The Giro d'Italia begins next week and obviously Fangirl is really looking forward to it because, as a famous Italian journalist once said,during the Giro 'everyday is a holiday' (in Italian the sentence sounds a bit different,but that's the meaning).
Hoping that this year Giro won't end up like last year (read: 'hoping there won't be any doping cases'), here I go with some random links about Team Saxo Bank's riders that are racing in the Giro and also with some little useless comments of mine about Tour of Romandie.Enjoy!
Hoping that this year Giro won't end up like last year (read: 'hoping there won't be any doping cases'), here I go with some random links about Team Saxo Bank's riders that are racing in the Giro and also with some little useless comments of mine about Tour of Romandie.Enjoy!
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/saxo-bank-cofidis-for-the-giro-ditalia : first of all,the Saxo Bank line up for the Giro.Lots of people have been very surprised by Riis' Giro team ("Where are the Schlecks? Where is Cancellara? Where are Fuglsang and Breschel?!? And Voigt and O'Grady?") and I can understand them completely. The trouble is that,as Frank Schleck once admitted in an interview, the team sponsor (Saxo Bank now,but also Csc in the past) doesn't care at all about the Giro, so Italian tifosi can't do nothing but complain about the lack of big stars in Saxo Bank's Giro line-up. As well as that, the Giro isn't as famous as the Tour (although the hardest mountains are here in Italy) and this year Riis desperately needs his team to get good results during the Tour, and not during the Giro, if he wants to continue his adventure in Cycledom for some other years.
When the Giro parcours was first announced in November (was it November? Oh,who cares!), both Fangirl and Logic had one big hope: seeing one of the Schleck brothers, possibly Frank, in Italy in May. "Why Frank and not Andy?",someone asks. The answer is simple: this year the Giro features lots of hard climbs and a few time trials so,in my opinion, it could have been possibe for Frank to win.As well as that, Italian journalists never pay a lot of attention to him,so he could have ridden without a big pressure. Then, after getting a good result in the Giro, Frank could have gone to the Tour as a 'super helper' for Andy and he could have tried to get a good GC result also there. Obviously I know that this is just imaginary cycling and that there are lots of factors that influenced the season schedule of the brothers, but me would have loved to see one of the Schleck brothers come back to the Giro this year. Well,it will be for another time.
Anyway,back to SB line up for the 2010 Giro, here it is: Larsson, Cooke, Lucas Haedo, Chris Anker Sorensen, Nicki Sorensen, Michael Morkov, Laurent Didier, Richie Porte, Anders Lund. When I told some people I know that the Saxo Bank's captain for 2010 Giro would have been Chris Anker Sorensen, they looked at me in a very surprised way. "Who?",they asked. "Chris Sorensen",I answered. "The one that won a stage during last year Tour?","No,that was Nicki Sorensen". "And who's this Chris Anker,then?" . Anyway the most irritating fact featuring me talking about SB's Giro line-up with other people involved a little boy that goes to my school. When I told him that Saxo Bank wasn't going to bring the Schleck brothers and Cancellara to the Giro, he started to make fun of Saxo Bank. And until that point I managed to stay calm. Everyone's free to make fun of everything/everyone,right? And then I couldn't be rude to him because his mother was there as well while we were talking. But then,at a certain point,the little boy dared to say that "Saxo Bank totally sucks.They have Cancellara and they never manage to win team time trials during Grand Tours. Well, that's obvious when you have a team in which together with Cancellara you have guys like the Schlecks or Larsson, which can't ride time trials at all". Now, I think that the stupidity of this sentence doesn't even need any comment because by commenting it I would just waste my time. Simply, I remember you that Larsson was second in the TT at the Olympic Games in Beijing and at the 2009 Mendrisio Worlds.
Anyway,back to SB line up for the 2010 Giro, here it is: Larsson, Cooke, Lucas Haedo, Chris Anker Sorensen, Nicki Sorensen, Michael Morkov, Laurent Didier, Richie Porte, Anders Lund. When I told some people I know that the Saxo Bank's captain for 2010 Giro would have been Chris Anker Sorensen, they looked at me in a very surprised way. "Who?",they asked. "Chris Sorensen",I answered. "The one that won a stage during last year Tour?","No,that was Nicki Sorensen". "And who's this Chris Anker,then?" . Anyway the most irritating fact featuring me talking about SB's Giro line-up with other people involved a little boy that goes to my school. When I told him that Saxo Bank wasn't going to bring the Schleck brothers and Cancellara to the Giro, he started to make fun of Saxo Bank. And until that point I managed to stay calm. Everyone's free to make fun of everything/everyone,right? And then I couldn't be rude to him because his mother was there as well while we were talking. But then,at a certain point,the little boy dared to say that "Saxo Bank totally sucks.They have Cancellara and they never manage to win team time trials during Grand Tours. Well, that's obvious when you have a team in which together with Cancellara you have guys like the Schlecks or Larsson, which can't ride time trials at all". Now, I think that the stupidity of this sentence doesn't even need any comment because by commenting it I would just waste my time. Simply, I remember you that Larsson was second in the TT at the Olympic Games in Beijing and at the 2009 Mendrisio Worlds.
Anyway,back to the line-up. As said, the team captain should be Chris Sorensen. I say 'should' because you all know that he broke his collarbone in March and he hasn't ridden any race since then,so I don't know how his condition is right now. Anyway also Gustav Larsson could get some interesting results, especially during the time trials. Nicki Sorensen is a very strong rider as well and he isn't that bad as a climber. Cooke and Lucas Haedo (who has never ridden a Grand Tour so far) are both good sprinters, but in Italy they'll have to compete against guys like Greipel, Petacchi and Freire. Anyway they can always enter a breakaway and get a good result,right? Morkov is a rider who comes from the track (where he got excellent results together with Alex Rasmussen), whereas Lund is an all-rounder. Porte and Didier are two neo-pros that will surely show something good. Porte got a great victory the other day in Tour of Romandie, while Didier was really good during the Ardenne's classics and has showed that he can climb very well. Therefore,although the team hasn't got any famous name in its line-up, I believe that they will ride a good Giro.Actually,the fact that some riders are completely unexperienced could be good, since they will surely have the will to demonstrate their skills. Anyway don't worry, I'll probably come back talking about the team's line-up for the Giro in the next days (if my maths teacher allows it...).
http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/64th-tour-de-romandie-upt/stage-3-itt/results : this is a link about Richie Porte's incredible first win,which Richie got in front of guys like Valverde, Menchov and Rogers.If you want to know more about Richie,here's the link to one of my uforgettable posts about Saxo Bank's neo pros: http://fede-myblog92.blogspot.com/2010/02/random-post-about-richie-porte.html
Tour of Romandie: I know I haven't talked at all about Tour of Romandie over the last days and I apologise for that. Actually, I have to admit that I missed almost all the stages of that race because I didn't know it was broadcasted (anyway I fear that I would have been too busy to watch it even if I had known that it was broadcasted). That was obviously a big shame, since the race saw guys that I really do like (Pinotti, Sagan, Porte and Spilak) get some good victories. In addition, Jaroslaw Marycz attacked in the last kms of the stage eventually won by Cavendish and showed once again that he's a really talented rider.As well as that, Menchov showed he's in a good form and this made Logic really happy. Yes,Logic and not Fangirl. In fact Logic surprisingly approves me supporting Menchov because he seems a very clever man and also because he suffers from spring allergies just like moi
By the way,talking more seriously about the race,I have some small things to point out.
1. Richie Porte rode incredibly well this afternoon.
2.Professor Pinotti is in great form.
3.Sagan and Spilak are both very impressive riders.
4.If Basso rides this way also at the Giro (today he crossed the finish-line 9 minutes after Valverde), Liquigas would better give the captain title to Pellizotti or to Sylvester Szmyd.
5. yes, Menchov's smile in the photo below is worrying.
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/bellis-to-return-to-racing-at-uk-nationals :a very nice news for cycling supporters: Bellis may come back racing this summer at the UK National Championships. Obviously me wishes him all the best for his comeback. http://www.cyclingnews.com/features/cyclings-best-worst-and-strangest-victory-salutes : this is a funny Cyclingnews feature regarding the 'worst,best and strangest victory salutes'. Cyclingnews did a very good work, but me is able to add one more strange salute to that list. In fact,how could someone forget Chris Sorensen's 'fisherman' salute? (vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrjO0CPNhJM ).
http://eavis.jp.dk/index.php?alias=DK-JPTO&s=8434&p=217601 :still talking about Chris Anker: here's a great interview that A Beautiful Freak (http://mahoela.blogspot.com/ ) pointed out to me the other day (thank you once again!) .In it Chris talks about his interests aside cycling. And,between those interests,there are also reading historical books,watching football matches and cooking (this last interest particularly shocked me especially because he knows how to prepare a risotto while me can't hardly prepare a coffee).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_t1rvhspX7E : if you're a Schleck supporter and you've been so kind to read all this post,here's a little link that you might like since it features Andy before and after Liége (attention: for a brief moment, also Vinokourov appears in this vid).
(pic by AFP)
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