And the winner is...Cadel Evans!!!

And so the World Championships are over also for this year.And,unfortunately for Fangirl,there were no Italians,no Danes,no Dutch and no Luxembourgian (sigh!) on the podium of the Elite Men Road Race.On said podium there were in fact an Australian (Cadel Evans),a Spaniard (Joaquin Rodriguez) and a Russian (Alexandr Kolobnev).
Someone may be unhappy with this podium,but that's not my case.I mean,of course I would have loved to see Andy Schleck or a Dane rider on the highest spot of yesterday's podium,but not always things go as you want them to go.And then,I must admit that I'm happy for Cadel Evans.Yesterday he attacked with 5 kms to go and achieved a great victory,the biggest one of his career.After so many podiums,he really deserved it!

Best Sexy Banker was the Russian Alexandr Kolobnev,who came in 2nd just like he did in 2007. 3rd wasJoaquin Rodriguez,a Spaniard that I pretty like.

4th was another Spaniard,Samuel Sanchez,while 5th was Cancellara,that broke into tears as soon as he crossed the finish-line.If I were him,I would have done the same.He tried so hard to win!Also Cadel Evans broke into tears on the podium,even if his ones were tears of joy and not of disappointment (like Cancellara's ones).IMO,it was really moving to see Cadel on the podium, with the rainbow jersey on,looking as happy as a child,kissing his wedding ring and waving to his wife.

Btw,talking about Fangirl's favourites,the best Dane rider was Matti Breschel,7th.6th was the Belgian Gilbert,while Cunego came in 8th and turned out to be the best Italian rider.

You can probably imagine what's been going on in Italy in the last 24 hours: nearly everyone is angry at Cunego and I can't actually understand why.If Cunego had won,he would have been treated as a hero,but he's lost and so now everybody treats him badly and say it was his fault if Italy didn't get any medal.Perhaps people who say these things need someone to explain them that,in cycling and in life,you can't always win.And,after all,Italy still has a World Champion,the amazing Tatiana Guderzo.

Talking about other riders,Alejandro Valverde eventually came in 9th,while Chris-Anker Soerensen was 13th.

And Andy,you may ask,what did he do? Well,Andy was the 21st rider to get retired yesterday. Yesterday's one was also his last race of this season,at least according to what L'Equipe wrote on their website (see link:http://www.lequipe.fr/Cyclisme/breves2009/20090928_200200_a-schleck-stoppe-sa-saison.html ).Fangirl wasn't very happy when she read this news (she was already planning to go and support Andy at the Tour of Lombardy),but she thinks that,after a very long,very tiring and also very good season Andy really deserves a good rest.That's why she wishes him a good and long holiday.

PS: To read a report of what happened yesterday in Mendrisio,check the blog between few days: yesterday I was there to see the race and I'll write a post about it as soon as I can.That's all for now!

(Pic by Scanferla)