Frank's 2nd place in P-N and little report about T-A:

In yesterday's final stage of P-N Frank came 3rd and this allowed him to get on the 2nd spot of the final podium.First came LL Sanchez,while third was Chavanel.
Yesterdays stage was won by Colom in front of Contador and Frank.Contador attacked with 40 kms to go and was then joined by Frank and Colom,that arrived with him at the finish-line.
Team Saxo Bank won the team competition (see photo at http://www.cyclingnews.com/road/2009/mar09/parisnice09/index.php?id=/photos/2009/mar09/parisnice09/parisnice098/20090315-SCH-0777 ),Martin got the mountain's one,Chavanel the points one and Kevin Seeldrayers won the young riders' one (Fuglsang arrived 5th in this classification).

Regarding T-A:three stages ago,victory went to Tyler Farrar,that crossed the finish line in front of Cavendish,Enrico Rossi (that is the brother of Riccò's girlfriend) and Robbie McEwen.O'Grady arrived 6th,while Andy arrived 92th.Fabian Cancellara arrived 7 minutes after the winner :( :(

Saturday's stage was one of the toughest (if not THE toughest) of T-A:in fact at the end of it the riders had to face the "Montelupone's wall".Andy was one of the favourite for the stage's victory,even if Rai's commentators said he's still having problems with his knee. Unfortunately,good luck wasn't on his side.Before of the first climb on the wall,there was a crash in which also Matti Breschel got involved.He lost some time,but fortunatwly didn't get seriously hurt.Andy was now alone at the feet of the climb and struggle a bit during the ascent.During the last passage on the wall,Joaquim Rodriguez left all the other riders behind and won,arriving alone on the finish-line.2 wins in 2 years:good job mr! Rebellin arrived 2nd (how strange!),pretty boy Lovkvist 3rd (my sister was very happy,as you can easily imagine) while 4rd arrived Di Luca,that said that Montelupone's wall is a lot harder than Huy's one.
Andy arrived 24th (after 1'02),while other Saxo Bank riders came much later.O'Grady arrived after 13 minutes,while Cancellara arrived (together with Breschel and other SB) after 16 minutes.Here's what SB's ds said about the stage:"It was a really unfortunate day for us. On paper, both Matti and had a Andy really good chance to do a good final, but none of them were able to display it. Matti was rather bruised but he fought beautifully to the finish line and it seems like he has only received some superficial scratches. At least he can relax on tomorrow's time trial and then try to recover for the last two stages, if he is not too hurt".Not only the stage's victory,but also the race leader's jersey went to Rodriguez.

Yesterday's TT was won by German Kloden,that also took the leader's jersey.Second came Devolder (!),while third was Lovkvist.Andy arrived 48th and lost 2 minutes from Kloden.Fabian lost 4 minutes,but at least he didn't arrive last.Maybe his condition is improving.
Andy is now 23rd in the GC,but I think he may be able to improve his position in today's stage,that is supposed to be the toughest one of T-A.Let's hope we'll have fun (and congratulations again to Frank Schleck).

(Photos TDW and Bettini)