Two days after her last post, miss Fede is ready to write a new one. She couldn't watch yesterday's ITT, but she knows who won and she knows that there weren't many surprises. On the other hand, she did manage to watch today's stage, which saw a rider making one of the most dangerous things she's ever seen. Anyway, let's start from the beginning.
Today the riders had to face Passo Tonale and Passo Aprica. The descent from this last climb ended with 7 kms to go and people thought that Nibali might have tried something there. Moreover, every expert said that today's stage was perfect for those who wanted to go on a breakaway in order to get a victory. That's why, after just 55 kms, a very large group of riders had already broken clear of the peloton. These athletes were the Italian champion Giovanni Visconti (who's had serious knee problems in the last two weeks), his teammate Leonardo Giordani (who worked a lot at the front of the breakaway), Christophe Le Mevel, Hubert Dupont, Jan Bakelants (a hero!), Robert Kiserlovski, Kanstanstin Sivtsov (who wanted to improve his GC)), Jesus Hernandez, Ben Gastauer, Pablo Lastras, Diego Ulissi, Eduard Vorganov, Alberto Losada, Mathias Frank, Fabio Taborre and Addy Engels.
These riders had a maximum advantage of about 8 minutes and arrived on the top of Aprica with more than 3 minutes of advantage on the rest of the peloton. Liquigas, Lampre and Geox worked hard to gain time on the 16 men, but they didn't succeed.
On the Aprica descent both Kiserlovski and Frank looked very uncomfortable, whereas Lastras showed that, as well as being a very good sprinter, a very good climber and a very good Classic rider, he's also a very good downhill rider.
As said, people expected an attack by Nibali, but Popovych went at the head of the peloton during the Aprica downhill and nothing happened. Therefore the main part of peloton quietly rolled towards the finish-line, arriving 3 minutes after the winner.
With 3 kms to go, Bakelandts, Visconti, Lastras and Ulissi got a small gap on their adversaries. In the final 2 kms Visconti looked really nervous (he kept on turning his head backwards), whereas Ulissi and Bakelandts both tried to attack in the last 1500 meters of race. But still, they didn't have a lot of luck and they had to face Lastras and the Italian national champion in a sprint.
Poor Bakelandts had to start the final 'volata' and sat up as soon as Ulissi started the 'serious' sprint. At that point Visconti, who was on the right side of the road, suddenly moved to left, trying to follow the Lampre rider and to hide from the wind. On the other hand, Lastras was behind the two Italians, ready to outsprint them. However, soon it became clear that Visconti would have never been able to outsprint Ulissi: in fact there wasn't a lot of space between him and the barriers and Visconti, who isn't a pure sprinter, felt as if he was in a trap, although he was riding much faster than his companions. What did Giovanni do, then? Well, simple: he screamed at Ulissi twice, then he tried to push him to the left of the road. Considering that Ulissi didn't change his riding direction, Visconti pushed him again, this time with more anger. Ulissi was forced to go to the left, trying to recuperate his balance, whereas Visconti crossed the finish-line in first. Poor Lastras avoided hitting Ulissi from behind at the last moment and, in this all-Italian mess, he was the one who had the worst consequences. In fact, poor Pablo found himself third, after that he had to change his direction all of a sudden in order to avoid a serious crash.
Right after the finish-line, no one looked happy. Visconti started talking with Lastras, whereas Ulissi, interviewed by Italian tv, said he didn't think he had done something wrong. Visconti, on the other hand, was really angry at Diego. “Sometimes the ones who decide to risk their own lives are the riders themselves, it's incredible! I shouted at Ulissi ten times to let me pass because I was going at twice the speed, but he closed me in against the barriers and, if I hadn’t raised my arm to push him far from me, I would have fallen. He's behaved in a very bad way during the whole day, he's been rude and it's not nice to see a young rider behaving like he did during the breakaway. Now I may be relegated to the last place, just because he wanted me to crash against the barriers. It's not fair!”, Giovanni said after the finish-line. He was very angry and probably still scared because he had risked to crash and hurt himself badly during the sprint.
In his defense, however, it must be said that there's a lot of pressure on him right now, that he's had big health problems in the first two weeks of Giro, that for his team this is the most important goal of the year and that he really wanted to win a stage in the Italian national jersey. Moreover, it must be said that he was interviewed right after the finish-line, when riders don't have the time to think about what they're saying.
After Visconti was relegated to third place (did Bulbarelli understand what the jury told him in French? That is question... :P), his ds decided to take part in 'Il Processo alla Tappa'. Farnese's ds, Luca Scinto, is a very peculiar person, since he always puts a lot of passion in whatever he does. Today he admitted that his rider had done something wrong, but he also said that Ulissi did change his direction during the sprint. "Therefore", Scinto said, "the jury should have given the victory to Lastras, and not to Diego".
A few minutes later, it was Ulissi's turn to arrive on the stage of 'Il Processo'. With his very nice accent, Diego explained how things went from his own point of view. “I tried to surprise the other riders by going early and I was always on the left hand side of the road, and I don’t think I really veered that much towards the barriers”, he said. Then, when asked about his behaviour in the breakaway, he was really honest. "I behaved in a cunning way, I admit it. My ds had told me not to take turns at the front, that's why I didn't work as much as the other riders. Btw, I wasn't the only one: also other 8 riders didn't pull very much. The Saxo Bank rider, for example (ndr; Hernandez), he didn't pull at all, perhaps because he had Contador in the oink jersey. However, I paid for my behaviour. In the first kms of breakaway in fact I argued with Vorganov, he said some bad things to me".
Then also Visconti went to 'Il Processo' and he said that he got angry too because of Ulissi's behaviour in the breakaway and that he thought that Diego was a bit too arrogant. "At a certain point", said Visconti, "I told him: 'If you keep on behaving like this, many riders won't consider a very nice guy anymore', and he thanked me for the advice". Luckily, in the end the two Italian riders made peace and Visconti said some very nice things. In fact right now there is a jersey worn by him during Etna stage on sale on EBay. "The money that people will spend to buy it", said Visconti, "will go to the family of a child who has a very bad disease. Thinking about all the parents that have children who suffer, and thinking about all the tragedies that occurred in cycling in the last weeks, well, it makes you understand that arguing for a victory really doesn't make sense at all. Things have gone this way, it's useless to talk about them now". Very wise words, said by a very young boy.
Talking about the poor Lastras, instead, I must say that I found it absolutely nice when Italian tv interviewed him. In fact they asked him what he thought about the sprint, whether he thought Ulissi should have been punished, whether he thought he should have deserved to win the stage and whether Movistar was going to protest against the jury's decision. In spite of all these question, Pablo always answered with the same: 'Non lo so' ('I don't know'), said with a big, shy smile and an embarassed face. Thinking about Movistar's problems and watching Pablo behaving in that way really made me want to go to Tirano and give a hug to him and to his teammates.
Back to Diego Ulissi, I think he didn't make any mistake in today's sprint and I agree with the jury's decision.
Personally, I like Diego because of different reasons. In fact he's strong, he's not afraid of anything (his arrogance towards the older riders show it), he's just 21, he's pretty and he also has a great accent. I could spend a whole day listening to him saying 'Horsa' rather than 'Corsa', and I think I'd pay a few euros to make him say 'una Coca Cola con la cannuccia' (I always melt when I hear people from Tuscany saying this sentence...).
Still talking about today's stage, here are two random things to point out: first of all, Matthew Wilson, my personal hero of the race, didn't finish today's stage.
'Who is Wilson?', some of you may ask. Well, Matthew is that great rider who was last in the general classification for a lot of stages. Now hat he's retired, I'm a very sad supporter.
Another (very fangirlistic) thing to point out, then, it's a recent discovery of mine (male readers can skip this part of the post, I don't have problems with it): Hubert Dupont is veeeery good-looking. Really, AG2R guys must do everything they can to bring both him and Nicolas Roche to the Tour de France. In that way, they could become Fangirl's second favourite team.
Ok, end of the fangirlistic part of the post. Now it's time for some random link and for a 'communication service':
RANDOM NEWS:
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/contadors-mechanic-expelled-from-the-giro : A SB mechanic got expelled from the Giro after that, during yesterday's ITT, he opened the door of the team car in order to 'punish' a tifoso who, according to him, had tried to punch Contador. However, Alberto says that the tifosi are always very nice with him and that he loves us all (ok, I'm exaggerating). The mechanic instead said that yesterday Joaquim Rodriguez received a punch from a supporter and that on the Zoncolan the tifosi threw eggs at the SB riders/team cars (I've read two versions of the story). Now, this seems a little strange to me. I mean, the guys would have complained about an episode like that, wouldn't they? And then: isn't it a bit difficult to center a rider with an egg while he's riding? And about the team cars: they couldn't drive up Zoncolan behind the riders and I don't think someone followed SB car in order to throw eggs at it... :P
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/giro-ditalia-forced-to-change-milan-time-trial-course : The Milan elections, as well as causing an earthquake in Italian politics, have also forced the Giro organisers to change the route of the last stage of race. Now I'm seriously considering the chance of going to Milan to support both the riders and Pisapia.
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/golas-withdraws-from-giro-ditalia-to-get-married : I wish all the best to Michal Golas and his fiancé Agata, who are getting married this weekend!
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/tondos-funeral-to-be-held-today : DEP, Xavier :'(
COMMUNICATION SERVICE:
Dear readers, you all know that tomorrow's stage of the Giro arrives in San Pellegrino Terme.
Considering that the Giro is riding also through Bergamo, tomorrow many roads in the center of the city will be closed. 'A good chance to stay home from school', I thought. And instead no, because we Bergamasks love killing ourselves with work (everyone describes us as 'loyal people who work hard without complaining', whereas I describe ourselves as 'a bunch of crazy people who can't understand what the priorities in life are'), so tomorrow students will have to stay in the schools at least until 12.30 . Then, at that hour, all the students of the city will finally be free.
Now, just imagine this: all the people going to pick up their little children by car, all the students who get the bus to go home, all the teachers/people older than 18 who drive their cars outside town, all the workers who try coming back from work before the roads get closed. All together, at the same time of the day, in the center of the town. I predict problems. And I predict that it will be impossible to get out of the city before half past one.
'What about miss Fede then? Will she go to school or not?', I hear some of you ask. Well, to everyone's joy, miss Fede decided in November 2010 that she wouldn't have gone to school on the 26th and on the 27th of May 2011, so this afternoon she said 'See ya on Sunday!' to all her schoolmates, wished them good luck for tomorrow, predicted that they'll be struck in the biggest traffic jam every for a lot of time and then promised she would bring them some nice photos of the hottest cyclists. Oh yeah, because miss Fede tomorrow will be in San Pellegrino, rooting for every single cyclist who's still racing (Contador included), trying to take good pictures (it won't be easy) and forgetting about all her duties. Because, as Queen sang, 'Bicycles races are coming your way, so forget all your duties oh yeah'.
PS: No, I won't be posting anything tomorrow :P
Today the riders had to face Passo Tonale and Passo Aprica. The descent from this last climb ended with 7 kms to go and people thought that Nibali might have tried something there. Moreover, every expert said that today's stage was perfect for those who wanted to go on a breakaway in order to get a victory. That's why, after just 55 kms, a very large group of riders had already broken clear of the peloton. These athletes were the Italian champion Giovanni Visconti (who's had serious knee problems in the last two weeks), his teammate Leonardo Giordani (who worked a lot at the front of the breakaway), Christophe Le Mevel, Hubert Dupont, Jan Bakelants (a hero!), Robert Kiserlovski, Kanstanstin Sivtsov (who wanted to improve his GC)), Jesus Hernandez, Ben Gastauer, Pablo Lastras, Diego Ulissi, Eduard Vorganov, Alberto Losada, Mathias Frank, Fabio Taborre and Addy Engels.
These riders had a maximum advantage of about 8 minutes and arrived on the top of Aprica with more than 3 minutes of advantage on the rest of the peloton. Liquigas, Lampre and Geox worked hard to gain time on the 16 men, but they didn't succeed.
On the Aprica descent both Kiserlovski and Frank looked very uncomfortable, whereas Lastras showed that, as well as being a very good sprinter, a very good climber and a very good Classic rider, he's also a very good downhill rider.
As said, people expected an attack by Nibali, but Popovych went at the head of the peloton during the Aprica downhill and nothing happened. Therefore the main part of peloton quietly rolled towards the finish-line, arriving 3 minutes after the winner.
With 3 kms to go, Bakelandts, Visconti, Lastras and Ulissi got a small gap on their adversaries. In the final 2 kms Visconti looked really nervous (he kept on turning his head backwards), whereas Ulissi and Bakelandts both tried to attack in the last 1500 meters of race. But still, they didn't have a lot of luck and they had to face Lastras and the Italian national champion in a sprint.
Poor Bakelandts had to start the final 'volata' and sat up as soon as Ulissi started the 'serious' sprint. At that point Visconti, who was on the right side of the road, suddenly moved to left, trying to follow the Lampre rider and to hide from the wind. On the other hand, Lastras was behind the two Italians, ready to outsprint them. However, soon it became clear that Visconti would have never been able to outsprint Ulissi: in fact there wasn't a lot of space between him and the barriers and Visconti, who isn't a pure sprinter, felt as if he was in a trap, although he was riding much faster than his companions. What did Giovanni do, then? Well, simple: he screamed at Ulissi twice, then he tried to push him to the left of the road. Considering that Ulissi didn't change his riding direction, Visconti pushed him again, this time with more anger. Ulissi was forced to go to the left, trying to recuperate his balance, whereas Visconti crossed the finish-line in first. Poor Lastras avoided hitting Ulissi from behind at the last moment and, in this all-Italian mess, he was the one who had the worst consequences. In fact, poor Pablo found himself third, after that he had to change his direction all of a sudden in order to avoid a serious crash.
Right after the finish-line, no one looked happy. Visconti started talking with Lastras, whereas Ulissi, interviewed by Italian tv, said he didn't think he had done something wrong. Visconti, on the other hand, was really angry at Diego. “Sometimes the ones who decide to risk their own lives are the riders themselves, it's incredible! I shouted at Ulissi ten times to let me pass because I was going at twice the speed, but he closed me in against the barriers and, if I hadn’t raised my arm to push him far from me, I would have fallen. He's behaved in a very bad way during the whole day, he's been rude and it's not nice to see a young rider behaving like he did during the breakaway. Now I may be relegated to the last place, just because he wanted me to crash against the barriers. It's not fair!”, Giovanni said after the finish-line. He was very angry and probably still scared because he had risked to crash and hurt himself badly during the sprint.In his defense, however, it must be said that there's a lot of pressure on him right now, that he's had big health problems in the first two weeks of Giro, that for his team this is the most important goal of the year and that he really wanted to win a stage in the Italian national jersey. Moreover, it must be said that he was interviewed right after the finish-line, when riders don't have the time to think about what they're saying.
After Visconti was relegated to third place (did Bulbarelli understand what the jury told him in French? That is question... :P), his ds decided to take part in 'Il Processo alla Tappa'. Farnese's ds, Luca Scinto, is a very peculiar person, since he always puts a lot of passion in whatever he does. Today he admitted that his rider had done something wrong, but he also said that Ulissi did change his direction during the sprint. "Therefore", Scinto said, "the jury should have given the victory to Lastras, and not to Diego".
A few minutes later, it was Ulissi's turn to arrive on the stage of 'Il Processo'. With his very nice accent, Diego explained how things went from his own point of view. “I tried to surprise the other riders by going early and I was always on the left hand side of the road, and I don’t think I really veered that much towards the barriers”, he said. Then, when asked about his behaviour in the breakaway, he was really honest. "I behaved in a cunning way, I admit it. My ds had told me not to take turns at the front, that's why I didn't work as much as the other riders. Btw, I wasn't the only one: also other 8 riders didn't pull very much. The Saxo Bank rider, for example (ndr; Hernandez), he didn't pull at all, perhaps because he had Contador in the oink jersey. However, I paid for my behaviour. In the first kms of breakaway in fact I argued with Vorganov, he said some bad things to me".
Then also Visconti went to 'Il Processo' and he said that he got angry too because of Ulissi's behaviour in the breakaway and that he thought that Diego was a bit too arrogant. "At a certain point", said Visconti, "I told him: 'If you keep on behaving like this, many riders won't consider a very nice guy anymore', and he thanked me for the advice". Luckily, in the end the two Italian riders made peace and Visconti said some very nice things. In fact right now there is a jersey worn by him during Etna stage on sale on EBay. "The money that people will spend to buy it", said Visconti, "will go to the family of a child who has a very bad disease. Thinking about all the parents that have children who suffer, and thinking about all the tragedies that occurred in cycling in the last weeks, well, it makes you understand that arguing for a victory really doesn't make sense at all. Things have gone this way, it's useless to talk about them now". Very wise words, said by a very young boy.
Talking about the poor Lastras, instead, I must say that I found it absolutely nice when Italian tv interviewed him. In fact they asked him what he thought about the sprint, whether he thought Ulissi should have been punished, whether he thought he should have deserved to win the stage and whether Movistar was going to protest against the jury's decision. In spite of all these question, Pablo always answered with the same: 'Non lo so' ('I don't know'), said with a big, shy smile and an embarassed face. Thinking about Movistar's problems and watching Pablo behaving in that way really made me want to go to Tirano and give a hug to him and to his teammates.
Back to Diego Ulissi, I think he didn't make any mistake in today's sprint and I agree with the jury's decision.
Personally, I like Diego because of different reasons. In fact he's strong, he's not afraid of anything (his arrogance towards the older riders show it), he's just 21, he's pretty and he also has a great accent. I could spend a whole day listening to him saying 'Horsa' rather than 'Corsa', and I think I'd pay a few euros to make him say 'una Coca Cola con la cannuccia' (I always melt when I hear people from Tuscany saying this sentence...).
Still talking about today's stage, here are two random things to point out: first of all, Matthew Wilson, my personal hero of the race, didn't finish today's stage.
'Who is Wilson?', some of you may ask. Well, Matthew is that great rider who was last in the general classification for a lot of stages. Now hat he's retired, I'm a very sad supporter.
Another (very fangirlistic) thing to point out, then, it's a recent discovery of mine (male readers can skip this part of the post, I don't have problems with it): Hubert Dupont is veeeery good-looking. Really, AG2R guys must do everything they can to bring both him and Nicolas Roche to the Tour de France. In that way, they could become Fangirl's second favourite team.
Ok, end of the fangirlistic part of the post. Now it's time for some random link and for a 'communication service':
RANDOM NEWS:
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/contadors-mechanic-expelled-from-the-giro : A SB mechanic got expelled from the Giro after that, during yesterday's ITT, he opened the door of the team car in order to 'punish' a tifoso who, according to him, had tried to punch Contador. However, Alberto says that the tifosi are always very nice with him and that he loves us all (ok, I'm exaggerating). The mechanic instead said that yesterday Joaquim Rodriguez received a punch from a supporter and that on the Zoncolan the tifosi threw eggs at the SB riders/team cars (I've read two versions of the story). Now, this seems a little strange to me. I mean, the guys would have complained about an episode like that, wouldn't they? And then: isn't it a bit difficult to center a rider with an egg while he's riding? And about the team cars: they couldn't drive up Zoncolan behind the riders and I don't think someone followed SB car in order to throw eggs at it... :P
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/giro-ditalia-forced-to-change-milan-time-trial-course : The Milan elections, as well as causing an earthquake in Italian politics, have also forced the Giro organisers to change the route of the last stage of race. Now I'm seriously considering the chance of going to Milan to support both the riders and Pisapia.
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/golas-withdraws-from-giro-ditalia-to-get-married : I wish all the best to Michal Golas and his fiancé Agata, who are getting married this weekend!
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/tondos-funeral-to-be-held-today : DEP, Xavier :'(
COMMUNICATION SERVICE:
Dear readers, you all know that tomorrow's stage of the Giro arrives in San Pellegrino Terme.
Considering that the Giro is riding also through Bergamo, tomorrow many roads in the center of the city will be closed. 'A good chance to stay home from school', I thought. And instead no, because we Bergamasks love killing ourselves with work (everyone describes us as 'loyal people who work hard without complaining', whereas I describe ourselves as 'a bunch of crazy people who can't understand what the priorities in life are'), so tomorrow students will have to stay in the schools at least until 12.30 . Then, at that hour, all the students of the city will finally be free.
Now, just imagine this: all the people going to pick up their little children by car, all the students who get the bus to go home, all the teachers/people older than 18 who drive their cars outside town, all the workers who try coming back from work before the roads get closed. All together, at the same time of the day, in the center of the town. I predict problems. And I predict that it will be impossible to get out of the city before half past one.
'What about miss Fede then? Will she go to school or not?', I hear some of you ask. Well, to everyone's joy, miss Fede decided in November 2010 that she wouldn't have gone to school on the 26th and on the 27th of May 2011, so this afternoon she said 'See ya on Sunday!' to all her schoolmates, wished them good luck for tomorrow, predicted that they'll be struck in the biggest traffic jam every for a lot of time and then promised she would bring them some nice photos of the hottest cyclists. Oh yeah, because miss Fede tomorrow will be in San Pellegrino, rooting for every single cyclist who's still racing (Contador included), trying to take good pictures (it won't be easy) and forgetting about all her duties. Because, as Queen sang, 'Bicycles races are coming your way, so forget all your duties oh yeah'.
PS: No, I won't be posting anything tomorrow :P
sorry for the frivolous comment but sometimes we need "to live more and think less" -without forgetting tears and memories-...but....Hubert Dupont... is a such cute guy!and for tomorrow, have fun ! I was at the finish line in Gardeccia stage.. amazing!!
RispondiEliminaHave fun Fede! :D
RispondiEliminaFede, I hope you're having a blast out there!
RispondiEliminaI seriously regret not advising you to wave around a flag with a banana, just so we could spot you in the crowd. If anyone asked, "What country is this from?" You could always respond, "La repubblica dei fangirls di riciclaggio."(Please excuse the poor Italian, it's the best babelfish could do :P)
Also, the Bergamo - San Pellegrino region, IS one of the most beautiful stages on the Giro. I'm not sure if they were passing through Bergamo at the time, but I loved the haunted-looking trees... again, I have no idea why I imagined Italy would look like Tuscany / Florence. It's amazingly lush, and green.
Thanks for your recap Fede, I succeed in missing all the exciting stages. I just have one thing to say: have fun, fun and fun again! And Figbash's idea of a banana flag is very cool, can you draw? :P
RispondiEliminaFrancesca
Dear girls, I'm finally back from San Pellegrino. I'm sweated, exhausted and sunburned, but very happy anyway. I really had a lot of fun (although I don't think that Menchov found my stalker's behaviours entertaining), my sister had her photo with Lovkvist taken (OMG he's so handsome!) and Omega Pharma Lotto is staying in a hotel inside my village (right now, Fangirl's planning to have breakfast there tomorrow morning).
RispondiEliminaThe only sad thing was that Pinotti couldn't win the stage. But still, Capecchi is a very young guy who really deserved this victory. The poor thing even burst into tears during an interview, while talking about his little cousin who passed away this winter.
Unfortunately, in the weekend I won't have the time to write about my Giro adventures. But still, here is a funny vid that I've found on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMMUanJP9mw&feature=youtu.be . Savoldelli was so excited about the Bergamask stage that, rather than saying his usual 'A voi' ('To you'!) when he stopped talking, he said 'A òter' ('A voi' in Bergamask) when he wanted to give the word to his colleagues. Unfortunately, he didn't advise them about that, so both the chronists panicked. That was such a great moment!
@ Anonimo: Sometimes it's nice and relaxing to talk about some frivolous things. It's a way to take off our minds for a while ;)
Dupont is reaaally nice, AG2R is definitely growing on me. The other day I was bored and looked for some pictures of cyclists and I casually found some of Nicolas Roche. And d'you know what? HE'S HOOOT!!! (ok, end of the frivolous part ;)
Great to know that you were on Gardeccia! That was a great stage and I hope you had as much fun as I had this afternoon!
Btw, I have a little propose to make you (feel free to turn it down, I won't eat you ;)... Perhaps you know that I write also for another blog, 'Bananas About Bikes', which is based on the tales that the tifosi send from the races that they've watched 'live'. If you feel like writing a little report (with or without pictures, it's the same) of your adventure on Gardeccia, me and the other girls from the staff would be absolutely happy to publish it. If you're not English, you can write your post also in Italian, French, German, Dutch, Danish or Spanish - then one of us will translate it.
If you want to know more about 'BaB', check the 'my favourite blog' list at your right, upper in the webpage. The e-mail address to which you can send us your (eventual) report is 'bananasaboutbikes@gmail.com'.
Of course you don't have to write us a report if you don't want to, we don't want to oblige anyone!!
And apropos, has anyone gone to Tour of California this month? If so, is there a nice soul willing to write a report for BaB? We'd be really grateful if you did it!
@ Mar: Thank you, dear :) I did have a lot of fun and I have a pic of Porte that you may like ;)
@ Figbash: The banana advice is great! :O
However, I'm sure you wouldn't have seen me anyway - I was right behind the tv camera that filmed the last curve, so I never had a chance to end up on the national tv (the cameraman had to film the riders, not the cute female supporters behind him) :P
Great that you liked Bergamo and San Pellegrino! :) It is actually a nice place to live in, with the river Brembo, the green, the food and so on. On some occasions, I really love my city.
Oh, and I have a pic that you may like: a group of old people following the race from their own balconies! ;)
@ Francesca: You're always welcome, dear.
Yesterday's stage had a very exciting post-race moments, as well as an exciting/terrifying sprint. My dad told me that also today's stage was very good, I hope you managed to see it then!
The banana flag idea is cool, but I'm afraid I can't create one now. And then, what if they exchange me for a Contador's tifosa? D:
@Fede Richiiiieeee! :D Okay, I can't wait.
RispondiEliminaI know, I know about the blog!I follow it!;) wow..absolutely thanks for the propose!!!however, I m italian...maybe u have already guess it coz unfortunately my laziness prevent me from check english grammar =)! just u to know..I m the same one who wrote about having a video of the terrible stage Reggio-Rapallo...Gardeccia was a different story!:) even if than May 9...influenced that stage too...I ve already written something about my experience...I like writing and I tried to wrote it on a paper in attemp to fix the emotions I felt...It' s a kind of stream of consciousness ;)...I could work on it adding some more technical information about the race....It could be!I would be very pleased...but I have a big problem: time!!University, first year, steal most of my time!to translate the whole text would be a mess!I could try!about the pics...no problem: my text need them to be fully understood!ok Fede...c u soon =) ooops: my name is Claudia
RispondiElimina@ Mar: And he's showing his tongue in it!!! :D
RispondiElimina@ Claudia: First of all, dear, I really do hope you've got over the shock of Wouter's death. You really sounded desperate in that comment and, when I read it, I couldn't help writing you to give you all my support. I hope you're feeling a bit better now, although it takes time to recover from bad experiences like that :(
Unfortunately, I'm afraid that this will be remembered as the Giro of the n. 108 rather than as the Giro won by Contador. Wouter's tragedy really marked the whole race, even when I went to Bergamo and to San Pellegrino Terme I often thought about him and about poor Tondo.
Luckily you could enjoy a better day on Gardeccia, that was a great stage (although you weren't that lucky with the weather :P)!
It would be great if you could send us a tale about your experience, but there's no hurry: take all the time you need! After all, as my mum has been telling me for the last 3 weeks, 'school always comes first'!
And about the translation, you don't need to worry either: you can send us the report in Italian and I'll translate it myself. Then of course one of the English speakers from the staff will check the grammar and things like that, so that we'll both look like authentical English native speakers ;)