Decision time, cycling market and shaving legs:

Almost one week after her last post, miss Fede is back blogging (*chorus of: 'It was high time' coming from all over the world*). There have been some important transfer news in the last few days, and I would have liked to write something about them, but unfortunately I was too busy with university papers and important decisions to spend my time writing about O'Grady leaving Leopard or Renshaw leaving Cavendish. On Thursday in fact, after some moments of indecision, I eventually took a big breathe before enroling in the 'Foreign Languages and Literatures' faculty of the Bergamo university.

I was 12 when I first said that I wanted to study foreign languages at uni, so I didn't actually have any doubt about which faculty to choose. Unfortunately, I did have lots of problems when I had to choose which languages (and related literatures) to study in the next two years. In fact, me couldn't decide whether I should have studied German and English, English and Russian or German and Russian.

The first option would have had lots of advantages for me because high school gave me a very good grounding as far as English and German are concerned. Therefore, choosing this language combo at would have surely spared me a lot of hard work at least in the first year of uni.

Unfortunately in my area there are many people who can speak English and German without difficulties, so I decided not to choose this option because, in a certain way, I felt it was too 'obvious' from the 'future employment' perspective. In order to choose something that would have given me the chance of getting a good job without many problems, I eventually decided to study a pretty uncommon language: Russian. This decision wasn't actually that difficult to take and it was the consequence of three facts. First: the university of Bergamo is considered the best one for the Italian students who want to take up Russian. Second: I can already read cyrillic (understanding the meaning of the words is another issue). Third: Denis Menchov is Russian. Really, it was as simple as that.

After deciding to study Russian, it was time of taking another decision: studying German  or English together with it? English has always been my favourite language and I've always found it very easy, whereas I've always found German much more difficult (although I've always been good at it too). But still, there is no comparison between my English and my German skills: whereas I can communicate in English without too many problems, I still have problems in speaking German fluently. And, in the end, that's the reason why I've decided to keep on studying German and to abandon English.

I'm satisfied with my languages-choice, but I understood the importance of this fact just when a fellow rookie (who, unlike me, is going to study English and German) told me about what she'll study in her literature courses. Whereas she'll spend her days reviewing our high school notes about Blake, Hamlet and Joyce, I'll have to study Gogol, Dostoevskij and Pushkin. At least, the professor who runs the 'German literature' course seems a big fan of Kafka :P

Anyway. Enough ranting about myself for today. It's cycling time now!

The last few days have been full of decisions not just for me, but also for many cyclists who are changing teams. In particular, HTC Highroad hasn't managed to find a new sponsor for next year and this means that the everyone on the team (ds, riders, soigneurs, bus drivers, etc.) now need to find a new equipe.

Mark Cavendish, the most appealing jewel in the HTC crown, is heading towards Sky, just like Siutsou and Bernie Eisel. Mark Renshaw, on the other hand, has decided to go looking for adventure in Holland. In fact the fast Aussie has decided to join Rabobank and to try to become the main sprinter of the Dutch team.

As far as Cavendish moving to Sky is concerned, people talked about this transfer already last year. After all, it was just a matter of time before the British king of the sprints ended up in the only British team of the ProTour... But still, right now I'm wondering how the ds of that team will manage to create a GT line-up which will be able to support Cav in the sprints and Wiggo in the mountains.

Still talking about fast riders, Thor Hushovd has announced that he's going to race for BMC in 2012. In my opinion this is a wise move because, by leaving Garmin, Thor will finally find a team that will support him completely both during the Classics and during the toughest sprints of the season. At Garmin instead the Norwegian rider had to deal with Van Summeren during the Classics and with Farrar and Haussler during the sprints. Unfortunately, Garmin hasn't appreciated this move and in fact it has decided not to bring Hushovd to la Vuelta. Thor has been shocked by the news because the Spanish GT is the best way to prepare the Worlds, which Hushovd could win also this year. By not racing it, Thor will take part in the Danish race with a big handicap.

Still talking about Garmin, the team is going to lose other riders in the next season. In fact, Jack Bobridge and the Meyer brothers have all decided to join the GreenEdge team, which is a very interesting Australian project. Amongst the guys who have signed a contract with this new team there are also Stuart O'Grady and Pieter Weening, two exceptional riders. O'Grady said that leaving Leopard was 'the most difficult decision of his career', but I think no one can criticise him for his will of joining such an ambitious project. Good luck Stuey!

Talking about national projects: Astana has employed Kashechkin, whereas Katiusha has offered a contract to Angel Vicioso.

As far as French teams are concerned, Di Gregorio is joining Cofidis, whereas AG2R has employed Casper. Tony Gallopin, instead, is joining RadioShack.

A team that has been very active so far in the cycling market is Skil Shimano, who has great expectations for next year. In fact the Professional team has already employed Patrick Gretsch and has offered a contract to Degenkolb who, according to Gazzetta, has received an offer also fromLleopard Trek. The German sprinter is behaving in a mysterious way and has said that he'll reveal his new team during the Vuelta. Given the misteryous behaviour, one could assume that he's joining the Leopards.

Talking about LT, the team has recently employed Ben Hermans, who is a solid helper. Quick Step instead has signed the Velits twins, one of which (I never remember who...) is a very strong GT contender.

Whereas Movistar has wisely employed the Italian hope Visconti, Vacansoleil is likely to become the team with the most loved line-up ever, since it has offered a contract to everyone's hero Kenny Van Hummel. He and Hoogerland together at the Tour, wow!

Talking about the Italian market, one of the big names looking for a contract is Pippo Pozzato. I've already said that LT should employ him, but it actually seems that Poz may end up riding for Farnese Vini. In fact Lampre apparently refused to give Filippo a contract after he said that he wanted the team to employ also his soigneur and his friend Paolini. I think Lampre was right in taking this decision, because Pozzato hasn't had any great result in the last two years and, imo, he should have a more humble attitude towatds those who want to give him a contract.

As far as the retiring riders are concerned, it seems that the cyclists who'll abandon the peloton after October are Arvesen (can anyone tell me more about this?), Cuesta, Noé and Loosli. On the other hand, some fresh air is arriving in Cycledom thanks to the neo pros: Keldermann is joining Rabobank, whereas Stefano Locatelli and Enrico Battaglin are joining Colnago. The promising Trentin instead has signed a contract with Omega, whereas Moreno Moser has become a Liquigas rider. Good luck to these boys!

After talking about serious issues like team transfers and universities, now it's time we relaxed a bit with something funny. And that is: 'Why do pros shave legs?', by fitness expert Scott Saifer. This man writes a fitness column for Cyclingnews and he has recently answered an e-mail about the riders' habit of shaving legs. Talking about that topic, Chris Anker Sorensen once said that pros shave because: 1. it's a tradition. 2. it helps the soigneurs during the massages. 3. 'Teams spend thousand euros every year in order to give us the most aerodynamic bikes. Ruining all these efforts because of a pair of hairy legs would be a bit silly, wouldn't it?'

So, what did mr. Saifer answer to the reader who asked him why riders shave their legs? Enjoy!

Okay, I have to tell you the real reason pros shave their legs. It's because pros shave their legs. There are lots of reasons to do it, but ultimately they do it because all the other riders do it. I've heard that pros shave so that it they crash and have to have bandages, the bandages won't stick to the hair, but I don't believe that most pros plan to crash so while that is a reason to shave, I don't believe that's why they do it. I've heard that hair sticks to asphalt and makes road rash worse as bigger chunks of skin get pulled off, but again, I don't think that's why they shave (...)

It's been said that smooth legs might decrease aerodynamic drag and improve competitiveness. It's also been said that a bit of hair could act like the turbulators on airplane wings, actually deceasing wind resistance by disrupting laminar flow and easing the separation of the air from the leg. Since smooth legs being faster makes intuitive sense, aerodynamics could explain shaving. Some pros do shave their arms as well.

Some riders say they shave because "chicks dig it". Many riders say that the first few days after shaving for the first time sliding between clean sheets is an awesome experience. Maybe some pros are closet sensualists.

Bottom line though is that riders shave because pros shave, and pros shave because pros shave. There are lots of arguable reasons but I don't think individual riders necessarily have reasons in that way. On the other hand, show up at a racing club ride in a new town with hairy legs and see how you are received. You'll be accepted much more readily if your legs are smooth.

After this masterpiece of writing, and while trying not to imagine some riders (Pozzato! D:)sliding between clean sheets while looking entusiasthic, I wish you all a good evening.