Random post about Davide Viganò plus Random Randomness:

The moment has almost come. The moment when we'll finally discover the name of Team Luxembourg, the colour of its kits and the type of cars that the ds are driving this year. I can't wait. Too bad that, on the day of the presentation, me will be in Austria, with no Internet connection. Therefore, this poor girl who has been waiting since August to know the name of her favourite riders' new team will have to wait until the 10th of January before being able to find out more about it. Anger. Actually, right now Fangirl can imagine herself wandering in Vienna, desperately looking for a Gazzetta. Then she can imagine herself finding that Gazzetta and opening it with eagerness, just to find a big pic of Pozzatolocks on the cycling page. That would be shocking.
On the other hand, Logic doesn't care at all about the presentation of the Schleck's team. 'Come on', she told Fangirl, 'the most important thing is to know which riders are going to race for a team. Therefore, you shouldn't care at all about what the team's name will be, or about what the team's kits will look like. You don't get victories just because of your team's name and because of your kits, do you? So, stop complaining about the damned presentation and answer these questions: how will we manage to go from Bratislava to Vienna on Wednesday? Will we manage not to get lost in the airport? Why does our luggage weight just 7 kgs? These are the things about which you should worry right now, you irresponsible Fangirl. And instead, here you are complaining about missing the presentation of a cycling team. We're going to Vienna in 48 hours time, and all you can think about is that team presentation. I wonder what you have in your head, Fangirl!!'. As you can see, Logic is pretty bitter right now and she'd like me to do something useful rather than staying here writing this post.
Therefore, let's write something that can be defined as 'useful' also according to Logic. So, ladies and gentlemen, here's the random profile of Davide Viganò, one of the less known Team Lux's riders, written by me!

First of all, Davide was born in Carate Brianza on the 12th of June 1984.
He became a pro rider with Androni Giocattoli-3 C Casalinghi in 2005 and in the same year he signed a contract for Quick Step. He rode for this team until 2008, when he started riding for Fuji-Servetto (which, at the time, still had a decent jersey). In 2010 instead Viganò went to team Sky, which he abandoned this year in order to join team Lux.
Davide is 182 cms tall and has a weight of 66 kgs. He is on Twitter too and his profile is on http://twitter.com/volaviga .
In 2005, as soon as he became a pro, Viganò managed to arrive 2nd in a race called 'Criterium dei Campioni'. The following year, with Quick Step, he was 12th in a Vuelta's stage. In 2007 he got his only pro victory so far, a stage at the Tour of Qatar. Said stage was a team time trial and in it Davide rode to victory together with Boonen, De Jongh, Tosatto, Steegmans and others. In the same year he was third in Veenendal-Veenendal (Dutch Food Valley Classic). That year the race ended in a sprint and Viganò did better than a guy like Weylandts, who won a Giro stage last year. Still in 2007, Davide was 4th in a Vuelta stage won by Petacchi (he did better than Greipel, Duque, Zabel and many others) and was 5th in the last Vuelta stage (the one ending in Madrid). As you can tell from these results, Viganò is a very good sprinter who can get good results also at the end of Grand Tours.
The finish-line in Madrid really seems to appeal to Davide, who was 3rd in the last Vuelta stage of 2008. In the same year, he was 4th in GP Beghelli (an important Italian race) and 5th in Giro del Piemonte.
In 2009 Viganò got many good placements with Fuji-Servetto. He was 7th in a Tour Down Under stage, 4th in a stage at Tour de Langwaki, 3rd in a stage of Vuelta Ciclistica Asturias. He also took part in that year Giro and got good results also there: an 8th placement in the third stage, a 4th in Chiavenna's one, an 8th in Milan's one and a 9th in Florence one. As you can see, Davide has often been close to grabbing an important victory, but has never been lucky enough.

In 2009 Davide was also 4th in a Vuelta stage, 6th in Hamburg Classic and got some good placements also at Tour de Suisse.
Last year Viganò raced for Sky, but he didn't take part in any Grand Tour. His best results were a 4th place in Vuelta a Catalunya , two 5th placements in Bayern Rundfahrt and a 6th placement in Vuelta a Burgos.
On team Sky website there is a little biography of Davide, that I've partially copied here:

Davide Viganò hails from Carate Brianza, near Milan, and among his neighbours, when he was growing up, was Gianni Bugno. Bugno was the top Italian cyclist of the early 1990s: a double world champion, and winner of the country's national tour, the Giro d'Italia, in which he wore the famous 'maglia rosa' (pink jersey) of race leader from start to finish.
It is no wonder, then, that he was a hero to the young Viganò, who began cycling when he was eight years old (...). Viganò is a good all-round rider with a strong finish. As he puts it: "I'm fast in the sprints, and okay on the climbs" (...).
Viganò is unusual, for an Italian, in preferring the Tour de France to his country's national tour. "I would prefer to ride the Tour because my condition is better in July than in May, when the Giro is on," he admits.

In another interview, talking about his youth, Davide says that his heroes were Bugno and Ullrich. Talking to Cicloweb (a great Italian website), Viganò also said: 'In my first 3 years as a young racer, I was terribly strong. When I didn't win, I arrived on the podium anyway'. Talking about becoming a pro, Viganò said: 'I must admit that becoming a pro wasn't hard, in fact in my first year I changed team in the middle of the season because I had got many good placements. In August 2005 in fact I went to Quick Step, but unfortunately I broke my wrist in that period and so I couldn't take part in many races. Then I started to have some problems: diseases (ndr; mononucleosis in 2009), familiar problems (ndr; his father died in 2007), injuries... All these things didn't allow me to get very good results during my first years as a pro. However, at Quick Step I could help Steegmans and Boonen during the sprints and I could help Bettini in harder races'.
Talking about himself, Davide said: 'I think I'm a very sincere boy. My only passion is cycling, so I don't usually talk about other things in the interviews...I like riding my bike and relaxing with my family and my girlfriend Emanuela'.

So, this is my short introduction to Davide Viganò.If you want to find out more about him, take a look at http://www.teamsky.com/profile/0,27291,17543_5771654,00.html (there is also a video), http://ilnuovociclismo.forumfree.it/?t=22632081 and at http://www.cicloweb.it/articolo/2010/01/12/hai-voluto-la-bicicletta-scopriamo-il-mondo-di-davide-vigano.html (please don't be shocked by the pictures).
Let's hope Davide will finally stop being cursed by bad luck and let's hope that this year he'll finally get his first professional victory. Good luck Davide!!

PS: as you know, I won't be writing anything about team Schleck's presentation and I'm not going to write anything new before of next week. However, if you want, you can use the comment area to express your ideas about the team's presentation- I'm sure that, even without my control, you'll behave well ;)
Let's hope that the kit won't be horrible and have a good time watching the presentation! Auf wiedersehen!