Little news about Frank Schleck,TdF,Giro Donne and Random Link:

Before of beginning this post,let me say that Paul the Octopus is a myth,having predicted every single result of Germany Soccer Team in a flawless way during this edition of the World Championships.
Now that I've said this,we can begin.

SCHLECK NEWS:

First of all,I've pulled myself together after Frank's crash.Good old Televideo (the magic universe that every Italian can open by pushing a mysterious button on their tv control) yesterday highlighted Frank's crash and wrote at p.299 that Frank told Riis that he's already thinking of racing la Vuelta at the end of August.

Imo this is a very good information,since it shows that the morale of our boy hasn't been totally shattered by those fucking cobblestones and by his operation.The good thing about Frank's crash,at least,is that now he can spend a lot of time with Martine and Leea.

And about his chances to run la Vuelta: don't forget that Chris Sorensen broke his collarbone at the end of March and won a Giro stage at the beginning of May,without taking part in any race in the period of time that went from his crash to the Giro.Therefore me believes that there are good chances for Frank to find a good form during (if not before) the Spanish Grand Tour.Allez Frank!

TOUR DE FRANCE:

After this little Schleck news,let's now talk about how things went in the last 2 stages of the Tour.

Yesterday stage saw a group of brave riders (which included also De Greef) trying to break away from the peloton.As usual,their dreams of glory were shattered by the sprinters' teams,Columbia in particular.

Every best sprinter of the Tour could take part in the final sprint,which was very interesting.Farrar couldn't give his best because of a broken wrist,Cavendish was launched by Renshaw but then suddenly disappeared,Garmin did a very good job for Dean,Boasson Hagen tried to win,Turgot went to look for another placement,Hushovd did his best to get his second victory in a row,but the eventual stage winner was Petacchi.

Obviously this has caused a big euphoria here in Italy since Petacchi has already won 2 stages in 5 days and so everyone now is dreaming of watching Ale-Jet in green on the Champs Elysées,while Bettini is already thinking about bringing him to Melbourne this Autumn. Btw,didn't you have a deja-vu moment as well,when McEwen started his sprint right behind Petacchi? Me did.

On to today's stage,the victory was decided in a bunch sprint once again.The breakawayers du jour were Gutierrez,Van De Walle and El Fares and the last of them,Gutierrez,gave in with just 4 kms to go.Columbia really did a great job today and Cavendish eventually managed to win an important race this year.He's not the nicest person on Earth,but I have to admit that it was pretty moving to see him crying as a baby on the podium.Or,perhaps,I was moved by the delighted screams of the other women of the family ("Oh,he's crying! How cute!!").

Second was Ciolek,third was Boasson Hagen (Geraint Thomas helped him in a great way during the last meters of the race).Petacchi was out of Top 5 and complained (in a very kind way) that both Farrar and Dean had created him problems during the sprint.Watching the video of the sprint,I can't do nothing but agree with him.

The great shiver of the day was offered by Sylwester Szmyd,who during an interview with an Italian journalist finally revealed that the pronounciation of his name used by everyone here in Italy is wrong.Obviously the news shocked every single cycling supporter of this country.

Tomorrow's stage,anyway,is going to be hilly and may offer a great occasion to all the 'wanna go on a breakaway!" guys of the Tour.Oh,and still talking about tomorrow: perhaps you have heard something about a new law that the Italian Parliament is discussing in these days.Said law will restrict the press freedom here in Italy (at least,that's my opinion; if you have another one,tell me and we'll begin a polite debate) and so tomorrow there's going to be a big strike between the journalists. And because of this strike the Gazzetta journalists (also the ones who write on the website) won't work tomorrow.So if you check the website and don't notice any change,don't worry: it will be a consequence of this strike.

GIRO DONNE:

The 4th stage of Giro Donne was totally flat,so I think you can guess who won without my help. If you need some clues,well,I can tell you that the winner races for HTC Columbia,is German and,at the time,wore the pink jersey.Last clue: her surname begins with T and ends with 'eutenberg'.Understood?

After 4 stage wins in a row (3 sprints and a TT),we finally passed from Teutenberg's tiranny to Marianne Vos' reign (well,kind of).

The 5th stage of the race was very hilly and had an uphill finish after a 2.5 kms long climb (15% of difficulty in some points).Abbott set the pace at the beginning of the climb and just the best riders (Arndt,Guderzo,Pooley,Hausler,Vos and Zabelinskaya) could stay with her.With about 500 meters to go Guderzo attacked and was immediately followed by Vos,who outsprinted her and got the stage victory and the Maglia Rosa.

The following day,after a breakaway in which,once again,there was Silvia Valsecchi,the fight for the victory was still a question between the strongest riders of the race.On a hill Pooley seemed to have some problems,but then she quickly reached the group of the best riders and she even attacked.In the finale of the stage the strongest riders were divided in 2 groups.The first of them was formed by Vos,Arndt and Zabelinskaya,while the other one was pulled by Guderzo and included all the other GC contenders.In the sprint,Marianne Vos got her second victory in a row.

And here we arrive to today's stage,that ended in Albese con Cassano,the hometown of Fabio Casartelli.The stage began in Como,near to the village of Marina Romoli,a rider that had a very bad crash some weeks ago.Therefore,lots of riders and tifosi had some thoughts for her this afternoon.

This stage was pretty hard (it included the Ghisallo climb and a 13 kms long climb) and was won by Evelyn Stevens,American of team Columbia (they won 5 stages out of 7),who abandoned her race companions with a lot of kms to go and soloed to victory in Albese con Cassano.Second,with 42" of delay,was Marianne Vos,who outsprinted Arndt, Guderzo, Hausler,Abbott,Vysotska and Neben.Emma Pooley,just like Olga Zabelinskaya,arrived 5 minutes after the winner.Vos kept her Maglia Rosa.Here's the new GC top 10 :

1 Marianne Vos (Ned) Netherlands National Team
2 Judith Arndt (Ger) HTC Columbia Women 0:00:27
3 Tatiana Guderzo (Ita) Team Valdarno 0:01:09
4 Evelyn Stevens (USA) HTC Columbia Women 0:01:14
5 Claudia Häusler (Ger) Cervelo TestTeam 0:01:29
6 Mara Abbot (USA) US National Team 0:01:54
7 Amber Neben (USA) US National Team 0:03:02

8 Eivgenia Vysotska (Ukr) Team Valdarno 0:03:11
9 Olga Zabelinskaya (Rus) Safi - Pasta Zara 0:06:34
10 Emma Pooley (GBr) Cervelo TestTeam 0:06:45

RANDOM LINK:

http://blog.tv2.dk/chris.anker.ol/entry376054.html :this time Chris Anker Sorensen tells us that his roomie at the Tour is Jens Voigt and this seriously makes me think that,after Frank's crash,the title of 'Best TdF room' could go to this couple of riders.

As well as that,Chris also tells us how things are going for the TdF riders who love football.In the previous entry he wrote that Karsten Kroon watched Holland-Uruguay dressed in orange and wearing a pair of big orange sunglasses.As well as that,Kroon sweared that,if Holland becomes World Champion,he'll run a mountain stage with those glasses on.

In the last entry,instead,Chris talks about the disappointment of Jens Voigt and the other Germans on the team after that Germany went out from the Worlds (like Paul the Octopus had predicted).And he also informs us that,obviously,the Spanish mechanics of the team have already started to tease the Germans.