Frankie boy gets his joy!

FRANK SCHLECK WINS THE FIRST STAGE OF CRITERIUM INTERNATIONAL! YAY (*faints*)A Fangirl can't even study Nietszche in peace in these days ;) First, I was distracted by mr. Fabian Cancellara's triumph in Harelbeke; then, it was Frank Schleck's turn to distract me with his great victory at Criterium International (mind you, I'm not complaining for that... ;)

Today stage of Criterium International ended on Col de l'Ospedal, a climb that led the riders up to an altitude of 1.000 meters above the sea level. Frank Schleck crossed the finish-line alone, 16" before of Vasil Kiryenka and 22" before of Rein Taaramae. 4th was Lopez Garcia, 5th Geniez, 6th Lagutin, 7th Nordhaug, 8th Rolland, 9th Fedrigo and 10th was Andy Schleck. A very good result, especially if you consider that Andy was in the same gruppetto as Lagutin, Nordhaug, Rolland and Fedrigo.
Unfortunately I can't tell you many things about this race, since it wasn't broadcasted here in Italy. Luckily however I could watch E3 Prijs Vlaanderen - Harelbeke, which was won by a magnificient Fabian Cancellara. Leopard raced amazingly well and O'Grady had a very important role in the race.

Fabian looked very determined this afternoon: I just tell you that, when he had to change his bike for a gear problem, he actually threw it on the ground and, as soon as he got the new bike, he started riding immediately. The mechanic couldn't even help him to get started again!!
O'Grady was in the first group of breakawayers together with Roelandts, Van De Walle, Hinault, Bonnet, Vanmarcke, Iglinskiy and a few other guys (sorry, I can't remember their names). With about 30 kms to go, Sep Vanmarcke (one of my favourite riders, he was born in 1988 and has a bright future ahead of him!) tried a solo attack. In the meanwhile, Cancellara abandoned the peloton on a climb and started his race towards victory. After a few seconds, he joined the 3rd group of breakawayers. Every rider of that group started to follow Cancellara, without giving him a single turn at the front.
Then the Locomotive from Bern managed to join the second group of breakawayers. A few seconds later, he joined the first one. All the riders started to follow him, so that the 3 group of breakawayers just melted into one, formed by about 20 riders. Amongst them there were Terpstra, Chainel, Ivanov, Gusev, Jerome, Tuft, Tankink and Larsson.

Vanmarcke was caught by these riders and O'Grady helped Cancellara as long as he could. Then, with about 18 kms to go, Fabian said 'bye bye!' to everyone and soloed to the finish-line. He really looked exhausted after the finish-line (I thought he was going to throw up!), but he was also incredibly happy.
In the meanwhile, the guys who were chasing him didn't seem to be able to work together. Amongst them there were some strong guys like Larsson, Ivanov, Tuft, Haussler and Terpstra, but it looked as if they had already given in. Terpstra was the only one who tried to start a serious chase, but he soon got very angry at his fellows because of the lack of cooperation. I couldn't understand why everyone gave in all of a sudden and I was pretty disappointed by the riders' attitude. Moreover, I was very confused by Katusha's tactics: firstly, Gusev and Ivanov never cooperated with Terpstra. Secondly, with about 10 kms to go Ivanov tried to break free from his companions a few times. Did he want to chase Fabian on his own? Or was he riding for second place? In both cases, imo that was a totally useless move.
Eventually, second in the race was Roelandts, while 3rd was Gusev. 4th was a great Vanmarcke. Hopefully the Belgian rider of Garmin will show us a good race also tomorrow, at Gand-Wevelgem.

So, that's all from me for the moment. Now I'm off to celebrate Frank's victory ;) Let's raise one of our famous virtual toasts to Leopard Trek's victories, shall we? ;)

PS1: Some of you haven't checked the new post at Bananas About Bikes yet (don't try to cheat me because I have my secret ways to know whether you've checked it or not). Go do it now!
PS2: I couldn't find any pic of Frank's victory, so I posted an old one. However, someone found a picture that is even worse than the one I posted above. Why did they make that choice?!?

'Oh la la Saxo Bank!' in the Flanders, random rumour about the Schleck brothers, Breschel undergoing another operation and more:

Ladies and gentleman, miss Fede is ready to write a little random post containing some little random news. And guess what? She's learned how to underline words so that you can click on them and end up on the webpage I suggest you watching! Isn't that cool? (ok, 2 years and a half to learn a things like that is a very long time, but who cares?)

So, let's talk cycling. First of all, today there was Dwars door Vlaanderen ('A traves de Flanders', 'Attraverso le Fiandre', 'Through the Flanders' or how else that race is called!), which I could see on real time for the first time ever. Yay!

Landbouwkrediet rider Frederic Amorison starred in a long breakaway of about 240 kms. With about 12 kms to go, Geraint Thomas and Nick Nuyens broke clear from the peloton and joined Frederic (see, his name is almost like mine!). They had an advantage of about 20 seconds on the peloton and, with 1 km to go, they just had a 4" advantage. Amorison got caught, while Nuyens hung on together with Thomas. In the last few meters of the race it was 'Oh la la Saxo Bank!', since Nuyens got the victory in front of Geraint, who started the sprint too early. Third, a few meters behind, was Tyler Farrar, while 4th was Matthew Hayman. 5th was another Saxo Banker, Baden Cooke, while the best Leopard Trek rider was Poosthuma, 31st (32nd was Marcel Sieberg, a rider that I really like).

After the arrival, they showed the top 3 riders in a gazebo and I got very worried when I started to hear female screams of joy while the cameras were filming the riders. Then I saw Nuyens' wife and everything became clear ;)

I'm happy for Nuyens, especially because good old Saxo Bank needed a good victory after a pretty disappointing Sanremo. I'm sorry, but I can't help supporting that team!

Talking about other races, the first stage of Volta a Catalunya was won by Smukulis, a 23 year old Latvian rider of Columbia. The second one was won by Petacchi (as a consequence, Italian newspapers have finally understood that Petacchi hasn't lost all his sprinting skills during the winter), while the third one, which ended uphill, was won by Contador. A great day for Saxo Bank, that's for sure, although I'd wait a few months before making the final classification of this stage become official.

Second was Scarponi, 3rd was Leipheimer. It's so good to see Levi racing for himself and not for Armstrong! He's a very strong athlete and I expect him and Kloden to be at the top at this year Tour.

4th was Daniel Martin, one of the best pure climbers, while 5th was Horner. A surprising Biel Kadri was 11th, while Chris Anker Sorensen was 21st. Best leopard Trek rider was Zaugg, 25th.
Denis Menchov was 71st (he arrived 9 minutes after Contador), but he's been having health problems in the last weeks, so I think we should forgive him for that.

Talking about another race, the 4th stage of Tour de Normandie was won by Fabien Bacquet (ok, I don't expect you to know who he is, but his father added me on Facebook for unknown reasons and now I'm a virtual friend of his too). Yay for Fabien!

Settimana Coppi&Bartali instead sees Emanuele Sella as race leader. 'That's a little step forward for cycling, but a big step forward for me'. I didn't know that cycling improves every time that a former doper (one of the worst ones of the last years, to be more precise) gets an important result! I thought that cycling improved when a young, clean rider won something, but apparently I was wrong.

On to other news, poor Matti Breschel had to undergo a minor operation on his knee yesterday. Now he'll be able to go back training in two weeks time.

Talking about another (luckier) Dane, Jakob Fuglsang had his 26th birthday yesterday (and not today, as someone said on Twitter). Birthday boy gets his toy, as they say... Or perhaps he'd prefer some candies and some pancakes. Anyway, happy birthday Jakob! (Hippi has explained me how to say it in Danish, but I can't write it :P)

On to the last Dane about which I'm going to tell you today, Chris Anker Sorensen has updated his blog twice in the last 3 days. And, after reading 'Liquegas' in one of these two entries, I've understood what Susanne means when she says that Chris often makes spelling mistakes.

However, the worst mistakes are the ones of Google Translater. At a certain point, it translated a sentence from Chris' blog in this way: 'A small eruption on 4 men rode away'. A man erupting, that sounds dirty. A part of another blog entry instead was translated as 'I figured I might as well try to erupt'. Please, don't!

On to the Schleck brothers, which I haven't mentioned for a few posts now, I have some rumours and of some complaints about them. First of all, the rumour: La Repubblica (a very important Italian newspaper) has claimed that, after the 'bikes with engine incorporated', there may be a new kind of technlogical doping in the peloton. According to the unknown Denis Mignani, some riders have been using a special kind of 'cuscinetti', which are the things that you put in the central part of the wheel, the one from where the spokes start. Those 'cuscinetti' seem to make the cyclist gain 2.5 seconds pro kilometre and, according to mr. Mignani, they were used by Andy Schleck (and by Fabian Cancellara) during the mountain stage of last year Tour. Now, here are some opinions of mine about this thing:
1) Using that kind of equipment is legal. So, it isn't technological doping. And then, every rider (even amateur ones) can get it, they just need to call an engineer and get it fixed on their wheels.
2) Do you really want me to believe that Andy Schleck was the only one who used those things in last year Tour? Come on!
3) Better using strange cuscinetti than clenbuterol! At least, you don't end up in a doping trial for that (and you don't have to accuse Spanish breeders in order to get away with it!)

On to another news regarding Andy, Vincenzo Nibali has recently said that he doesn't like riders like Andy, 'who ride fast in just two races pro year'. The same was said by Claudio Chiappucci. Ok, I can understand that some people may not enjoy the fact that Andy always focuses just on a few races and doesn't even try to win the other ones, but at least I like the fact that, every time he focuses on an important goal, he achieves it. Moreover, it's not easy to have a good condition during the whole season, is it?

To close this pretty bitter post, on pressphoto.lu you have some pics from a party at the Schleck fanclub in Luxembourg. The brothers's grandmother seems such a really nice person ;) And just look at how big Leea has become! The baby is growing, Frank and Martine must be very proud parents! :D

Milano-Sanremo: Goss!

Ok, my podium prediction was completely wrong. Also my race prediction ('it will end up in a bunch sprint') was completely wrong. Oh dear, what happened to my prediction abilities?
Anyway. Yesterday Milan-Sanremo was even more thrilling than usual, thanks to some big crashes and to some great attacks. La Classicissima is one of my favourite races because of many reasons. Firstly, it's the first one-day classic of the year. Secondly, it marks the official beginning of the true season (next week there is Gend-Wevelgem, yay!). Thirdly, it's a 298 kms long race, but a rider can make the winning move even in the last meter of it (ask mr. Freire for further information). Moreover, la Classicissima has the Poggio and the Cipressa descents, two of the craziest downhills roads that the peloton must face every year. Last but not least, Milan-Sanremo = Primavera (Spring), just like Lombardia = Classica delle foglie morte ('Classic of the falling leaves', aka of the autumn).

Yesterday race began under the sign of Japan. Farnese-Vini's rider, Takashi Miyazawa, was very moved at the start of the Classicissima, when the riders had a moment of silence in order to think about the Japanese tragedy. In order to help his country, Takashi asked his colleagues for help and in fact every rider will sell the jersey that he wore yesterday. Moreover, a big Japanese flag was signed by the 198 riders that took part in the race and it will be sold as well in the next days.
Takashi was one of the early protagonists of the race, since he formed a breakaway after just 12 kms of race. When he got caught, he helped his teammate Visconti and he was one of the 156 riders who ended the race. Chapeau to him!
Yesterday race had its first coup de scene after 208 kms of race, at the start of le Mànie climb. Right before of it, Hushovd crashed together with other riders. On the climb descent, instead, it was Freire's turn to tumble. After these falls, the peloton was broken in two parts. In the first one there were guys like Cancellara, Bennati, Gerdemann, O'Grady, Gilbert, Greipel, Van Avermaet, Ballan, Pozzato, Paolini, Petacchi (only Lampre rider there), Boonen, Offredo, Chainel, Boasson Hagen, Nibali, Sagan, Ventoso, Marcato, Rojas, Rollin, Klier and Haussler. In the second group, instead, there were riders like Hushovd, Farrar, the whole Lampre team apart from Petacchi, Visconti, Cavendish, Renshaw, Bozic, Matthews (who had crashed earlier in the race), Freire, Cooke, Haedo and Arvesen.
BMC, Omega Pharma-Lotto and Katusha immediately started to pull hard at the front of the race, whereas the second group of riders couldn't get organised in a fast way. Amongst the most active teams in the chase there were Farnese-Vini and Euskaltel Euskadi (why?), whereas Columbia never chased in a decided way.
At the beginning of la Cipressa, the first group had about 1.50 minute advantage on the second one. Then, Scarponi attacked and he came back in the first group in a great way. That move made us understand that Petacchi wasn't at his best, while Michele right now has a great condition. Scarponi managed not to be followed by anyone in his chase and that was really a great numero.
In the meanwhile, the race got even more thrilling. Offredo and Ballan attacked, but the first one to arrive on the top of la Cipressa was Popovych. However, he was soon caught and Française des Jeux launched a great attack with Offredo and Chainel, who were soon joined by Van Avermaet and O'Grady. It was a very interesting move, since Van Avermaet and O'Grady are very fast, Chainel seemed in a great form and Offredo, in spite of the young age, is never afraid of attacking riders that are more famous than him. Moreover, Yoann seems to love Sanremo, since he attacked in the finale also a few years ago.
Greipel sacrificed himself for Gilbert during the quartet chase and in the end the 4 breakawayers were caught on the Poggio. Nibali attacked and during the descent he was joined by Cancellara, Gilbert, Ballan, Offredo, Pozzato, Goss and Scarponi.
In the last few kms, Cancellara tried to attack, but he was immediately chased by Goss. Therefore, he immediately interrupted his effort. The second one to attack was Gilbert, who was followed by-guess who?- Pozzato. In the end, the race was decided in a sprint. The one who launched it was Scarponi, but in the end the winner was Matthew Goss, the only sprinter that managed to stay glued to the wheel of the attackers. Second (for a few centimeters) was Cancellara, while 3rd was Gilbert.

I must say that I enjoyed this edition of la Classicissima, although I was sorry for the riders who crashed. Chronists kept on saying that it was the most exciting Sanremo of the last few years and that caused my father (who supported Matthews and Freire) to get very angry. 'If you consider exciting a race that is decided by crashes, well, this year Sanremo was the perfect race for you. On the other hand, if you like races where the strongest, and not the luckiest, wins, then you might have found it disappointing', he said at the end of it.
Luckily for me, although he wasn't in a very happy mood, watching the race with my father was very nice. For example, he was the one who said the quote of the day. During the podium ceremony, in fact, he looked at me and he said: 'Hey, but what colour are Cancellara's hair?'. I looked at him in a pretty surprised way before answering: 'Dark brown, I guess... Why did you ask me? Are you not feeling fine?'. His answer to my questions (be careful not to fall off your chair) was : 'Dark brown? Really? Are you sure? They actually look violet to me...' . I was almost falling off the couch when he told me that. After all, it had been a long (and disappointing) Sanremo also for him...
Talking about tiredness, also Rai's Alessandra De Stefano was exhausted at the end of the race. So exhausted that she said 'That's all from the Lungotevere of Sanremo, good evening everyone!' instead of 'That's all from the Lungomare of Sanremo!'. In fact, Lungotevere is a word that Italians use to indicate places in Rome that are near to the rider Tevere, while 'lungomare' is a word that is used to indicate the long roads near to the sea that you can find in many Italian villages. However, Alessandra was able to correct herself when she saw that her colleagues were grinning at her.
Back to the riders, however, I must say that I'm happy for Goss. I bet that, in the finale, he probably thought: 'The two most dangerous riders right now are Gilbert and Cancellara. Considering that Pozzato will surely follow Gilbert wherever he can, it's better if I glue myself to Cancellara's wheel!' . He did so (he was the only one who followed Fabian when he attacked, the other ones remained behind them) and in the end he got a stunning victory.
Also Cancellara was very good. He stopped his attack when he saw that Goss had followed him (why continuing the attack with Goss glued to your wheel when you know that he is going to beat you in a possible two-men sprint?) and in the end he came 2nd and he managed to outsprint a fast guy like Gilbert.
Also Stuart O'Grady was really good. I was actually happy to see Leopard behaving as a team. Fabian, Stuart, Bennati and Gerdemann were in the first group of riders and I was very glad about it.
Gilbert was 3rd and I'm sure he was pretty disappointed by that. However, he didn't look very brilliant on the Poggio, so I think he should be quite happy for his result.
Pozzato, as usual, seemed to race not in order to win, but in order to make other riders lose. In fact, he was the one who followed Gilbert and helped the other ones to catch him in the final 2 kms of the race. Philippe got pretty angry at that, especially because Pippo has been shadowing him since the Worlds in Australia. However, now that Philippe is not going to take part in Roubaix, Pippo will probably start to shadow another Belgian, Tom Boonen. Therefore, Tommeke, you'd better get ready for that.
On to another rider, I think that Scarponi raced very well. Petacchi didn't feel fine and Michele gave Lampre a good placement anyway. Moreover, he was the one who started the sprint: he knew he isn't very fast, but he gave it a try anyway.
Chainel and Offredo were really strong too. Pay attention to Yoann: this boy's got a lot of talent. It isn't easy to do certain things after 290 kms of race!
Haussler was disappointing, but it wasn't easy to follow guys like Gilbert and Nibali when they attacked. Saxo Bank was considered 'disappointing' too, but their leader was JJ Haedo and he had problems because of Hushovd's crashes. Therefore, Tosatto (the only one who remained in the first group of riders after le Manie) couldn't do much.
Greipel gave a big hand to Gilbert, perhaps because he wasn't in good form. Sagan disappeared in the finale, probably because 290 kms are too many for him. Petacchi instead was 12th although he didn't feel fine, while Bennati was 13th. Poor Marcato, who crashed on the Poggio, was 15th.
Boasson Hagen was 30th, but he doesn't seem in a good form right now. Therefore, no surprises from him. Rabobank was disappointing, but we must consider that its team leaders, Matthews and Freire, crashed, while Langeveld, Tjallingi and Boom had to work hard to help them.
Visconti was extremely disappointed by the race (it looked as if he was going to break into tears when he was interviewed by the Italian tv!) but he was very unlucky. Now Giovanni will have plenty of time to prepare the next races, where I'm sure that he'll get very good results.
So, that's all for now. Have a good Sunday and enjoy the sun (at least, here in Italy it is sunny, I don't know what the weather is like in the rest of the world...)! And don't forget to take a look at Bananas about Bikes: Mar has published a great post about la Vuelta in Assen!!

(Pic by Bettini)

New blog + Milan-Sanremo predictions and start list:

Dear readers, I'm proud to announce you the birth of 'Bananas About Bikes!', the new cycling blog created by Mar, Marleen, Marleen, Tien, Cristin, Susanne, Leela and me. The link to it is http://bananasaboutbikes.blogspot.com/ . Feel free to leave comments!
Here's the presentation of the blog in English :)

A whole new concept in cycling blogging is born. This blog cannot be compared to any other cycling blog. We are new, we are refreshing, we are bananas!
But what exactly are we? This is a blog behind the scenes of cycling. It's not about the latest news, it's about the experiences of fans behind the scenes. It's about the tales of cycling lovers who visit races. It's about what they saw during the races. Most cycling blogs talk about the races they see on TV. We want to talk about the races we see on the street. Before the start, behind the barriers and after the finish.
The blog is controlled by a group of fangirls from all over the world. But we need you too! We will visit races, we will write reports, but we can't be everywhere. This blog is also for you, and your experiences at the races. You can write reports; send us pictures. Everything is welcome. We love track cycling, MTB and women's cycling too! Don't hesitate, you can send it to us in almost every language! Take a look at the "Who Are We?" tab to read more about the moderators and their languages.
If you're interested, email us at bananasaboutbikes@gmail.com
If you hesitate, feel free to ask us more!

So, did you get the message? A new great cycling blog has been created, check it out immediately! And if you have race tales to send us, feel free to do it! We're looking forward to receiving them :) And don't worry if your English isn't fine: you can send us an e-mail in Spanish, German, Dutch, French, Italian or Danish and we'll translate it into English, no problems about it!!!

Talking about races, there have been some problems in my family over the last few days, so I couldn't watch the last stages of Tirreno-Adriatico and Paris-Nice. Moreover, right now I don't feel in the mood to answer the comments under my last post (sorry girls!) and I'm not sure I'll be watching Milan-Sanremo on Saturday (yes, the situation is that serious).

Anyway. I have some free time now and I want to get distracted. Therefore, here you have my personal preview of Milan-Sanremo: the start list, my predictions and some opinions of mine about the teams. I haven't been reading Gazzetta for more than a week now, so I'm not very up-to-date. Therefore, feel free to laugh at the bullshits I'm going to write!

RABOBANK: Freire, Boom, Matthews, Flens, Langeveld, Tjallingii, Tankink, Wijnants. Rabobank has a good team and it will probably do everything to make the race end with a sprint. Freire is an old fox, as we say in Italy. I predicted him as winner last year (my best cycling prediction ever!), but he has been hiding himself in the last races. However, we mustn't forget about him, especially now that the peloton seems to lack of a true 'King of the Sprints'. Still talking about Rabobankers, I suggest you keeping an eye on Matthews. I don't know how he'll feel after 300 kms of race, but I have a feeling that he may do well on Saturday.

ACQUA E SAPONE: Napolitano, Ciavatta, Codol, Donati, Marzoli, S. Masciarelli, Corioni, Taborre. The team sprinter is Napolitano. He's a good sprinter, but I don't think he's as strong as the other ones.

AG2R LA MONDIALE: Nocentini, Elmiger, Hinault, Kadri, Minard, Mondoru, Montaguti, Ravard. Ravard is a good sprinter, but I think that the team will try to invent something on the last climbs, using Nocentini as leader.

ANDRONI: Vicioso, Ferrari, Barla, De Marchi, Ermeti, Bertolini, Solari, Santoro. Ferrari has already won a race this year, but I don't think he'll be able to end up in the top 5 (although a top 10 could be possible for him).

BMC: Ballan, Burghardt, Hincapie, Wyss, Kroon, Quinziato, Schaer, Van Avermaet. The American team has no spinters, so I think they may try to break free from the peloton in the last kms. Just imagine an attack with Van Avermaet, Cancellara, Nocentini, Visconti, Sagan, Gilbert and Pozzato... Yum!

COLNAGO: Modolo, Belletti, Pozzovivo, Pirazzi, Stortoni, Frapporti, Pasqualon, Brambilla. This team isn't very famous , but his riders are young and strong. Modolo was 4th last year, Belletti won the Cesenatico stage in the Giro 2010. Pay attention to them!

COFIDIS: Duque, Ista, Keukeleire, Labbe, Saramotins, Sijmens, Valentin.
EUSKALTEL: Sesma, Castroviejo, Aramendia Llorente, Insausti, Murillo Velasco, Egoi Martinez, Txurruka, Oroz. Where is Koldo Fernandez?!? What did I miss?
FARNESE VINI-NERI: Visconti, Miyazawa, Failli, Gatto, Giordani, Favilli, Ricci, Sinkewitz. Farnese can allow the race a bunch sprint or not. Visconti will surely attack on the last climbs and, if his attacks isn't successful, Gatto will try to make up for that. Oscar has improved a lot over the last months and I wouldn't be surprised to see him in a Top 5.
FDJ: Bonnet, Delage, Geslin, Guesdon, Offredo, Rollin, W. Sulzberger, Vaugrenard.
GEOX: Brandle, Cobo, De La Fuente, Florencio, Kump, Ratto, Alberio, Pelucchi. Pelucchi and Ratto are fast riders, but I don't see them ending up in the top 10.

HTC: Cavendish, Albasini, Bak, Goss, Eisel, Grabsch, Renshaw, P. Velits. In case of a sprint finish, this is the strongest team of the bunch together with Garmin. No one knows how Cavendish feels. In this first part of the year he has won just one race, but the thing that strikes me most is that he didn't taken part in some sprints, even if he had the chance. However, Cannon-Ball has already cheated once about his pre-Sanremo form, why shouldn't he do it again? And then, even if Cavendish isn't fine, Renshaw and Goss are ready to make up for that.

KATUSHA: Pozzato, Hoste, Ignatiev, Goussev, Kolobnev, Kuchynski, Paolini, Isiachev. Are you telling me that Galimzyanov isn't racing? Ok, I need to phone Katiusha's ds to get an explanation for that. However, the Russian team looks strong even without Denis. Pozzato won Sanremo a few years ago and he may attack on the last climbs. On the other hand, Paolini is very fast and is one of the most resistant riders of the peloton.

LAMPRE: Petacchi, Scarponi, Bole, Gavazzi, Hondo, Bono, Moro, Ulissi. Petacchi has been a Sanremo favourite for many years now, but it seems that he's not feeling fine right now. And to win a 300 kms race, you terribly need to feel fine in the days before of it. If Petacchi isn't at his best, Gavazzi, Hondo and Bole will try to make up for it. Hondo was 2nd in this race many years ago, while Gavazzi and Bole are both very young.

LIQUIGAS: Nibali, Sagan, Agnoli, Dall'Antonia, Caruso, Finetto, Koren, Marangoni. The team looks strong, although it hasn't got a pure sprinter. Koren is young and talented, while Nibali could attack on the last descent of the race. However, to win he needs to arrive alone at the finish-line. Sagan is a big question mark for me. He's fast, but I'm not sure he can resist for 300 kms. Obviously, I'd be happy if he threw away all my doubts in 48 hours time.

MOVISTAR: Bruseghin, Konovalovas, Kiryenka, Rojas, Samoilau, Ventoso, Ruiz, Amador. Ventoso and Rojas are fast, but not enough to win a race like Sanremo.

OMEGA: Gilbert, Greipel, Hansen, Roelandts, Lang, Reynes, Sieberg, Veikkanen. Gilbert will be the toughest opponent for the 'we want a sprint!' party. He's fast, he's resistant, he's got nothing to lose, he's brave...In a few words, he's the Classic rider that everyone would love to have in their team. However, Omega is also ready for a bunch finish: Greipel is fast and Sieberg (I quite like him), Hansen, Lang and Roelandts know how to launch a sprint.

ASTANA: Davis, Lorenzetto, Bazayev, Gasparotto, Grivko, Iglinskiy, Clarke, Vaitkus. Look out for Davis, ladies and gentlemen. The boy is fast and resistant (see last year Worlds to remember about it)! However, Fangirl is unhappy because of Vinokourov's absence.
QUICKSTEP: Boonen, Bandiera, Malacarne, Reda, Terpstra, Pineau, Chavanel, Van Impe. I have a feeling that Chavanel will enter one of the key breakaways of the day. Boonen is one of the best sprinters out there, but I haven't seen him in a particularly good condition.

SAXO BANK: Cooke, Larsson, Haedo, Klostergaard, Morkov, Nuyens, Tanner, Tosatto. Tosatto and Cooke will help Haedo in the finale, but on paper JJ looks slower than Cavendish or Farrar. Fangirl would like to underline the presence in the team of David Tanner.

SKY: Wiggins, Boasson Hagen, Thomas, Flecha, Arvesen, Rogers, Lovkvist, Stannard. I've just had a trauma. Rogers has gone to Sky and I didn't know about it. I go hiding my head in the sand (*goes hiding head in the sand*). Ok, now I feel better. Shame on me! Anyway. EBH was one of the main contenders of last year race, but he disappeared very soon during it. Thomas is fast, but he's always worked as lead-out man. But where is Henderson?

GARMIN-CERVELO: Hushovd, Farrar, Haussler, Hammond, Klier, Navardauskas, Van Summeren, Wilson. The team to defeat, at least imo. Haussler, Hushovd, Farrar... Great line-up. Perhaps even too great. Will Thor, Tyler and Heinrich be honest with their teammates and be ready to sacrifice themselves for them? Or will they try to their luck on their own? Personally, Haussler is my main favourite of the race before of Hushovd. Time will tell if I'm right.

LEOPARD TREK: Cancellara, Bennati, Weylandt, Gerdemann, Wegmann, Lund, O'Grady, Wagner. Bennati will be the captain and he'll be helped by Weylandt and Wagner during the sprint. Cancellara could try something on the Poggio (I saw him in a very good form in the last races), while Gerdemann, Wegmann and Lund will keep the situation under control.

RADIOSHACK: McEwen, Hunter, Cardoso, Rosseler, Rast, Lequatre, Murayev, Popovych. My first Giro memories involve my family watching McEwen's successful sprints at the Giro, but this time I must say that I don't consider Robbie a serious threat to the final victory.

VACANSOLEIL: Bozic, De Gendt, Leukemans, Marcato, Mouris, Ongarato, Feillu, Selvaggi. Great line up also for Vacansoleil! Marcato could enter a breakaway, just like De Gendt, while Bozic is one of the best (unknown) sprinters that I know.

So, this is the start list. My prediction: the race will end up in a sprint. Garmin and HTC will work hard to make that happen. Gilbert, Pozzato and Nibali will try to break away on Poggio. My podium prediction is: Haussler (or Hushovd), Bozic, Freire. There. I said it. Now I'm going to lose my reputation because of that. However, even if my prediction turns out being terribly wrong, don't forget to take a look at 'Bananas About Bikes' and to send us e-mails!!

PS: Attention also to Matthews, David, Gatto, Paolini and Modolo!

Frank retires from Paris-Nice, Andy shows up in Tirreno-Adriatico:

Almost one week after my last post, here I am again. Once again, I've had a very tiring and long week, during which I've booked a holiday for the last week of July (yes, I will miss two Tour de France stages while I'm away, I'm aware of this fact and I already know that I'll regret this decision of mine) and I've got to know that Bob Dylan is going to play in Milan on the 22nd of June 2011. Which, accidentally, is the day before of my final high school exam take 2. Oh anger, oh bad luck.
Anyway, I realise I'm digressing. Therefore, let's talk cycling.
Probably, you've all started reading this post because you're a bit worried about the 'Frank retires from P-N' part of its headline. 'Frank? Retired? Paris-Nice? When? Where? How? And most important: Why?!?' If you're asking yourself these questions in a very hysterical way, I suggest you calming down and relaxing. In fact, Frank didn't finish today stage of the Paris-Nice not because he crashed badly or things like that (you're confusing him with Kiserlovski), but simply because he had a cold and some stomach problems. This morning Frank probably saw that it was raining cats and dogs, that the roads were etremely slippery, that it was terribly cold and so he decided to abandon the race after some kms. Understandable, especially if you consider that his GC placement wasn't actually that good.
However, he wasn't the only one to get retired today. In fact, amongst the riders who didn't finish today's stage there were also Nicolas Roche, Peter Sagan, Eros Capecchi, Francis De Greef (who was on a breakaway few days ago), Sandy Casar, Romain Feillu, Sylvain Chavanel and Daniele Righi (these last 3 riders actually didn't even start racing this morning). Also Fuglsang didn't end today stage as a consequence of the crash that he had a few days ago.
Talking about riders who didn't finish the stage, also Robert Kiserlovski has to be included in this long list. The Astana rider slipped with a few kms to go and he ended up under a truck, that was parked on the road side. Luckily, it seems that Robert didn't break anything. However, he was brought to the hospital immediately after his crash and he was given some stitches on his face.
Also Teejay Van Garderen crashed, just like Siutsou, Haussler (he fell three times), Westra and Tondo. Xavier crashed while crossing the finish-line 9 seconds after the winner, Remy Di Gregorio. The Frenchman was very strong this afternoon and, during the last kms, I often had cold shivers running down my spine because of his riding. Firstly, his way of riding downhill is simply scaring. Secondly, he risked to crash with a few kms to go and I think he hasn't realised yet how he managed not to fall off his bike.

Talking about the previous stages of P-N, I must say that I'm not surprised by Toni Martin's great TT. I think that he's one of the best time trialist of the world and I think he may be a serious GT contender already this year.

Kloden won a stage two days ago and I was happy to see him winning after 2 years spent at the service of His Majesty Lance Armstrong. Radioshack is also counting on Brajkovic, who's one of the most promising guys of the bunch.

Also Taaramae showed us some good attacks, while Leopard Trek tried getting good result with Gerdemann and Monfort. Maxime was really good this afternoon, while Linus ('il tedeschino', the 'little German' as an Italian chronist called him) tried attacking (without succeeding).

As far as young riders are concerned, I'm happy for Mollema and Spilak's rides, while Peraud, Andrew Talansky and Lieuwe Westra (they were 7th and 6th yesterday) have really surprised me so far.

Btw, am I the only one who thinks that Di Gregorio looks a bit like Gilbert?

If the weather was horrible in today stage of P-N ('the race towards the sun', as they call it), it was much better in the Center of Italy. Today stage of Tirreno-Adriatico was 240 kms long and the riders got on their bikes at 9.30 am. That caused them to end the race at 3.40 pm, with 40 minutes of advantage on the official time table (and 20 minutes advantage on my own time table).
The stage was won by Scarponi, while a happy Cunego was 2nd. Third was Cadel Evans, 4th Basso, 5th Di Luca, 6th Gesink, 7th Nocentini,8th Nibali. 9th was Lovkvist, a rider whose traces were lost in the past Tour de France. Fangirl is obviously extremely happy to see him back in the top 10.
Gilbert was 10th (the last climb was too long and steep for him), while the very brave Visconti was 11th.

Amongst the guys who are impressing me in this Tirreno-Adriatico there is Thor Hushovd, who yesterday did an outstanding job for Farrar and that, imo, is going to be the main contender for Milan-Sanremo.
Also Andy Schleck impressed me, since he's already in a good condition (he was 35th this afternoon). Cancellara has ridden very well too today and the guys who attacked with him almost couldn't help him pulling because he was way too fast for them. Also Fabian Wegmann, who was recenly been reported for being the latest crush of a certain cycling blogger, has recently had a similar problem like that: on the TTT day, in fact, poor Fabian had to take his turn at the front right before of the Swiss Engine. Fabian probably forgot about this a few times and, after a few kms, he said 'bye bye' to his teammates. Unfortunately, he wasn't the only one to do so (after all, it takes a lot of time to learn how to TTT together) and Leopard didn't get a good result on that day.
Saxo Bank actually rode better than LT on the first day of race (I can imagine Riis dancing around happily) and JJ Haedo took the first victory for the team yesterday in Perugia. After all these tries, he finally managed to get a well deserved victory, yay!
Talking about guys who often try winning, Oliver Kaisen was in a breakaway also the other day. When he wins a race, I'll open a big imaginary bottle of champagne just for him.
As far as the sprinters are concerned, I'm not worried for Petacchi and Cavendish's lack of victories. Petacchi had health problems, while Cavendish doesn't need to prove his value anymore. Farrar is very strong, while poor Greipel retired after one stage. Marcel Sieberg has replaced him as Omega Pharma-Lotto sprinter and he's getting some good top 10 placements (last year he used to be part of Cavendish' train).

Tomorrow there will be some exciting stages both at Paris-Nice and at Tirreno-Adriatico, so we'd better stay glued to our televisions in order to understand more things about the athletes' condition. And then, from Monday, we'll all be breathing the Sanremo atmosphere. Have a good Sunday everyone and be ready to watch some good cycling in the next few days!

PS: This morning, the Tirreno-Adriatico riders dedicated a minute of silence to all the people who died because of the Japanese earthquake of the other day. I was really shocked to see those images on tv, especially because Japan is the best country in the world as far as earthquake-safety is concerned.
Since I know that I have some readers (and a follower) from Japan, I just wanted to say that I hope they're all fine.

Eroica, Paris-Nice and more random things:

Good evening everyone, dear readers. The serious races have finally started but, unfortunately for me, I haven't managed to watch any of them on real time yet. In fact, first of all, Italian tv didn't broadcast Eroica Strade Bianche until 19.30 of Saturday (at 20.oo of that day Fangirl was cheering happily for the riders, when Logic suddenly told her: 'They stopped racing 4 hours ago, so why the hell are you screaming in such a loud way?'- Fangirl was so shocked that she stopped screaming for good!); then, me had to miss the first stage of Paris-Nice because 'Come on, it is Carnival day! You can't stay the whole day trapped inside your house to watch a cycling race! You'll have plenty of time for that during the year!', Logic told Fangirl; moreover, I had to miss the second stage of P-N because I was 'working'. Therefore, I'm honoured to tell you that, on the 7th of March 2011, my personal cycling situation is the following: zero races seen on real time on television, zero races seen 'live' and a few races seen in the evening. I guess it's useless to add that my cycling withdrawal syntomps are getting worse than even.

Anyway. Let's talk cycling and, more precisely, let's talk Eroica Strade Bianche. First of all, I must say that I made a beginner's mistake when I didn't include Gilbert in my podium prediction. He won Tour of Lombardy in October 2010, he's won Eroica in March 2011. A monster. Ladies, watch out for him in Sanremo! During the race, I was happily surprised to see some riders riding better than expected. For example, Andy Schleck seemed in a good form and he worked hard to help Cancellara. Fabian could keep the pace of riders like Hesjedal and Cunego also on some of the toughest climbs and, of course, this is a very good news. Also O'Grady was very good, just like Fabian Wegmann. Talking about Fab the Blonde, I'm afraid I may a little crush on him. He always looks so sweet and cute! And I can always recognise him by looking at his riding style. Strange.
However, miss Fede didn't pay attention just to Leopard Trek's guys. In fact, me really liked Rocchetti's performance (the boy's got talent, he goes on a breakaway whenever he can!) and I was extremely glad to see Cunego and Ballan up there again. In fact, Alessandro had disappeared from supporter's radars in 2009 and it's great to see that he's finally back at a top level.
Also Gatto rode surprisingly well, considering that he's a sprinter. Also Jure Kocjan, that rides for Team Type 1, got a very good 4th place.
Amongst the best riders, imo, there were also the young Craig Lewis and Przemyslaw Niemiec. The Polish rider was simply great and he worked very hard in order to help his captain Cunego. Moreover, he allowed me to show my familiars my great Polish skills, since I pronounced his name without any problems. 'How can you do that?', they asked. 'Misteri della Fede', I answered.
On to the 'disappointing riders' du day, I expected more from Sagan and Oss. As far as Hesjedal is concerned, I predicted him as likely winner of the race, but he couldn't resist Gilbert's final attack. However, I really liked the way he rode because, although he wasn't in a good condition, Ryder tried hard to make the race harder.

Talking about Paris-Nice, I could watch yesterday's stage at dinner-time. Jens Voigt was part of a great 3 men breakaway and his companions were Thomas De Gendt and Jeremy Roy. These 3 riders are very good when it comes to riding fast on a flat terrain, so they could arrive at the flamme rouge with a few seconds of advantage on the peloton. The escapers were really loyal to each other (none of them skipped his turn to pull and they didn't waste time looking at each other in the final meters of the race) and, in spite of the large, long road that led to the finish, they could cross the finish-line before of the peloton guys. Or, at least, that's what Thomas De Gendt and Jeremy Roy could do. Voigt in fact was outsprinted by Haussler, Sagan and Henderson and came 6th. De Gendt instead could raise his arms to the sky, while Roy got a second place.
However, is this just me, or was De Gendt wearing a Fugl-scarf during the race? On to today's stage of the race (which I'm off to see in 15 minutes time), it was won by Henderson in front of Goss, Galimzyanov (the boy is strong, I've already told you that!), Haussler and Sagan.
The stage was very nervous because there was strong wind and everyone wanted to stay at the front of the race. Vinokourov apparently made a great work at the front with his team (you've gotta love that man), while Frank Schleck and Jakob Fuglsang crashed. They both managed to end the race (Jakob arrived 1 minute after the winner) and they both seem likely to continue the race. Frank's crash was said to be 'without consequences', while Fuglsang's one as a bit more serious. I've found something about it on http://www.fyens.dk/article/1802006:Sport--Leopard-afskriver-Fuglsang-med-snitsaar and I tried to translate it with Google. According to it, Kim Andersen said that Jakob (why does Google keep on calling him 'James'?) 'got hurt seriously in a lot of places. He also had a deep cut in one hand, which bled a lot. However, he seems able to continue the race, although I don't know what his results will be. Jakob had to stop because Frank had crashed and, when he stopped, another rider hit him with his bike. Fuglsang's bike was damaged, so he needed a new one. After changing it, Jakob started to chase the peloton but, when he arrived at a roundabout, he entered it too fast and he fell'. Hopefully our boy will feel better soon.

Talking about other news, in the comment area of the previous post I mentioned Michael Matthews' victory in Vuelta a Murcia. You're not interested in knowing who won the overall title and the last stage, are you? Anyway, 3rd on the last stage (a ITT) was Denis Menchov (yay!!), second was the surprising Coppel, 4th was Dowsett, 5th Kiryenka and 6th was Saxo Banker Manuele Boaro, who is a very promising athlete.
As far as the second stage of the race is concerned, the only thing to know is that Menchov was second and Coppel 3rd.
Here above you have a picture of Menchov who, in spite of the great news he's received today, doesn't look that smiley. 'What great news?, I hear you ask. Simple: his team was invited to the Giro. Yay for Menchov!
The great thing is that Zomegnan managed to get the permission to invite 23 teams, and not 22, to the Italian Grand Tour, so that not only Geox will be riding in the Belpaese in May, but together with it and the other 18 ProTour teams there will be also Acqua&Sapone, Androni Gocattoli, Colnago-CSF and Farnese Vini (as I had predicted ;).

On to other news regarding Paris-Nice, Frank Schleck has said that, in his opinion, the race is likely to be won by Toni Martin. Vinokourov instead has said he'll go for a stage victory. Can't wait for that! In the meanwhile, I'm going to catch up with today's stage, whose broadcast is starting in 30 seconds time ;)

Have a good night everyone and don't forget to take a look at the comment area of my previous post. If you're interested in working at Leela, Mar, Marleen, Susanne and Fede's cycling blog, you're still on time to join us! ;)

(first picture by Bettini, second one by Isabelle Duchesne, third one by Rafa Gomez)

Random post about Sorensen, Dominic (yay!), Voigt and more:

To everyone's joy, a week after her last post, miss Fede has finally come back writing again (*sounds of people singing happily while jumping joyfully around their computers*) :D

It's been another busy week me here in Italy and now I'm finally enjoying some moments of peace after an afternoon spent writing the so called 'tesina' ('little thesis') that I'll have to present at that cursed final high school exam. Actually, I think it will be the first thesis in the scholastic history to mention Leopard Trek (written in caps, the examiner might be an Italian relative of Nygaard!), Contador, Menchov, Vinokourov, Katiusha and Proudhomme in its introduction. Of course, this has been done in order to ensure that none of the examiners will realise what I'm talking about (come on, have you ever heard of an examiner who knows who the Schlecks are?).

Anyway. As well as being very busy, over the last days I've been also trapped by the atmosphere of sadness that is surrounding Bergamo in these days (if you're Italian, you'll understand what I mean). Moreover, this morning another teacher of mine spent some long minutes telling me strange things that have no connections with truth. According to said teacher, in fact, if I study languages at university, in 5 years time I'll end up being an unemployed person. And, still according to her, in 15 years time from now I'll become either a frustrated housewife with a child that weeps all day long, or a frustrated teacher who'll let it out on her students-if I'm lucky, of course. Perhaps I won't even be able to find a husband and I won't even manage to become a teacher, imagine what a crap. So, what does my teacher suggest to avoid those future possible problems of mine? Simple: abandon Bergamo, go to Trieste, try entering the only 'Translater School' of Italy and, after 5 years of hard sudies, pack your things and g working at the European Parliament. Simple, isn't it?

Anyway. Forget about that. Let's talk cycling and, most important, let's party all together because this afternoon our super-hero Dominic Klemme took the first Leopard Trek victory of the year! YAY FOR OUR BANANA-MAN!!! YEAAAH! (Girls, all together: *Yay!*)
"I'm super happy," our red haired boy told Cyclingnews after winning GP Le Samyn."I had cramps in the final kilometres, but I knew I had to hang in there because everyone was half dead back in the chase.I wasn't sure my attack was going to last until the finish line, but the top of the climb was visible, so I could see the finish all the time. I was super motivated to win this one for us". Well done boy!

Still talking about Leopard Trek team (sorry, I can't write it correctly three times in the same post!), it now has a new sponsor, Enovos. On http://www.tageblatt.lu/sport/story/%20Selbs%20tvertrauen-pur-12652985 you have some pictures of the new jersey (it's the same as before, don't worry) with the Enovos sponsor on and you also have some pictures of the brothers.

Talking about LT riders, here's an interview with Jens Voigt: http://velonews.competitor.com/%202011/02/news/jens-voigt-concedes-slim-shot-at-criterium-international-record-holds-off-on-retirement-announcement_161966 . Talking about his retirement, the Fucking Amazing Jens said: "I take it day by day, year after year. We’ll see. At the moment, maybe I am good enough to go one more year, but maybe my wife gets pregnant with baby number seven and I have no time to train at all anymore.I don’t know yet. I cannot really tell you.”

On to another Leopard news, here are two interviews with the Schleck brothers: http://www.lequotidien.lu/les-sports/20709.html and http://www.lequotidien.lu/les-sports/20708.html . Unfortunately, I don't have time to translate it now (they're in French), so you'll have to use our terrible Google Translater.

About Google Translater: Chris Aker Sorensen has made his seasonal debut (yay!) in Tour du Haut Var and has written two posts on his blog (geez, this year he writes almost as often as me!). The last one is a good entry and it talks about radio bans (http://blog.tv2.dk/chris.anker.ol/entry397658.html ): "In my last post I wrote about the Tour de Haut Var", Chris wrote, "but in it I completely forgot to comment on my first experience of racing without radios. The change wasn't actually that big. However, I still support the radios and I'd like to be able to put them back in my ears again during races. In fact, competitions go in the same way, with or without radios: at Tour du Haut Var, the morning breakawayers were caught as usual and the race finale was run as usual. The only changes I saw regarded security. Sometimes a team car had to enter the peloton to talk with its riders and this always created stress and anxiety, because it's never comfortable to ride in front of a car. Moreover, the always stressful "feed zone" was even more stressful than usual. With the radios, we are told where our soigneurs are standing with our feed bags and what team they are next to. Without radios, nobody really knows where their soigneurs are, so everyone moves to the right side of the road simultaneously to take their food bag. The intelligent reader now will probably think: 'Hey, why can't they tell you where your soigneurs are going to stay BEFORE of the race?' It could be a great idea, but if all teams say that their soigneur must be the last one, we'd be back at starting point. (...) Actually, I'm going to propose a system that will make us different from any other team: I will suggest our soigneurs to buy some blue little flares (ndr; the translater suggested using 'rockets', but I don't trust it). When we approach the feeding zone, the soigneurs light up the flares, so we can immediately know where they're standing. The problem with this idea is that of course every other team would adopt it as soon as possible too. Therefore we'd see the sky become purple, gray and blue and the effect would be the same that you get when you mix the 9 tempera colours of your palette during your art lesson at school'.
So, this was a part of Chris' latest entry. Fangirl compliments him on the clever idea and wonders herself how someone can avoid to like this boy.

Changing subject, let's now talk about Matteo Pelucchi's victory in Clasica de Almeria, which was the first victory for Geox-TMC. Matteo, being the boyfriend of Marina Romoli, dedicated the victory to his girlfriend. A good way to remind everyone about the fight that this girl is still carrying on. Well done Matteo- and hold on Marina!

Last topic of a day, a not very pleasing one. In fact, Matti Breschel is unlikely to race the Classics this year because of his annoying knee injury. Actually, even his Tour de France participation seems to be in danger right now. About his schedule for this season, poor Matti said: 'I think the positive thing is that now I will have the energy and mental strength for late in the season. It might be hard to get up there after a long, grueling season. Now I’m doing everything I can to build my way up to the world championships in September.” (news from: http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/breschel-set-to-miss-classics ).

Let's wish Matti a lot of luck and let's now close this post with a 'good night everyone'. And remember: don't study languages at school if you don't want to end up unemployed! -.-"