Primeras etapas de la Vuelta a España y otras noticias:

My offline life is keeping me very busy in this period, so don't expect a big number of posts from me in these days. Unfortunately for those of you who enjoy reading the bullshits I write, this busy period of mine will probably go on until Christmas, especially if you consider that in two weeks time my last year of high school begins.

Anyway, let's enjoy the last days in which I can write bullshits without worrying about my duties and write another useless post.

VUELTA VUELTA VUELTA:
La Vuelta a España empezò en Sevilla el sabado pasado. 'Sevilla qué maravilla!', some people usually say. Unfortunately I couldn't watch the TTT live because, I admit it, I was out with my friends, getting depressed about...well, you can guess it ;) Anyway I know that HTC Columbia won (I could actually see the last part of Andalucia Caja Sur's performance and get updates about how the TTT went) and that Cav got the red jersey.

Liquigas got the second place in the TTT and this confirms that the Italian team really knows how to get good results in this kind of races.

The second stage of the race was won by Yahueni Hutarovich, who outsprinted Cavendish, Farrar and Petacchi. I couldn't see this stage either and this is a thing I pretty regret. In fact I would have loved to see Hutarovich winning in front of the best sprinters of the world, since I think that was probably a very exciting (and surprising) moment. However Yahueni really deserved a big victory and I'm glad that he finally got it.

The third stage was the first one that I could see live (it was high time!). During it Ben Swift, a promising British sprinter, abandoned the race. He was the second Sky rider to do so, since John Lee Augustyn had previously got retired as well. Apparently, a lot of guys at team Sky have come down with a virus who makes them vomit very often and that's why 2 of them have already got retired. In such a bad situation it's hard to stay in your own bed, so I think we can just guess how hard it must be to ride a bike in a very hot weather with a virus like that in your body.
Btw, the stage had an uphill finish and there was a pretty long climb with a few kms to go. Andy Schleck was dropped there and finished the stage 14' after the winner.

On that long ascent Katusha set the pace with riders like Karpets, Caruso and Pozzato. Apropos: when I saw Pippo, I thought his new look was a bad joke. Moustache and that horrible pair of glasses...And his tattoo on the arm! Gosh, what will happen to the World Champion jersey if Pippo really becomes World Champion in Melbourne?
Btw, after a long and narrow descent (was it an impression of mine, or did Frank Schleck have some problems there?) the riders arrived on the last km climb. The last 'escapado', the unlucky Serafin Martinez, was caught there.

Gilbert easily took the lead of the peloton at the beginning of the climb and won in an apparently easy way. If he flies this way also in Australia, I think the Belgian will be a hard contender for the Worlds' victory-in fact,he isn't just fast: he's also resistant.And, according to many, the parcours of this year Worlds doesn't suit pure sprinters, but suits those who are fast and don't have problems with keeping a high tempo on little climbs. In fewer words, Melbourne parcours perfectly suits guys like Philippe Gilbert.
Second in the stage came J.Rodriguez, third was Anton, 4th Nibali (the 'Nibalite' is causing many victims here in Italy right now),5th a great Grega Bole (I like him), 6th was Roche, 7th a surprising Menchov (the climb didn't suit him too much but still he managed to get a 7th placement), 8th was Mosquera, 9th Arroyo and 10th Vichot. Frank Schleck came in 13th, behind Pozzato and Tondo, with 19" of delay from the winner. Gilbert also got the red jersey, since Cavendish crossed the finish-line 25 minutes behind him.

Yesterday's stage ended on a very steep climb (it hit 23% at one point), which has been defined 'the Spanish version of Mur de Huy' by many. On such a hard climb I expected something good from Rodriguez, and instead the victory went to Igor Anton.
On the penultimate climb of the day a group of 23 men was formed at the head of the race. All the main GC contenders were there-or, at least, almost all the GC contenders were there. In fact, Sastre had some troubles on that climb and eventually crossed the finish-line with 1'34" of delay from the stage winner. Still on the penultimate climb, Andy Schleck had a mechanical problem (again!!!) and quietly crossed the finish-line 14' 36" after Anton.
The Basque rider won in front of Nibali and Peter Velits (who made a very good performance). 4th was JR (Joaquin Rodriguez), 5th an exhausted Gilbert, 6th an excellent Van Garderen (look out for him, since he might be the surprise of this year race), 7th was Mosquera, 8th Roche, 9th Ruben Plaza, 10th Uran, 11th Menchov, 12th Arroyo, 13th Frank Schleck. 14th was Marzio Bruseghin, a rider who I ignored in my Vuelta's predictions - and that might have been a mistake, since Marzio is a very good GC rider.

Today's stage suited sprinters and, in fact, the victory went to Farrar in front of Koldo Fernandez and Cavendish. Cav started the sprint too early this afternoon and so he was easily passed by Tyler in the last meters. 4th was a surprising Tosatto, 5th was Petacchi, 6th was Sebastien Chavanel.
The red jersey is still on Gilbert's shoulders.

FANGIRL'S CONSPIRACY THEORY:
Talking about la Vuelta, Fangirl believes that La Gazzetta's journalists are a bit against the Schleck brothers. In today's paper edition of the newspaper in fact they pointed out Andy's poor performances in the last stages and then they also claimed that Frank Schleck disappointed them in the last days. Is Fangirl exaggerating things (as Logic suggests) or not? That is the question.

LUXEMBOURG TEAM NEWS:
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/phinney-considering-his-career-options-for-2011 : the Taylor Phinney-mania hasn't taken off in Italy yet, but I've heard many people talking about this young American in a totally delighted way. And now it seems that Taylor has received a job offer from the famous unnamed Luxembourgian team of the Schleck brothers.

The 20 year-old rider also received offers from BMC and RadioShack, but said he hasn't decided yet what his new team will be.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/trek-to-supply-bikes-to-new-luxembourg-team : It's official: the Schleck brothers are going to ride Trek bikes next year. 'Hopefully', Evil Logic whispers, 'Trek's chains will be better than Specialized's ones...'

SAD MOMENT DU POST:
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/laurent-fignon-passes-away : Laurent Fignon lost his battle against cancer yesterday and passed away at the age of 50.

In his career he won 2 Tour de France (the first of which was won when Laurent was just 23) and 1 Giro. He also lost a Tour de France for just 8" and lost a Giro d'Italia during the last TT of the race. Called 'the Professor' for his looking glasses and for his passion for books, Laurent also won 2 Milano-Sanremo and a Fleche Wallonne.

During the last Tour de France he found the strength of working for the French tv in spite of his illness. He had bad words for Andy Schleck, but now this doesn't matter anymore.

Rest in peace, Laurent.