A fangirl in Milan:

Sorry for the delay,but yesterday I was too busy to write a decent post about Sunday. On that day in fact my family and I decided to go to Milan to see the 9th stage of the Giro.Here are some pics and some funny stories about what happened...
Frst of all,that's the place were riders went to sign the start document (I don't know how you call it in English,sorry for my ignorance).

As soon as my family and I arrived in Piazza Duomo,we saw Cipollini and Bettini talking in front of the crowd.I didn't have anything to do,so I took a photo of the Cricket.

Then Ilaria and I finally met and we went to watch the riders arrive at the start.My sister and I took some videos of the riders,but the only one in which you can see someone very well is Pozzato's one.And,sorry for Sansen,I'm not going to post that video on this blog.Fortunately he wasn't the only one we saw at the start line.Just to say one name,for example,we saw Thomas Lovkvist.My mother begged him for an autograph,but he said "NO".Btw my sister forgave him after 2 seconds because,while he was riding in front of us,he heard her screaming "Bravo Thomas!",so he turned his head towards her and smiled at her. Surprisingly,my sister didn't faint.
Then we saw also His Amazingness Jens Voigt (who said something to the Dutch guy near me),Menchov,Di Luca and Armstrong.I really laughed a lot when an Italian rider of Fuji Servetto rode in front of us and said: "Fuck,cobblestones!!!" while riding.The funniest thing was that he wasn't actually riding on cobblestones...Perhaps he had some bad memories of Bergamo's stage (or,more probably,of Roubaix).
When the last rider (sir Lancelot) had signed the start document,we decided to go to eat and to find a good place where we could see the race well.

This was the crowd near to the finish line: at 2 pm in the afternoon there was nobody there and so we managed to watch some laps from that point of view,then we left our "battle places" for some time and,when we came back there at 4.30 pm,they had disappeared.
Anyway we managed to find some places which were even better than the ones at the finish line.

In fact the place you can see down here was not very crowded and then it was just in front of the team's buses.

This one is Katushsa's bus:it's a really big and nice one and it has a big television inside.In fact all the fans went there to see the final sprint (which was won by Cavendish). After watching the sprint,my family ran to Columbia's bus (that you can see here)...
...while Ilaria and I ran to Saxo Bank's one. As you can see in this photo,there was a little table with some nuts and crisps on.Then a man with a lot of bread came,but none of the riders ate anything.

After few seconds,Cancellara arrived at the bus (see pics on Ilaria's blog).A boy asked for his gloves and Fabian replied: "I give it to you if you give me 50 euros".He said it in a really funny way and also the boy started to laugh.After having put his bike near to the bus,Fab Fab started to talk with the mechanic.He said something about his tyre and about the parcours,then he went on the bus,without considering us poor fans begging him for an autograph in 3 different languages.

Fortunately Amazing Jens Voigt was the next to arrive at the bus and he immediately signed lots of autographs and then went with the other guys to take a fast shower.

There were a lot of fans near to SB bus and most of them (me included) was waiting for Cancellara's autograph.Anyway,he kept on ignoring us.At a certain point Lars Bak (who looks much better live than in tv,just like Klostergaard does) got on the bus and came back with lots of photos of him.He gave one of them to each fan and then signed them.Then he forgot whose pen was the one he was using,so he watched me and tried to give it to me.I shook off my head and he remembered that the pen was actually his.Then he laughed and went back to the other guys.

Also Uncle Bjarne gave me his autograph and then Jens Voigt started to watch me and,after a while,he came up to me.In fact he had forgotten he'd already given me his autograph,so I reminded it to him.Anyway,I couldn't let him go away without a photo with him,could I? Fortunately Ilaria was near to me,so she could take this nice photo (I look like an hamster,but Voigt looks good):15 minutes after the photo,I finally managed to get the autograph of Cancellara.I was sooo happy!!! When the guys started to get prepared to go away,I went to meet my family near to Columbia's bus.I didn't take any photo of Saxo Bankers because we've got just one photograph machine and my sister took it with her because she hoped to make a photo with mr.Lovkvist. Anyway,I think she used it well:here are Columbia's bikes......and here is Michael Rogers,who gave his autograph to my mother.

Here's Boasson-Hagen being interviewed by Norwegian tv:it was his birthday and so the journalist (a cute girl,that's what my mother told me) gave him a big birthday cake.All the fans noticed he was very embarassed:in fact he blushed red and spoke in a very shy way.
And finally,here he is:Thomas Lovkvist.My sister made some videos with him,but they're all very short and not very nice.That's the only photo she took of him.She eventually managed to get his autograph:she said it was pretty hard since he made a strange road in order to get to the bus without meeting fans.Anyway,my sister was cunnier than him and waited for Emo Boy in front of the bus' entrance,so that he had to sign her an autograph if he wanted to get on the bus. As soon as I rejoined my family,they told me a nice story about Konovalovas,a young (and cute) rider of Cervélo.My mother asked him for an autograph and said that he looked at her,told her to wait a minute,got on the team bus and came back with lots of photos of him,of his teammates and a big poster of the team,which he gave to my familiars as present.So cute!!

Another cute rider is Silence-Lotto Francis De Greef.I went to ask for his autograph while he was looking for his shoes inside the team car (I swear I didn't know he was busy,otherwise I wouldn't have gone near to him!),so he smiled at me,closed the car and signed the autograph.He's a really nice guy and he really seemed surprised and pleased when he noticed that there was someone who wanted his autograph.

A rider that my sister really wanted to see was Cavendish.And,eventually,she managed to see him.He arrived last,when his team bus had already left.A fan near to me congratulated him for the victory and then told him: "I'm your friend on Facebook!".Cav looked a bit thoughtful and surprised,then he said (In Italian): "No io.E'...American." ("It's not me.He's an American").
Then he agreed to take a picture with my sister and I:

Then,while we were walking out of the bus area,we had a final surprise:in fact we saw Basso,riding fast toward us.Some fans called him and he,in a very kind and polite way,stopped himself,signed autographs,took some photos and then rode away,apologising for being in a terrible hurry.He's a very kind guy as well.Without any doubt,Sunday was a very nice day.
(All photos were taken by me and my sister)