Eroica Strade Bianche:

Finally,the real season (at least for me) began yesterday with the Eroica Strade Bianche.Since I wouldn't have been able to resist for other 7 days without watching any international race broadcasted in a decent way,I obviously welcomed the event in a great way.Thrill,excitement, fun,drama: in the last months I missed all these aspects of watching cycling races on tv,so finding myself on the couch after 5 months of abstinence,suffering in front of a rider's pain,smiling when something curious happened,supporting the SB guys,arguing with my sister about whose team has the best looking jersey was a thing that I really liked.
The Eroica Strade Bianche was obviously as hard as usual and saw the riders facing the steep gravel roads of Tuscany.Personally,I was really curious to see what Francesco Ginanni could do in this race,whereas the Italian hero for today's race was supposed to be Pozzato.From the Italian point of view,the race also saw the debut of the new couple of chronists,Davide Cassani-Francesco Pancani.Cassani has actually been a chronist for many years,but Pancani used to follow the Grand Tours on motorbike until last year.Their debut was good,although Pancani said that Flecha is Dutch.Well,it can happen.
Talking about the race,it was really thrilling.With about 50 kms to go,Garzelli,Nibali,Rogers, Spilak and Ginanni attacked.Other attacks had been previously launched,amongst others,also by Eisel,Brutt,Caccia,Oss,Magazzini and Bandiera.

In the last kms just the strongest riders were able to remain at the head of the race and between them there were Flecha,Cancellara,Hesjedal (my personal favourite for the race),Rogers (who showed a great form),Lovkvist,Gasparotto,Iglinskiy and Ginanni.

Gasparotto launched an attack with about 15 kms to go,but he didn't have a lot of luck.Soon just 4 riders (Hesjedal,Lovkvist,Iglinskiy and Rogers) remained at the head of the race,with Pozzato and Ginanni who did a great work but managed to catch them just at the beginning of the last climb.On the climb the 2 Italians and Hesjedal got dropped.Lovkvist and Iglinskiy seemed the strongest and with few hundreds meters to go,on the narrow and little streets of Siena,Iglinskiy rode past Lovkvist in a curve (this happened with both the riders trying to get a little help from their elbows).The Swedish couldn't ride past Iglinskiy in the last meters and so he came 2nd, whereas the Kazakh took the most important victory in his career (the most important so far,at least).

3rd was Rogers,4th was Pozzato,5th came Hesjedal.6th was Ginanni.Cancellara was the 11th rider to cross the finish line and Breschel came immediately after him.Andy Schleck didn't finish the race.Talking about the race,there are some things that I'd like to point out.First of all,if Lovkvist didn't seem happy of ending in 2nd,my sister was even more disappointed and angrier than him.In fact she hasn't stopped complaining about the use that Iglinskiy made of his elbow during the sprint yet.Then when a familiar wrongly said that Iglinskiy was Russian,she exploded with anger."After Menchov,here comes this Iglinskiy...Can't these Russian remain in their country?" Then she said that,if she were Lovkvist,she would have taken the podium flowers and start hitting Iglinskiy with them.How rude.
Talking about Lovkvist,here I make an official statement: unless I get brainwashed,on this blog you'll never see his name written as Lofkvist.In fact I can't understand this fashion of changing the spelling or the pronounciation of the riders' names every year.For example,Lovkvist has now become Lofkvist,Iglinsky has become Iglinskiy,Hesjedal has become Heisedal (at least according to some people),the words "Levi Leipheimer" change from a German pronounciation to an American one according to the speaker's will,Voigt has become "Fokt" although the tifosi don't understand who he is unless you scream them "His name is Foigt!" (I had a direct funny experience of this thing in Milan,when me was talking with a supporter right outside of SB bus).That's simply absurd (or perhaps my mind is exaggerating things as usual ;)

On to more serious things,Iglinskiy was obviously very happy to have won."It's the first time I race Strade Bianche",he said."But I knew that I had to stay at the front of the race,especially in the finale,if I wanted to have a good result.When Lovkvist,Rogers and Hesjedal attacked,I was the last one to join them.During the sprint I had to use my elbows a bit,then in the curve I even braked because I was afraid of falling.It would have been terrible.Now I'm racing Tirreno-Adriatico and the North Classics".All these things were said by Iglinskiy after the race,but not in the interview that the Italian tv showed.In fact Maxim was interviewed in Italian,but he couldn't say a lot since he apparently doesn't know the language very well,therefore he alwas gave extremely short answers (to the journalist's anger and the supporter's amusement).

Another thing I must say about yesterday's race is that Pozzato impressed me.Of course at the end he had to use his beloved ipotetic clause,the one that goes "If the others hadn't...I would have done better" ,but apart from this he really did a good job.
So,this was the first "serious" race of the year.In few minutes the broadcast of Paris-Nice begins and I'm really looking forward to it.According to what Chris Sorensen wrote on his blog,the prologue parcours is very tough and this should make things easier for Frank Schleck.Let's hope so!

(Pics by Bettini)