Although 5 of my teachers have decided to examine me in the last 6 days, showing their evilness and their hatred towards me , here I am to write a post about what's happened in Cycledom over the last few days.
First of all, this week the winners of the 3 Velo d'Or awards have been announced. And the 2010 winner of the main prize was....Fabian 'Spartacus' Cancellara!
I completely agree with this result, especially because this year Fabian won Roubaix in a totally spectacular way. Moreover, he won Flanders, wore the yellow jersey at the Tour, helped Andy on the cobblestones, decided to neutralise the Spa stage of the Tour, won 2 stages at La Grande Boucle and also won the TT World Championship for the 4th time in his life. Amazing.
Second in the trophy's classification was Alberto Contador, while third was Andy Schleck.
As far as the Velo d'or français was concerned, its winner was Thomas Voeckler. Me was very surprised by this because I thought that Sylvain Chavanel was going to win that award. And instead no, there comes Thomas and gets the prize. Third however was the track sprinter Grégory Bauge.
First of all, this week the winners of the 3 Velo d'Or awards have been announced. And the 2010 winner of the main prize was....Fabian 'Spartacus' Cancellara!
I completely agree with this result, especially because this year Fabian won Roubaix in a totally spectacular way. Moreover, he won Flanders, wore the yellow jersey at the Tour, helped Andy on the cobblestones, decided to neutralise the Spa stage of the Tour, won 2 stages at La Grande Boucle and also won the TT World Championship for the 4th time in his life. Amazing.
Second in the trophy's classification was Alberto Contador, while third was Andy Schleck.
As far as the Velo d'or français was concerned, its winner was Thomas Voeckler. Me was very surprised by this because I thought that Sylvain Chavanel was going to win that award. And instead no, there comes Thomas and gets the prize. Third however was the track sprinter Grégory Bauge.
Velo d'or Espoirs instead was won by Andy Schleck in front of Nibali and Cavendish.
Talking about this award, I'm afraid I'm going to write something that the most of you won't like. And that something is: I don't think Andy deserved that award more than Nibali.
Ok, Andy was second in the Tour just because of a mechanical problem. As well as that, he is younger than Nibali and this year the battle between him and Contador made the Tour very exciting. Moreover, the Luxembourgian won 2 stages at this year Tour and also won the TT national champiobship. But at the same time Andy didn't get any good result in the Ardenne classics and was also kicked out from his team during the Vuelta, which he rode without getting any decent result.
Nibali instead won a stage at the Giro, wore the pink jersey, was 3rd in the GC of the Italian GT and in September he won la Vuelta. As well as that, he rode very well in the Worlds. Therefore I think that, if we have to compare Nibali and Andy's seasons, Vincenzo's one was more regular and more successful than Andy's. That's why I think he, and not Andy, should have won that award.
Nibali instead won a stage at the Giro, wore the pink jersey, was 3rd in the GC of the Italian GT and in September he won la Vuelta. As well as that, he rode very well in the Worlds. Therefore I think that, if we have to compare Nibali and Andy's seasons, Vincenzo's one was more regular and more successful than Andy's. That's why I think he, and not Andy, should have won that award.
Anyway, after getting my part of insults for what I've just written, I go on to another topic. In fact, the other day Gazzetta gave the news that Gino Bartali, one of the most famous cyclists ever, is going to enter 'Il Giardino dei Giusti', which is internationally known as 'Yad Vashem'. Under this name people indicate a number of gardens (spread all around the World), where every person that during the 2° World War saved at least one person of Jewish origins, has a tree planted in their honour.
Gino Bartali is considered to have saved a lot of Jews during the 2° WW since, using his trainings on the bike as an excuse, he used to go from a city to another with false documents hidden in his bike (for example, inside the handlebars). These false documents were then given to people of Jewish origins, that showed them to the authorities in order to avoid being sent to the Nazis lager.
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/guldhammer-steps-away-from-professional-cycling : The Danish rider Rasmus Guldhammer, 21 year-old, cancelled his contract with Columbia and decided to step away from professional cycling. He told DR Sporten that he missed his friends and family during his first year with a ProTour squad, therefore he decided to quit professional sport for one year.
Gino Bartali is considered to have saved a lot of Jews during the 2° WW since, using his trainings on the bike as an excuse, he used to go from a city to another with false documents hidden in his bike (for example, inside the handlebars). These false documents were then given to people of Jewish origins, that showed them to the authorities in order to avoid being sent to the Nazis lager.
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/guldhammer-steps-away-from-professional-cycling : The Danish rider Rasmus Guldhammer, 21 year-old, cancelled his contract with Columbia and decided to step away from professional cycling. He told DR Sporten that he missed his friends and family during his first year with a ProTour squad, therefore he decided to quit professional sport for one year.
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/chris-anker-sorensen-aims-to-be-top-climber-at-2011-giro-ditalia : Chris Anker Sorensen is going to ride the Giro again next year and this is obviously causing me great fangirlistic attacks. As well as that, also Lovely Lovkvist has said he's going to race the Giro next year, so the battle between me and my sister (I support CA, she supports Thomas) has already begun.
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/barredo-bids-farewell-to-quick-step-team-and-fans : Carlos Barredo is leaving Quick Step in order to join Rabobank. However, Carlos won't be able to race in his new team until 28 February 2011. In fact, he's been banned from 1st January 2011 to 28th February because of the fist fight he had with Rui Costa at this year Tour.
Talking about bans, also Johan Bruyneel has been banned for 2 months after that Radioshack wore Livestrong jerseys in the last stage of the Tour.
On http://www.gazzetta.it/Sport_Vari/Golf/27-10-2010/brevi-inverno-711609874872.shtml there are some short, interesting news. For example, on that page you can discover that, just 3 days ago, Philippe Gilbert and his wife Patricia became the parents of the little Alan (congratulations to the whole Gilbert's family!!).
However, one of the news that caught my attention was the 'Tour, WADA chiede controlli notturni' one. In fact, WADA has said that it would be better to repeal the unwritten rule according to which riders can't be tested by the anti-doping guys in the middle of the night. To me this makes no sense, because cyclists are human being too and they need a good night sleep as well when they're riding a Grand Tour. Actually, I think that waking up riders in the middle of the night could create differences also in their stage's results, since it's obvious that those who wouldn't sleep because of the controls would probably feel their legs much heavier than anyone else on the following day.
CANCUN CRITERIUM: The race was won by Mancebo. The Schlecks didn't start because their flight to Europe (?) was anticipated of some hours and prevented them from taking part in the race.
Some pictures (featuring los Schlecks, Kreuziger, Sagan and Vinokourov, who wore a newspaper rather than a t-shirt) can be found here: http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/album.php?aid=293162&id=103246938668&fbid=490618488668 .
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/barredo-bids-farewell-to-quick-step-team-and-fans : Carlos Barredo is leaving Quick Step in order to join Rabobank. However, Carlos won't be able to race in his new team until 28 February 2011. In fact, he's been banned from 1st January 2011 to 28th February because of the fist fight he had with Rui Costa at this year Tour.
Talking about bans, also Johan Bruyneel has been banned for 2 months after that Radioshack wore Livestrong jerseys in the last stage of the Tour.
On http://www.gazzetta.it/Sport_Vari/Golf/27-10-2010/brevi-inverno-711609874872.shtml there are some short, interesting news. For example, on that page you can discover that, just 3 days ago, Philippe Gilbert and his wife Patricia became the parents of the little Alan (congratulations to the whole Gilbert's family!!).
However, one of the news that caught my attention was the 'Tour, WADA chiede controlli notturni' one. In fact, WADA has said that it would be better to repeal the unwritten rule according to which riders can't be tested by the anti-doping guys in the middle of the night. To me this makes no sense, because cyclists are human being too and they need a good night sleep as well when they're riding a Grand Tour. Actually, I think that waking up riders in the middle of the night could create differences also in their stage's results, since it's obvious that those who wouldn't sleep because of the controls would probably feel their legs much heavier than anyone else on the following day.
CANCUN CRITERIUM: The race was won by Mancebo. The Schlecks didn't start because their flight to Europe (?) was anticipated of some hours and prevented them from taking part in the race.
Some pictures (featuring los Schlecks, Kreuziger, Sagan and Vinokourov, who wore a newspaper rather than a t-shirt) can be found here: http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/album.php?aid=293162&id=103246938668&fbid=490618488668 .
During the world championships one of commentators from Eurosport was very unhappy, because the day before "Contador's problems came out" he sent filled questionnaire to Velo, and voted of course for Contador. He felt bad with it and was even thinking, whether he could "change his mind" for Cancellara.
RispondiEliminaMost probably you are right about Nibali, but TdF is always more spectacular race (regardless of the fact that it can turn out most boring of all grand tours), so highly most valued are those who participate in it and lose from dopers, rather than the ones who win other races before other dopers. Probably I forgot about the presumption of innocence principle...
On Mr. Johan Bruyneel - UCI really "showed off". This situation was... hmm when I write what is my opinion about it, most likely UCI will suspend me. Ok, I understand dura lex sed lex, I even agree with it. But what bad could happen if RadioShack raced last stage in other jerseys. If they adhere to the letter of the law so strictly, why they let cyclists drink champagne during the race, or maybe it is alcohol-free???
I would like to know if Vino's photos from Cancun will be shown on meetings of the support group of anonymous enthusiasts of the Kazakh? I wanted to volunteer as therapist, but then I came a conclusion that I didn't know a lot about it (therapy) and the honesty would demand to admit who is my favourite outlaw ;)
Ania
If they didn't give the Velo d'Or to Cancellara it would've been quite criminal. Contador could spare it for a year :P
RispondiEliminaAnd I thought the same about Nibali, but mostly because I felt miffed that a French magazine is, as always, biased in favour of the Tour. Yes, Andy almost won and was downright great, but the rest of his season (and a season is long) was a bit dull. But it seems the rest of the season matters only to supporters of this sport.
But I was smirking throughout Ania's explanation :P
About the WADA after dark surprise tests, they are thought to prevent micro doping and I agree, but it's a controversial idea that borders harassment. Unless they test all the favourites for next day stage to make the race even more exciting :P
And now we've discovered Vino's a fashionista! As a matter of fact he's wearing classic signature Galliano Gazzette pattern, memorably wore by Carrie Bradshaw in SATC series 3. The guy never stop to amaze me. I'm needing therapy more than ever.
Francesca
Fede,
RispondiEliminaI agree totally with you that Nibali deserved to be awarded the Velo d'or Espoirs this year.
Brenda
I agree that Nibali should have won the award. But those frenchman think le Tour is the best, the most important, the biggest, the .. everything. So Andy it is.
RispondiElimina@ Ania: Poor Eurosport comentator. At least, that's what he deserved for not voting Cancellara. Imo Fabian was simply amazing this year, he won so many races and in such a spectacular way! Moreover, all those stupid rumours about the presence of an engine in his bike didn't affect his performances at all.
RispondiEliminaTalking about the Tour, I can understand that French journalists consider it the most important race of the world and mainly pay attention to that race, but I think that this is a wrong behaviour. The season begins in February and ends in October, so I think it's unfair to give important awards to those who do well just during the Tour. But still, this is just my opinion.
I think the UCI took a very bad decision about Bruyneel. Radioshack guys didn't wear those jerseys because they wanted to do something different or because they wanted to receive attention from the medias; they wore those jerseys because they wanted to give a strong message about the fight against cancer. People at UCI should be more open-minded, no doubts about that.
Talking about Vinokourov, does any of you think that he should have been given a Velo d'Or award too? He won Liége, wore the pink jersey at the Giro, let 56 riders escape from the group on a stage of la corsa rosa, won a stage at the Tour, helped Contador, arrived 2nd in San Sebastian...
Btw yes, the 'Vino in Cancun' pictures will be shown at the meetings of the support group.
@ Francesca: there's a reason if in Italy people always say that the French just care about themselves and about everything that comes from France... I'm afraid that they see the Tour in this way also because of this. It's in their DNA ;)
More seriously, I don't like riders who just focus on the Tour and that's why this year I was a bit disappointed by the Schlecks' season. In fact, if you don't consider the month of July, this year the brothers didn't get any particularly brilliant victory (apart perhaps from Frank's Tour de Suisse victory). Hopefully things will change next year.
If I were a rider and couldn't sleep at least 8 hours before of every GT stage, I'd probably retire from the race after less than a week. I once read that, during this year Giro (if my memory doesn't fail me), Basso had a book with him and that his roomate read some pages of it to him every evening. In fact, guys at Liquigas were afraid that reading could have been too tiring for Ivan, so it was up to his roommate to read him the pages of the book. Moreover, Chris Sorensen often says that, during the Tour, you desperately try to rest as much as possible.
If WADA makes controls in the middle of the night, I really don't know how the guys could survive a GT.
I really hope that with the arrival of Curaçao's photos (sweet Luxembourgian brothers playing with dolphins) this Vino-fever will be over for everyone of us ;)
@ Brenda: it's nice to see that I'm not the only one who thinks that Nibali this year deserved Velo d'Or espoirs more than Andy. Actually, I thought I was going to be insulted for my opinion about it! ;)
@ Mar: yes, the Frenchmen often think they're the best in the World and they simply adore everything that comes from their country. Moreover, there is a big sportive rivalry between Italians and Frenchmen, so this could have also played a little role in the Velo d'or Espoirs awards. In addition we must remember that Andy speaks French very well, while Nibali probably doesn't speak it. So, Andy won and Nibali got second :P
RispondiElimina