Little random post about Suisse, France and exams:

Temporarily back from the land of the Hard Studying, miss Fede has finally found the time to leave her 'studi leggiadri' and her 'sudate carte' apart in order to update her blog.

'What? Update your blog? Are you crazy? You have an exam coming up, you should be studying like hell, girl!!'. That's what I hear you, dear readers, scream as you read the first lines of this post. But still, you shouldn't get so nervous about my exam. In fact, today I've done a really good job, since I woke up pretty early (well, early for my standards) and I've spent the last 12 hours of my life studying.

Although it actually took me a lifetime to review Leopardi and Manzoni (damned Promessi Sposi, how can those critics have so many things to say about it?), I'm pretty happy with what I've done so far. And what I've done so far is: the whole Romantic period in Italy, life/death/miracles of the depressing duo Leo & Manzo (those guys couldn't stand each other, isn't that hilarious?) and life/death (especially death) and miracles of Petronius, Seneca and Lucanus. Considering that I wrote a super-detailled scheme of every author I've mentioned above (scheme including all the possible matchings between the different subjects), I think I can be satisfied with what I've done so far.

Talking about the matchings between the different subject: I've recently discovered that I have an amazing ability to match Martin Heidegger to everyone/everything I've studied this year. Isn't that amazing?

Anyway. Let's finally talk cycling. Here you have a little dialogue between me and my sister, which took place at half past six as we watched the final sprint of today's stage of TdS.
Sister: 'The rider who won has lots of muscles'.
Me: 'Yes, I know'.
Sister: 'I don't like men with too many muscles'.
Me: 'Well, sprinters have muscles...'
Sister: 'Yeah, but I prefer climbers. Also Sagan has too many muscles for me. Uhm...Do you know one thing?'
Me: 'What?'
Sister: 'The rider who's won... I've seen his face before. He reminds me a lot of Thor Hushovd. They look a lot to each other, don't they?'
Me: 'Really?'
Sister: 'Yeah, he really looks like Hushovd imo'.
Me: 'Well, perhaps he looks like Hushovd because he actually is Thor Hushovd...'

From this special dialogue you can understand that, even after 8 hours of studying, my brain can still manage to work better than my sister's one. Amazing, isn't it?

Anyway. Tour de Suisse. Andy Schleck lost a big amount of time in the prologue, but he had problems with his bike, so he's justified for that (poor boy, he has a mechanical every time he hops on a bike!). Yesterday however Our Glorious Leader entered a breakaway and worked hard on the final climb, which was very steep (and long). He eventually got dropped, but he did a good training while pulling at the head of the race.

On to another LT rider, Jakob Fuglsang seems in a great shape right now. Yesterday in fact  he was in the breakaway together with Andy and today he's showed us his pretty face at the front of the race once again. Not that I complain, of course.

Jens Voigt looked very good too this afternoon, as he attacked with 4 kms to go. Also O'Grady showed his form in the finale and this is simply great.

Talking about Frank Schleck, instead, he did a great job on the second day of race, but yesterday he didn't attack. Btw, I'm positively impressed by the fact that he hasn't crashed yet in the race.

On to the other riders who are taking part in Tour de Suisse, some of them are already in a super condition. Cunego simply flew over the mountains yesterday, whereas Soler is finally back in shape. Hopefully he won't crash in the next stages.

Young guns like Van Garderen and Mollema are doing well too, whereas Di Luca seems to have gone back to the good old times when he was known as 'the killer'.

De Greef yesterday impressed everyone with his riding style ('He looks like a camel', the Italian chronist kindly said), whereas Leipheimer is always a dangerous threat for the GC. Bakelandts keeps on attacking every day (I wonder, has anyone ever told him that he's not forced to enter a breakaway once every 24 hour?), whereas Sagan has been showing his amazing talent once again.

On to the fast wheels, Zdenek Stybar (if he can be considered a fast wheel...) had a good 8th placement this afternoon, whereas Cavendish got dropped on the last little climb. He doesn't look very thin or is it just my imagination?

Talking about another sprinter, Matti Breschel has finally made it back to the peloton. Welcome back, Matti! We missed you terribly in the last few months!

Talking about another race, you all probably know that a race called Dauphine Libére took place somewhere in France last week. It is always a very good race, always very exciting and full of surprises. This time Contador didn't take part in it, but the Spaniard is going to take part in the Tour anyway. Oh happiness.

The winner of the 2011 edition of Dauphine Libére was Wiggins who, imo, can make it to the Tour's Top 5. I like Bradley, since he's always very ironical and since he's never afraid to speak his mind.

Second in the race was Cadel Evans. Will he finally make it back to his usual GC levels this year?

Third was Vinokourov (*cheerful screams from the members of AAVL*), who would like to win the Tour next month. Imo he can't make it unless Contador, Andy Schleck and other 10 guys all crash out of the race, but I think Vino has great chances of winning at least a stage. Apropos, did you know that he won the Champs Elysées stage a few years ago?

On to another rider, Van Den Broeck showed he's in a great shape and that he can make it to the Tour Top 5. A great surprise in the French race has been Cristophe Kern, winner of a stage and 6th in the final GC. Europcar will have a strong team at the Grande Boucle, since Kern is a teammate of Voeckler.

Talking about other French teams, next month you'd better look out for Coppel and Moncoutie. Moreover, pay attention to AG2R. This team is really growing on me and it has some very interesting young riders. Poor Nicholas Roche, however, was forced to leave Dauphine after a bad crash. Cyclingnews said he might have broken his elbow, but that his Tour partecipation wasn't at risk. Let's hope so!

Another interesting French rider who showed himself to the world last week is Thibaut Pinot. This boy (born in 1990, just like Sagan) won't take part in the Tour, but showed great things in the French race.

Also Bruno Pires from Leopard Trek was very good in Dauphine Libére (19th in the GC), since he rode better than guys like Gesink and Basso. Right now everyone in Italy is very worried for Basso, but you mustn't forget that the poor boy had a bad crash on Etna at the end of May. Also Samu Sanchez and Brajkovic were a bit disappointing, whereas Rodriguez won two great stages.

Talking about Saxo Bank, Chris Anker Sorensen was 11th in the final GC and 2nd on a stage. I'm very proud of him and I'm actually a bit sorry because, now that Contador is taking part in the Tour, Chris will have to work as a helper. 'It's logical!', Logic says, but the heart of a Fangirl is often immune to tactics and team gerarchies.

So, this is all from miss Fede for the moment. Have a good evening, as I go back to my 'mad and desperate studies' (ok, I'm joking: it's bed time also for me). Good night!