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)