PART ONE OF THIS POST: RUTA DEL SOL
When I read "Rasmussen wins the 4th stage of the Vuelta a Andalucia",I must admit that for a moment I feared,ehm,thought that Michael Rasmussen had won.After few nanoseconds anyway I remembered the Tour de France TT in which the Chickenman crashed 2 or 3 times in a row and I understood that no,he couldn't have won,also because of the fact that he wasn't actually racing in the Ruta del Sol this afternoon.After realising this,Fangirl could express her joy for Alex Rasmussen's victory with a nice squee and start to annoy Logic by telling her how great the Saxo Bank riders are. 
Rasmussen rode the 10.9 kms long TT in just 12.59 seconds and therefore he won the stage with 5" of advantage on Bradley Wiggins ("muawawawa! Sky didn't win!",the Evil part of me thought while reading the stage classification).3rd was Toni Martin,whereas Rogers (new race leader) was 4th.5th was His Amazingness Jens Voigt,whereas 6th was Roulston and 7th was Larsson.
Second in the GC is now Van Den Broeck (he has a delay of 19" from Rogers),3rd is Pardilla and 4th is Jens Voigt (yay!).
Frank Schleck was 21st with a delay of 53" from his teammate Rasmussen.In my impartial opinion,I think that Frank went pretty well,since Lovkvist (who is much better than him in TTs) was just 1 second faster than him.Frank was also faster than Fuglsang (33rd) and Wegmann and now he's 14th in the GC,with 1'01" of delay from Rogers.Larsson instead is 7th.
After his victory,Alex said: ”It was a mindblowing experience to be standing on the top step of the podium in the great line-up of world class riders.The time trial was a good fit for me and I knew it was all about raw power without thinking about restraining my self.The win was a surprise and I never expected to beat these top riders.It is a promising result prior to the World Cup on the track,Tour des Flandres and Paris-Roubaix and the main objective now is to maintain the good shape and make it peak in about a month and a half".
Kim Andersen instead said: "It was an amazing experience to follow Alex from the car today.I knew Wiggins' intermediates and I knew he was the man to beat and Alex was a few seconds better than him most of the way.In the overall position,Jens (Voigt) was only one second away from the podium and it surely would have put the icing on the cake to have finished third overall as well.But make no mistake,it was a good day for us”.
The Ruta del Sol ends tomorrow with a stage that is hilly and whose finish-line isn't completely flat.Of course,Fangirl's battle scream for tomorrow will be,once again,"Allez Jens!"
Rasmussen rode the 10.9 kms long TT in just 12.59 seconds and therefore he won the stage with 5" of advantage on Bradley Wiggins ("muawawawa! Sky didn't win!",the Evil part of me thought while reading the stage classification).3rd was Toni Martin,whereas Rogers (new race leader) was 4th.5th was His Amazingness Jens Voigt,whereas 6th was Roulston and 7th was Larsson.Second in the GC is now Van Den Broeck (he has a delay of 19" from Rogers),3rd is Pardilla and 4th is Jens Voigt (yay!).
Frank Schleck was 21st with a delay of 53" from his teammate Rasmussen.In my impartial opinion,I think that Frank went pretty well,since Lovkvist (who is much better than him in TTs) was just 1 second faster than him.Frank was also faster than Fuglsang (33rd) and Wegmann and now he's 14th in the GC,with 1'01" of delay from Rogers.Larsson instead is 7th.
After his victory,Alex said: ”It was a mindblowing experience to be standing on the top step of the podium in the great line-up of world class riders.The time trial was a good fit for me and I knew it was all about raw power without thinking about restraining my self.The win was a surprise and I never expected to beat these top riders.It is a promising result prior to the World Cup on the track,Tour des Flandres and Paris-Roubaix and the main objective now is to maintain the good shape and make it peak in about a month and a half".
Kim Andersen instead said: "It was an amazing experience to follow Alex from the car today.I knew Wiggins' intermediates and I knew he was the man to beat and Alex was a few seconds better than him most of the way.In the overall position,Jens (Voigt) was only one second away from the podium and it surely would have put the icing on the cake to have finished third overall as well.But make no mistake,it was a good day for us”.
The Ruta del Sol ends tomorrow with a stage that is hilly and whose finish-line isn't completely flat.Of course,Fangirl's battle scream for tomorrow will be,once again,"Allez Jens!"
PART 2 OF THIS POST: RANDOM LINK AND PERSONAL OPINION OF MINE ABOUT THE POSSIBLE GIRO DEPARTURE FROM WASHINGTON
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/washington-dc-start-to-2012-giro-falling-into-place :I haven't written anything about a possible Giro start from Washington yet,but now I really do feel like giving my opinion about this story.I understand Zomegnan's will of making the Giro become more popular,I understand the fact that he's probably frightened from the prophecies that say that the World is ending and therefore wants to bring the Corsa Rosa in the USA before of December 2012 ("After all",Zomegnan probably thinks,"it's a matter of 2012 or never,isn't it?"),I understand that we Italians see USA as the land where dreams come true,I understand that the American supporters would love to see a great Grand Tour in their country,but this is simply too much,in my opinion.I mean,you start a race from Washington.Said race is called "Giro d'Italia",aka "Tour of Italy,Vuelta a Italia,Tour de Italie,Italien Rundfahrt". Therefore, sooner or later the race will have to arrive in Italy (otherwise it would be called "Tour of USA,Giro degli Stati Uniti,Vuelta a los Estados Unidos" or something similar,wouldn't it?).And a 100 years old tradition suggests the race coming to Italy after 3/4 stages raced in a foreign country.
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/washington-dc-start-to-2012-giro-falling-into-place :I haven't written anything about a possible Giro start from Washington yet,but now I really do feel like giving my opinion about this story.I understand Zomegnan's will of making the Giro become more popular,I understand the fact that he's probably frightened from the prophecies that say that the World is ending and therefore wants to bring the Corsa Rosa in the USA before of December 2012 ("After all",Zomegnan probably thinks,"it's a matter of 2012 or never,isn't it?"),I understand that we Italians see USA as the land where dreams come true,I understand that the American supporters would love to see a great Grand Tour in their country,but this is simply too much,in my opinion.I mean,you start a race from Washington.Said race is called "Giro d'Italia",aka "Tour of Italy,Vuelta a Italia,Tour de Italie,Italien Rundfahrt". Therefore, sooner or later the race will have to arrive in Italy (otherwise it would be called "Tour of USA,Giro degli Stati Uniti,Vuelta a los Estados Unidos" or something similar,wouldn't it?).And a 100 years old tradition suggests the race coming to Italy after 3/4 stages raced in a foreign country.
To make a race,then,you need strange creatures called riders.Those strange creatures are actually normal human beings,even if they can ride their bikes like you'll never manage to.
Now,if you want to make the Giro d'Italia start from Washington,you'll need riders who feel like going to the USA,racing there for 3-4 days and then coming back to Italy with a 8 hours long flight over the ocean.After said flight,the riders will have to cope with the jet lag,a strange little thing that can cause people to wake up at 4 am and magically fall asleep at 8 pm.
Jet lag is a very annoying thing already when you come back from a holiday and have 2-3 days to pull yourself together before of starting working/going to school/doing whatever else again. Now,imagine suffering from the jet lag and having just 1/2 rest day(s) before of facing 3 hard weeks of race.Terrible.
I think that the only reasonable explanation for Zomegnan's latest idea is the following:lots of riders have complained about the long Giro transfers over the last 3/4 years.Therefore, what can the Giro organizers do to solve this problem? The answer is simple: they make the race start in Washington.In this way,the riders will be so fucking tired because of the jet lag that they won't even have the strength to complain about anything.
And talking about the riders,me wonders: where will the riders find the courage to train hard for a race where they may fail to get good results just because of the jet lag and of the long transfer USA-Italy? And then perhaps some people will even have the guts to complain about the lack of great peloton stars in the 2012 Giro start list...I understand that starting the Giro from the USA would be good for Zomegnan,for the race's popularity and for the American supporters,but what about the riders? 
Anyway,after expressing my opinion in this particularly complicated way,and knowing that I could spend hours debating this latest crazy idea of Zomegnan,here I close this post,thinking that people are right when they think that Italians are completely crazy.
(Rasmussen's pic by Claus Bonnerup)
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