Don't worry,the 'Ouch!' of the title doesn't refer to Floyd Landis' former team,but to how I felt watching the riders facing the Zoncolan and the Plan De Corones stages at the Giro.Crazy stages,to say the truth.Actually,me wonders how an organiser can put 2 climbs like that in a Grand Tour,after 3 weeks of pain,and then be angry if someone dopes.I'm not saying that they should ban hard climbs from Grand Tours (after all,the best stages always take place there) or that doping is understandable,but a last week of race with climbs like Zoncolan, Kronplatz, Mortirolo, Gavia, Aprica and Grappa is perhaps a bit too much for those guys,isn't it?
Anyway.The Zoncolan day was a really nice one,although I didn't enjoy the stage as I did back in 2007.This is probably due to the fact that in May 2007,during the Zoncolan stage,I had one of the first true 'Fangirl attacks' of my life.To cut a very long story short,I passed the whole afternoon on the sofa screaming "C'm on Andy,c'm on Andy,c'm on!!!" and feeling good because guys like Riccò and Di Luca had been dropped by my little hero in white.Some people could feel like making comparisons between Andy in 2007 and Richie Porte in 2010,but I assure you that Andy's exploit during the 2007 Giro was even bigger than the one that Richie is having now.Obviously you also have to consider that at the time Andy had been a pro for more than 2 years (Porte instead is a neo pro) and that the media interest around him (even if he never wore the Maglia Rosa) was far bigger than the one that there is now around Richie.
Anyway,back to the point: 2010 Zoncolan stage saw lots of tifosi (about 50 000 people) on the climb and many riders with very painful expressions.What impressed me most was that it was very hard for the riders to climb in big groups,so the majority of them climbed the mountain alone.It is more painful,but at least you don't have to wait your 'sufference companions' and you can hope to make your pain last less.
Basso was very strong and dropped Evans without even getting up on his pedals.I've never been a big fan of Ivan's riding style (I prefer guys who ride in a more spectacular way),but I have to admit that he was good on Sunday.Second was Evans and third an amazing Scarponi.I didn't believe he could race such a good Giro,so I have to apologize to him and to all the people (journalists in primis) who pointed him out as a Giro favourite already 2 months ago.
4th was a good Damiano Cunego,5th was Vinokourov and 6th was Sastre (Carlito,what hve you done?). 7th was Nibali (wait a few years and Italy will have a new good contender for Tour de France),8th was an exceptional, unbelievable, fantastic, amazing,wonderful,super Marco Pinotti from Osio. 9th was the very good Daniel Martin,while 10th was Gadret,who is racing a great Giro.He's a former mtb racer with a big love for Pantani,mountains are his terrain and so I think he'll be at the front also in the next stages.11th was a solid Arroyo,who kept his Maglia Rosa and showed that he'll be a strong contender for the overall victory.Wegelius was 15th and Richie Porte was 18th.Richie crossed the finish-line 4 seconds before of Chris Anker Sorensen, who probably helped him a lot during the whole stage.Italian chronists were pretty surprised by Chris' attitude over the last days.For example,they were surprised because after the Asolo stage Chris followed Porte also after the finish-line and complimented him a lot of times,although he had lost the Pink jersey.That's friendship,baby.
Chris,however,actually had his few seconds of glory on the morning of Sunday,when he rode to the start of the race with an Inter scarf in his hands.Unfortunately I missed the scene,but my father was very happy to see it and told me about it as soon as he saw me in the morning. Well,if Chris keeps on behaving this way,I think I'll manage to spread the Chris Anker's love all around the family in a very easy way.
Back to the Zoncolan stage,Garzelli lost about 9 minutes from Basso (the previous day he had lost 20 minutes from Nibali) and also Gerdemann suffered a lot on the climb.But after all,who didn't suffer on Sunday? Even I,as a supporter,almost felt the riders' pain.Actually,I think that it would be very nice to dedicate at least 2 lines to every rider who managed to end Sunday stage.Unfortunately,since it's studying,and not blogging,that makes me get good marks at school,I fear I have to avoid it.Anyway I let you know that I have more respect for guys like Cameron Meyer,Michael Morkov,Graeme Brown,Rick Flens,Gregory Henderson and so on than for the guys who got retired on the morning of the Zoncolan stage although they didn't have any physical problem.Therefore,a big Chapeau to everyone who made it to the Zoncolan top.
Another big chapeau obviously goes to all the riders who made their way up to Plan de Corones yesterday,Capelli included.Poor Ermanno Capelli in fact arrived out of time limit for just 19" and had to retire from the race.He had fallen two days before of Kronplatz and so he said he couldn't do any better yesterday because of the pain in his hip.I'm really sorry for him right now,since it's the second time he manages to run the Giro and it's the second time he has to retire because of a physical problem.Anyway don't worry Ermanno: you'll soon have other chances to show your skills.
Back to Kronplatz.The stage winner,as you may know,was Garzelli.I was really impressed by him,and Logic even has a few doubts about his result.A part of me says that Garzelli didn't ride as strong as Pellizotti did in 2008 (and that's good,if you consider that in 2008 it was even raining).And that same part of me adds that Garzelli never suffers the influence of rest days and that on the previous 2 stages he had rested.But still,I have some doubts.You're obviously free to disagree and say that I'm an hypocrite (I have doubts about Garzelli but I pretend everything's alright when Vinokourov wins Liége...): don't worry,I won't stop you (but then I'll ban you from here forever and ever...Perhaps ;) ).
Anyway,back to Plan de Corones.2nd was Evans,3rd was a very good Gadret.4th was a great Nibali,5th was Scarponi and 6th was Basso.7th was an exceptional Uran,8th was Vinokourov,9th and 10th were two surprising riders,Cataldo and Petrov.Also Samoilau raced a great TT.
The funny thing about Vinokourov is that he's even less smiley than Menchov.And then,he says 'Ivàn' and not 'Ivan' with the stress on the 'i' and this sounds verrry Russian.
15th was Szmyd (if he had raced for himself,I think he would have won),16th was Arroyo,17th Porte and 18th Sastre.Chris Sorensen 'took it easy' (even if I don't know if you can actually take it easy on a climb like that) and came 60th.
Even if everyone is focusing on the Basso-Evans duel,Arroyo is proving to be a very hard adversary for them.And then,riding a totally pink jersey,he also showed to be a very brave man.And also his mechanic,who ran for 200 meters with a bike on his shoulders during the last terrible km of yesterday's TT,must be a very brave man.Liquigas ds also had to run during the TT,but that was caused by the fact that the motorbike on which he was riding fell twice during the last part of the race.
And so here we arrive to today,a day on which we finally saw the riders riding in relaxed way.Or at least,some of them rode in a relaxed way.In fact some guys entered a breakaway and one of them,Monier,got his first victory after 6 years in professional Cycledom.Second was Hondo and third was a young Dutch,Kruijswijk.Also Nicki Sorensen was in the breakaway,but he didn't have a lot of luck.
The GC men arrived after 10 minutes,pulled by Liquigas guys.That was funny,since Liquigas so far has pulled everywhere but towards L'Aquila.
So,these were the last 3 days of race at the Giro.As you can see,no pics for this post and this is due to a little problem.In a few words,my new computer (the one on which I usually write my posts) has abandoned me on Monday and so I'm back to my old,big and sometimes slow pc. Therefore,if you notice more spelling mistakes than usual in this post,it's probably because I'm not used to typing on my old keyboard anymore.
Little ommunication to all readers out there: hopefully my new post will arrive after the Giro finish."Why?",I hear you ask.Well,simply,I've been awaiting this weekend since November because some of the stages are pretty near to my house,so I may (all this conditionals are due to scaramantic reasons) go to see them.If I do,be sure I'll write some 'Fangirl in action' posts.If you want to read my past posts connected to this topic,there should be some in October 2009,August 2009 and May 2009. Go there from the archive on the right of your screen,find the posts (A Fangirl in....),read them and,if you like them,click on the tag "Fangirl in action" to see the other ones (the one of October isn't actually that great,but those about the Tour de France really do rock!*).
http://blog.tv2.dk/chris.anker.ol/entry371759.html : usual link to Chris Sorensen's latest blog entry.
Anyway.The Zoncolan day was a really nice one,although I didn't enjoy the stage as I did back in 2007.This is probably due to the fact that in May 2007,during the Zoncolan stage,I had one of the first true 'Fangirl attacks' of my life.To cut a very long story short,I passed the whole afternoon on the sofa screaming "C'm on Andy,c'm on Andy,c'm on!!!" and feeling good because guys like Riccò and Di Luca had been dropped by my little hero in white.Some people could feel like making comparisons between Andy in 2007 and Richie Porte in 2010,but I assure you that Andy's exploit during the 2007 Giro was even bigger than the one that Richie is having now.Obviously you also have to consider that at the time Andy had been a pro for more than 2 years (Porte instead is a neo pro) and that the media interest around him (even if he never wore the Maglia Rosa) was far bigger than the one that there is now around Richie.
Anyway,back to the point: 2010 Zoncolan stage saw lots of tifosi (about 50 000 people) on the climb and many riders with very painful expressions.What impressed me most was that it was very hard for the riders to climb in big groups,so the majority of them climbed the mountain alone.It is more painful,but at least you don't have to wait your 'sufference companions' and you can hope to make your pain last less.
Basso was very strong and dropped Evans without even getting up on his pedals.I've never been a big fan of Ivan's riding style (I prefer guys who ride in a more spectacular way),but I have to admit that he was good on Sunday.Second was Evans and third an amazing Scarponi.I didn't believe he could race such a good Giro,so I have to apologize to him and to all the people (journalists in primis) who pointed him out as a Giro favourite already 2 months ago.
4th was a good Damiano Cunego,5th was Vinokourov and 6th was Sastre (Carlito,what hve you done?). 7th was Nibali (wait a few years and Italy will have a new good contender for Tour de France),8th was an exceptional, unbelievable, fantastic, amazing,wonderful,super Marco Pinotti from Osio. 9th was the very good Daniel Martin,while 10th was Gadret,who is racing a great Giro.He's a former mtb racer with a big love for Pantani,mountains are his terrain and so I think he'll be at the front also in the next stages.11th was a solid Arroyo,who kept his Maglia Rosa and showed that he'll be a strong contender for the overall victory.Wegelius was 15th and Richie Porte was 18th.Richie crossed the finish-line 4 seconds before of Chris Anker Sorensen, who probably helped him a lot during the whole stage.Italian chronists were pretty surprised by Chris' attitude over the last days.For example,they were surprised because after the Asolo stage Chris followed Porte also after the finish-line and complimented him a lot of times,although he had lost the Pink jersey.That's friendship,baby.
Chris,however,actually had his few seconds of glory on the morning of Sunday,when he rode to the start of the race with an Inter scarf in his hands.Unfortunately I missed the scene,but my father was very happy to see it and told me about it as soon as he saw me in the morning. Well,if Chris keeps on behaving this way,I think I'll manage to spread the Chris Anker's love all around the family in a very easy way.
Back to the Zoncolan stage,Garzelli lost about 9 minutes from Basso (the previous day he had lost 20 minutes from Nibali) and also Gerdemann suffered a lot on the climb.But after all,who didn't suffer on Sunday? Even I,as a supporter,almost felt the riders' pain.Actually,I think that it would be very nice to dedicate at least 2 lines to every rider who managed to end Sunday stage.Unfortunately,since it's studying,and not blogging,that makes me get good marks at school,I fear I have to avoid it.Anyway I let you know that I have more respect for guys like Cameron Meyer,Michael Morkov,Graeme Brown,Rick Flens,Gregory Henderson and so on than for the guys who got retired on the morning of the Zoncolan stage although they didn't have any physical problem.Therefore,a big Chapeau to everyone who made it to the Zoncolan top.
Another big chapeau obviously goes to all the riders who made their way up to Plan de Corones yesterday,Capelli included.Poor Ermanno Capelli in fact arrived out of time limit for just 19" and had to retire from the race.He had fallen two days before of Kronplatz and so he said he couldn't do any better yesterday because of the pain in his hip.I'm really sorry for him right now,since it's the second time he manages to run the Giro and it's the second time he has to retire because of a physical problem.Anyway don't worry Ermanno: you'll soon have other chances to show your skills.
Back to Kronplatz.The stage winner,as you may know,was Garzelli.I was really impressed by him,and Logic even has a few doubts about his result.A part of me says that Garzelli didn't ride as strong as Pellizotti did in 2008 (and that's good,if you consider that in 2008 it was even raining).And that same part of me adds that Garzelli never suffers the influence of rest days and that on the previous 2 stages he had rested.But still,I have some doubts.You're obviously free to disagree and say that I'm an hypocrite (I have doubts about Garzelli but I pretend everything's alright when Vinokourov wins Liége...): don't worry,I won't stop you (but then I'll ban you from here forever and ever...Perhaps ;) ).
Anyway,back to Plan de Corones.2nd was Evans,3rd was a very good Gadret.4th was a great Nibali,5th was Scarponi and 6th was Basso.7th was an exceptional Uran,8th was Vinokourov,9th and 10th were two surprising riders,Cataldo and Petrov.Also Samoilau raced a great TT.
The funny thing about Vinokourov is that he's even less smiley than Menchov.And then,he says 'Ivàn' and not 'Ivan' with the stress on the 'i' and this sounds verrry Russian.
15th was Szmyd (if he had raced for himself,I think he would have won),16th was Arroyo,17th Porte and 18th Sastre.Chris Sorensen 'took it easy' (even if I don't know if you can actually take it easy on a climb like that) and came 60th.
Even if everyone is focusing on the Basso-Evans duel,Arroyo is proving to be a very hard adversary for them.And then,riding a totally pink jersey,he also showed to be a very brave man.And also his mechanic,who ran for 200 meters with a bike on his shoulders during the last terrible km of yesterday's TT,must be a very brave man.Liquigas ds also had to run during the TT,but that was caused by the fact that the motorbike on which he was riding fell twice during the last part of the race.
And so here we arrive to today,a day on which we finally saw the riders riding in relaxed way.Or at least,some of them rode in a relaxed way.In fact some guys entered a breakaway and one of them,Monier,got his first victory after 6 years in professional Cycledom.Second was Hondo and third was a young Dutch,Kruijswijk.Also Nicki Sorensen was in the breakaway,but he didn't have a lot of luck.
The GC men arrived after 10 minutes,pulled by Liquigas guys.That was funny,since Liquigas so far has pulled everywhere but towards L'Aquila.
So,these were the last 3 days of race at the Giro.As you can see,no pics for this post and this is due to a little problem.In a few words,my new computer (the one on which I usually write my posts) has abandoned me on Monday and so I'm back to my old,big and sometimes slow pc. Therefore,if you notice more spelling mistakes than usual in this post,it's probably because I'm not used to typing on my old keyboard anymore.
Little ommunication to all readers out there: hopefully my new post will arrive after the Giro finish."Why?",I hear you ask.Well,simply,I've been awaiting this weekend since November because some of the stages are pretty near to my house,so I may (all this conditionals are due to scaramantic reasons) go to see them.If I do,be sure I'll write some 'Fangirl in action' posts.If you want to read my past posts connected to this topic,there should be some in October 2009,August 2009 and May 2009. Go there from the archive on the right of your screen,find the posts (A Fangirl in....),read them and,if you like them,click on the tag "Fangirl in action" to see the other ones (the one of October isn't actually that great,but those about the Tour de France really do rock!*).
http://blog.tv2.dk/chris.anker.ol/entry371759.html : usual link to Chris Sorensen's latest blog entry.
* yes,I'm a modest woman ;)
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