Allez Schlecks!!!

Ok girls, the two decisive moments are finally approaching: the moment in which the Tour will finally be decided by the last climbs (holy Galibier save us all once again!) and by the TT in Grenoble and the moment when I'll abandon Italy for a few days.

This Tour has been like a rollercoaster so far: there were some epic deeds (Hushovd winning in Lourdes, Voeckler keeping the jersey yesterday, Andy Schleck's winning attack 24 hours ago, Boasson Hagen winning two stages, Gilbert giving it all whenever he could, Hoogerland keeping on racing), but there were also some negative moments (Vinokourov ending his career, a car knocking down Flecha and Hoogerland when they were on a breakaway, the boredom on the Pyrenées, the descents of the last two days, all the retires of the first week of race, the polemics between Cavendish and Rojas...). But still, after more than 25000 kms of race and many hours of sufference (both for the riders and for the supporters), the fight for yellow is still open. Voeckler, the tenacious French rider, has the chance of winning his home-race 26 years after Hinault; Andy Schleck, the Luxembourgian graceful flamingo, has the opportunity of winning his first Tour de France; Frank Schleck, brother of Andy (in 2007 people would have said: 'Andy, brother of Frank'), wants to join his brother on the final podium; Cadel Evans, who has often been rejected by the Grande Boucle, wants to overtake the Luxembourgian duo and the surprising Voeckler in the final time trial, thus reaching the Tour triumph that has slipped out of his hands on many occasions. With 2 days of race and a triumphal parade to go, these riders are divided (or, perhaps, united) by 72 seconds.  Now they have to give it all, once again, for the last time, today and tomorrow. Then, the Tour de France will give the crown of king to one of them.

As many of you already know, I won't be at home during the epilogue of this exciting and beautiful fight for yellow. In fact this evening I'm leaving Italy to enjoy a one-week holiday on the coast of Spain. Luckily the hotel has a tv in every room, so that I'll hopefully be able to enjoy the Tour even while I'm on holiday. Actually, I can already imagine myself upsetting my friends by leaving the beach at 4.30 pm in order to go watching the last two stages. There's no way I'm missing the TT (if I can't find a tv broadcast, I'll call my parents and spend a thousand euros on phone calls in order to know how the race is going second by second) and I'd love to see also the final parade to Paris. When one follows the Tour from its beginning, it's hard to be excluded from the final party on the Champs. But still, in order to do that, I'll have to find the Spanish channel that broadcasts the Tour. And, given my love for tvs, it'll be hard.

Talking about scenes starring myself and my passion for cycling, I bet that tomorrow morning at 7 am I'll be walking around the streets like a fool, looking for a newsagent's selling 'La Gazzetta dello Sport'. Seriously, I can't resist without my two daily pink pages about the Tour!!

Anyway. Time to go packing the last things. Of course, even when I'm away, the comment area is here for you, dear readers, to use. You can express ideas, have discussions, share links, do whatever you want - I'm sure you don't need me to create interesting, funny, moved and joyful (hopefully...) discussions.

Hopefully, when I'm back we'll have a Luxembourgian Tour de France champion. If so, I could go so crazy that, before leaving Spain, I may run down a street with a yellow tow in my hands, singing 'Eisen Andy' (no, I won't record that moment on my camera).

With the song 'Allez Andy' playing in my mind, I say 'good bye' to you all. I hope you had fun on this blog in the last two weeks (the number of new readers that have come across this page in the last few days is SCARY!!) and, if so, I recommend you staying tuned - the season, after all, isn't over yet.
So, this time this is really all from me for the moment - and for the Tour. Have a good weekend and get ready to support los Schlecks as loudly as you can.

Hasta pronto mujeres!

PS: I take this chance to wish a nice travel and a great holiday to the girls who are travelling to France in these days: Figbash, Mar, Marleen, Eva, Lee (who's been in France for a while now), Kara and all the other ones that I've surely forgotten. Rock Paris, girls!!! And stalk a Schleck (or two) also for me ;)

(Pic by Bettini)