19/12/2008- 19/12/2010: my second year as a blogger:

Picture yourself in a big open field, on a warm summer evening, surrounded by many cool people who are taking part in the same party as you. Picture some little tables all around the field, cookies, cakes and some bottles of champagne over them (sangria for me please!) and imagine some good music playing softly. Then imagine me, aka miss Fede, using her not-that-flawless English in order to welcome you at My Blog's special party.

Yes, because exactly two years ago me started this random blog about cycling and today I'd like to celebrate this fact with you all, my dear readers. Unfortunately this isn't possible, since we all live in different countries. Therefore, all I can do is to invite you to this imaginary virtual party that, in my imagination, should be held in summer (and not in December, with 15 cms of snow on Bergamo's roads) and should also be attended by some of our favourite riders. So, let's raise our virtual glasses in a virtual toast to this blog and to us all ladies and gentlemen!

When I started this blog 2 years ago, I just wanted to have some fun and to have a space where I could write my opinions about cycling. At that time my mania for the Schleck brothers was even worse than today, since Andy and Frank were my main topic of discussions with my familiars. Now, luckily for my relatives, my passion for cycling has got much wider and I can express my views on complicated matters like doping, ProTour licenses, team's strategies during Grand Tours, riders' schedules and so on. And I can do it also in English!

When I think about my first posts I actually feel a bit ashamed. Some of them were so stupid and childish! However, nowadays this blog receives about 200 visits pro day, so it means that I've probably become a better blogger over the last 2 years.

As I said at the beginning, I'd really like to meet you all in person, so that we could also find out more about each other's lives. Hopefully, one day we'll finally manage to organise a big Schleck party somewhere in the world. Btw it must be a very big and 'central' space, since it will have to host many people from all over the world. In fact, this blog is read by people who come from: Canada, Usa, Guatemala, Brasil, Great Britain, Portugal, Spain, France, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Germany, Luxembourg, Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Sweden, Lettonia, Russia, Bosnia-Erzegovina, Hungary, Ukraine, Japan, Australia and other countries I don't remember right now (Malaysia and Singapore were in the list too) . So, if some of you knows a place where we can all gather together in the future, you can tell me- although I'm afraid it will take me some time to be able to attend a Schleck party outside Italy. It would be a bit strange to turn up at my parents and ask them money (a lot of money, if the party is not going to be held in Italy) to go to a Schleck party, wouldn't it?

In the meanwhile, however, we can talk in the comment area or on Twitter. Yes, Twitter. In fact yesterday me surrendered to the damned thing too. Talking about Twitter, let me say that the 'words limit' is a tragedy for someone like me who, in order to express one thought, needs to use 40 lines on her blog. Moreover, I'm having some troubles in understanding how that thing works. Anyway, if you want to follow me, the link is: http://twitter.com/FedeYeah_92 (I know, it's a stupid name, but Fede_92 wasn't available anymore...).
Anyway. Back to this blog's birthday (if we can call it this way...), I think it is a good excuse to look back on what happened in the last cycling season.

First of all, in January we could see the new jersey of team Saxo Bank, which was appreciated by almost everyone. Then in February there was the terrible tragedy of Ballerini's death, one of the worst moment of the year together with the deaths of Fignon and Sassi. Then, before of the beginning of the true season, Andy had all those health problems in his first races and the first rumours about team Luxembourg started to go round in the press.

In March we discovered Sagan's great talent, got worried for Spilak's misadventure at GP Lugano (a car almost ran over him) and we all watched Sanremo, which was won by Freire. In case you have forgotten it, my official prediction for that race (which I wrote on another blog, after writing my post about Sanremo) were: 1. Freire 2. Petacchi 3. Boonen. And the eventual result was: 1. Freire 2. Boonen 3. Petacchi. Wow.

At the end of March then we had Gend-Wevelgem, which was won by Eisel and saw Matti Breschel puncturing at a very unfortunate time of the race. In the same period, Chris Anker Sorensen broke his collarbone and that news got me in despair.

Then there was that amazing April Sunday that began with a family's lunch and ended with all my aunts asking me information about Cancellara (and feeling disappointed when I told them he was already married), who in a week won Flanders and Roubaix (Breschel's Flanders instead was ruined by a horrible mechanical problem). Then Frank and Martine Schleck became the happy and proud parents of the little Leea right before of the Ardennes Classic. Gilbert won Amstel (I had predicted it), Evans got Fleche and Vino got Liége (that was when I joined the Anonymous Association of Vino's Lovers).

In May there was the Giro, with the crazy 60 men breakaway, Chris Sorensen's stage victory, Porte's maglia rosa, Montalcino's mud, me cheering on the Tonale and my mum congratulating Pinotti on his Giro's performances in Verona, while he was in the bus and she was on the road. 'Well done Marco!', she screamed. 'Thank you!', he replied kindly.

In June Frank won a stage at Tour of Luxembourg and won Tour de Suisse, then in July we had the Tour de France. 3 weeks of daily pain, excitement and passion, which saw riders crashing badly in Spa, facing a carnage on the Roubaix cobblestones (poor Frank broke his collarbone there), climbing historical climbs like Tourmalet, using their heads in sprints and their wheels in post-stage fights. Those 3 weeks saw me cheering for Andy's triumph in Morzine and for his yellow jersey, but they also saw me feeling terribly sorry for him after the Bagneres de Luchon stage. They saw me hoping that Vinokorouv would have got angry at Contador after Mendé's stage and they saw me clapping my hands in front of the Kazakh's victory the following day. They saw me cheering for Petacchi and feeling respect for Armstrong. Moreover, at that time the new team speculations had already begun and they cast a very negative shadow on Riis' team.

In August me fell in love, ehm, I meant, we had some hot discussions about Chaingate and about the fact that Riis had employed Contador and found a new sponsor which, strangely, was the good old Saxo Bank.

In September we watched la Vuelta, were astonished by Mosquera's performances (we understood something about them a few weeks later), disappointed by Andy's ejection from the race (that gave birth to Beergate discussions) and shocked by the news of Contador's positivity.

In October we Europeans got up very early to see Melbourne's worlds and greeted Hushovd as new world champion. I felt sorry for Italy's 4th place, I felt sorry for Gilbert and I felt sorry also for Breschel. But at the same time, I was happy for Thor.

In the same month then we all said 'chapeau' to Gilbert for his second Lombardy victory, which he got on a very rainy day. Then, in November, we had the chance to take it easy, talk about new teams, argue with one another and go 'Oooooooh!' while wathing Curaçao's pictures by Tim De Waele.

So, this is what happened this year. I wrote about all these things here on this blog and you shared your clever and witty remarks about these facts in the comment area.

Waiting for the new season to begin, therefore, I would like to thank all my readers (those who leave comments and also those who keep their opinions for themselves) because coming up here and discovering that about 250 people from all over the world read my blog daily is something very nice- and very strange, to say it all. Then I would like to thank every single peloton cyclist, since those boys give me daily inspiration and entertain me during races. Therefore, ladies and gentlemen, let's raise our virtual toasts to cycling once again- in spite of everything, this is the best sport ever.

PS: Oh gosh, how bad am I at writing those silly moving posts? And how hateful are they?