A Fangirl at Giro di Lombardia:

When you go to watch Giro di Lombardia live, you should keep clear in your mind that, on that day, the weather won't be sunny. Perhaps it won't rain, perhaps it won't be cold, but the weather won't be sunny. It's an unwritten law, according to which everyone who dares to go Como on the Lombardy day would better bring an umbrella, a pair of boots and a very warm jacket with him. And, keeping that unwritten law in mind, supporters who hear their familiars saying "We go to watch Lombardy unless it rains" should do everything they can to avoid this little trap, that also my familiars tried to use with me the other day.
'We'll go to watch Tour of Lombardy, dear, but if it rains we'll stay at home and watch the race from our couch'. When my parents told me this, looking at them, I said in a very calm way: 'We're talking about Tour of Lombardy. The weather won't be sunny that day and you know it. You're trying to trap me just like you did this May with the Brescia stage of the Giro!!'. Eventually my protest brought me a good result and, on yesterday's morning, my mum said that we would have gone to see the race, no matter the weather's conditions.
Actually, yesterday morning the weather in Bergamo wasn't that bad. It wasn't wonderful, ok, but I already knew this. It's the unwritten rule of Lombardy Tour, remember?
My day at school went away quietly. I didn't fall asleep on the bus and din't miss the bus stop (and that was good), my Latin teacher didn't examine me and also our English composition test wasn't as awful as I had predicted.
At 1 pm I got on the family's car and we drove to Como. After arriving there, we visited the city for a hour (the Cathedral is amazing) and learned that, if you want to visit Como, you have to pay a lot of attention to your feet. We learned this in a very disgusting way, since in less than 3 minutes every member of the family had walked on something that a dog had abandoned on the road a few minutes before of our arrival. How disgusting.
We got in Como at 2.05 pm and at 2.08 it started to rain- and it actually kept on raining all day long. Luckily I had my faithful green umbrella although it didn't save me from getting a dreadful cold and an amazing cough (every time I start coughing I go on for at least 20 seconds without stopping).
A 3.40 pm my family and I arrived near to the finish-line. There was the arrive-village there and me could see Beppe Conti. Then, while walking, I noticed a man under an umbrella, talking with other 3 people. I stopped all of a sudden, stopped my father and made a very astonished expression. In front of me, looking cool and relaxed, there was Denis Menchov.
Now, if there was someone I didn't expect to meet yesterday, that someone was Denis Menchov. And instead, there he was, looking relaxed and chatting with other people.
I looked at him for a while, not knowing what to do, when a boy asked him for an autograph. Denis didn't look annoyed by that and so I went next to him too. 'Denis, por favor...', I said. He looked at me and signed me an autograph.
Then, me went: 'Denis, por favor, podemos hacer también una foto?' He looked at me, said 'Sin problema' and so I could have my picture with Menchov taken. He was very nice with me and he really looked cool. And then, let me say, he looks much better and much younger live. As well as that, he also doesn't look that tall. In fact, he's 'just' 180 cms tall, while me thought that he was at least 185. Ah, the little surprises that you can have on a rainy day in Como...

By the way, surprises weren't over yet. We went to the bus area and there a member of my family started to joke. 'I'm sure that, if you go to SB bus, you'll surely meet Andy. It's raining, so he'll have already ended his race'.
We actually went to SB bus but we didn't meet anyone there. Or better, we didn't meet anyone from team SB. In fact, in that place together with SB bus there was also Rabobank's one. And there, guess who we met? Oscar Freire.

He got off a car together with Nardello and another man. Then he got two bike wheels out of the car and went to the bus. I didn't know what to do (to disturb him or not? that was the question!) but then Nardello told me that, if I wanted to ask Oscar for an autograph, I didn't have to be shy. So when Oscar reappeared from behind the bus I asked him for a picture.Also my father wanted to be part of the picture and in that moment he was probably one of the happiest person on Earth. He's always supported Freire and he's always liked Menchov, so he couldn't stop smiling after meeting him.

While going back to the finish line, we had one last meeting. In fact we saw some men talking to a boy and realised that said boy was Roman Kreuziger. In picture Roman doesn't alway look that good but, seen 'live', he is very handsome. And he's got wonderful blue eyes. We wished him good luck for next year, asked him for an autograph and then we also took a picture. In that moment, one of the Czech supporters who were there talking with him made a funny remark in his native language. I don't know what he said, but I just know that the other supporters laughed.
Eventually, while going back to the finish-zone, we also saw a Lampre rider. He had just got retired and he was shaking his teeth in a terrifying way. Poor boy.
Then my family and I found ourselves in the smallest bar I've ever seen, together with some supporters who had just arrived with their bikes and other people.
After drinking a cappuccino, we went to wait for the riders' first passage in Como. While waiting, we saw a Quick Step rider entering a hotel. I looked more carefully, noticed a tatoo on his leg and understood that I had just witnessed Chavanel's retire from Tour of Lombardy. A few seconds afterwards, also a Milram rider was seen riding towards a hotel.
While I was waiting then I also started to talk to some people. An old super appasionated woman told us that the riders were riding pretty slowly and that there had been bad crash on a descent. Then she complained about the fact that her husband didn't allow her to go to Australia to see the Worlds (at that point I was going to ask her whether she wanted to adopt me as niece).
A few minutes later I saw two Luxembourgians and decided to ask them (in German) whether they knew where Andy was. My question was very confused, but they understood and told me that they had no idea of Andy's performance.
Then a man started to talk with us and told us that Gilbert had just attacked. Then he phoned home and found out that Philippe was at the head of the race together with Scarponi.
We saw them riding in front of us a few minutes later. The faces of the riders were really dirty and they looked very tired.A minute after Gilbert and Scarponi, a group formed by Uran, Sanchez, Nibali, Mollema, Lastras, Barredo and Fuglsang arrived. After those riders had arrived, my familiars and I quickly ran to the finish-line and found a great place right under the 250 meters to go sign. From that point I could witness Gilbert's great victory (he raised his arms right in front of me) and, strange enough, one of the things that I noticed about him in that moment was his golden earring. After all, I was tired too ;)
A few second afterwards also Scarponi arrived. Then Lastras arrived, followed by Fuglsang and Nibali. I could witness their sprint and, when Jakob went back to the team buses together with a masseur, I can tell you that he was trembling like a leaf. In that moment, Fangirl wanted me to jump over the barriers and hug Jakob. Too bad that Logic didn't allow me to follow Fangirl's suggestion.
6th was Sanchez (and not Uran, as someone said), 7th was Nieve. 8th was a great Santambrogio (who, let me say it, has very wonderful eyes). Evans had got retired with about 10 kms to go and we knew that because, when we arrived to the 250 meters sign, we saw him riding towards his bus on the other side of the road.

9th was a tired Barredo, 10th was Caruso and 11th was a very good Gusev. All these riders had very dirty faces and looked terribly cold. Then Uran arrived together with the lanky Mollema. 14th was a great Devenyns, 15th was Wegmann. 16th was Van Avermaet (I couldn't recognise him because he was wearing his rain jacket and I didn't see his face well), 17th was Miholjevic.

He arrived with Mazzanti, the young (and strong) Paterski, Monfort and Horner. 22nd was Bonnafond, 23rd Van Goolen, 24th Pauwels. 25th was Rubiera, 27th was Mori, 28th was Serpa (who still had the strength to make a sprint for getting the 28th position). 29th was Dumoulin, 30th was Bazayev, who looks much more Kazakhistani than Vinokourov and had a very nice season finale. Talking about Vino: at a certain point Fangirl believed she had seen him, but then Logic explained her that the boy she had seen riding towards the Astana bus was Gasparotto, and not Vino. 'But they have the same hair colour!', Fangirl cried. 'Yes, too bad that's the only thing they've got in common', Logic coldly replied.

31st was Peterson, the only Garmin rider who ended the race. 32nd was Froehlinger, who six minutes later was followed by a heroic Nordhaug and by Saramotins.

So these were the 34 heroes who ended the race. I use the word 'heroes' because, if me got a cold and a cough after yesterday, I don't want to imagine with what they've come down right now. Chapeau to every of these riders: the weather conditions yesterday were really bad and the descents extremely slippery.

Ater the last rider had crossed the finish-line, I went back to the bus zone. There was no one outside of SB bus but me spotted a Luxembourg car (a black Audi) a bit far from it. The windows were black, so I couldn't see who was driving it. But it was a car coming from Garage Losch, so Fangirl has a pretty precise idea of who its owner was.

While walking me saw some masseurs throwing some water bottles away. A familiar asked for one of them and so now I've got 2 Cervélo's water bottles, a Cofidis one and a Radioshack one. The Cofidis bottle wasn't empty and, guess what it contained? WATER!!! If Ettore Torri reads this fact, he'll probably be very surprised by it (although the water bottle had a light smell of raspberry, so I suppose that it probably contained also a bit of Gatorade at a certan point of the race).

In front of Saxo Bank's bus I came across Menchov again, and we looked at each other. Larsson was talking with someone outside of the bus, but I didn't want to bother him.So, my family and I decided to go back to our car.

On our way to it, we saw a Cervélo rider talking to another boy and touching his cheek to check how cold they were. Poor boy.

After bumping into Scarponi and Lastras on their way back from the anti-doping, and after 30 minutes of walk, we finally got into our car. I hadn't met Andy Schleck and Chris Sorensen, but still I was satisfied anyway. After all, you don't bump into guys like Menchov, Freire and Kreuziger every day, don't you?

PS: Pictures were taken by me. The quality, as usual, isn't that good. My picture with Kreuziger hasn't been published because my sister (who appeared in it too) didn't want to. I know that the pictures aren't that great (and nor is the post, which has been written in hurry), but I was too cold to take more/better pictures or videos of the riders. That's all folks!