Bennati to Team Luxembourg, Porte wants freedom and random marketing reflections of mine:

To everyone's joy, miss Fede is pretending she doesn't have any history homework for tomorrow and is here to delight you with a new great post of hers. In fact,it seems that the riders' exodus from the former glorious Team Saxo Bank may continue with Richie Porte's exit from the team and so me feels in need of commenting on this news. If things continue this way, in fact, I'm afraid that the only guys who'll take part in Saxo Bank's first training camp next year will be Chris Anker Sorensen and Alberto Contador. Or, perhaps, Chris will get fed up by Riis before of the end of this season too, will decide to create his own personal team with the help of Nicki Sorensen (the events of the last months show that you need to be in two and have the same surname to create a new successful team) and his new team will steal some other riders from Bjarne Riis as well. Obviously, the name of the team will be the Danish translation of the sentence 'We Sorensens aren't brothers, keep it in mind!'
I'm obviously trying to joke, but the latest news about Richie Porte (who may leave Saxo Bank too,although his contract expires at the end of next year) really leaves me speechless. If I were Bjarne, I would probably be very angry right now and my favourite dream would probably be Alberto Contador's 4th Tour de France triumph.
Actually, what's happening to Saxo Bank reminds me a lot of the Murphy Law. I don't have a big knowledge of it but, after all, who has never heard famous sentences like 'Everything that can go wrong, goes wrong' and so on? Actually, there is one application of the Murphy law which says that 'Everything goes wrong at the same time'. Well, imo these words seem born to describe what's been going on at Saxo Bank over the last months.
Talking about Porte, btw, the young Tasmanian has told Cyclingnews that, although he's got another year of contract with Riis, he hasn't decided yet whether he'll ride for SB or not next year (http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/porte-considering-his-options-for-2011 ).

Obviously Riis exploded with anger at the news and complained about the behaviour of Richie's agents and managers. 'The problem is that managers and agents are pushing the riders to their limits and advise their riders wrong. Contracts must be respected', Bjarne said. 'Richie's manager continues to provoke and try to push us. We have told them that it cannot happen. He cannot be bought off. Yet they continue.It's fair enough for a manager to ask,but when he is told no, he must stop. He pushes lawyers and everything at us,but according to the rules you don't come out of a contract unless both parties agree” (full article on http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/porte-must-stay-with-saxo-bank-riis-declares ).

Poor uncle Bjarne. Two days ago I thought nothing else could go wrong for Saxo Bank and instead, here comes this new problem. And the trouble is that, even if Richie eventually stays with Bjarne, I don't think his manager will have a good relationship with Riis in the future...

Anyway, although this is a very bad period for Saxo Bank (luckily for Riis the end of the marketing season is getting closer everyday!), we can't say the same about Team Luxembourg (or how the hell it is called) and its riders. The team in fact is always very active on the market and the other day Bennati said he's going to ride for it next season. Also Jens Voigt has been linked to this team very often, although he said he can't confirm any rumour yet.

Apropos, I don't know what your opinion is, but all this secrecy about this nre team is really annoying me. I mean, we're talking about a cycling team, not about a new top secret way of avoiding terroristic attacks to important places in the World! Supporters want to know which athletes are going to ride for their new favourite team next year, they want to know what the name of said team will be, they want to know which the colours of the new team kit will be (well, at least some do)!! I understand that guys at Team Luxembourg want to create suspense, but aren't they exaggerating a bit? I mean, Leif Hoste signed for Katusha the other day and everyone already knows about it.They didn't create any mistery or so and nobody complained about it, right?
Also Taylor Phinney, after some very long reflections, decided to join BMC, but didn't behave in a mysterious way as almost everyone who's leaving Saxo Bank is doing. After he had taken his decision, Phinney simply told the press and the supporters about it. And no one complained for the lack of suspense, right?
Luckily for Fangirls, however, there are also guys (a few ones, to say the truth) who have already admitted they're joining Team Luxembourg next season. One of them is the lanky Brice Feillu, the other one is Daniele Bennati (http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/bennati-to-luxembourg-team-for-two-years ). Logic doesn't like Bennati very much, especially because she had great hopes for him in the past but, unfortunately, those hopes have been disappointed over the last years. 3 years ago in fact it seemed that Daniele was going to become the new Petacchi, but nowadays instead he's a decent sprinter and nothing more. Hopefully he'll find new motivation at Team Luxembourg and will offer us good sprints like those he used to show us in the good old days.
On the other hand, however, Fangirl is completely happy to read that Bennati's joining SB. 'With him, the Schlecks and Brice Feillu, the team is already very good-looking! And the level of handsomeness of the team will become even higher when Fuglsang and Cancellara join it!!! Oh, I can't wait to see the new picture of the team's riders all together!!!', she's been screaming for the last twenty-four hours. 'Hopefully, this new team won't be just hot- it will also be strong. Because remember darling, that to win races you need fast legs and a clever head, not a good-looking face and a pair of blue eyes!', Logic replied her. Unfortunately, I'm not sure Fangirl has received the message yet...