2011 Cycling Awards decided by moi:

Ladies and gentlemen, 2011 is ending and all the important cycling awards have already found a winner. Still, it's time to relive some moments of this last cycling season through the usual 'Cycling Awards of the year decided by moi' post. Have fun readers!

Best performance: Deciding this year's best performance is pretty difficult, isn't it? Btw,here's my top 3: 1. Andy Schleck's victory on the Galibier: that was a true masterpiece, which brought Little Bro a great victory on a historic climb and which was achieved at the end of a very stressing Tour de France. Simply amazing.

2. Gilbert's victory in Fleche Wallonne: it's hard to pick one of Gilbert's 2011 victories and saying that it was his best one. Still I must admit that, until he won Fleche Wallonne, I didn't think Philippe could win the three Ardennes Classics in the same year. Then that victory came and I realised that yes, Philippe could make it.

3. Contador's victory on Etna: on that day Alberto rode so fast that I even thought he was a doper. Like him or not, one can't deny that Alberto is probably the greatest rider of his generation.

Best team: Just like every year, deciding the winner of the Best Team Award is very difficult. Leopard Trek got a lot of podiums and won Tour of Lombardy, Saxo Bank won the Giro d'Italia and the Tour of Flanders, BMC won Paris-Roubaix and the Tour de France, Omega-Pharma Lotto won the three Ardennes Classics. The glorious HTC team instead won Milan-Sanremo, the road race and the TT at the Worlds. Talking about the Worlds, how can we forget about Monia Baccaille's great leadout work for Giorgia Bronzini? And what about the surprising Tour de France raced by the Europcar guys? As you can see, it's hard to decide the winner of this award. Therefore, let's transform it into a 'Best Team: in memoriam' award and let's choose HTC as winner.

Best sprinter: just like last year, the best sprinter award goes to Mark Cavendish for winning the Worlds. Still, a very special mention goes to Thor Hushovd and to his amazing Tour de France - apropos, can we still consider him a sprinter after what he did in the Pyrenées?

Best TT riders: Hear ye, hear ye, this year this award goes to Toni Martin, the new World champion!

Best young rider: After what he did on Alpe d'Huez this summer, I think this award absolutely has to go to Pierre Rolland. Look out for this boy in 2012!

Most exciting moment of the year: 2011 was a very exciting year and it's hard, if not impossible, to choose just one exciting moment. I personally go for Andy Schleck's victory on Le Galibier, whereas the second place in this category goes to Bart De Clerq's victory in the Giro d'Italia. Seriously, the OPL rider almost caused me a heart attack on that day! Last but not least, I think other exciting moments were Goss' victory in Sanremo and Van Summeren's one in Roubaix.

Craziest moment of the year: Nuyens winning Tour of Flanders with Riis laughing like a mad scientist inside the team car and hugging people at random.

Most exciting Grand Tour of the year: Probably Vuelta a Espana. Unfortunately I couldn't watch it and, if I had to make a choice between Tour de France and Giro d'Italia, this year I'd go for Tour de France. Contador's strength in fact 'killed' the Corsa Rosa, whereas the Schleck-Evans battle and Voeckler's toughness made the 2011 Tour de France very exciting to watch.

Worst moment of the year: Unfortunately, this is an easy choice. Wouter Weylandt's death during the Giro is still in everyone's minds, just like Tondo's tragic loss. We miss you guys! <3

Worst cycling-related moment of the year for Fangirl: Vinokourov breaking his femur at the Tour and Johnny Hoogerland being hit by that Tour de France car.

Worst polemic of the year: I go for the Crostis polemics: after all this time, thinking about it can still break my day. Although, now that I think about it, I must admit that even Riccò's last doping case has the ability of upsetting me after all this time. And don't get me started about Geox betraying all its riders or UCI sponsoring Tour of Beijing!

Most surprising rider of the year: Thomas Voeckler, JJ Cobo and Chris Froome. Who expected the Frenchman to keep the yellow jersey after the Galibier stage? And who expected those other two guys to end up on la Vuelta's podium?

Most moving moment of the year: I pick two moments, without giving them a rank: Kiryenka's victory on Colle delle Finestre and Farrar's victory in Tour de France. So moving!

Most unlucky rider of the year: Mauricio Soler, no doubts about that. Although now he's fine, his crash during Tour de Suisse was simply shocking and it probably put an end to the career of this strong Colombian climber. Second in this classification is Matti Breschel: not only did the poor thing miss the Classics this year, but he also missed the Worlds in his home-country! The third place instead goes to Marco Pinotti and Craig Lewis, who both ended their season in May because of a terrible crash during the Macugnaga stage of the Giro. 4th instead is Johnny Hoogerland (protagonist of the famous barbed wire crash), whereas 5th are all the guys (Van Den Broeck, Gesink, Wiggins, Vinokourov) who crashed hard during the Tour.

Best race I saw live this year: The San Pellegrino stage of the Giro (apropos, shall I remind you my catastrophic encounter with Denis Menchov? :P)

Best woman of the year: Marianne Vos. Although she was second in the Worlds for the 4th (or was is the 5th?) time in a row, she simply ruled the Giro d'Italia femminile. Chapeau!

Most breathtaking Classic of the year: Oh gosh, that's a difficult choice. I go for Tour of Flanders, followed by Milan-Sanremo and Tour of Lombardy (Nibali's attack during it was great). Fourth place goes to Paris-Roubaix, whereas the 5th place goes to Fleche Wallonne and Amstel Gold Race ('Go Andy, gooooooo!').

Ok, these are my awards. Of course everyone is free to disagree and toinvent new prizes! ;)

It was three years ago today...

...miss Fede taught her blog to play / they've been going in and out of style / but they're guaranteed to raise a smile/ So may I introduce to you / the act you've known for all these years/ The Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Baaaand!

Ok dear readers, sorry for that. After all this time you've probably got to know me quite well, so you'll probably forgive me this moment of craziness. After all, this is a happy day, isn't it? I mean, it's 'My Blog''s third birthday, isn't that quite a thing? It's time to party-party-party-party girls!! Come on, let's have some (virtual) champagne and lets put on some good music (ok, perhaps 'good' isn't the best word to define David Guetta and Lady Gaga's songs, but I think you've understood what I meant...)!

Geez, three years. Oh God, has it really been so long since I started this blog? I feel old! Well, ok, perhaps 'old' is a bit exaggerated. Still, I must admit I feel 'changed'. On paper, 3 years look like a very short period of time. But in life, 3 years are a huge amount of days, some of which have been bad, some of which have been good. In the last 3 years of my life everything has changed for me, even if perhaps it doesn't really show. Even if I'm still a curly girl with a strange pair of looking glasses, even if I still love Bob Dylan, even if I still spend the whole month of July cheering on some unknown readers while eating lots of ice-cream, I've changed. And also this blog, which is a kind of 'image' of me, has changed.

My first few posts on this blog were awful and they're likely to enter the history of the Blogosphere as 'the worst written Christmas posts ever'. During that cold month of December 2008 I had reflected very carefully about the chance of creating a blog (I was afraid it would have taken me too much time to keep it updated :P), but in the end I decided to set off on this adventure. And now, three years later, I don't regret that choice at all, because that adventure has allowed me to 'meet' some amazing people who I would have never met otherwise. People with whom I don't simply share a passion, but with whom I also share part of my time, of my worries (who doesn't remember my famous Maturità rants? ;)) and of my joys. People with whom I have the chance to laugh about things that my friends would never understand and people with whom this year I've had the chance of grieving with on some very sad occasions. Cycling is a family and my blog is a little window on this amazing world, with all its amazing people and followers. 

2011 hasn't been a good year for me, nor has it been a good year for cycling. A few days before Milan-Sanremo a relative of mine passed away, two days before Flanders one of my parents had a heart attack (don't worry, now they're fine). Then, on a sunny day of May, Wouter Weylandt's life came to an end and I found myself in front of this very same computer screen, crying my eyes out, mourning the same loss as you all. The same happened a few days later, when we all mourned the loss of Xavier Tondo. In the haze of unanswered questions following these two deaths, there was one little thing that cheered me up: the way in which we, people of Cycledom, gathered together as a family in order to get through those hard moments. In those days, we showed everyone that we're a big, colourful family formed by many different people with many different backgrounds, many different problems, but just one passion: cycling.

During the last three years I've grown up, just like my blog and just like you all, my dear readers. In that quiet, cold winter evening in 2008 I was a nervous high school student who was afraid that her blog would have never been read by anyone and whose biggest problem was 'what am I going to do on  New Years' Eve now that my best friends are off to Berlin?' . Now, even if the New Year's Eve problem has remained (with a difference: this year my friends are off to Madrid :P), I'm a much more mature girl and this probably (hopefully) emerges also from my posts. Even if sometimes I write silly things (see the song above for further confirmation of this), at least in these days I don't write just about my favourite cyclist, but I write about cycling in general - and, in my opinion, that's an improvement.

Unfortunately, also as a consequence of events concerning my off-line life, me was unable to blog as much as usual this year. I had lots of great blogging projects in my mind, but I simply couldn't find the time to write them down on this web pages lost in the Blogosphere. This autumn for example I would have liked to write a few posts about some famous athletes (not just cyclists) of the past, I would have liked to write another pronounciation post, I would have liked to organise a poll about the 2011 cycling season. I would have liked to write a joyful post when Menchov signed with Katiusha (it was high time baby!) and I would have liked to write a post about the Bergamo stage of the Giro. Unfortunately, I didn't have the time for all those things. 

Hopefully next year I'll be able to offer you (and myself) more posts in comparison to this year. Luckily, the start of the new cycling season is right behind the corner and Milan-Sanremo, Tour of Flanders, Gand-Wevelgem and all the others races are ready to accompany us once again through another year, full of problems, laughs and bittersweet moments.

While waiting for 2012, therefore, let's raise a glass of (virtual) champagne to cycling, to the riders and to all the amazing people who are part of the cycling family. Thank you for this year, my dear readers, and all of the best for the upcoming one. Have a lovely evening everyone! (*turns off the computer while singing 'Happy Birthday to my blog'*) Cheers! ;)

2012 Teams, 2010 Liége and more random news:

Ok, I know. My previous post was written almost a month ago and me hasn't replied the comments of my readers for more than three weeks,  a thing for which I deeply apologise. Still, I must admit that in the last few days I have been very busy and that, perhaps, in these last few months my 'blogging motivation' isn't the same as before. However, in the last few days there have been lots of interesting news going around Cycledom and in this post I'd like to talk briefly about them.

First of all, the team RAnT training camp has started. La Gazzetta keeps on writing articles about Andy Schleck's possible participation in the 2012 Giro d'Italia, but it seems that Bruyneel and his clan don't want the Luxembourgian to waste time in Italy next May. However, cyclists usually anounce their schedules at this time of the year, so we'll have to wait just a few weeks to solve the Giro-enigma that surrounds Andy and his team.

Talking about the 'waiting' topic, in January we'll discover if Contador really did dope during the 2010 Tour or not. Personally, I don't care anymore about the TAS decision, but I just want to lave this horrible story behind. Come on, it can't take a jury more than a year to decide whether a person is guilty or not!

On to another topic, here's the final roster of the Radioshack Nissan Trek Something Else Team. We had to wait 3 months, but at least now we're ably to read it (*chorus of 'it was high time' coming from all over the world):

Jan Bakelants (Bel)
Daniele Bennati (Ita)
George Bennett (NZl)
Matthew Busche (USA)
Fabian Cancellara (Swi)
Laurent Didier (Lux)
Jakob Fuglsang (Den)
Tony Gallopin (Fra)
Linus Gerdemann (Ger)
Ben Hermans (Bel)
Chris Horner (USA)
Markel Irizar (Spa)
Ben King (USA)
Andreas Klöden (Ger)
Tiago Machado (Por)
Maxime Monfort (Bel)
Giacomo Nizzolo (Ita)
Nelson Oliveira (Por)
Yaroslav Popovych (Ukr)
Joost Posthuma (Ned)
Gregory Rast (Swi)
Thomas Rohregger (Aut)
Hayden Roulston (NZl)
Andy Schleck (Lux)
Fränk Schleck (Lux)
Jesse Sergent (NZl)
Jens Voigt (Ger)
Robert Wagner (Ger)
Oliver Zaugg (Swi)
Haimar Zubeldia (Spa)

A good team, no doubts about it, even if it'll be hard for Bruyneel to find just one GT leader for next year Tour. Horner, Fuglsang, Kloeden, los Schlecks... Who's the best? I don't know. And I don't even know who will help Cancellara during the Spring Classics, since Leopard Trek fired its few good Cobbleriders in order to get itself 2 other GT men :P Oh, and talking about Fuglsang, did you know that he's the rider who raced the most this year? Amazing Jakob!

On to another topic, Quick Step has recently unveiled its 2012 kit. I don't really like the jerseys, whereas I love the shorts, which slightly remind me Saxo Bank's ones. By the way, what's the thing with light blue this year? Leopard Trek had it in its kits, Saxo Bank had it too, and now Quick Step has chosen it as new colour for their jerseys. It's good to be original, isn't it?

Talking about good old Saxo Bank, the boys right now are in Israel, having fun at the beach, building schools, promoting peace in the Middle East and covering their bodies with a horrible-looking black substance (pictures at:  http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/photos/gallery-contador-and-saxo-bank-train-in-israel - beware, it features pics of shirtless Uncle Bjarne!!!).

Talking about another team, Rabobank has recently presented its 3 teams (the men, the women and the Continental one). The team has chosen to keep its 2011 kit, which next year will be worn by the following riders: Bauke Mollema (Ned), Bram Tankink (Ned), Coen Vermeltfoort (Ned), Dennis van Winden (Ned), Jetse Bol (Ned), Jos van Emden (Ned), Lars Boom (Ned), Laurens ten Dam (Ned), Maarten Tjallingii (Ned), Rick Flens (Ned), Robert Gesink (Ned), Stef Clement (Ned), Steven Kruijswijk (Ned), Theo Bos (Ned), Tom-Jelte Slager (Ned), Tom Leezer (Ned), Wilco Kelderman (Ned), Carlos Barredo (Spa), Graeme Brown (Aus), Grischa Niermann (Ger), Juan Manuel Garate (Spa), Luis Leon Sanchez (Spa), Maarten Wynants (Bel), Mark Renshaw (Aus), Matti Breschel (Den), Michael Matthews (Aus) and Paul Martens (Ger). Maarten Wynants couldn't attend the team presentation because of the birth of his second son, whereas Gesink became father of a baby girl a few hours ago. Congratulations to those two riders, to their families and to the little 'new entries': may they have a long, happy and serene life! :D

Talking about the 2012 Rabobank team, I'm curious to see what Kelderman will do next year. Moreover I hope that bad luck will stop haunting Breschel and Gesink and I hope that Matthews and Renshaw will get some good victories. In addition, I can't wait to see what Kruijswijk and Mollema will do during the upcoming Grand Tours - they're so talented!

Rabobank women's team instead is formed by Marianne Vos (Ned), Thalita de Jong (Ned), Roxane Knetemann (Ned), Iris Slappendel (Ned), Rebecca Talen (Ned), Annemiek van Vleuten (Ned), Monique van der Vorst (Ned), Liesbet de Vocht (Ned), Sarah Düster (Ger), Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (Fra), Lauren Kitchen (Aus) and Tatiana Antosjina (Rus). A very strong team, which features Her Majesty Marianne Vos, the great Classic rider Van Vleuten, the young Ferrand-Prévot and the miracle-athlete Monique van der Vorst, who has recently recovered the use of her legs after spending more than  10 years on a wheelchair (read more about her amazing story on: http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/rabobank-womens-team-signs-miracle-athlete-monique-van-der-vorst). Seriously, look out for this team next year!

Talking about another team, Geox has recently given up hope of finding a new sponsor. This means that guys like Cobo and Menchov now are officially unemployed and that the same worths for less famous guys who will surely have a tough time finding themselves a new equipe at this time of the year. So far the riders who've already managed to find a new contract are the following ones: Mauricio Ardila and Fabio Duarte (Colombia-Coldeportes), Fabio Felline (Androni Giocattoli), Matteo Pelucchi (Europcar), Daniele Ratto (Liquigas), Xavier Florencio (Katusha), Daniele Colli (Team Type 1), and Matthias Brändle (Team NetApp).  Let's hope everyone else will manage to find a decent team too!

After talking about the 2012 cycling teams (or, at least, after talking about few of them), let's now talk about 2010 Liége - Bastogne - Liége, the one that was won by Vinokourov in front of Kolobnev. Apparently, UCI thinks that Vino paid Alexander Kolobnev 100 000 euros to let him win the race and, in order to demonstrate their point, the UCI guys published parts of e-mails that the two riders wrote to each other ( http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/emails-between-vinokourov-and-kolobnev-published ). Imo these e-mails are rather creepy because of many reasons. First of all, it seems that Kolobnev almost considers Vinokourov as some kind of divinity. Moreover, Kolo seems to dislike the Belgian riders ("Even my wife was not too uneasy by the fact that I was second, because you were the first"; "My only comfort is that you won and not one of the natives"). Moreover, Vino's passage about God ("You have done everything properly, do not worry. As you say, the Earth is round and God sees everything ... So, again thank you. You, this year you will win the championship finally, I believe. Do not worry about the agreement, I will do it”) slightly reminds me of the mafia, whereas Vino's words to justify his payment reminds me a lot of mr. Berlusconi (“I often make payments left and right, sometimes I lend money, but I never offered to buy the win from Kolobnev" - Vino, would you please lend me 100 000 euros? Come on, I'm the founder of the AAVL, aren't I?). Scary, isn't it?

I remember that in the last kms of 2010 Liége Kolobnev did behave in a petty strange way and that at the time some chronists stated that he made big mistakes that cost him the victory. After reading these e-mails, I think we can understand why he made them :P

So, that's all from me for the moment. University is keeping me busy but, as I wrote in my reply to Auntie Coug's comment, I'm really having a good time in these days. So, don't worry for me if you don't see new posts coming up - it just means that I'm too busy to write. Have a good evening everyone and have a great weekend! (and sorry for this far-fetched post - I just needed to check whether I was still able to write something decent about cycling :P)

Random post about random things (politics, Schleck, Contador, Bob Dylan, Schleck, random randomnesses...)

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen! To your joy, miss Fede is back blogging again.

A few noticeable things have happened over the last few days: for example, Italy has managed to create a decent government for the first time in 19 years (*chorus of 'allelujah' coming from all over the world...hey, the Frenchmen and the Germans look really relieved!*). It was high time, wasn't it? Still, I don't think that Berlusconi will remain far from the goverment for a very long time. That man is like a cat, he's got 9 lives (however, cats usually have a true fur, whereas Silvio's hair are made of plastic).

On to another important thing that has recently taken place: on Monday evening I went to Bob Dylan's concert, which was simply amazing. I went there with my father and two of his friends and we managed to find four tickets for the concert just 5 minutes before the beginning of the concert. This happened because a few days before the concert we phoned the ticket-selling agency, but they told us that the concert was sold out. Still, dad and his friends decided to go to Milan anyway, hoping that someone would sell us a ticket there. Luckily, in the end our choice paid off :) 

Dylan's concert actually started after that Mark Knopfler, the former guitarrist of Dire Straits, had played for about 90 minutes. In fact Mark and Bob are on tour together this year and during the concert they even played two songs together.

It's not the first time I go to a Dylan's concert, but this time I must say that Bob looked really good. He sang (of course), he danced (well, kind of :P), he played the armonic, he played the guitar, he played the piano and he also gave us a few nice solos on the piano, on the guitar and on the harmonic. Amazing. Moreover, Dylan (or shall I call him Robert?) played wonderful songs like 'Leopard-Skin-Pill-Box Hat' (together with M. Knopfler), 'Tangled Up in Blue', 'Desolation Row', 'Ballad of a Thin Man', 'Simple Twist of Fate',  'It's all Over Now Baby Blue' ,'All Along the Watchtower' and 'Like a Rolling Stone'. Not bad, is it? (ok, I confess it: I'm a Dylan's fanatic)

Talking about other things that have happened over the last few days, here's a sad news: my crush has decided to move to Trieste and attend university there. As you can understand, I'm a disappointed girl right now - and my disappointment becomes even bigger if you think that all the boys in my Russian class are thinking about stopping learning the language. Shocking, isn't it?

Anyway, enough talks about me. Let's now talk a bit of cycling. First of all, Contador's hearing takes place in a few days time, but the judges will till us their opinion on Steak-Gate just in 3 months time (no comment on that). Paolo Tiralongo will go to Losanna for Contador's hearing, since he was amongst those who dined with Contador on that famous evening of July 2010. Interviewed by la Gazzetta, the Astana rider said: 'In those days I was Contador's shadow: we used to do everything together. On that famous evening, Contador, some other teammates and I went to dine after that Vinokourov and my Kazakh teammates had already eaten. They told us that the food served by the hotel wasn't very good, so we decided to have that famous steak cooked. It was a delicious piece of meat which a friend of Alberto had brought to him a few days before'. Asked about the Losanna's hearing, Tiralongo stated: 'When Alberto asked me to go there as a witness and help to defend him, I immediately said 'yes'. We didn't do anything wrong on that occasion'. Time will tell if the judges agree with Paolo or not. I'm personally tired of Steak-Gate and, right now, I hope Contador will be cleared (no, I haven't become crazy): in fact cycling would receive a very bad blow if its best athlete was banned for one or two years after winning 1 Tours de France and 1 Tour of Italy in the last 16 months.

Talking about another rider, Andy Schleck has been recently cited and fined for driving his car too fast. This may sound like a great gossip, but remember that our boy wasn't driving at 250 km/h, but at 101 km/h. After all, it wasn't too fast, was it? (I just hope he wasn't driving in a village when he reached that speed!) Actually, this isn't a nice period for young riders who are enjoying their off-season: whereas Andy got fined for speeding, the other day Euskaltel rider Romain Sicard had a a very strange adventure with some policemen. In fact the 23 year old rider was stopped by a few policemen after he was spotted while trying to put a traffic sign in the boot of his car (http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/sicard-detained-by-police-after-drunken-prank). Once they stopped him, the police officers also found a traffic cone in the back of his car. Later they found out that Sicard had been drank too much on that evening.

Poor Romain has recently apologised to the supporters, the team and his sponsor for his 'immature behaviour' - still, I think this story will haunt him for a while once he gets back in the peloton.

Still talking about Andy Schleck, one last news: he may come to the Giro next year. In fact Bruyneel thinks that Andy can't win the 2012 TdF (96 kms against the clock and 3 summit finishes, I repeat: 96 kms against the clock and 3 summit finishes!), so he thinks OGL should start thinking about taking part in the Giro. Becca is said to agree with Bruyneel (actually, rumours suggest that mr. Leopard got very angry at Andersen & Co. when he first saw LT's line-up for the 2011 Giro), while Merckx (who is a friend of the Schleck family) has told 'la Gazzetta' that Andy should really come to Italy next May, because 'a victory in the Giro worths more than a 2nd placement in the Tour'. Ivan Basso instead has said he'll be happy if Andy decides to race the Giro, but he has also said that the Luxembourgian will have to fight hard to win the race. I agree with Basso and I'd like to add one thing: if you come to Italy, dear Andy, do it because you want to win. Italian supporters prefer Contador to you and, if you came to Italy just in order to train, you'd lose all their respect. If you don't want to come here and try winning, you'd better go to the Tour of California. Is it clear?

Ok, enough serious news for the moment. To end this post, here's a list of interesting links:
- http://marleen888.tumblr.com/ : this is the link to Ride On's Marleen tumblr :)
- http://cyclistsandmore.tumblr.com/: this is the link to the tumblr of our other Marleen, another great cycling lover :)

- http://www.speedskating-online.com/ : ok, I know, mine is a blog about cycling, not about other sports. Anyway, here's the link to a website run by a great cycling lover with a very big passion for speedskating - take a look, and have a good night! 

Fun in Curaçao:

Ok dear readers, miss Fede is back blogging again. I had promised you a post about cycling market, but the amount of pics coming in from Curaçao have made me changed my mind. Therefore, here's a little post about the place where every cycling fangirl of the world would like to be right now. First of all, however, let me tell you about a great discovery I made this morning: in Russia they don't say 'cousin', but they say something which, translated in English, would sound a bit like 'brother once removed' - in Russian, 'dvojurodnyj brat'. Therefore, if your Russian teacher wants you to tell her what you did yesterday, and yesterday you had to go to the baptism of 'the son of the cousin of your father', well, just make up that you went to the cinema with a friend. Or, better, just say that you spent the day resting. It's a lie but, at least, thanks to it you won't look like an idiot while trying to repeat the 'dvojurodnyj brat' thing.

Ayway. Enough about me for the moment. Let's talk serious stuff - the Curaçao Amstel Gold Race, for example. Of course I know that you, dear readers, aren't interested at all in the race itself, but I think it is interesting to notice that, this year, Andy Schleck's good results include a second placement at the Tour de France and a second placement in this amazing race by the sea. Seriously, the guy is becoming a living second placement. However. First in the race was Marcel Kittel, whereas 3rd was Johnny 'Barbed Wire' Hoogerland. All in all, a great podium.  

On to the usual show that the riders put up for photographers and fangirls every year, this time there were at least 6 things to notice about it:
1. no dolphins appear in the pictures published on Cyclingnews / Corvos/ Tim De Waele's websites. Shall we start getting worried??

2. after many years of playing with the dolphins/ jetskiing/ scuba-diving / sunbathing/ playing with the dolphins, the riders could finally enjoy some new exciting activities like fighting with pillows while staying in a very precarious position by the pool. This fun activity apparently replaced the one previously known as 'playing with the dolphins' - the poor marine creatures, in fact, were probably fired by their employers after they asked for a higher wage.

3. there was one rider (Marcel Kittel) who wasn't as skinny as the other ones. In fact, dear girls, I'm happy to tell you that his arms are actually thicker than mine. I feel happy!!!

4. there was one rider (Johnny Hoogerland) whose legs were much more impressive than the ones of the other riders. Apparently, that cursed barbed wire left its marks.

5. Andy Schleck brought his girlfriend along - yes girls, he has a girlfriend and they've been a couple for quite a while now. Btw, they're so cute together!!

6. Contador didn't go to Curaçao because on Sunday he and his long-time girlfriend Macarena were busy getting married. Mrs. Contador looked gorgeous on that day and miss Fede obviously takes this chance to wish her and her husband a happy, long and serene life together.

As far as the things-who-never-change-under-the-Curaçao-sun are concerned, instead, I think we definitely need to underline Frank Schleck's eternal skinnyness (is this a word, I wonder?). Still, I must admit I am extremely shocked by the lack of pictures in which the riders play with the dolphins - so shocked that I'm going to end this post here and search for some more news about the dolphins' fate. Hopefully I'll discover that those funny creatures are on strike or that they've become so shy that they now refuse to appear in the photos from the island - or, more likely, I'll just find out that silly me has forgotten to check an important cycling website full of Curaçao pictures.

About cycling market and university life:

As some of my faithful readers have probably noticed, in these last few weeks me hasn't blogged as much as usual. Moreover, I haven't even answered some of my readers' comments (I'm so, so sorry!!!). The only thing I can say in my defense is that, as predictable, university life is really wearing me out: every day I attend my first lesson at 9 am and 4 days pro week I walk out of the classroom at 5 pm. Luckily on Tuesday I have just a Russian lesson, so I'm ready to come back home already at 11 am (that's why I've started to love Tuesdays!). Still, finding the time to blog isn't easy, even if I have free Saturdays and (almost) free Tuesdays: in the weekend in fact I'm usually too tired to do anything but going out with friends, and on Tuesdays I'm too busy studying Russian. Talking about that subject I must say that, as @ Brenda had predicted, the number of my fellow students is decreasing day after day, especially now that our Russian teacher has started explaining 'difficult' things and has started telling us that we need to study at least 20 new words pro day if we want to learn the language well.

As far as my German lessons are concerned (our friend @ Barbara asked me about it some time ago and I excuse myself for replying her question just now), during the lessons we read newspaper articles, then we translate them. In the end, we study the new words. Those lessons are actually pretty boring, but I realise they're actually more useful than it seems.

On to other lessons, I've begun my computer classes. And, surprise surprise, I'm terrible at them - so terrible that I'm even considering the chance of not passing the exam on the first try. Another exam that pretty worries me is the 'Italian Language' one: you get a text and you must correct the grammar and insert some words (this part of the text is called 'Fill the gaps!'). I know, this exam sounds easy, but the difficulty of the task actually depends on the topic of the text: give me a text about cycling and I'll do a great job, give me a text about Great Britain's economical system and I won't be able to insert two correct words in a row.

On to other classes, I like my Linguistics class, whereas I hate the Italian Literature one. I've never really loved the subject and the other day, when our professor said: 'Let's start our lecture about Manzoni', I almost had a heart attack. Geez, I've been studying Manzoni since I was 10!

As far as my classmates are concerned, I adore my Russian lessons because they make me feel as if I still were at high school: everyone knows everyone and we often talk all together. However, I must admit that the atmosphere of these lessons has been slightly ruined by the arrival of many new entries and by a few discoveries I've recently made (aka: my crush has got a girlfriend and they seem to get on extremely well, whereas the other boy I like isn't straight). As far as the other lessons are concerned, some Linguistics students are simply hateful, whereas some guys in my German class are extremely lovely. Well, I think we can say that those two classes compensate each other ;)

Anyway, enough about boring university stuff: let's now talk a bit about cycling market - or, better, let's talk about the latest news regarding Team RaNT, Geox, Vacansoleil, HTC and GreenEdge (more teams will follow in the next days).

The last coup de scene has seen Geox stating that they're not going to sponsor Menchov & Co. anymore.

The thing about Geox is that not only was it meant to be a longtime project (just like Leopard Trek), but that the riders found out about the loss of their main sponsor just a few days ago. And, whereas Menchov and Cobo probably won't have problems in finding themselves a new important team, I'm afraid we can't say the same about guys like Kump, Mizbani or Furdi.

Imo, Mr. Geox never got over the fact that his team wasn't invited to the Tour de France and that's why he probably decided to end his cycling adventure after just one year. Unfortunately it takes a while to create a winning cycling team (ask Becca, Radioshack and Sky for further information) and those who aren't patient enough soon lose all their interest in the sport. Mr. Geox wanted his riders to win the Tour already this year: they didn't even get the chance to try winning it, so he got immediately fed up. What a mature behaviour, isn't it? If I can make a suggestion, mr. Geox, try becoming the sponsor of an Italian soccer team: buy a few good players, pay the referees some money and you'll see your team getting good results in no time (still, this recipe may not work in the Champions League matches :P).

After talking a bit about Geox, let's talk about the team of another lovely millionaire: Team RaNT. There are interesting news about this team, since it looks like most of the former LT riders are doing their best to escape from it. According to Cicloweb, in fact, Denifl and Mortensen are off to Vacansoleil, Lund and Pires have signed for Saxo Bank (I see a bald Danish ds laughing!!), Klemme and Stamsnijder are off to 1t4i (tu quoque, banana boy!), Feillu is off to Saur, Clarke is off to a team called 'Champions Syst.' (or something similar), Pedersen has signed for Christina Watches, Wegmann is off to Garmin and Viganò has chosen to ride for Lampre. I'm pretty sad about Clarke's decision, because the boy had talent and I would have liked him to remain in a top level team for another couple of years. I'm also sorry about the fact that Wegmann and Viganò are off to new teams, even if I can understand them: Fabian's year (both from the professional and from the personal point of view) has been terribly influenced by the death of his roommate Wouter Weylandt, so I think he really wanted to change team in 2012. As far as Viganò is concerned, I completely support his choice of going to Lampre. There he'll have the chance of riding for experienced riders like Petacchi and Hondo and he'll finally get all the media attention he deserves.

As far as the 'new riders' list is concerned, instead Cicloweb claims that the new entries who've already signed a contract for Team Rant there are Bakelandts and Roulston (right now, the Jan-fan in is screaming all her joy). Also Selig has signed a contract for the team and this obviously makes me really happy.

After confusing you with this long list of arrivals - departures (seriously, it feels like being in an airport here!), let's write a little resume. So, next year Team Rant should be formed by the following riders: Andy Schleck, Frank Schleck, Fabian Cancellara, Linus Gerdemann, Daniele Bennati, Joost Posthuma, Maxime Monfort, Jakob Fuglsang, Jens Voigt, Robert Wagner, Giacomo Nizzolo, Oliver Zaugg (former Leopard riders), Chris Horner, Andreas Klöden, Gregory Rast, Ben King, Matthew Busche, Tiago Machado, Ben Hermans, Jesse Sergent, Yaroslav Popovych, Markel Irizar Haimar Zubeldia (former Radioshack athletes), Tony Gallopin, Laurent Didier, Gianni Meersman and Rudiger Selig (new entries). The leaving Leopards  instead are: Viganò, Wegmann, Klemme, Stamsnijder, Clarke, Lund, Pires, Pedersen, Mortensen, Denifl, O'Grady and Feillu. Nice, isn't it?

Let's now talk about another team: the glorious HTC-Highroad. Gretsch and Degenkolb are off to Skil Shimano (or how else will it be called), whereas the Velits twins, Rabon, Grabsch, Brammeier and Toni Martin have already signed a contract with Omega (something tells me that Omega will be very dangerous in the TTTs :P). Ghyselinck is the only one who's signed a contract with Cofidis, whereas Pinotti and Van Garderen will be teammates at BMC. Goss, Howard and Albasini are off to GreenEdge, whereas Renshaw has betrayed Cavendish in order sprint for Rabobank in 2012. The promising Smukulis is off to Katiusha, whereas Eisel, Pate, Cavendish and Siutsou have all signed a contract for Team Sky.

Good luck to all those riders and also to the ones (Fairly and Lewis) whose future team is still unknown!

After talking about mergers, retiring teams and so on, let's welcome with a loud applause one of the new superteams of the 2012 season: team Green Edge. Said team will have a great roster and so far it has given a contract to: O'Grady (Stuey, I already miss you!), Bobridge, the Meyer brothers, Weening, Langeveld, Gerrans, Mouris, Simon Clarke, Tuft, Cooke, Wilson, Vaitkus, McEwen, Beppu, Albasini, Goss, Keukeleire, Howard, Sulzberger, Lancaster, Davis, Dean, Docker, Kruopis, Meier, Impey, Durdribge and Hepburn. If you still haven't found a team to support in 2012, here's the perfect equipe for you: it has two excellent neo pros (ok, I admit it: I have a crush on Hepburn :P), some great experienced riders (O'Grady, McEwen, Tuft, Cooke), some people who've recently got very important results (Bobridge, the Meyer brothers, te Sanremo winner Goss) and some Classics riders (Weening, Langeveld, Keukeleire). Moreover, there are some fast sprinters (go go Impey!!) and some good all rounders (Albasini, I'm talking about you). The only flaw in this great team? The lack of a GC contender. Still, I think I like it even this way ;)

Last team I'm going to examine tonight, Vacansoleil: this very likeable team has freed Belkov, Mouris, Golas and Van Leijen, but it has given a contract to some important riders like supporters' hero Kenny Van Hummel, the Austrian promise Denifl and the strong Swedish time trialist Larsson. I am soooo looking forward to watching Hoogerland and Van Hummel racing for the same team!!!

So, that's all for tonight - I'm going to talk about the other teams soon, so stay tuned. In the meanwhile, have a great week!

Rest in Peace Marco:

Today the weather in Italy is simply perfect: the sky is blue and the sun is shining. Unfortunately, not many people are enjoying it, because of a sad news that reached Italy this morning: Marco Simoncelli, one of the most talented Italian motorcyclists, passed away while racing the GP of Malaya. Marco was 24 and leaves his parents and his girlfriend Kate.

I'm not really keen on motorcycling, but I knew Simoncelli because Gazzetta used to dedicate a lot of articles to him. Moreover, he was easy to recognise because of his curly wild hair and he was pretty well known amongst students because last year he wrote a column for 'Smemoranda', one of the most popular Italian notebooks. From that column he came across as a very likeable, lively and down-to-Earth guy. He clearly loved his job and he died while doing what he liked the most.

Of course I think it's useless to say that Simoncelli's tragedy made my mind go back to that damned 9th of May, when Wouter Weylandt passed away on Passo Bocco. Even if Marco and Wouter had different stories and practised different sports, today I feel the same pain that hurt me 5 months ago.

I'm really lost for words and I cannot accept what has happened. Rest in peace Marco and may your family and your girlfriend have all the strength of the world in order to get over this hard moment.

Giro and Tour presentations:

The 2011 season ended on Saturday, but everyone who is everyone in the Blogsphere is already talking about the 2012 Giro d'Italia and the 2012 Tour de France. Therefore, I must talk about it too.

So. The Italian race was presented on Sunday, one day after the Giro di Lombardia. The live broadcast from Milan started with some moving images of Wouter Weylandt's career, from his Giro victory in 2010 to his tragic death this year. Auro Bulbarelli was the first one to speak and he introduced a video that shows the place where WW Special lost his life four months ago. On that damned little wall now there is a big 108, on the other side of the road instead there are flowers, cycling jerseys, hats, written messages, pictures and a big, red heart. Bulbarelli also takes the chance to remind everyone that Wouter's wife, An-Sophie, gave birth to the little Alizée Weylandt last month. A joyful event that was shadowed by the fact that the little baby will never know her father and by the fact that, right now, poor An-Sophie is unemployed.

After remembering Wouter, RAI decided to show us the images of last year's race. In that way we all had the chance of remembering touching moments like Tiralongo's victory, great attacks like Nibali's one in the Gardeccia stage, great deeds like the one of Vasil Kiryenka on Colle delle Finestre, nervous moments like the ones of the Ulissi-Visconti fight and breathtaking seconds like the ones that led to Bart De Clerq's first victory.

Many of the riders who rocked the cycling stage during the season attended the presentation and they were introduced at the end of the video. The young Battaglin looked incredibly shy, whereas Guardini looked more comfortable in his very nice suit. Cavendish opted for a white trousers + white shirt + white sweater combo, whereas Van Den Broeck chose a terribly shiny suit. Nibali looked as classy as usual, whereas Scarponi and Cunego looked pretty shabby in their Lampre sweaters. Rujano decided to wear a leather jacket, Kreuziger sported a shiny golden tie, Nieve wore his favourite sweater, the one he probably wears at home when it's cold outside. Hushovd wore a suit too, just like Ballan and the goofy Daniel Martin (please, tell me my eyes were wrong when they told my brain that he was wearing leather trousers!!). Fuglsang looked hot even if he was sporting a very casual look whereas Basso probably hadn't shaved for at least one week. Boasson Hagen decided not to wear a jacket over his shirt, whereas Garzelli looked as classy as usual. Also Johnny Hoogerland should have taken part in the presentation, but he and his tazi probably got lost in the Milan fog.

Alberto Contador was the last rider to be introduced and he found himself on the Giro stage after being put inside a black cylindre which was later lowered onto the stage. Conti came out of the cylindre with nonchalance and in that moment I thought that Alberto is a really extraordinary person: he didn't even blush red when he went out of that thing!

After all the riders (Johnny Hoogerland excluded) had arrived on the stage, the Giro presentation finally began. First of all, RAI had to show a a threatening video message in which Pat McQuaid stated something like: 'The future of the Giro depends on what the UCI does'. I took it as a threat, and I'm afraid I wasn't the only one.  A few seconds later, the 2012 parcours of the Corsa Rosa was eventually shown.

As known, next year edition of the pink race will take off with a 8.7 kms long ITT in Herning, Denmark. Also the second stage of the race will take place in Herning, whereas the third one will be raced near Horsens. Herning is the place to be next May, no doubts about that.

The first rest day of the race arrives after just 3 day and will allow the riders to move from Denmark to Verona, where they'll face a 32 kms long TTT (please Geox, find yourself some decent time trialists in time for this stage!!). During the presentation an Italian journalist complained about the fact that next year the Corsa Rosa will start from Denmark but won't have any stage in the South of Italy but, of course, his critics were ignored.

After the TTT, the riders will face many hilly stages that may end up being very tricky for the GC. The most interesting stages of the first 10 days of race will probably be the Lago Laceno, the Assisi and the Sestri Levante ones. In particular, the stage to Lago laceno has a summit finish, whereas the other two stages will offer us a lot of fun thanks to the hilly terrain. The second week of race will end with two tough stages: the first one goes from Cherasco to Cervinia, the other one instead will see the riders starting their daily fatigue in Busto Arsizio ('Svarione degli Anelli', anyone?) and finishing it in Lecco after facing tough climbs like Valcava.

The third week will begin with a hilly stage to Pfalzen, followed by a tough day in the Dolomites during which the riders will have to face Passo Giau before riding downhill towards Cortina.

The penultimate stage of the race has an uphill finish to Alpe di Pampeago, whereas the last one is terrific: during it in fact the riders will have to face Tonale, Aprica, Mortirolo and Stelvio. Apropos, how will the supporters find enough free space on the Mortirolo? The road is so narrow and the supporters will be so many!

On the last day of race the remaining riders will end their fatigue in Milan after a 31.5 kms long TT. In this way, we're likely to be glued to the television until the very last stage of the Giro.

So, what do I think of this parcours? Well, let's say that I quite like it because it seems a good mixture of hilly stages, historical climbs and interesting sceneries. The Giro winner won't have to be a super time trialist, but he'll have to be ready to solve every problem that he might have during the hilly stages and he'll have to be a super climber in order to resist the terrible last stage. This Giro is more human than the ones of the last years (it even has 400 kms of transfers less than the 2011 one) and hopefully it will be very exciting.

Let's now talk about the 2012 Tour de France, which was presented this morning. First of all, some fashion remarks: some riders (Cadel Evans above all) looked very classy (and me approved), some others instead decided wearing a suit without a tie. No leather jackets were spotted amongst the crowd.

The Schleck brothers both wore a suit, even if they surprisingly chose different colours for their shirts: blue for Andy (did he steal the idea from Voeckler?), white for Frank. At least, this year we didn't have to stand OGL's beige shirt. Gilbert looked very classy, whereas there was something wrong with Van Den Broeck and Hushovd's shirts: Jurgen seemed to suffocate in his one, whereas one could tell from Hushovd's look that the room where the presentation was held was extremely hot. Anyway, enough fashion for today.

The 2012 TdF will begin with a 6 kms prologue in Liége, followed by two sprinters stages (hello crashes!). The 4th stage is likely to be entertaining, just like the 7th one, which has a summit finish. The last climb of that stage is short (5.5 kms) but steep (9%), so we'll surely have fun watching it.

After a hilly stage, the riders will tackle the second TT of the race, which is said to be hilly and is 38 kms long. On the following day the athletes will have to climb the Col de la Colombiere, but then they'll have to face 40 kms of descent and flat terrain before reaching the finish-line. Then, on the following day, the menu offers us an epic stage featuring Col de la Croix de Fer, col de la Madeleine and La Toussuire. YAY! (yes, Chris Anker Sorensen and I are already looking forward to that day :P).

After the second summit finish of the race, we'll have to wait until the 16th stage before we can see some important mountains again. In fact the Pau - Bagneres-de-Luchon has historical climbs like Aubisque, Tourmalet, Aspin and Pereysourde on its menu.

24 hours later, the last summit finish: the riders in fact will have to climb up to Peyragudes. On the following day, the athletes will be busy fighting against the clock for 52 kms. After this last fatigue, they'll finally be able to take part in the traditional parade on the Champ Elysées.

So, what do I think of this Tour? Honestly, I don't really like it. I prefer climbers above time trialists and this new Tour seems perfect for this latter category of riders. 3 (3!) summit finishes, many flat / hilly stages, 96 kms against the clock: no, me doesn't like this parcours. Apparently, the 2012 trend for GTs want them to be more human and 'easier'. I think that this is the right road for the Giro d'Italia, but not for the TdF. 96 kms against the clock, are you kidding me?

Anyway, of course this is just my opinion. Now I just hope that Menchov will be invited to the Tour (the parcours suits him in an amazing way), that Schleck will race the Giro (96 kms against the clock to wear the yellow jersey, have you heard me?) and that next season will be better than this one. Let's hope so!!

Zaugg takes his first victory at the Tour of Lombardy:

Saturday, 1 pm: I am on the top of Valcava, the steepest climb of this new 'Giro di Lombardia' which, according to many experts, is probably harder than the ones of the previous years. The air is cold (there are about 5 degrees), but the sun is shining: not a typical Lombardy day, then. Still, many trees have already lost their leaves and this reminds me once again why the Giro di Lombardia is also known as Race of the Falling Leaves. Some old competitions are connected to the period of the year in which they're traditionally raced and this is true for important Classics like Milan-Sanremo ('la Primavera'), Paris-Tours and for the races of the North, which take place in the so-called 'Holy Week of Cycling'. The Tour of Lombardy unfortunately may lose its nickname next year, when it will be raced at the end of September. Give that this year on the last Sunday of September we had about 20°, I'm afraid that the so called 'Lombardy weather' (characterised by cold, rain and fog) will soon become a memory. Anyway.

The riders have just started the Valcava climb and I have enough time to think about all the things that have changed during this last, crazy season. Two riders have abandoned the peloton forever, another rider has spent 4 long months in a hospital. Some riders have had a year full of glory, some haven't. Still, one thing remains the same: Andy Schleck was second in a Grand Tour. Years pass, that placement remains.

After a short await, the first riders appear. Van Summeren is the first one: he's suffering and, as I see him pass, I think about all the things he's shared with us on a crazy day in April, when he won Paris-Roubaix and he proposed to his girlfriend. Arashiro watches the wheel of the rider in front of him and is probably wondering why he had to go on a breakaway. Pasqualon spits, Corioni looks tired: Valcava is a hard climb and the cold weather is not helping the riders. The soigneurs in a BMC car take a look at the riders at the front and so do the supporters. Someone screams, many people clap their hands, an old man tells the riders that the climb is almost over.

A few seconds later, the peloton arrives. Liquigas is pulling, I recognise Ballan just because of the screams of the man next to me. My mum and I recognise Lovkvist, my dad recognises Chris Anker Sorensen. I get a glimpse of Mollema and Sivstov and I think of HTC Highroad: Kanstantin is the only HTC rider who hasn't retired from the race yet and as I saw him ride by I think of the history of that glorious team.

A few seconds later, a Leopard Trek rider - is he Denifl? - rides right next to me and I think about all the problems that this team has had so far. Wouter's death in May, the lack of important victories, the merger with Radioshack... I also think about the fact that Mortensen and Denifl are off to Vacansoleil, whereas Lund is back to Saxo Bank and Fabian Wegmann has signed a contract with another team too. A strange year, for FabWee: his son was born in June, but that joyful event was shadowed by the thought of his roommate Wouter who, at the moment of his death, was awaiting the birth of his first child too.

All the riders in the peloton have already ridden past me as my mind goes back to the race. A QuickStep rider receives a sticky bottle from his team car, Tosatto works hard to get back to the main group. I see Nick Nuyens and I see a photographer taking a picture of Berard right in front of me. Wouter Mol is clearly exhausted and, as soon as he reaches the top of the climb, he turns his bike backwards and he stops: his season ends here, in Valcava, just like the one of many QuickStep riders and of a Liquigas rider who doesn't even bother reaching the top of the climb. The man in green in fact simply catches his rain jacket, puts it on and starts riding on the fast downhill road that directly leads to Lecco. A Movistar car drives up the climb as  the smell of car brakes becomes almost unbearable. I think of Tondo and Soler and of this crazy cycling season once again.

Less than 10 minutes after the beginning of the show, the 'Fine Corsa' car arrives and puts an end to my cycling season 'live'. Two hours later, I watch Nibali trying to make a deed between Ghisallo and Lecco. Still, Vincenzo is unlucky: Rogers gives it all and, once he's run out of energy, Thomas Lovkvist sets a hellish pace at the front. Vincenzo gets caught a few kms before the beginning of the last climb. Lovkvist soon reaches the bottom of his energy tank too, just like his teammate Uran. A terrible strategy for Team Sky, just like for team Katiusha: they both had some of the strongest riders, they both let victory slip away.

As I think of this, Basso tries to make the difference on the Villa Vergano. Still, on the steepest part of the climb the strongest rider is Oliver Zaugg. The Swiss rider knows he has the form of his life and he knows he's attacked in the right point: he gives everything he has in order to get his first victory ever, he gives everything he has in order to exploit this extraordinary moment of his career. Oliver never looks back, he just keeps on pushing the pedals and telling himself that he can make it.

After a breathtaking solo ride, Zaugg arrives in Lecco: one curve, another curve, and then he sees the finish-line. Martin, Pozzovivo, Niemiec and Rodriguez are far from him, so Oliver can finally raise his arms and scream all his joy: I, Oliver Zaugg, a modest helper, have finally made it to the top of my sport.

After the finish-line the Swiss rider doesn't look particularly moved, probably because he still hasn't realised what has happened. Journalists want him to say something, he replies their questions in perfect Italian. On the podium, Oliver enjoys the crowd, the sun, the champagne, the trophy and the kisses of the miss: this is his moment, this is the fairy tale of the helper who finally becomes a champion - a fairy tale that cycling often offers to his supporters.

In the meanwhile, Italian journalists complain about Nibali. He shouldn't have attacked on the Ghisallo, he shouldn't have done that, he shouldn't have done this. Vincenzo tries to defend himself from the very same people who, a few kms earlier, seemed unable to stop praising him. Journalists criticise Liquigas, no one talks about Sky and Katiusha's terrible tactics: Lovkvist was amongst the strongest this afternoon, but he had to sacrifice himself in order to help (?) Uran (19th); on the other hand, Katiusha made a mess with Paolini's attacks on every single descent of the race.

But still, critics are useless now. The season is over, Oliver Zaugg has got the first victory of his career in the last race of the 2011 year. From tomorrow everyone will start thinking about the new Giro, about the Tour presentation, about the cycling market. Still, today is Oliver's day: he's raced as a champion, let him enjoy this triumph. Well done man!!

Random Randomness du October:

After a long period of silence, miss Fede has finally taken up blogging again. Said period of silence was mainly due to the that the Italian academic year began just last week, so that in the last few days me has been terribly busy trying to follow every first-year lesson and trying to understand my timetable (this may sound easy, but I assure you it is one of the most complicated things I've ever done).  Moreover, me has been recently shocked by a few school-related discoveries that I've made this week. Here are some of them:

1. the university canteen is a great place, but unfortunately it is always extremely crowded. It opens at midday and you must be outside it at 11.59 am if you want to secure yourself a comfortable table and a warm dish of pasta. In fact, if you arrive at that magic building at 12.05 (like I did the other day), you can say 'adieu' to your hopes of eating something warm and tasty - or, better, you can say 'adieu' to those hopes unless you decide to spend 30 minutes of your precious one-hour break in the long queue that goes from the entry of the building to the room where they actually give you the food.

2. Jesus could multiply food, but the beginning of the academic year can multiply the number of those who decide to study Russian. At the beginning of our little Russian course in September in fact we were about 60, at the end of it we were about 35/40. The other day instead just 28 people attended our first Russian lesson of the year, whereas yesterday we were just 23. This morning, instead, 90 (90!!!) people turned up at our first lesson with the Professor that will teach us every secret of the Russian language in the next two years. The annoying thing is that most of these people didn't attend the September course, so that now we have to face every topic very slowly so that they can understand it too. Moreover, having so many new people at our lessons risks to destroy the nice atmosphere of comradeship that we had managed to create during the September course. Geez, I had just started to recognise every single Russian classmate of mine, and now 60 new people start attending the lessons too. That's so confusing!!

3. Never talk loudly next to the 'safety exits' of the university buildings. In fact, they may suddenly turn out to be classrooms, just like it happened the other day (I was talking to a friend, friend started talking loudly, Professor came out of the classroom and told friend off, me looked shocked because friend and I both hadn't realised we were right outside a classroom).

4. Never say 'You don't need a degree to do that!' (one of my favourite sentences!) when you're in a university building. In fact, a Professor could hear you and be offended by that sentence.

5. At some hours of the day, going to the Upper City by foot takes you less than going there by bus. Amazing, isn't it?

Of course, in the last few days I've also been shocked by a few cycling-related events: Pozzato winning a race in a great way, the Giro and the Tour stages being leaked, Cyclingnews calling the Cavendish/Sky affaire 'the worst kept secret in cycling'... Anyway, let's go in order.

First of all, a 'Team RAnT' update: Geoffrey Lequatre has signed a contract with Bretagne Schuller. Right now the Radioshack riders who still need to find themselves a contract for next year are: Bewley, Popovych, Rovny and Selander. Also Gianni Meersman and Toni Gallopin (who both signed a contract with RS a few months ago) are still 'lost in the merger'.

Talking about Team RAnT, I really do hope that next year it will include Oliver Zaugg. The Swiss ride, although he's never won any race since he's turned pro, is a great helper and last Saturday he showed us his class at Giro dell'Emilia, one of the hardest races of the year. Unfortunately the LT rider found on his way an incredible Carlos Betancurt, a young Colombian rider who got his first victory in the pro rankings by dropping Oliver on the San Luca climb. Second in the race was Mollema (the poor thing thought he had won...), while third was Uran.

Talking about Betancurt, I think it's nice to remember that this boy sends all the money he earns to his familiars, who still live in Colombia. Nice guy, isn't he?

Another important Italian race du fin de saison is the GP Beghelli, which was won by an amazing Pozzato. I often joke about Pippo, but this time I really can't say anything about his victory: the Katiusha rider in fact put in an amazing attack and won in a very classy way. Hopefully this is a good sign for his future.

As some of you probably know, in the last few days there have been other two important races: Paris-Tours and Tour of Beijing. Paris - Tours was won by Greg Van Avermaet, who outsprinted the good Marco Marcato. The Vacansoleil rider gave it all once again, but unfortunately luck is never good to him. Hopefully, things will change on Saturday, during the Tour of Lombardy.

Talking about the Tour of Beijing, get ready to answer some questions. First of all: did you know that this is the only race that is completely organised and sponsored by the UCI? And did you know that in May the riders said they would have boycotted it because of Radio-Gate? And then, did you know that next year the Tour of Lombardy will change date in the calendar, so that the Tour of Beijing will become the last race of the season? And did you know that Paris-Tours, in spite of its beauty and tradition, isn't part of the ProTour anymore? I love cycling, but when I see these things I can't help but think that my favourite sport is governed by a panel of selected idiots. Paris-Tours has got history and tradition on his side, Tour of Beijing hasn't got anything but the money - and a spot in the ProTour, of course. The whole ProTour systems leaves me disgusted and the fact that the Tour of Lombardy next year will be raced one week after the Worlds almost make me puke. 'Why?' You may ask. 'In that way, the Schleck brothers may race it! Aren't you happy??' No, unfortunately I'm not happy. I'm not happy because, if Tour of Lombardy changes date, I wonder what will happen to amazing races like Giro dell'Emilia or Giro del Piemonte, which are usually used as a 'training' for the Tour of Lombardy. Thinking that these races may be forgotten by everyone leaves me sad and angry, especially if I think that all these moves are made in order to promote the Tour of Beijing. Pollution and supporters kept far from the cyclists on the one hand, passion and great landscapes on the other one. Money and ProTour points on the one hand, history and tradition on the other one. What do you prefer? I have my answer, Pat McQuaid and the other UCI guys have their own. And you? 

Oh, and talking about the Tour of Beijing: I couldn't see any stage of it because I didn't have any free morning last week. But still, I've read on la Gazzetta that, although the race was perfectly organised, the supporters were kept very far from the riders. This obviously reminded of the 2008 Olympics, when you could hear the riders screaming at each other because there were no supporters along the route of the race, so that the only sounds one could hear via television were the screams of the cyclists. Anyway, I realise I'm digressing.

On to another news, Riccò has recently confessed blood doping and now he risks to be banned for 12 years (yes, Evil Me considers this a happy news).

Another breakout news instead announces that Cavendish and Eisel are both off to Team Sky. Cyclingnews called it 'the worst kept secret of cycling', but in my opinion nothing can beat the 'secrecy' of the Cancellara-Leopard Trek affaire.

Last but not least, my 50 cents about the Giro/Tourleaks: I don't trust these rumours and, more important, I think they're useless. One can match two cities on a map in a hundred different ways, but in order to know the true route of those two Grand Tours we'll surely have to wait until next week. Then, finally, we'll be able to start complaining talking about the suits worn by the athlets attending the events  the race parcours.

So, that's all from me for the moment. Have a great weekend and a great tour of Lombardy everyone!

Random post about random randomness: RadioSchleck, Giro d'Italia and more

Good day everyone, dear readers! Exactly one week after the end of the Worlds, miss Fede is blogging again. Unfortunately there isn't much to blog about, apart from the RadioSchleck (nickname by Ania :))-related news. Bruyneel's equipe in fact has just signed Machado and Didier and this makes me wonder once again who is on the 2012 team and who isn't. So here's a little scheme that, hopefully, will help us understand what may happen to our favourite riders in the next few months.

RADIOSHACK:

In her last few posts miss Fede focused her attention just on Team Leopard's riders, whereas she never paid attention to the RS athletes who are losing their jobs. Therefore, here's a little scheme that will help us understand what may happen/has happened/is happening to the riders who have been racing for the Shack in 2011.

2011 roster (28 riders): The riders of the 2011 Radioshack team have beem: Beppu, Bewley, Brajkovic, Busche, Cardoso, Deignan, Hermans, Horner, Hunter, Irizar, King, Kloden, Kwiatowski, Leipheimer, Lequatre, Machado, McCartney, McEwen, Murayev, Oliveira, Paulinho, Popovych, Rast, Rosseler, Rovny, Selander, Sergent and Zubeldia.

Riders who are changing team (12): Many Shack riders decided to find a new team as soon as they found out about the merger with LT. These guys are  Cardoso (off to CajaRural), Brajkovic and Murayev (Astana), Rosseler, McEwen, Hunter and Beppu (GreenEdge), Leipheimer and Kwiatowski (Omega Pharma - Quickstep), Paulinho (Saxo Bank), McCartney and Deignan (Team United Health Care).

Riders who are not changing team (11): So far it seems that the riders who will keep on riding for Bruyneel  are: Horner, Rast, Zubeldia, Kloden, Hermans, Sergent, King, Machado, Busche, Irizar and Oliveira.

'Lost in the merger' riders (5 + 2): Right now, the 'lost in the merger' riders are Bewley, Lequatre, Popovych, Rovny and Selander. Moreover, Gianni Meersman and Toni Gallopin had signed a contract with RS before the merger was done, so that now they still don't know anything about their future.

LEOPARD TREK:

2011 roster (25 riders): Andy and Frank Schleck, O'Grady, Clarke, Denifl, Pires, Feillu, Klemme, Voigt, Wegmann, Cancellara, Wagner, Gerdemann, Stamsnijder, Posthuma, Zaugg, Lund, Fuglsang, Mortensen, Pedersen, Bennati, Viganò, Nizzolo, Rohregger, Monfort.

Changing team (1): As known, Stuart O'Grady has recently signed a contract with GreenEdge.

Riders whose contract is expiring (4): Right after everyone got to know about the merger, Becca said that the riders who had a 1 year contract with him would have been 'let free' (translation from Beccansense: 'be fired') at the end of the 2011 season. According to this statement, the guys who will surely be forced to change team at the end of the season will be Feillu, Pires, Pedersen and Rohregger.

Riders who are not changing team (16 + 1): The cyclists who are sure they'll be racing for Bruyneel in 2012 are los Schlecks, Cancellara, Voigt, Fuglsang and the new entry Laurent Didier.

Apart from these names, nothing is clear about the future of the other LT riders. In fact Radioshack will offer 11 new riders to Mr. Becca's new project, whereas 5 LT riders are 100% sure they'll be racing for Bruyneel next year. As well as these 5 lucky guys (plus Didier), also other 11 LT riders will keep on racing together with the most famous brothers of the peloton. However, now the question is: what are the names of these lucky cyclists? Unfortunately, no one can answer that question yet. Rumours say that Gerdemann and Wegmann were both offered a contract by Katiusha, but they refused the offer. As far as the other riders are concerned, nothing is known.

Riders 'lost in the merger': At the end of the day, the riders who will surely have to find a new team are Feillu, Rohregger, Pedersen and Pires plus other three athletes whose names are still unknown.

So, this is what we can say so far about the Radio Schleck affaire. This post is likely to be updated day after day in the next few weeks, so keep an eye on it.

Talking about the next few weeks: although the weather doesn't show it, autumn has already begun. In 2 weeks time the cycling season is over and, after the pics from Curaçao will be posted throughout the Blogosphere, every single cycling blogger will have to find ideas in order to keep themselves and their readers busy during the off-season. In the meanwhile, Cougar Girl has already had a wonderful idea: take a look at her new post at  http://eisenandy.blogspot.com/2011/10/andy-and-frankie-just-another-day-in.html and you won't be able to stop laughing out loud!

As far as me is concerned, I already have some winter-related ideas, which include a 'Pronounciation post!', perhaps featuring some Russian names - you can't imagine my surprise when I discovered the correct pronounciation of the surname 'Petrov'!!

Anyway, it's still a long way before the end of the cycling season, and I'm sure that interesting news will keep us busy until then. However, in the next 2 weeks don't bother wondering whether the Schleck brothers will take part in the Tour of Lombardy or in other races like that: in fact Andy and Frank have already ended their season which, according to themselves, was another great success. 'Two brothers on the TdF podium, we entered history!!' Two riders wasting so much talent, you've entered history! Ok, apologies for the bitchy moment.

Still talking about 'entering history': the new Giro d'Italia was said to be 'more human' than in the previous editions, but the new race director, Michele Acquarone, said that the penultimate stage will feature the Mortirolo and the Stelvio. Of course, said news was welcomed by a loud 'WTF?!?' from all over the world (and from mr. Jakob Fuglsang in particular :P). Of course, I agree with everyone who thinks that this penultimate stage is way too extreme. People want cycling races, not carnages!!

After writing a completely useless post which may include some big maths mistakes, miss Fede now salutes you and wishes you a good evening: it's time to study a few new Russian words and to get ready for the new academical year, which begins tomorrow. Hasta pronto!

Unstoppable Cavendish takes the rainbow jersey!!

First of all, let's say that I'm not in a very good mood right now. I couldn't see the Worlds 'live' (I've just finished watching the recordings), I didn't sleep enough last night and I must learn how to write every letter of the Cyrillic aphabet in corsive characters before tomorrow. Therefore, I hope you will forgive me for the bitchy moments that I'll have while writing this post.

So, the Copenhagen Worlds 2011 - also known as the only Tour de France flat stage that was raced at the wrong time of the year (today, 25th September 2011) and in the wrong part of Europe. Seriously,in my opinion the only difference between the Copenhagen Worlds and the boring flat stages of the Touris the fact that the winner of a TdF flat stage usually receives a yellow jersey, whereas the cyclist who won today's special stage received a special rainbow jersey.

To prove you that I'm not joking when I say that today's Worlds race was just like a TdF stage, I'll give you 3 proves:

First: HTC ruled the race, just like it usually does at the Tour.

Second: the last 2 kms of race featured 8 traffic islands, one roundabout and a curve with 800 meters to go - just like at the Tour.

Three: Thomas Voeckler attacked.

Anyway, back to 'seriousness'. During the whole race (which lasted 5 hours and 40 minutes) I counted three thrilling moments: the final sprint, the crash that destroyed Hushovd's hopes of winning another edition of the Worlds and the moment when they showed Bjarne Riis next to his super-hot son. Yes, these were the three top moments of the race. Every single breakaway in fact looked hopeless even before it was created, especially because the whole British team worked extremely hard in order to chase every man that managed to break clear from the peloton. The funny thing is that, since Great Britain didn't look strong enough, with 18 kms to go someone (the Irish rider Brammeier) decided to help Wiggo & Co. in their attempt of chasing the brave riders (Voeckler, Lodewyck, N. Sorensen and Hoogerland) who had just managed to create the last, desperate breakaway. Of course, the British/Irish poursuivants succeeded without problems.

The last 5 kms of race were the only exciting things of the day. Great Britain looked perfect, Australia was struggling to find a place in the sun for Goss, Italy and Spain were desperately trying to create a leadout train. Sagan was in the first part of the peloton, Boasson Hagen was invisible, the cameras still hadn't caught a glimpse of Farrar's face.

And in the end, after about 5'39" hours of race, the final sprint began: Cavendish ruled it, Goss arrived second, an amazing Greipel was third. Fourth was a super surprising Cancellara (well done to Barbara who yesterday evening included both him and Cav in his 'top favourites' list!!), 5th was Roelandts, 6th was Romain Feillu. The underestimated Bozic was 7th and he crossed the finish-line right before Boasson Hagen, Freire and Farrar. Sagan was 12th, Bennati was 14th. Frank Schleck didn't finish the race whereas his brother Andy didn't bother taking part in it because of some strange connections between his wisdom teeth problems and a possible heart muscle infection (his words, not mine!).

Anyway. The 2011 Worlds have come and gone and they'll always be remembered as the race with the easiest parcours of the last 10 years. Cipollini, who won the rainbow jersey in Zolder in 2002, said that this year the parcours was even easier than on that occasion. As an Italian chronist said, 'this year the roads of the Worlds Championship didn't choose the World Champion of cycling, they chose the World Champion of sprinters'. Of course we all know that Cavendish is a champion (he won Sanremo in 2009 and everyone knows that La Primavera isn't an easy race at all), but this parcours was simply too easy to be fun/good: not a hill, not a climb, not a slope. Nothing. I personally compared it to a TdF stage, but with a difference (as well as the 'colour of the jersey' one): in the TdF you need also a lot of luck to win a flat stage and, even if you fail winning the first bunch sprint of the race, you can give it another try about 24 hours later. This afternoon, instead, it was a matter of 'do or die': those who weren't lucky enough or who had problems with their leadout trains will never get a second chance.

Talking about 'having problems with your leadout train': Italy made a mess in the last kms of race, but I think everyone expected that. Bennati is a good rider, but not a champion, whereas Modolo and Viviani are still too young to win a World Championship. Criticising the boys is useless, because Bettini created the best possible team for this Worlds. And if you're disappointed because the Azzurri didn't win any medal, then go ask the Italian Cycling Federayion why they didn't allow us to bring Petacchi to Copenhagen.

So, the 2011 Worlds week is over. Now some riders will go on holiday, whereas some will keep on fighting until Tour of Lombardy. In the meanwhile, cycling market and polemics will surely keep us busy: Cancellara and Fuglsang in fact have recently announced that they've signed a contract with team RaNT (chorus of 'Nooooooo!!' coming from the fangirls of the whole world), whereas Teutenberg, Bronzini and Vos reacted openly to Pat McQuaid's words about the creation of a 'minimum wage rule' for women riders. The UCI president in fact has stated that the women's movement 'hasn't developed enough' to deserve a rule like that. Of course, these words are going to create a very hot debate in the next days.

PS: LeopardTrek's information system gave us another special moment this afternoon. In fact, right after the race, on their Facebook page they published an article called 'Cancellara takes the bronze medal also in the Road Race!' Amazing, isn't it?

Giorgia Bronzini does it again!!!! (post including random predictions for tomorrow):

6th July 2011:

The 5th stage of Giro Donne ends in Piacenza and Giorgia Bronzini (who wears the World Champion jersey and was born in that town) would love to win. In the finale she  does everything she can to get the victory, but an amazing Marianne Vos (who is wearing the Maglia Rosa) outsprints her right before the finish-line.

'I'll be honest: yes, I wanted to win this stage', the 27 year-old Italian said right after the finish-line. 'Piacenza is my hometown and winning a stage in front of my people, with this jersey on, would have been amazing. Still, right now Vos is the strongest rider of the field. Being outsprinted by a great champion like her is a honour'.

As if the defeat hadn't been enough hard to take, Giorgia's day got even worse when she was told about the death of Carly Hibberd, an Australian rider who was run over by a truck on the morning of that sunny summer day. A true hellish day for Giorgia, who didn't manage to get any victory during the Giro Donne and who has recently stated that the rainbow jersey so far has been a heavy burden for her, especially because since last October she's become one of the most 'marked' riders of the female peloton.

24th September 2011:

Almost three months after that sunny and sad Italian day, Giorgia Bronzini started the women road race in Copenhagen with a very good team surrounding her. The day before the race she had told Gazzetta that, in her opinion, Vos and Teutenberg were the main contenders for the rainbow jersey, 'but', she added, 'there are also other 4-5 girls who can do well in a bunch sprint and Monia Baccaille and I are amongst them'.

The day on the saddle flew away slowly and quickly at the same time. One hour of race and await, two hours of race and await, three hours of race and await, and all of a sudden you find yourself with 10 kms to go and you realise that the race is ending. A Canadian, Clara Hughes, is showing a lot of power and braveness by attacking on her own. The Dutch girls are already preparing their leadout train for Marianne Vos, who also this year has a lot of pressure on her shoulders. The 24 year-old in fact had won a lot of races this season and, on paper,  the Copenhagen parcours has always seemed perfect for her. Marianne this afternoon was as determined as never before because, in a certain way, the Worlds are a 'cursed' race for her. She won them in 2006 (her first year amongst the pros), but then she got the silver medal every year for the following 4 editions of the race. This afternoon she had the chance of ending this curse, and she wanted to grab it. She was ready.

Also Ina Yoko Teutenberg was determined to get a victory. The German rider in fact is already 37 and this morning she absolutely wanted to give her country another gold medal to be proud of. That's why Germany was working hard in the finale of the race, that's why everyone paid attention to the white jerseys at the front of the group.

With less than 6 kms to go, Clara Hughes was caught and an Italian, D'Ettorre, tried to create problems to the Dutch and to the German girls. A few meters later, a crash involved three Italian riders and that looked like the end of the rainbow ambitions of the Squadra Azzurra. Still, two girls were still up and running: Giorgia Bronzini and Monia Baccaille.

The Dutch women prepared a perfect sprint for Marianne Vos, but Monia Baccaille painted a true masterpiece in the last meters of race. In fact, she found a little hole between an athlete and the barriers and she went there without any fear. Bronzini followed her and she found herself at the head of the race. She was so cold-minded that she even managed to wait for the perfect moment to start her sprint and the perfect timing (just like Baccaille's perfect leadout) eventually paid off: Giorgia raised her arms happily, while Vos, second for the 5th time in a row, broke into tears. Third was Teutenberg, the rest didn't count.

Right after the finish-line the Italians started jumping and screaming. Their joy was impressive if compared to the sad looks on the faces of the Dutch girls. These are the names of the golden girls of Italian cycling: Scandolara, Guderzo, Cecchini (this girl was born in 1992!), Cantele, Bronzini, D'Ettorre (who comes from l'Aquila), Baccaille and Longo Borghini.

Right after the finish-line Bronzini was enthusiastic and she said that this victory is even better than the one she got last year. 'In Geelong Marianne Vos had made a big mistake in the final sprint, whereas this time she was perfect, just like Teutenberg. But still, I was faster than them'. The girls also had the chance of singing the national anthem for the Italian tv and they were extremely happy for their teammate's success. 4th victory in the last 5 Worlds for the Italians, 5th silver medals in the last 5 Worlds for Vos. Happiness on one hand, disappointment on the other one. That's life, that's sport, that's cycling. And that's an amazing edition of the Worlds. Bravissime ragazze!!!!

ELITE MEN ROAD RACE:

After talking about the Women Road Race, let's talk briefly about tomorrow's race. Unfortunately I may not be able to see it because I must go to my cousin's baptism. When I discovered about that, I started rabbiting on about people who plan important events on the day of the Worlds and at first my dad agreed with me. Then, however, he changed his mind. 'You don't remember the day when you were baptised, do you?', 'No, I don't', I obviously answered. 'Well, perhaps you should know that you were baptised on the day when Bugno won his second World title. Mum and her relatives were eating, you were sleeping, my four brothers, my father and I were in front of the restaurant's tv watching the race. And your uncles were screaming like mad'. How nice, isn't it? The day of my baptism, and everyone was celebrating Bugno. But still, I could take it as a divine sign, couldn't I? ;)

Anyway. Tomorrow's Worlds race will be 'attackers against sprinters'. The attackers will be the riders from Switzerland, Denmark,  Holland, Kazakhstan, Ireland, Luxembourg, Austria, Lithuania, Poland, Czech Republic, Canada, Croatia, Ukraine, Portugal, France (Feillu isn't in a good form yet), Colombia, Venezuela and Sweden. With respect talking, those who may actually try creating a dangerous breakaway are the Swiss, the Swedish, the Canadian, the Dutch, the Irish, the French and the Danish teams. Belgium, Belarus and Italy have some fast-but-not-too-fast riders (Van Avermaet, Hutarovich, Visconti, Oss, Viviani, Gilbert), so they'll probably attack too.

Unfortunately the attackers's chances aren't many. In fact the sprinters teams will be much more (and, if I can say it, much better) than the attacker's teams. Just read this list: Argentina (the Haedo brothers plus Richeze), Slovakia (Sagan), New Zealand (Henderson and Dean), Japan (Arahiro and Beppu), Russia (Galimzyanov), Slovenia (Bole and Bozic), USA (Farrar), Germany (Degenkolb, Greipel, Kittel), Great Britain (Cavendish), Australia (Cooke, Gerrans, Goss, Haussler), Spain (Hushovd, Boasson Hagen) and Spain (Freire, Rojs, Lastras). As you can see, all the strongest teams have at least one good sprinter. I think it will be difficult to create a winning breakaway, although many will try doing it: Hoogerland, Gilbert, Chavanel, Cancellara, Voeckler surely will try creating problems to the sprinters and, if they all go on a breakaway together, an Italian could join them too, thus making the action even more interesting. Unfortunately, tomorrow the important breakawayers will be chased by guys like Martin, Grabsch, Wiggins, Rogers, Martin / Peter Velits, Phinney and Talansky. Nice, isn't it? Therefore, miss Fede believes that tomorrow the race will end up in a bunch sprint. And, in particular, she thinks that tomorrow's finale may have the following podium: Boasson Hagen, Freire, Sagan. Still, she has to admit that also Farrar (who is veeery underestimated in these days), Goss, Bozic and Galimzyanov will be up there tomorrow.

As you can see, there isn't any Italian in my 'favourites list'  in case of bunch sprint. After all, everyone knows that we Italians are scaramantic people.... ;)

So, my top 3 for tomorrow is: Boasson Hagen, Freire, Sagan. What about you? ;)