Sagan: the boy is impressive

The title of this post comes from the fact that what Peter Sagan did in the last 2 kms of the 5th stage of the Paris-Nice was a really great thing to see.Whereas Logic is always very careful in celebrating a young rider's great debut,Fangirl said that Sagan's 2nd victory was "a masterpiece". "In fact",said Fangirl,"Peter is not just strong-he's also incredibly young (20 year old) and this is his first year as a pro rider"."I have to admit that he rode in a great way this afternoon",Logic stated,"but we can't say that he's a champion just 2 months after his debut in the professional Cycledom,otherwise we'd put too much pressure on him.I believe it's better to avoid using words like 'masterpiece' and 'champion' for very young people"."Yes,but one thing is sure",Fangirl replied."Whereas lots of guys need months,if not years,to get their first professional victory,Peter Sagan from Slovakia has already got 2 important victories at the Paris-Nice-a very important race-in just 5 days.And then,he's just 20 year-old! This time,dear Logic,you have to admit that a new star is born"."Ok,ok,Sagan is young-and he's strong",Logic admitted."However I think it's better to wait before of considering him a champion .You never know what could happen in the future.Perhaps he starts to think he's the best rider of the world and he stops training.And if you stop training,you can't win anything.Anyway,now let's stop arguing and let's pull ourselves together in order to write down what happened during today stage,ok?"

So,today stage: First of all,the cyclists set a very high pace immediately after the beginning of the race and this caused some problems to some athletes.With 50 kms to go,Barredo,Gustov, Calzati and Taaramae broke clear from the peloton,but their action didn't last long.With 25 kms to go,Ag2r set a very high pace at the head of the peloton in order to create advantages for Nicolas Roche. Sagan attacked with about 2 kms to go and no one could join him again.Second behind the Slovakian came Lorenzetto,whereas Valverde was 3rd.Voigt was 5th and Frank Schleck came 25th.Here's a pic of today winner:

Talking about the P-N,the Col du Mende stage was won by-guess who?-Contador,who also got the leader jersey (and kept it yesterday).Unfortunately Jens Voigt lost about 50 seconds in the GC and therefore he isn't in the Top 3 anymore.Frank Schleck came 30th,with 1'09" of delay from Contador.After the stage,Frank talked to a Wort journalist (whole news: http://www. wort. lu/wort/web/sport/artikel/78918/es-ging-irgendwie-nicht.php ).Here's what he said:"I can't actually explain what happened thi afternoon,I thought the stage would have gone much better for me.As we started to ride on the last climb,I tried to go nearer to Jens,but somehow I couldn't.The day was extremely cold,perhaps I was wearing too warm clothes and so my muscles got blocked.I know I'm in good form,but this simply wasn't a good day for me.I can't always ride at the front of the race and I accept this fact,but this afternoon riders like Voeckler or Roche rode past me on the climb-and this usually doesn't happen.Anyway,I'm not looking for excuses.Now I just need to analyze the situation and find the reasons that I rode that way".

In my opinion,Frank's words were a bit too pessimistic.I mean,everyone can have a bad day,especially if there is an uphill finish,the season has just begun and the day is really cold,therefore I believe that Frank shouldn't get too worried about Thursday's result. TIRRENO-ADRIATICO:
The 2nd stage of T-A was won by Boonen and the 3rd one was won by Bennati.Cavendish is still having problems in these days and Andy isn't getting great results either.Anyway we must consider that Andy had problems with his knee,therefore he can't have a super form and he's racing the Tirreno just for training.In my opinion,this is the right thing to do.If the peloton rides too fast,I believe it's better to slow down and ride at your own pace rather than kill yourself trying to remain in the main group-it would just make things worse.

Random Link: Chris Anker Sorensen updated his blog after that Voigt took the leader jersey at P-N.In his last entry,he asked Sarkozy to plant some forests in the South of France in order to give the riders a shelter from the wind when they're riding there.Then talking about the 3rd stage of the race,Chris writes: "A funny thing about today's stage is the following: today's winner is the youngest rider who's taking part in the race,whereas the new GC leader is the oldest.In fact there are 19 years of difference between Sagan and Voigt.Anyway I think it is better if I avoid to tell Jens that,in theory,he could be the father of today's stage winner..."

(Pic 1 by AFP,pic 2 by Waldbillig)