or Fabianese) to English' vocabulary.

- http://www.sporten.dk/cykling/klar-parat-tour-fest: our special detective Susanne has recently provided us with some good pictures from the post-Tour parties in Paris. Enjoy!

- http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/the-cyclingnews-guide-to-rider-transfers-2011-2012 : the cycling market has already started and, so far, the interesting moves have been two: Van Hummel goes to Vacansoleil, Pozzato exits Katiusha (although his final destination is still unknown). What if he really joins Leopard Trek?

UPDATED PART:
Some kind readers have decided to add other amusing videos to this post. Lt's enjoy them!!
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFIKnK7GpeQ : Cancellara and Frank Schleck kidding with the cameras during the Tour. Lovely!
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbdFQ5rwEZs : What did the Schleck brothers and Fabian Cancellara do the day after Andy's victory in Liège 2009? In this video you have the answer! (this video, just like the previous one, has been found by our dear Cristin)
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0tVAQech7g&feature=related : Also our friend Figbash decided to point out a link: it is an old classic which every Schleck fan should watch at least once pro day. Enjoy the jokes and the relaxing view!
- http://bananasaboutbikes.blogspot.com/ : After a period of break, 'Bananas about Bikes' is back with a new, exciting post by Marleen! If you haven't done it yet, I suggest you reading it. Moreover, I suggest you paying some attention to that blog in the next days: we have lots of tales coming up! If you're a supporter and you've had a great time while visiting a bike race, send us a description of your day at bananasaboutbikes@gmail.com . We accept stories related also to women cycling, cyclo-cross, track cycling, criteriums, whatever! Moreover, they don't have to be very recent. We can publish also posts that date back to some months or years ago, we're not strict at all!
(ok, end of the shameless self promotion part ;)

Enjoy the videos and the links!

2011 Tour de France: one week later

2011-07-31T22:13:00.001+02:00

Last Saturday at 4.45 pm a tired, nervous, frustrated and sunburnt miss Fede was in her hotel room in a Spanish village, desperately looking for the local sportschannel on tv. Tiredness was a consequence of the long travel of the day before and of the noise made during the night by the Spanish seagulls (they are the worst creatures on Earth after Italian pigeons) and by the boys who went partying at 3 am and who thought it would have been nice to scream in the hotel's corridors at that time of the night, thus causing me to wake up many, many times. Frustration instead was caused by the fact that I was in a foreign country (which wasn't France) when the Tour was still up and running. Moreover, the weather sucked. As far as the 'sunburnt' bit is concerned, then, I have to admit that on our first day of holiday my friends and I were so shocked by the cloudy and windy weather that we decided not to bring our sunshades to the beach. As a consequence, on that afternoon I was looking like a giant lobster waiting to be served on a restaurant table together with some salad or soup. Nervousness instead derived from another fact: the Tour de France's time trial in Grenoble, which had already started and which was going to decide the eventual outcome of the 2011 Grande Boucle.

The day of my departure, I spent the whole afternoon screaming at my tv screen. After his deed on Galibier, I thought that Andy Schleck had a big chance of winning the Tour, but at the same time I feared that the efforts that led him to his historical victory on Galibiér would have made him more vulnerable during the Alpe d'Huez stage. Ah, Alpe d'Huez! The Queen of the Tour was waiting for the riders, with its amount of colours, cycling lovers and people who go there just because they want to be insulted by the true cycling followers (seriously, I believe that at least half of the people who go up to Alpe d'Huez are more interested in showing themselves off than in watching the race!!). Before meeting Her Majesty, however, the riders had to face Telegraphé and Galibier (for the second time in two days, poor things!) and, given the toughness of the parcours, every rider knew that this stage was going to shatter someone's dreams of victory and to reward someone else.

A group of breakawayers tried to look for glory (and for safety from the time cut) since the beginning of the day but, with 90 kms to go, everyone understood that the big names of the peloton wanted to smash the race. 'It's now or never', Contador probably thought as he attacked with 90 kms to go, after just 14 kms of race. The Spaniard was followed by Voeckler, Evans and Andy Schleck and they soon rode past the breakaway rider. Then, all of a sudden, Thomas got dropped (*chorus of 'Noooooooo!' coming from France*) and Evans had a mechanical problem. Once again, Andy the Luxembourgian and Alberto the Spaniard found themselves alone, at the head of the Tour.

As my respect for Contador grew bigger and bigger after his attack, my hope for a Luxembourgian victory in Paris became stronger and stronger. As soon as Evans and Voeckler got dropped, my brain stopped reasoning in a rational way and I let the Fangirl in me completely free. I was shouting at the tv, supporting Voeckler, screaming 'Drop him, drop him, YOU MUST DROP HIM TO WIN THIS F****** BIKE RACE!!!' as Evans (with a little help from Casar and Danielson) joined Contador and Schleck after the Galibier descent, and I was rejoicing when I saw Pierre Rolland winning the stage. Shortly afterwards I was overwhelmed with feelings when I saw Voeckler wearing his green Europcar jersey again and I was proud of Andy Schleck's yellow jersey - although, unfortunately, I had to skip the podium ceremony because I had to go the airport. Talking about airports: I landed in Girona which, by chance, is the city where a Russian cyclist that I stalked during the Giro lives. Luckily I didn't meet him, otherwise I'm afraid he would have had me arrested for stalking.

Anyway, back to the TT in Grenoble and to my hot hotel room in Spain. As my friends went out of the room in order to enjoy another hour of fun (and wind and cold) on the beach, I started suffering in front of that little television. I managed to find the right channel after two tries and, surprisingly, I could understand everything the chronists said. Moreover, I could also understand what Samu Sanchez and Contador (whose interviews with Spanish tv were really long) said. Unfortunately I was too nervous to rejoice for my achievements in the knowledge of the Spanish language because I knew that, in a few minutes time, the 2011 TdF winner would have been chosen.

As Cadel and Andy started their TT, I began to pray for a Luxembourgian victory. Unfortunately my prayers didn't work, since after a few kms it became clear that Evans was going to win the first Tour of his career by doing what he hadn't managed to do in 2007 and 2008: the time trial of his life.

As I saw Andy's jersey become less and less yellow, I susprisingly didn't feel anything. It was a surreal situation and (also because of the tiredness), I felt as if I couldn't realise what was happening. I thought (and hoped) I was dreaming. On the previous day I didn't have the time to reflect seriously on Andy's chances of keeping the yellow jersey and, as Evans took the overall victory, Schleck's yellow jersey soon started to look like a mirage to me. Did he really get it after Alpe d'Huez? Are we sure? Seriously, I was in a kind of trance. A trance that ended as soon as Andy crossed the finish-line, thus releasing his feelings.

I was overwhelmed with emotions too as I watched the lanky Luxembourgian sending the tv cameras away from him and hiding his head on his brother' shouder. In that moment, to me Andy stopped being a cyclist and he went back to being just a boy. And, in that moment, I understood what the Tour is for those guys. Evans the Aussie (aporpos, why does he remind me of a crocodile?) was rejoicing because, after all those years, he finally managed to take that cursed Tour victory; Andy Schleck looked very down because, after grazing the Tour victory for the third time in a row, he lost the race once again, thus becoming the first rider ever to nail three second placements in a row on the Champs Elysées podium; Frank Schleck, on the other hand, was sad because his brother had lost but, at the same time, he was happy for his 3rd place; Thomas Voeckler, instead, was probably cursing himself for the seconds he lost in the descent towards Pinerolo and for having gone à bloc too early in the Alpe d'Huez stage.

As the Spanish chronists started to remember what happened in the different stages of this year Tour, I switched off the tv. I didn't want to hear useless talks about the eventual outcome of the race because, after all, those talks couldn't change anything.

After the stage, my father phoned me to know how I was doing (he probably expected me to jump off the window for the disappointment :P). And, together, we talked about who really deserved to win this Tour. On the one hand, we agreed that Evans was great in the first week of race and on the Galibier; on the other hand, however, we said that Andy was superb in the Alps and that he was the strongest climber of the race, the one who made the race exciting in the last days.

In the end, dad and I agreed that Andy was probably stronger than Cadel in the climbs, but we also agreed that the Aussie didn't deserve to lose another Tour. Andy is younger than Cadel and he still has a lot of time to win this race. Whereas Evans is already 34, in fact, Schleck is just 26 - he's not the young puppy who was 2nd in the Giro 2007 anymore, ok, but let's remember that a guy like Basso won his first GT at 29 and that OGL has already won Liége and has the most impressive collections of second placements of Cycledom. He still has a lot to learn and a lot of time to race, so he must take things day by day.

Talking about the Tour raced by And, some may not be satisfied by his second placement. But still, I think there are two ways to look at this year TdF podium: the 'romantic' way and the cold-minded way.

Those who like a bit of romanticism will be happy with this year's podium. First Cadel Evans, who last year lost the chance of winning the Tour and the Vuelta because of facts not depending on his will. Second and third, two brothers, Andy and Frank. Andy, the rough diamond of cycling, still has to shine on the top spot of a GT podium, but I'm sure that one day he will. As far as Frank is concerned, I think that last Sunday he had one of the best days of his whole life. Standing on the podium with his brother and his super-cute daughter must have been amazing for him and now this podium will surely make him aim higher as far as the next GTs are concerned. The boy is shadowed by Andy's talent, but he's one of the best riders of the world too.

If, instead, you decide to watch this year's podium from a technical, cold-minded point of view, well, perhaps you'll think that Andy Schleck can't be satisfied with his second place, because this year he was the strongest climber and he made a mistake when he didn't attack in the Pyrenées. But still, being angry at And now really makes no sense: the boy has showed us once again that he has everything it takes to become a champion and, sooner or later, his day will come. He has the personality and the braveness of a champion, he just needs to improve from the tactical point of view, to learn to calm down before speaking to the press and to race more in order to be more loved not just by the supporters, but also by the press (apropos, French journalists call him 'Andyfferent' -.-"). Hopefully already in the next weeks we'll see him getting good results together with Frank, who yesterday got a very good 6th place in San Sebastian.

Oh, a last thing to say about Andy and the cycling press/supporters: some may now start to call him a loser, but don't forget that Evans had that very same nickname until 2009. Then, he won the Worlds Championships and he won the Tour. Wow!
As far as the podium scenes are concerned, I've recently seen them on YouTube (I decided not to watch the last stage) and I think that the cutest moment was when Frank brought his daughter Leea on the podium. Seriouly, the girl is as classy as Alan Gilbert!

Moreover, I'm glad to see that the awful prizes that were given every year to the 2nd and to the 3rd riders of the GC have finally changed. In fact, the two plates of glass have been replaced by two little bicycles, which look a bit better and which definitely look like trophies.

Unfortunately I haven't seen any pics from the post-Tour parties yet (actually, I didn't even look for them), so I can't say anything frivolous about fashion and things like that.

So. This year Tour has been stressful, long and full of emotions (from desperation and shock to admiration and joy, passing through fear, hope and disappointment), but I really enjoyed it. I often got angry at Andy Schleck but, in the end, I was super proud of him and I also changed some of my harsh opinions about him. However, Andy, would you be so kind to take part in more races next year? People love you, they can't wait until the Ardennes Classics to see you racing so well once again!!

(pic by Bettini)

Allez Schlecks!!!

2011-07-22T13:49:00.001+02:00

Ok girls, the two decisive moments are finally approaching: the moment in which the Tour will finally be decided by the last climbs (holy Galibier save us all once again!) and by the TT in Grenoble and the moment when I'll abandon Italy for a few days.

This Tour has been like a rollercoaster so far: there were some epic deeds (Hushovd winning in Lourdes, Voeckler keeping the jersey yesterday, Andy Schleck's winning attack 24 hours ago, Boasson Hagen winning two stages, Gilbert giving it all whenever he could, Hoogerland keeping on racing), but there were also some negative moments (Vinokourov ending his career, a car knocking down Flecha and Hoogerland when they were on a breakaway, the boredom on the Pyrenées, the descents of the last two days, all the retires of the first week of race, the polemics between Cavendish and Rojas...). But still, after more than 25000 kms of race and many hours of sufference (both for the riders and for the supporters), the fight for yellow is still open. Voeckler, the tenacious French rider, has the chance of winning his home-race 26 years after Hinault; Andy Schleck, the Luxembourgian graceful flamingo, has the opportunity of winning his first Tour de France; Frank Schleck, brother of Andy (in 2007 people would have said: 'Andy, brother of Frank'), wants to join his brother on the final podium; Cadel Evans, who has often been rejected by the Grande Boucle, wants to overtake the Luxembourgian duo and the surprising Voeckler in the final time trial, thus reaching the Tour triumph that has slipped out of his hands on many occasions. With 2 days of race and a triumphal parade to go, these riders are divided (or, perhaps, united) by 72 seconds. Now they have to give it all, once again, for the last time, today and tomorrow. Then, the Tour de France will give the crown of king to one of them.

As many of you already know, I won't be at home during the epilogue of this exciting and beautiful fight for yellow. In fact this evening I'm leaving Italy to enjoy a one-week holiday on the coast of Spain. Luckily the hotel has a tv in every room, so that I'll hopefully be able to enjoy the Tour even while I'm on holiday. Actually, I can already imagine myself upsetting my friends by leaving the beach at 4.30 pm in order to go watching the last two stages. There's no way I'm missing the TT (if I can't find a tv broadcast, I'll call my parents and spend a thousand euros on phone calls in order to know how the race is going second by second) and I'd love to see also the final parade to Paris. When one follows the Tour from its beginning, it's hard to be excluded from the final party on the Champs. But still, in order to do that, I'll have to find the Spanish channel that broadcasts the Tour. And, given my love for tvs, it'll be hard.

Talking about scenes starring myself and my passion for cycling, I bet that tomorrow morning at 7 am I'll be walking around the streets like a fool, looking for a newsagent's selling 'La Gazzetta dello Sport'. Seriously, I can't resist without my two daily pink pages about the Tour!!

Anyway. Time to go packing the last things. Of course, even when I'm away, the comment area is here for you, dear readers, to use. You can express ideas, have discussions, share links, do whatever you want - I'm sure you don't need me to create interesting, funny, moved and joyful (hopefully...) discussions.

Hopefully, when I'm back we'll have a Luxembourgian Tour de France champion. If so, I could go so crazy that, before leaving Spain, I may run down a street with a yellow tow in my hands, singing 'Eisen Andy' (no, I won't record that moment on my camera).

With the song 'Allez Andy' playing in my mind, I say 'good bye' to you all. I hope you had fun on this blog in the last two weeks (the number of new readers that have come across this page in the last few days is SCARY!!) and, if so, I recommend you staying tuned - the season, after all, isn't over yet.
So, this time this is really all from me for the moment - and for the Tour. Have a good weekend and get ready to support los Schlecks as loudly as you can.

Hasta pronto mujeres!

PS: I take this chance to wish a nice travel and a great holiday to the girls who are travelling to France in these days: Figbash, Mar, Marleen, Eva, Lee (who's been in France for a while now), Kara and all the other ones that I've surely forgotten. Rock Paris, girls!!! And stalk a Schleck (or two) also for me ;)

(Pic by Bettini)

A fabulous Andy Schleck triumphs on Galibier:

2011-07-21T19:19:00.001+02:00

The last months have been tough for Andy Schleck. First, Beer-gate. Then, his new team. In April, the critics for his poor performances in the Ardennes Classics and for the fact that he takes part just in a few races. In May, the tragedy of Wouter Weylandt left him (and us) shocked after seeing what can happen when bad luck meets the descent on which you're following your dream and doing your job. In June, Andy was criticised because of his performances at Tour de Suisse. In the last two weeks, instead, he's been facing the Tour de France and he's been criticised for his lack of attacks, for his complaints about the stages and for his habit of turning his neck backwards while riding - a habit that has earned him the nickname of 'torticollis' amongst his colleagues. But still, Andy didn't let the critics take over him. He kept on saying that he would have given it all on the Alps and, in the end, that's what he did.

At the start of today's stage, the riders knew that they were going to become part of the long history of the Tour. For the first time, in fact, the Grande Boucle dared to challenge its Majesty the Galibier.

The approach to the climb wasn't easy. Galibier wanted to show everyone that he, the mountain, had a complete control on the Tour which, after all, is just a human thing. Nature is stronger than everything and the snow threatened the parcours of this stage until yesterday evening. Luckily, in the end the Giant was clement, although he wanted the riders to respect a deal: they could have ridden there, towards the highest finish-line of the history of the Tour, only if they were going to give it all. This stage was ready to enter history and the Galibier offered the riders the chance of becoming part of a living legend that, since the beginning of the 20th century, has been travelling across France.

This morning, the atmosphere at the start village in Pinerolo was electric. On one side of the boxing ring, Thomas Voeckler, the rider who, in the last days, has become the son, the lover, the father of the French cycling and, of course, of the French people. The Frenchmen wrote his name all over the climbs, they supported him with all their heart and all their soul: but this morning, Thomas knew that he might have had to abandon the maillot jaune. On the other side, his adversaries: people who have trained all year long in order to win the Grande Boucle, whereas Thomas' goal at the start of the race was a simple stage victory. Amongst T Blanc's rivals there were the tenacious Evans, the dancing Spaniard Contador, his ally (and best friend on wheels) Samu Sanchez, the Italians Basso and Cunego and the Schleck brothers, ready to take revenge on those who had criticised him in the last days.

The Tour left Italy by riding on Colle dell'Agnello. A colourful parade made of sufference and dreams took place on the road that divides and unifies Italy and France and a colourful river of supporters did its best in supporting the riders in their quest for glory. Some brave riders, as usual, tried their luck. Some did it because they were looking for a day of glory, some because they wanted to improve their position in the GC, some because they were ready to help their captains. This was the case of Monfort and Posthuma, who put their egos aside in order to help the Schleck brothers.

On the Izoard (where I fell in love with Andy Schleck in 2007), a thunder, a bolt, an eagle leaving its nest: Andy Schleck escaped from the group, without looking back. 'Is he crazy?, many people wondered. No, Andy isn't crazy: he had upsetted people with his racing style and he knew he had to give something back to his supporters, to his family, to his team. He knows that the recipe for glory is made of grit, determination and braveness and he mixed all these elements in order to paint a masterpiece on the roads of France. He slowly gained time on his rivals who, laughing at his efforts, underestimated him. On the top of Izoard he met his faithful helpers and Monfort led him to Lautaret together with Devenyns, whereas Chris Anker Sorensen and the Invincible Armada formed by Euskaltel and Saxo (when will the Basque riders abandon their kits in order to wear an eagle on their jerseys?) were chasing hard in the peloton. Voeckler looked worried, but he wasn't ready to give up.

A few days ago, talking about the stage towards the Galibier, he would have said that it wasn't going to his battle. After a crazy stage with a crazy epilogue and a crazy car driver, instead, he found himself at the top of the cycling world, ready to give it all in order to keep the 'maillot jaune' with him for another day.

With 17 kms to go and after more than 40 kms of breakaway, Andy Schleck had a gap of 3' 50" on T Blanc and his rivals. His teammate Monfort, a loyal helper, couldn't ride with him anymore and, at the beginning of Lautaret, he blew up. Andy didn't worry about that because he knows that true deeds, in cycling, always see one man crossing the finish-line alone after challenging bad luck, tough climbs and pain.

When the gap between Schleck the Younger and the group of the yellow jersey became an abyss made of 4 minutes, his rivals started to react. Evans, the tough Aussie who's lost two Tours de France in the last 5 years, decided to fight back as soon as he saw that also this time the Tour was slippng out of his reach. Without receiving any help from Voeckler, Cadel pulled and pulled. The comparison between him and Schleck was unfair: Evans in fact started pulling with 20 kms to go, when Andy had been on the move already for 40 kms. However, Galibier is a Giant who likes braveness and that knows how to reward it: Andy the Brave (yes, this time he really deserves this nickname) was the first rider in the history of cycling to triumph on its peaks, he was the first one to come out of the mist and raise a rageous fist to the sky, from which his former teammate Wouter probably looked down and smiled.

Frank Schleck, brother of Andy (and, this time, their brotherhood was something to be proud of, and not an obstacle to their chances of winning the Tour), crossed the finish-line in 2nd, thus entering in the history of cycling and in the history of his country: two Luxembourgian at the start of the Tour, two Luxembourgians on the top of Galibier.

Evans, worn out but still full of grit and rage, was 3rd, whereas a super Voeckler gave it all once again and managed to hold on to his yellow jersey (which becomes even more yellow day after day) for just 15". This afternoon the whole France applauded that boy - but the whole cycling worlds applauded also the lanky Luxembourgian who found the braveness to attack with 60 kms to go, thus trying to change the story of this Tour with a deed that would perfectly suit someone like Coppi.

As Thomas Voeckler rejoiced, Evans chased his breathe and his rage and Schleck couldn't believe what he had done, Ivan Basso and Damiano Cunego crossed the finish-line, making a whole country proud of them. In the meantime, others were struggling: Samuel Sanchez broke his tank of energy with a few kms to go, whereas the king Alberto Contador lost 4'. Galibier wanted a hero to win on his top and he was a severe judge for the Spanish champion, who had faced the French roads after his Giro.

Right now, Its Majesty the Galibier is moved by what the riders did in order to reach its top. Tomorrow, however, it'll be ready to pass on the baton to Her Majesty Alpe d'Huez. But first, the riders will have to give their hommage to the Giant once again, before the rocks of that mountain will finally be able to fall asleep once again, helped by the silence of the altitude.

Norway takes possession of the cycling world as the Schlecks defend themselves:

2011-07-20T19:36:00.001+02:00

Finally, a good day for the Schleck brothers. I had said that Italy brings good luck to them!

Today's stage had a very fast start, given that many riders wanted to go on a breakaway. In fact this afternoon the riders had to face climbs like Sestriere, Monginevro and Pramartino, but between the last two climbs there were 40 kms of descent. Therefore, many people decided to look for glory on this afternoon's parcours. One of the riders who, unfortunately, couldn't take part in this quest was Paolo Tiralongo who, after suffering from gastritis for a whole week, abandoned the Tour after 70 kms of race.

The final breakaway was formed after 60 kms and it included 14 riders: Amador (the last rider in the GC), Casar, Mollema, Boasson Hagen, Hivert, El Fares, Chavanel, Fofonov, Murayev, Perez Moreno, Paterski, Bozic, Leukemans and Tjallingi. Moreno attacked on the Sestriere and got a minute of advantage on his former companions. On that very same climb, Roche, De Weert and Hoogerland escaped from the peloton and tried to bridge up to the breakaway.

At the beginning of the last climb du jour, Moreno was caught by Hivert, Mollema, Casar and Boasson Hagen. Then Edvald attacked and his former companions could see him again just after the finish-line. This afternoon in fact Edvald manage to win his second stage of this Tour, thus making the Norwegian chronists dance in their studios. He crossed the finish-line 40" before a climber like Mollema and 50" earlier than Casar.

On the final descent, supporters risked 3 heart attacks because of Hivert. The French rider (9th on the stage) firstly risked to end up in a woods, then he did end up in a woods because of a crash and he eventually ended up in the private parking lot of a house. Luckily he didn't hurt himself and, also because of this fact, people could immediately start joking about his riding skills.

'Hivert would like to go looking for mushrooms in the woods rather than ending this Tour de France!', an Italian journalist said at first. Then, when Hivert crashed, the joke was simple: 'He's seen a mushroom!' In the end, when the Saur-Sojasun rider ended up in the parking lot, the journalist thanked the owners of the house for leaving the gate to their parking lot open.

As Hivert was rolling to the finish-line, the GC riders faced the last climb. Contador attacked twice but, luckily, this time the Schleck brothers (and Andy in particular) could follow him in an apparent easy way. When the descent began, I was very worried about the downhill skills of los Schlecks, especially because Voeckler immediately attacked. Unfortunately, the Frenchman had some problems while riding downhill and he ended up in the same parking lot as Hivert. A child dressed up like a savage could have closed the gate of that parking lot and could have started to scream: 'I've imprisoned one!' right after Voeckler found himself in his house, but luckily this didn't happen and Thomas could launch himself in the tricky descent again.

Voeckler's attack however had a big consequence: in fact, Contador and Samu Sanchez (who were following him) found themselves in front of everyone else and, given that they have a similar goal and that they're good friends, the Spaniards immediately started riding 'à bloc' towards the finish-line. Behind them, los Schlecks were doing their best and, with 150 meters to go, they finally annihilated the gap that separated them from the two Spanish riders. Finally, a stage ends well for the brothers. Poor Voeckler and Basso, instead, both lost 27" from their GC adversaries. Thomas wasn't really happy with his result especially because, if he hadn't attacked, he wouldn't have lost time from guys like Evans and Contador. Moreover, this afternoon we had the first hot day of Tour de France. Voeckler, who doesn't like the heat, suffered from that, as we could see by looking at his face during the podium ceremony. It was sunburnt!

After the stage, Contador was really happy and he told Italian tv that he attacked 'because of the Italian supporters. They deserve to see the Contador of the Giro on these roads, so I did my best'. Once again, Alberto, thank you for brightening up this race.

The Schleck brothers were really good at chasing Alberto and Samuel and, once in a while, LT website is right in celebrating the deeds of the two brothers. However, I'd like to point out two little things about los Schlecks:

1. After Contador's attack, Andy turned his head 5 times in 200 meters.

2. The brothers this afternoon were perfect, no doubts about that. But still, I've seen an interview with Frank that was made by Italian tv yesterday evening. And it left me a bit shocked. In it, in fact, Frankie said: 'We did our best on the Pyrenées. If someone doesn't agree, they can tell what else we could have done'. Cyclists often use this kind of sentences, but I've always found them hateful. In a certain way, it corresponds to saying: 'Ok guys, you're incompetent and you don't really know what you're talking about, so shut the hell up'. Unfortunately, since I do know what I'm talking about, I can just say that, imo, the brothers should have attacked on the stage towards Plateau de Beille, even if one of them didn't feel fine. As I already said, if you always want to be together during races, buy yourself a tandem. One can't say that the attacks of the brothers in that stage were serious, because it was clearly evident that they weren't. In fact, on that day Andy would attack and then he would turn his head after less than 3 seconds. Contador, when he attacks, doesn't turn his head for about 5" - and this happens when he's not feeling fine. So, dear boys, today you've been perfect: but please, abandon the 'We are right, the rest of the world is wrong and incompetent' attitude. It's hateful and it won't bring you any good.

On to tomorrow, Colle dell'Agnello, Izoard, Lautaret and Holy Galibier may save the Tour of Contador and, hopefully, of the Schleck brothers. Voeckler is likely to lose the jersey, a thing that will really sadden me. In fact I've learned to like T Blanc in the last days and it will be hard to see him losing the maillot jaune. Although, actually, Thomas may find an ally in the snow. In fact it has been said that, if tomorrow on the Galibier there will be too much snow and too cold, the stage may end on Lautaret. And, of course, that would be perfect for the Europcar rider.

Hard times in Gap (post updated and improved at 9 pm):

2011-07-19T19:20:00.003+02:00

Ok girls: let's take a big breathe and let's start discussing today's stage . It will be hard, but we can make it. Fot those of you who didn't watch it, below there's a little resume of it.
RESUME:

First of all it must be said that, according to many people, this afternoon a breakaway would have succeded. Therefore the riders faced the first two hours of race at a very fast pace. In fact there were so many people who wanted to go on a breakaway that, with 80 kms to go, the complex procedure of creating a breakaway appreciated by every team hadn't ended yet. At that moment the guys on a breakaway were 12 and amongst them there were Hoogerland, Roche, Hesjedal and Kreuziger. Unfortunately for them, in the breakway there was no one from Team Sky, so that the British team decided to pull as hard as possible in order to annihilate that action.

A few kms later, the final breakaway was finally formed. Amongst the lucky breakawayers du jour there were Hushovd, Boasson Hagen, Hesjedal, Roy, Ignatiev, Martin, Devenyns, Grivko, Perez Lezaun and Marcato.

With 20 kms to go, the riders had to face a 9 kms long climb, which was 5% steep. Then they would have been able to reach Gap after riding in front of the famous 'Passage Armstrong'. In 2003 in fact a Tour stage ending in Gap saw Armstrong riding through a field in order not to crash. Since then, that field has been known as 'Passage Armstrong'.

Hesjedal attacked on the last climb and Boasson Hagen tried to follow him. Poor Edvald soon found himself in a Garmin sandwich, since Hushovd soon got glued to his wheel and wheelsucked him during the whole climb. In fact, Hesjedal and Hushovd are teammates and, once again, their team showed that they're masters at sandwiching other riders.

Boasson Hagen reached Hesjedal with 2 kms to go, at the end of the final descent (which was very slippery and dangerous because of the awful weather). Ryder immediately started to work for his captain, who talked briefly with Edvald. When the sprint began, the World champion had no problems in taking the victory ahead of the Norwegian rider of team Sky. Once again, a Tour de France stage ended up with looking like the Nowegian National Championships. And, once again, the Norwegian chronists have had the chance of screaming that they own the cycling world.

As the battle for the stage victory became an all-Norwegian fight, the battle for the GC exploded on the last climb. And guess who started it? Mister Alberto Contador.

The Spaniard attacked three times and the first time Andy Schleck (with a big help from Cancellara) was the one who closed the gap to him. Then the Spaniard's second attack was neutralised by a super Voeckler, whereas the only ones who could resist Conti's last attack were Evans and Samu Sanchez. The trio worked in order to get a decent advantage on the other GC riders, which didn't look that brilliant.

At the beginning of the final descent, los Schlecks and Basso weren't in the first positions of the group and, as a consequence, they lost a lot of time from Evans, Sanchez and Contador. Andy Schleck seemed very uncomfortable on his bike and he had many problems while facing the descent. Frank, on the other hand, was in the same group as Voeckler and Cunego and crossed the finish-line before his brother.

While Monfort was desperately trying to help Andy, Evans crossed the finish-line with an advantage of 21" on Voeckler and Frank Schleck. Contador and Sanchez instead lost 3" from the Aussie. Basso crossed the finish-line 54" after Evans, whereas Andy Schleck crossed it with 1'09" of delay.

DISCUSSION TIME (aka the updated - and improved - part of this post):
So, that was a short resume of what happened this afternoon at the Tour. Now it's discussion. But first, let me explain you the reason behind the title of this post. I wrote a version of this post right after the stage, when I was very angry and, in a certain way, even happy for the outcome of the race. But then I watched the stage again because, after dinner, I still couldn't realise what had happened on that last stupid climb. Therefore I watched the last 20 kms of the stage once again, trying to let Logic rule over Fangirl. After all, when I saw the stage live I was blinded also by Fangirlism, which wanted Andy to attack and drop everyone else... Luckily, watching the stage once again was the right thing to do. After doing that, in fact, I realised that some of the critics that I had made to the brothers were unfair and that they were just the products of a particularly bitchy moment of mine. However, I'm not going to deny that I loved Contador's attacks on that climb :P
In that first post of mine, I wrote: 'I'm having a tough time writing this post. On the one hand, I'm very disappointed by the result of the Schleck brothers (and of Andy in particular), but I'd like to defend them anyway. After all, they don't like the rain, the final descent was slippery, yesterday there was the rest day, today's stage was very particular because it was short and because there was this climb on which, according to many people, nothing would have happened. These could be some excuses - but still, let's remind ourselves that the rain, the slippery descent, the final climb and the rest day were the same for everyone.

Really, my mind is overwhelmed with feelings right now. If, on the one hand, I don't want to be too harsh with the brothers because they're human beings too, on the other hand it's true that I'm very angry and that, actually, I'm almost happy to see how things have gone. In fact, as a cycling supporter, I'm really happy for having finally seen a true champion like Contador attacking, an intelligent guy like Evans following him, a rider full of grit like Voeckler doing his best, and a cunning boy like Sanchez trying to take advantage from the fact that he's been very underestimated so far. Finally, some thrills coming from the race, and not from crashes and things like that.

As well as that, I'm 'happy' also because this afternoon I understood that, after all, I wasn't wrong when I criticised the Schleck brothers for not attacking. 'One should attack Contador as long as he isn't in good shape', I have often said in the last days. But still, LT guys kept on saying that there was still a lot of time to attack in this Tour. Now, as a reward for their strategy, they had the following thing: Contador is back in shape and in the next days he'll create problems to everyone'.
I'm not going to change or exclude that part of my post because, after all, it is true that I felt that way right after the end of the stage. I felt as I had taken my revenge on those people who hadn't listened to all the critics of the last days but, at the same time, I felt sorry for the brothers. Actually, I had forgotten to mention that at the time I was also relieved because, luckily, on Tuesdays my uncle and my father work until 7 pm, so they didn't have the chance of shouting at me right after the stage.
As far as my post-stage critics to the brothers are concerned, in the first version of this post I had written: 'First thing to say, Baby Schleck could have taken turns at the front with Contador, when he found himself at the head of the peloton, alone with him. In that moment, in fact, the two riders had a little gap on Voeckler and Evans and, by helping Conti, Andy could have managed to gain more time on his adversaries and to bluff in a great way, pretending to be in a better shape than he actually was. But, unfortunately, our boy decided to stay glued to Contador's wheel without helping him - and, right now, I'd like to know why he behaved in that way. Did he do it because Frank was behind him? Well, let me say one thing: if you always want to stay with your brother, buy yourself a tandem. Instead, if our boy was already 'a bloc' there, I think we should seriously start worrying'.
Actually, after watching the stage again I've realised that Andy didn't help Contador because, after all, their gap on their adversaries wasn't that big. Moreover, I realised a very weird thing: Andy looked ok until, with some kms to the top of the climb, he suddenly stopped pulling at the head of the peloton in order to ride to the opposite side of the road while looking backwards. That's when Contador attacked, that's when the final gap was created. A few seconds later, Andy went at the bottom of the yellow jersey group, but then he went back at the front of it, pulling in order to join Evans, Samu Sanchez and Conti. As long as Andy pulled, the trio had a little delay (20") from the trio. But then, when Andy stopped pulling and he left that task to Frank, things got worse. And, at the top of the climb, the brothers' delay from the magic trio at the front was 30". Now the questions are: what happened when Andy turned his head? And why did he suddenly slow down in such an evident way?
Well, unfortunately I don't have any answer to these questions. Did OGL have a bonk? Right now, that seems the only possible explanation to me. Especially because, after all, we saw a guy like Taaramae almost bridging up to the trio at the front with just one strong attack. Rein is a good rider, that's for sure, but the brothers should be better than him... Or, perhaps, Andy stopped riding full gas because he saw that Frank wasn't with him. If things really went that way, well, I can't help but repeating the 'tandem' bit of my original post :P
Another critic that I originally made to the brother is the following: 'I didn't like the fact that Andy (once again) asked the other riders to help him in his Contador chase. This afternoon, the one who was interested in not being delayed by Conti was Andy, and not Cunego or Danielson or Jeanesson!' I watched the stage again and I think that, if Andy really was on the verge of a bonk, his move is perfectly justifiable.
Another critic of mine instead regarded LT's team, 'which this afternoon didn't look that strong'. Even now that I've calmed down, I agree with what I had written. LT's lack of strength was also a consequence of Fuglsang's health problems but, imo, a Tour team shouldn't rely just on one helper.
I've also informed myself about the moment when LT guys eventually decided to talk to the press. Although Italian tv didn't manage to talk with anyone from the team until 6 pm, Danish guys were much luckier and they could talk to Andy immediately after the finish-line. Therefore, forget that original bit of mine about LT not talking to the press.
So far, perhaps this renewed post doesn't sound harsh at all on the brothers. But still, I have some critics about what they said after the stage.
First of all, I suggest you paying attention at the following sentence by Andy: 'Plateau de Beille didn't allow me to make any difference because it isn't a difficult climb'. OGL said this on Saturday, after facing a 15 kms long climb which is 8% steep. Considering that this afternoon he lost 30" from Contador on a 9 kms long climb, which is 5% steep, I can state that that sentence has just managed to make Andy look like a complete idiot.
Talking about the team website, instead, at first I had written: 'Once again, LT website did his best to justify los Schlecks. “We were a bit surprised that Contador went on the climb. We didn’t count out the possibility, of course. We know that he is a rider that attacks when he has good legs, but we had anticipated he would wait for the Alps". Surprised or, better, completely shocked: that's how the brothers looked like after Conti's attack. Luckily for cycling lovers, Alberto does attack when he feels good, and not just when a stage looks hard on paper. And then, if the brothers had't ruled out this possibility, how come that they weren't in the first positions of the peloton when Conti attacked?'
After looking back at the stage, I agree with the bit about Contador's skill of attacking whenever he has the chance. After all, I think we must be grateful to Contador for brightening up this Tour - after 14 stages, it was high time!
As far as the positions in the peloton is concerned, I think that the brothers should learn to race right behind their helpers. This afternoon instead O'Grady, Monfort, Cancellara and Posthuma (where were the other guys?) were behind BMC's riders, whereas the brothers were all alone, on the opposite side of the group.
As far as the brothers' shock in front of Conti's attack is concerned, I must admit that the most shocked one seemed Frank. Andy, instead, reacted very well. Or, at least, tht's what he did at first.
Another thing that I had previously written was: 'By reading LT's website, one gets the feeling that the brothers didn't do well because of the rain and of the final descent. Now, don't the LT guys look at the weather forecasts before the beginning of a stage? Didn't they know that there was a difficult descent at the end of today's stage and that, considering the weaknesses of the brothers, it would have been good to gave a guy like Cancellara (or Voigt or whoever else) in a breakaway? And didn't they know that the brothers had to do everything they could to tackle the descent in the first positions of the peloton?'
In this case I still agree with what I've said, since I haven't found any reference to LT riders trying to make it into the early breakaway du jour. And as far as my last question is concerned, I still agree with it. But still, I can't understand why Andy rode so badly downhill. Frank, who is usually worse than him, rode much better this afternoon!
Here's another one of my previous critics: ' "Contador knows all too well that the Schlecks don’t perform at their best in the cold and rainy conditions.It’s all part of the game - knowing your opponents and knowing their weaknesses. He knows the conditions today, coupled with the dangerous descent, were not our strong point”, Frank continued in the LT article. Since this is part of the game, and since everyone could have guessed that Conti wasn't at his best at the beginning of the Tour, why didn't YOU take advantage of his weaknesses? Seriously, this is getting ridicolous. If someone like me (who is not a cycling expert) had understood that Contador would have been in a good shape this week, that the brothers had lost too many chances in the last days and that today's stage could have been a threat to the GC, I wonder why LT's ds (who get paid for analysing races and predicting the eventual outcome of a race) didn't'. Well, sorry but here I still agree with myself (yes, I know, while reading this post you're thinking that I have a double personality ;)
Anyway, although this renewed post looks much more cold-blooded than my last one, I must say that I have a last critic to make to the Schleck brothers - a critic which didn't appear in the original post. In it in fact I had written: 'I realise I've been very harsh (and chaotic) in this post but, to use Natasha's words, 'emotions are high right now'. However, I'm not the only one who's being harsh on the Schlecks right now. In fact, I've taken a look at Cyclingnews' forum and I've read some disrespectful things about los Schlecks. In particular, it seems that Andy has recently talked to Danish tv and said: "Is this what people want to see, a Tour being decided by a descent and not by a climb? The riders have families at home!' According to another poster on that same forum, shortly afterwards Rolf Sorensen (who was standing in the rain, holding an umbrella) commented: 'Right now, I feel just like Andy Schleck: I don't want to do this anymore when it rains!' - So brilliant!'
Well, I can understand that Andy was probably annoyed, cold, scared and whatever else after the stage, but one should be careful with words even in such delicate moments. Especially because some could say that supporters prefer watching riders losing time on descents than losing time because of crashes. Moreover, if we have to be honest, Andy lost 30" on the climb, and other 39" in the descent. So, he didn't lose time just because of the downhill road. However, I know that 'the words lesson' is very difficul learn - actually, I've had a proof of that this afternoon, when I wrote the original version of this post. Andy, that's something we can learn together ;)

So, this were my two takes on today's stage. Sorry if this post looks very confused, but I'm a honest girl and, when I'm too harsh on someone, I can recognise it. To read the original post, read the parts written with a different colour. To read the revisited one, read the white parts. Sorry for the mess, once again.

Luckily, tomorrow is another day and, hopefully, the brothers will feel better. Btw, look out for the last descent: it is really, really tricky.
I should have visited the Tour tomorrow, but unfortunately some health problems of a familiar will prevent me from visiting the race.

Anyway. Schleck supporters of the whole world, let's rememember something positive: when the Tour hit Italy in 2008, Frankie got the yellow jersey ahead of Evans. And when it hit Italy in 2009, on the following day Frankie won a stage. Seriously, that boy should come racing in Italy much more often.
That's all from me for the moment - once again, please forgive me for the chaos I've made with this post. Simply, when I'm angry I just turn off my brain and open up my mouth. Not a good combination :P

PS: A very kind reader, Kat, has left some very interesting comments and links in the comment area of the following post of mine: http://fede-myblog92.blogspot.com/2010/11/picspam-time-wonderful-pictures-of.html . Check them out!

About brotherhood and cycling races:

2011-07-16T19:21:00.000+02:00

Another TdF mountain stage has come and gone and we supporters find ourselves even more confused than before. Voeckler kept the yellow jersey and, in the finale, he was the only one who tried to follow Andy Schleck (don't get too excited, girls: he attacked with less than one km to go and gained just 2" on his main adversaries). Now I consider him a serious, serious, serious threat to the GC. Thomas is experienced, he has the strongest team of the race (I'm not kidding: Rolland is the helper that every GC contender would love to have amongst their teammates) and his TT skills aren't that bad. Moreover, he's terribly determined, especially because the last Frenchman to win the Tour was Bernard Hinault in 1985. Considering how Thomas is doing, I think he can keep the jersey without problems until next Thursday. And who knows what will happen if he manages to keep the maillot jaune on that day?

Seriously, people need to watch out for the Europcar rider.

Today's stage actually started in a good way. I was eager to see some changes in the GC and LT was determined to make the race hard. 24 riders went on a breakaway (amongst them there were Voigt, Gerdemann, Riblon, Casar, LL Sanchez, Chavanel and Izagirre), whereas O'Grady pulled on the second climb du jour. Then Cancellara pulled hard between the penultimate and the last climbs of the day, so that the breakaways soon lost every chance of succeeding. Finally, we were ready to witness a good show.

With 11 kms to go, the first attack: Andy Schleck, after that his teammates pulled for him, attacked twice. Basso and Cunego, who can't stand the sudden changes of tempo while climbing, got temporarily dropped. Nicolas Roche had already got dropped on Col d'Agnes, whereas Martin had already said 'Adieu!' to the group of the yellow jersey. However, the two Italians didn't panick as they lost contact and they kept climbing at their own pace. In that way, they soon managed to join the group of the best climbers again. Then it was Frank Schleck's turn to attack and his action was followed by the one of Andy. The Italian couple got dropped again, but then Basso joined the brothers and all the other GC contenders for the second time. And, this time, Ivan set the pace at the front of the little group, thus making sure that no one could attack.

With about 5 kms to go, the one who attacked was Jelle Vanendert, who soon got a gap of 40" on his chasers. Samu Sanchez tried to follow him and escaped from the group too.

As Jelle was riding towards his most prestigious victory, the chasers seemed to slow down a while. Then an attack by Evans caused Cunego (who had 'yo-yoed' successfully until that moment) to get dropped. Together with Damiano, the other rider who had some problems because of Evans' move was Frank Schleck. And so, in one moment, everyone understood everything: Andy had stopped his strong attacks because Frank wasn't feeling fine. A noble gesture, that's for sure, but not the gesture that one needs to do for winning the Tour de France.

As Frank slowly managed to get back on the group of Voeckler and Cunego got definitely dropped, Vanendert took the victory atop Plateau de Beille, whereas Sanchez took the second place. Jelle and Samuel, the magic couple of the Pyrenées.

The GC riders kept on looking at each other until they reached the final km, where Andy Schleck decided to launch a very strong attack. Too bad that attacking with just 1 km to go is never very very useful and, in fact, OGL got just 2" of advantage on his main advesaries. The only ones who actually suffered today's stage were Roche and Cunego, whereas the other ones (if we don't consider Frankie) apparently didn't have any problem.

So, what can we say about today's stage? Well, I'll tell you how my mood changed in the last 3 hours. Before the stage I was happy, excited, eager to know who would have won on such a great climb like Plateau de Beille. After the stage, all I got was a thousandth of critics from my familiars. 'And you like the Schleck brothers?', my uncle asked me as soon as the stage ended. 'How can you like them? I mean, they're so in love with each other that they never attack when one of them doesn't feel fine. And if one of them attacks and manages to get a little gap on the others, the other one can't attack because his brother is at the front. What game are they playing at?' If this wasn't enough, also my dad started to criticise the behaviour of the Schleck brothers. 'They can't win the Tour if they keep on riding this way! They must understand that, if they can't reach the two top spots of the podium, they should understand who the strongest of them is and try to get the victory anyway!!', he told me. Actually, writing 'he told me' doesn't convey the way in which he, my uncle and my grandfather spoke to me this afternoon. In fact, as soon as the stage was over (and before I could hide myself in the bathroom, pretending I was showering), my 3 loved relatives were all in the living room, shouting at me as if I were the owner of Leopard Trek or the ds of the Schleck brothers. 'You should tell them that they can't race in that way!' Oh, yes, of course I should tell them, wait a moment and I call them on the phone... Really, arguing with the 3 cycling lovers of the family after such a disappointing stage wasn't fun. Especially because I had to admit that, in spite of everything, their critics aren't totally senseless.

Let's start from the beginning. First of all, I must admit that today's stage was much better than the one to Luz Ardiden. Both los Schlecks attacked (although they never looked very convinced of what they were doing) and LT tried to work at the front. Unfortunately, the truth is that LT isn't the strongest team in this Tour and, once again (also thanks to the crashes of Jens Voigt), los Schlecks found themselves all alone at the beginning of the last climb. This is the first GT for LT, but I think the team ds need some new riders for next year. Because, this afternoon, the efforts of the team didn't actually have any serious consequence as far as the GC fight is concerned.

As far as the brothers are concerned, instead, I have a serious and complex point to make. Basing myself on what I saw about a hour ago, I think that we can say that Andy this afternoon didn't give it all because Frank wasn't at his best. And this reminds me of what the late Laurent Fignon once said about the brothers. 'Frank is a brake to Andy'. A sentence that, from the human point of view, sounds very harsh but that, from the sportive points of view (*takes a big breathe before being hanged, drawned and quartered by her readers*) may be true. Especially after today, I'm really, really afraid it is true.

Andy is in a great shape. He showed that with his attacks and he's probably the best climber of this Tour. Frank is in a very good shape too, but this afternoon it seemed that he was on a bad day. That's why Andy waited for him, that's why Andy didn't attack. And that's why, this afternoon, the brothers were a brake to each other rather than an advantage. Considering that none of them is good at time trialing and that the hard stages in the next week aren't many (tomorrow, although it is Sunday, the Tour organisers have decided to offer us a ridicolous flat stage), the brothers shouldn't waste opportunities like this. Does this mean that they have to race against one another? Does this mean that one of them has to become a helper? The answer is in the legs (and in the hearts) of the boys. Frank is older than Andy and, probably, less regular. Andy is stronger but he'd like to help his brother winning the Tour. Unfortunately, the adversaries often take advantage of this fact, as it happened also in Tour 2009.

Imo, a possible solution would be making the brothers take part in two different GTs. Or, better: Frank could peak in May and race the Giro as a captain; then, he could go to the Tour as a magnificient helper for his little bro. Andy, instead, could race the Giro as a helper for Frank and the Tour as a captain. Perhaps, it would be worth trying.

Mors tua, vita mea:

2011-07-15T23:56:00.003+02:00

Mors tua, vita mea: the old Latins had already understood that, in life, one's defeat often corresponds to the victory of someone else. And, considering that cycling is a metaphor of life, this old rule applies also to it, just like we could see this afternoon at the Tour de France.

13th stage of the TdF 2011, from Pau to Lourdes. The riders started the stage from one of the most visited towns of the history of the race and arrived in a city that was visited by the Grande Boucle just once, in 1948 (on that occasion the winner was Gino 'the Pius' Bartali). Between the two cities, a giant called Aubisque was ready to create problems to the athletes.

In the morning the atmosphere around the buses of the riders who did well yesterday was euphoric and relaxed at the same time. Basso was describing how his son Santiago had told him off for not having won on Luz Ardiden, Cunego looked as happy as in the Giro 2004 and Voeckler was smiling while wearing the yellow jersey.

However, at the start of the race there were also people who weren't that relaxed. Some adventurers on wheels for example were already focused on entering the breakaway du jour, whereas Alberto Contador refused to give interviews to the non-Spanish journalists and Andreas Kloeden was ready to another day of sufference. The German rider eventually decided to end his Tour shortly after the beginning of the stage and even had problems in getting into the team car.

As soon as the stage began, the riders started to fight in order to enter the breakaway du jour. Everyone wanted to break free from the peloton because today's stage looked too difficult for the sprinters and too easy for the climbers. Therefore, those who wanted to win a stage thanks to a breakaway knew that this afternoon they would have had good chances of making it to the finish-line without being absorbed by the peloton.

After 56 kms faced at a very fast pace, the names of the lucky riders who formed the daily break were decided. And, between those names, there were also some surprises. Sprinters like Petacchi and Hushovd, strong all rounders like Pineau, Boasson Hagen, Fofonov and Tjallingii, time trialists like Bak and Gusev, a climber like Moncoutié and a brave engineer like Jeremy Roy: these were the 9 lucky men who rode peacefully towards Aubisque.

As the 9 men approached the climb, Lars Boom got retired, just like Isaichev and the already mentioned Kloden. Steegmans, instead, hadn't even started the stage because, after 10 days of pain, this morning he finally discovered that he has a broken bone in his hand. Therefore the Belgian decided to say 'Adieu!' to the French race, which so far has been extremely painful for most of the Quick Step riders.

When the Aubisque began, Thor Hushovd was the first rider to try and gain some time on his adversaries. But still, he was soon overtaken by Moncoutié and by Roy, who are less heavier than the Norwegian. The first rider to arrive at the top of the climb was Jeremy Roy who, at the time, had 2 minutes of advantage on Hushovd and Moncoutié. The other breakawayers instead had a bigger delay and therefore they had to say adieu to their dreams of glory with more than 40 kms to go. Dreams of glory which, at the time, had already started to dance in the head of Jeremy Roy.
Now, let's look at Jeremy Roy more carefully: his cycling-ID says that he's 28 year-old, that he's French and that he's been riding for Française des Jeux since he turned pro at the age of 20, although he could actually start racing in a professional way just when he ended his university studies 3 years ago.
Since the beginning of this year Tour from Passage du Gois, Roy has been looking for glory almost daily. Flat stages, mountains, hills, valleys: the Française des Jeux rider gave his best on many occasions and on many terrains. Until this morning, however, the rewards for his efforts had been just the most combative rider award and a decent amount of money (2000 euros), which he earned yesterday by becoming the first rider to ride atop of Tourmalet. As predictable, Jeremy wasn't satisfied by these prizes. In fact he wanted (and he still wants) a stage victory, which he would like to dedicate to his 1 month old baby.

While riding to Lourdes, Jeremy gave everything he had. He ordered his legs to shut up, he tried to catch his breathe several times and he tried to ignore the pain and the fatigue in his muscles. He was on his way to a stage victory in Lourdes, the city of miracles, the city where Bartali won more than 60 years ago: he couldn't believe it and he tried to make his dream last as long as possible. That's why he kept on giving it all, although he knew that two strong guys like Moncoutié and Hushovd were chasing hard behind him.

The World champion this afternoon was as determined as always - or, perhaps, even more determined than usual. Last week he had the honour of covering his rainbow jersey with a yellow one and he lived a great afternoon on Super Besse, as he managed to remain with the best grimpeurs of the world on a difficult climb. Then, on the following day, when he had to abandon the leader jersey, Thor probably realised that he still wasn't fully satisfied with his Tour de France: in fact, the icing on the cake was still missing. And for a guy like Thor (who has won at least one stage of the Tour every year since 2006), the icing on the cake could be just a great stage victory. His will to get a stage win made him enter today's breakaway and it forced him to chase Jeremy Roy with just one thing on his mind: the finish-line in Lourdes, where he could have won in front of thousandth of people, thus making all the Norwegians (and the Norwegian chronists in particular) go crazy once again. But still, in order to win Thor needed to annihilate his delay from Jeremy Roy.

With 20 kms to go, Roy still had a gap of 1 minute on his chasers. His ds was trying his best to encourage him, to make him grit his teeth once again because, in that way, he could have become the first Frenchman to win a stage in this year Tour. Jeremy grit his teeth and kept on pushing hard on his pedals, but the fatigue of the previous days soon started to claim its tribute. While Hushovd kept on pulling hard, Roy started to lose seconds. With 7 kms to go, he had just 20" of advantage on the Norwegian.

The final kms were extremely exciting - and heartbreaking. Hushovd was pulling and gaining time, whereas Jeremy was just losing seconds. 'Come on Jeremy, you still have a chance! Oh no, Thor is getting closer and closer and now even the wind has started to bother you! Poor Jeremy, come on! You deserve this victory and you can stil get it! David is not pulling, so it's a one-against-one battle! Come on boy, you can make it!', people were screaming from behind the barriers, from behind their televisions, from behind their computer screens. Unfortunately, those screams were in vain. With about 1 km to go, in fact, Hushovd overtook Roy with ease. Moncoutié followed the Norwegian, who soon dropped him as well, thus being able to cross the finish-line quietly, with his hands raised above the sky.

A few seconds after him, Moncoutié crossed the finish-line, whereas Roy was the third one to end the stage. Everyone's eyes were fixed on the brave French rider, which started to cry and which didn't feel better in spite of getting the polka dots jersey and the 'red number' as awards for his efforts. "Jerseys are only temporary", FDJ's ds said while talking about Jeremy's disappointment.

As Roy's sportive drama moved half of the cycling world, the other half was amazed by Thor's triumph in a stage between the mountains. By winning today's stage, Hushovd demonstrated that he's a perfect all rounder: this year he won the TdF stage featuring Aubisque, last year he won the cobblestones stage which cost a collarbone to Frank Schleck, two years ago he won on the little climb of Montjuic and a few years ago instead he triumphed on Champs Elysées. Calling Thor 'a sprinter' is unfair and we had a demonstration of that also this afternoon. 'We own the cycling world!', the Norwegian chronists screamed after Boasson Hagen's victory a few days ago. Well, with a rider like Thor, owing the cycling world doesn't even seem that difficult.

While the 'mors tua, vita mea' way of saying found another demonstration of its value in the battle between Hushovd and Roy, the Europcar team led the group on the narrow roads inside Lourdes. Voeckler looked a bit nervous this afternoon, especially when he asked Andy Schleck to help his team in the chase of Gilbert, who had escaped from the group at the end of Aubisque together with Bauke Mollema. In spite of that (and of the fact that the Belgian rider gained 2 minutes in the overall), Thomas managed to keep the yellow jersey in an easy way. Now the question is: will he manage to keep it also tomorrow? The question is difficult to answer, since Voeckler had one of the best days of his career on Plateau de Beille and is determined not to abandon the leader jersey. 'It's incredible how this jersey can transform a rider', Thomas said yesterday evening.
Unfortunately for him, tomorrow Voeckler will have to stand the attacks of the other GC riders, each of which hopes to win the stage and continue the tradition according to which, so far, all the riders who have won a stage ending on Plateau de Beille managed to be on the top spot of Paris podium a few days later. Will the tradition continue also this year? In case of a Schleck's victory, I really do hope so.

PS: Remember the 5 euros I betted on Hushovd yesterday? Well, unfortunately they were 5 imaginary euros. That means, no prize for me (just a big disappointment because I supported Roy in the last kms of race)!

(Pic by Bettini)

Fireworks towards Luz-Ardiden:

2011-07-14T23:15:00.000+02:00

Ok, I admit it: I didn't watch yesterday's stage of the Tour because I preferred watching Harry Potter 7 in 3D. And, apparently, I made the right choice.

However, dear readers, the important stage was today's one: in fact this afternoon the Tour officially started also for the serious GC contenders - or, at least, it started for the GC contenders who are still up and running (and they aren't a lot).

So: 12th stage of the Tour de France 2011, from Cugnaux to Luz-Ardiden, on the 14th of July. A big day for Thomas Voeckler, a French rider who rides for a French team and who could wear the yellow jersey on one of the most important days for the French people. And, to my surprise, Thomas managed to keep the leader jersey without problems, so that he'll be able to wear it also tomorrow.

Actually, Logic thought that Voeckler could have been able to keep the leadership in the race, but she would have never imagined that he could have made it in such a brilliant way. In fact, the Frenchman managed to remain with the best climbers of the world for the whole day, showing his determination and his love for the French race to the whole world. Therefore, miss Fede takes the chance to send a big chapeau to monsieur Thomas Voeckler, also known as 'Give me a yellow t-shirt and I'll smash the world'.

Anyway, let's go back to the start of the stage. This morning the riders had three difficult climbs on their menu: Hourquette d'Ancizan, Tourmalet (aaah, sweet memories!) and Luz Ardiden, where Ullrich once waited for Armstrong, who had crashed because of a young supporter who had accidentally hit him with his rucksack. Since Lance was wearing the yellow jersey, the German rider decided to wait for him, thus becoming the protagonist of a good action that is still remembered nowadays.

Apparently, the stages to Luz Ardiden never bring good luck to the riders who wear the yellow jersey during them. This afternoon in fact also Voeckler crashed at the beginning of the descent towards Tourmalet. However, the Frenchman could immediately hop back on his bike and get back in the peloton, which waited for him. 'When the yellow jersey crashes, the peloton must wait for it', the Italian chronist said. Apparently, last year no one had informed Contador about that (or, perhaps, that rule doesn't apply if the yellow jersey has a mechanical).

Unfortunately, Voeckler wasn't the only one who crashed. In fact the athletes who were involved in his crash were a few and amongst them there were also important guys like Peter Velits and Andreas Kloeden. Luckily for Radioshack, tomorrow's stage ends in Lourdes, so that they'll be able to make a pilgrimage there in order to ask Virgin Mary for some good luck.

Also Geraint Thomas, who was one of the breakawayers du jour, had previously crashed in the very same point as Voeckler. The Welsh rider this afternoon showed us that his biking skills aren't actually that good, since in the descent towards Tourmalet he lost 40" from his companions of adventure (Kadri, Roy, Gutierrez, Mangel and Ruben Perez). However, the Sky rider could use his good uphill skills to catch his companions on Tourmalet and he was one of the last riders to get caught by the best climbers.

Talking about breakaways, this afternoon there were many guys who tried their luck. Amongst them there were also Chavanel and Kreuziger, who escaped from the peloton at the beginning of the first climb. I think that Chavanel attacked especially because he wanted to show off his jersey of National French Champion on the Bastille Day, whereas Roman probably hoped to win the stage. Kreuziger gave it all, but he never managed to reach the other breakawayers (the ones who had abandoned the company of the group after a few kms of race), so that his attack was in vain.

Johnny Hoogerland tried to break free from the peloton too this afternoon, probably because in that way he thought he had more chances to finish the stage within the time cut . Considering that our boy ended the stage 21 minutes after the winner and 12 minutes before the gruppetto, I think he can say 'Mission accomplished!' as he goes to bed tonight.

Talking about time cut and gruppetto: poor Denis Galimzyanov won't start tomorrow's stage because he didn't make it to the finish-line within the time cut. The gruppetto itself ended the stage 33' after the winner, which means that today's stage was really hard. Still talking about the gruppetto, this afternoon it was formed by a great amount of riders: 79 riders out of 175 ended the race all together, a few minutes before Galimzyanov. The other riders instead crossed the finish-line slowly, one after the other.

The toughness of the race was also a consequence of Leopard Trek's great efforts at the front. In fact, at the beginning of Tourmalet the whole Luxembourgian team got ready to set the pace at the head of the peloton. Unfortunately, I think that things didn't actually go as planned. Let me explain you why.

The first one to set a high pace at the front was Cancellara, whose efforts were followed by those of O'Grady and Voigt. The German engine made an amazing job and he managed to pull until the end of Tourmalet (and he even remained with the brothers until the beginning of the last climb). 'What's the problem then?', I hear some of you ask. Well, the problem is that, if Jens hadn't felt as good as he actually felt this afternoon, the brothers would have remained without helpers even before the end of the Tourmalet. In fact halfway through the climb guys like Gerdemann, Monfort and Fuglsang had already got dropped. So, what if one of the brothers had had a serious mechanical? Would have they remained all alone because they had run out of teammates? I can understand that some riders can have a day off, but apparently this afternoon half of the Luxembourgian team didn't feel well. And, considering that this should be the strongest team of the world, I don't think they can be satisfied with that - or, at least, I think they can't be satisfied.

Anyway. End of the first bitchy moment du jour. Let's go on.

On the Tourmalet some important riders (Toni Martin, Robert Gesink, Ryder Hesjedal, Peter Velits, Andreas Kloeden and Christian Vandevelde) were dropped, whereas an amazing Gilbert kept the wheels of the best riders until the end of the climb. Then the wonderful Belgian champion attacked. His move was a bit suicidal, since it didn't bring him any benefit - but still, it was nice to see a Classic rider giving it all in one of the hardest mountain stages of the Tour.

Shortly after the beginning of the ascent towards Luz Ardiden, Kreuziger was caught by the group of the yellow jersey, whereas Roy and Thomas still had a little gap on the best climbers.

With 8 kms to go, Jelle Vanendert and Samuel Sanchez attacked. They found a good pace and they kept on riding together until the finish-line, when Samu managed to get the victory ahead of the 26 year old Belgian. Samu was really happy to win in front of his people (Pyrenées = Basque Country) and to be back in the top spots of the GC, whereas Jelle confirmed his great talent once again. Finally, after getting over some injuries of the past, this young man is ready to give his best - not only in the Classics but, as he showed us this afternoon, also in the GTs.

While Sanchez and Vanendert were riding happily to the finish-line, thus overtaking all the guys who had gone on a breakaway earlier, the battle between the giants of the Tour began. Andy and Frank Schleck, Contador and Evans were all there, but the one who started the duel was Basso, who ordered to his teammate Szmyd to start riding full gas. Sylwester is an excellent and loyal helper, who couldn't do well in the Giro because of a bad bronchitis. But now he's recovered and everyone could see that this afternoon.

While Szmyd was pulling, some talks were going on in the group of the best climbers. Frank and Andy talked to each other, whereas Contador talked to his teammates. Unfortunately, the magic trio of Saxo Bankers formed by Jesus Hernandez, Richie Porte and Chris Sorensen (it was strange to see him riding against my favourite brothers!) soon got dropped together with Nicolas 'Finding Nemo' Roche. The Irish rider soon started to suffer because of Szmyd's hellish pace (the poor thing has a sore knee right now) and it was touching to see him being helped by some teammates who, if only had they been allowed to, would have immediately hopped off their bikes in order to push Nicolas.

When Szmyd ended his turn at the front, just a few riders remained in the group of the yellow jersey, so that the Schleck brothers thought it was time to do something. The first one to attack was Frank, followed by Andy. Then the older brother attacked again until he finally managed to disappear from the sight of the other riders. Frank's attack was really impressive and, in about 3 kms, he almost managed to get back on Sanchez and Vanendert, who crossed the finish-line a few seconds ahead of the Luxembourgian.

In the meanwhile, Ivan Basso tried to attack twice, whereas Andy kept on paying attention to Contador. 'Attack!', I screamed. 'Attack!', I screamed again. 'ATTACK!!!', I shouted. And instead no, the one who attacked was Evans. Our Glorious Leader followed him together with Basso and the magic trio managed to cross the finish-line 13" ahead of Contador (and 20" after Frank Schleck). Cunego lost 5" to these three riders, whereas Voeckler arrived 7" after the Giro winner and thanked his teammate Rolland as they crossed the finish-line. Andy Schleck looked extremely tired as he crossed the finish-line, whereas Basso used some of his energy to turn his head and watch where Contador was.

So, this was today's stage. What can we say about the big GC contenders?

First of all I think that, although this afternoon Contador got dropped, no one should underestimate him. As Basso keeps on saying, 'one can win a Tour with just one attack'. And Alberto, if he's on a good day, can gain lots of seconds with just one attack made at the right moment.

Talking about the other riders, I must say that I loved Frank's attitude during today's race. But still, I think Andy should have tried to attack Evans. Cadel in fact is a very strong rider and, if bad luck doesn't hit him, he can make it to the top spot of Paris podium without many problems. He has the final TT on his side and, considering that he seems very solid also in the mountains, I think that Andy (and all those who want to win this Tour) should try to attack him as much as they can. In about 10 days the race will be over and, until there, the tough stages aren't that many. We're not in the Giro, where everyday there's at least one tough climb. We're at the Tour, a race in which a historical climb like Aubisque will be faced more than 40 kms far from the finish-line. Perhaps Andy had a bad day this afternoon or he was afraid to be worse than Contador, but I hope that in the next days he'll try to get some seconds of advantage on the Aussie. Because, unless he has some serious problems, it seems that this year it'll be hard to take the victory away from Evans.

Anyway, here's the GC after today's stage:

1	Thomas Voeckler (Fra)	51:54:44
2	Fränk Schleck (Lux)	0:01:49
3	Cadel Evans (Aus)	0:02:06
4	Andy Schleck (Lux)	0:02:17
5	Ivan Basso (Ita)	0:03:16
6	Damiano Cunego (Ita)	0:03:22
7	Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa)	0:04:00
8	Samuel Sanchez Gonzalez (Spa)	0:04:11
9	Thomas Danielson (USA)	0:04:35
10	Nicolas Roche (Irl)	0:04:57

I'm very happy about Cunego and Roche's placements and I hope that they'll keep the good stuff coming also in the next days. In the meanwhile, let's enjoy Frank and Andy's placements and let's hope they'll improve again in the next days.

As far as tomorrow is concerned, I'm going to bet 5 euros on Hushovd and 5 on Gilbert. Although, to say the truth, I think we shouldn't rule Cavendish and Farrar out of the 'possible winners list' either.

(Pic 1 by Sirotti, pic 2 by Bettini)

Some topics of discussion and Greipel's great victory:

2011-07-12T19:43:00.000+02:00

Breakout news: Today at the Tour there were no crashes involving GC leaders. I'm so happy I could cry.

Finally, the Tour went back to what it's supposed to be about: a cycling race without cars knocking the riders down and without athletes ending up in hospital because of crashes.

This morning the Grande Boucle was still shocked by what happened to Hoogerland and Flecha the other day.

Many people feared that Johnny (who got 33 stitches and who couldn't sleep properly because of some dreadful nightmares) would have had to abandon the race, instead he grit his teeth once again and he managed to finish the stage and wear the polka dots jersey for the second day in a row. Also Flecha managed to end the stage in spite of the injuries caused by the infamous crash.

Juan Antonio has recently released an interview to Cyclingnews, in which he criticises not only the driver who knocked him down, but also the behaviour of Thomas Voeckler. The fact that that stupid driver (who didn't ask for permission to overtake the riders and who shouldn't even had been behind them at that point of the race) didn't even sound his horn before trying to drive past the athletes is simply shocking and it really disgusts me. There are no apologies for something like that, especially if you consider that that man didn't even stop to check if he had badly injured the riders he had hit.

As far as Flecha's critics of Voeckler are concerned, I don't think the Frenchman accelerated after his crash. I was actually very surprised when I saw the breakawayers riding on in spite of that accident but, actually, I must admit that I don't think that they could have done something different.

Still talking about Saturday' stage, la Gazzetta claims that Vinokourov is already thinking about coming back racing. Girls of the AAVL, I hope this makes you feel a bit better.

Talking about the rest day, instead, the topics of discussion were 3:

1. Will Contador retire before the end of the Tour?

2. Is Gilbert going to try to get a good placement in the GC?

3. What really happened between Contador and Karpets the other day?

So, let's go in order.

Topic 1: we all know that Contador has hurt his knee in two of his three crashes. This morning many people (according to Italian tv) feared that he wouldn't have started the stage, instead he took part in it and finished the race with all the main GC leaders. But still, Alberto might decide to retire if things don't go well for him on Thursday, in the Luz-Ardiden stage. 'I know Alberto', Tiralongo told Ialian tv this morning. 'And he's not here to get dropped on the climbs. If his form isn't good enough, I think he'll retire'.

Personally, I agree with Tiralongo. In fact, I believe that Alberto will retire if he realises his shape isn't good enough in the mountains. However, I don't know whether Conti is trying to bluff a bit with his condition (making it seem a bit worse than it actually is) or not.

Topic 2: apparently, after VDB's retire Gilbert has told a few Belgian journalists that now he'd like to focus on the GC. Eddy Mercx approves the idea of the Omega rider and so do I. In fact it'd be great to see someone like Philippe giving it all even in the hardest stages. Especially because, with nowadays GC, many riders have good chances to make it to the top 5 or to the top 10 of the race. Cunego, Martin, Vandevelde, Taaramae, Roche, S. Sanchez, Velits... All guys that can still fight for a position in the top 10, especially now that there are so many spaces left empty by the crashes of guys like Vinokourov, VDB and Wiggins. Will Gilbert enter in that fight too? The fact that he's thinking about it makes me really happy, but this doesn't mean that I believe he can make it. Unfortunately, in fact, so far Philippe has exploited his team on every single stage of the race. Moreover, long climbs don't seem to suit him. But still, I'd like to see Philippe giving it a try.

Topic 3: Take a look at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKuJCGV8m-w and pay attention to Vladimir Karpets, the rider with the half white/half red jersey. It took me a lifetime to realise what that video is about, but then I saw that Karpets made a strange movement which caused Contador to crash. Someone thinks that Vladimir did it intentionally, someone else (me) doesn't. I think Karpets made that movement at random, not because he really knew that Alberto was behind him. But still, there are many guys who disagree with me.

After mentioning these topics of discussion, let's talk about the stage du jour. As said, this afternoon no one crashed seriously and this is a very good news.

The breakaway of the day was formed by Delaplace, Marcato, El Fares, Minard and Vichot. They started their adventure after 14 kms and ended it with about 20 kms to go. At that point, on the last little climb du jour, the fireworks began: Toni Gallopin in fact attacked and he was followed by great riders like Voeckler, Gilbert, Martin and Devenyns. The 5 men worked well until they reached the 8 kms to go mark, where they gave it in. Actually, 4 of them did: Gilbert in fact kept on riding until he was caught with 7 kms to go. Once again, the Belgian showed us all his class.

The stage ended with a sprint in the town of Carmaux. Said sprint was very particular, since HTC couldn't form its leadout train and because there was a curve with just 350 meters to go.

Sieberg (a rider that I really do like) abandoned its place at the head of the peloton right before that curve, so that Daniel Oss fund himself leading the group. Cavendish was behind the Liquigas rider and Greipel was behind Cannonball. Cav began his sprint when he saw that Oss' speed was decreasing. In that way, unluckily for him, he spent too many energy, so that Greipel could overtake him in the last 10 meters of race. A great victory for André, who wins his first Tour stage in his first TdF right in front of his old nemesis Mark Cavendish. Someone must be very pissed off right now...

Johnny Hoogerland managed to finish the stage (just like Flecha) and this is a very good news. Farrar didn't look that great, whereas the GC leaders hid themselves.

Another day at the Tour is over, now we're waiting for tomorrow's flat stage, the last one before the riders reach the mountains.