Random post about the Worlds, Team RaNT, Wegelius and mr. Schleck:

After a very busy week, miss Fede is finally back with a new post (*chorus of 'yay!s' coming from all over the world*). Unfortunately she couldn't write anything earlier because in the last few days she's been very busy. In fact, on Tuesday miss Fede officially became a university student by attending her first Russian lesson at uni (*chorus of 'it was high time!!' coming from Denmark, Holland and many other countries*).

Before talking about that experience, let me tell you one important thing about Italian university: here in Italy, the academic year begins in October (*imagines the scandalised look on her readers' faces as they read this*). 'Why have you already started going to uni then?', I hear you wonder. Well, easy: the people who have decided to take up an unknown language at the 'Foreign Languages and Literatures' faculty of my university have to attend an intensive language course during the month of September. Let's make an example: a friend of mine (who has studied Spanish, French and English at high school) has decided to take up Chinese. Therefore, this month she has to attend an intensive Chinese course. On the other hand, given that I decided to take up Russian, this month I have to attend an intensive Russian course. Nice, isn't it?

So far I've attended just two lessons, which were both very interesting but also slightly frightening. One of our professors in fact is extremely kind and funny, whereas the other one is much stricter and, sometimes, she can also be a bit annoying. For example, she put on a scandalised look when a girl asked her what the word 'шоколад' ('schokolad') meant. 'I thought it was obvious that it means 'chocolate!' I mean, it is the same word as in German!'  Of course the girl didn't know a word of German, so she was pretty angry when the professor answered her in that way. But still, I must admit that, in comparison to the behaviours of some of my high school teachers, that wasn't a very rude reply at all.

Anyway, back to my first days at uni. One of the things I'm proud of is that I managed to find my way to the uni without problems on the first day of lessons. The Languages faculty of Bergamo in fact owns three different buildings in the Upper City and that's where the lessons take place. On the one hand, this is very good because the buildings are all very old and fascinating (a friend of mine said that 'going to school in the Upper City is a bit like going to Hogwarts', and I agree) and because they are all in a very quiet area. On the other hand, getting lost in the medieval streets of the city is terribly easy. That's why I was so happy when I didn't get lost on the first day of lesson.

The second day was actually a bit different. I went to the place where the lessons were supposed to take place but, 5 minutes before the beginning of the lesson, I understood I was in the wrong place (in fact there was just another person in the classroom with me :P). I asked for info and I was told that the lesson had been moved to another building. Of course that made me panick, but luckily a kind classmate helped me to find my way to the other building and we managed to arrive there on time.

Yesterday, on the other hand, I did get lost. The funny thing is that I didn't lose my way in the Upper City, but in the university building itself. In fact yesterday I had to take my first uni exam. This exam is called 'evaluation test' and every rookie has to take two of these tests: the first one regards the knowledge of a foreign language, the other one aims to test the rookie's knowledge of the Italian language. If someone doesn't pass one or two of these tests, they can start attending the lessons anyway. But still, they have to take these tests once again in May. If they pass these exams in May, everything is ok. Otherwise, they can retake these tests in September. If they fail them also on this occasion, they fail the whole year and they have to attend the first-year lessons and pay all the first-year taxes all over again. Quite frightening, isn't it?

Anyway. I had my German evaluation test yesterday (I think I've passed it, but I'm not sure yet) and the funny thing is that, after I got out of the classroom (we were on the second floor), I had problems finding my way to the exit. Seriously, it took me 15 minutes to get out of that cursed building! What an embarassing experience.

This morning instead I had my Italian evaluation test. I'll receive the results on next Friday, so I'm pretty nervous right now. In fact, the test looked ok to me, but everyone else found it extremely complicated. Now, was I so lucky to get 'the lucky sheet', or did I find it easy because I made everything wrong? I mean, even people who are good at Italian told me that they found it really difficult!

However, I realise I've been digressing way too much. So, let's talk cycling now ;) 

First topic du jour, the Worlds: the most important one-day race of the year takes place next Sunday in Copenhagen and, of course, everyone right now is in a very patriotic mood. The parcours looks easy on paper, but the Italian coach Paolo 'The Cricket' Bettini has said that it is actually more difficult than it seems.

One of the main contenders for the final victory is Cavendish, who has recently won a stage in Tour of Britain. Hushovd, who was reported to have come down with a bad cold, has recently won a ToB stage too, whereas Gilbert has won both GP de Wallonie and GP Québec. Sagan, on the other hand, won three Vuelta stages, while Bennati showed that he's in a good form too. Amongst the main contenders for the rainbow jersey then there are also Goss, Farrar, Greipel, Modolo and Kittel, not to mention good old Freire and Boasson Hagen. Amongst the riders who won't take part in the Worlds instead there are Tom Boonen (who had a bad crash at la Vuelta) and Matti Breschel. The Copenhagen parcours would perfectly suit the Danish rider, but unfortunately he won't be able to take part in the race because of two broken fingers. Heal fast, Matti: we're all hoping bad luck soon stops following you!

Talking about the Danish team, it must be taid hat they're having a tough time in these days: first, in their Worlds leader broke two bones; then, they discovered that Alex Rasmussen has been fired by Garmin-Cervélo for missing three doping controls. As a consequence, Denmark has now become one of the few teams that will try to avoid a final bunch sprint. In fact, the Danish riders for the Worlds will be Michael Morkov, Chris Anker Sørensen, Nicki Sørensen, Jakob Fuglsang, Anders Lund and Lars Bak - they're all great riders, no doubts about that, but unfortunately none of them is as fast as Cavendish or Farrar. Therefore, I think the Danes will try to create a winning breakaway - or, at least, they'll try to avoid a massive bunch sprint.

As far as other teams are concerned, the Canadian riders will be Dominique Rollin, Svein Tuft (who will take part in the TT race as well) and David Veilleux. The Spaniards will have a good team formed by Oscar Freire (who has said he'll retire if he doesn't win in Copenhagen), Barredo, Garate, LL Sanchez, Erviti, Lastras, Rojas, Flecha and Reynes.

Talking about Spanish riders and retirements: Carlos Sastre has recently announced he'll retire. After the 2009 Giro Carlos has been struggling with getting good results and I think he's right in retiring now. After all, he will always be remembered as the man who won the 2008 TdF against the odds.

On to another team, the Swiss team will be formed by Cancellara, Albasini, Kohler and Rast. The Aussie team instead will be formed by Clarke, Cooke, Gerrans, Haussler, Goss, O'Grady, Hayman, Sutton and Rogers. A remarkable exclusion is Mark Renshaw's one, since the Aussie is a great leadout man and he's recently showed that he can win sprints as well.

As far as Germany is concerned, the national team will be formed by Burghardt, Ciolek, Degenkolb, Hondo, Kittel, Sieberg, Wegmann and Greipel. A great roster, isn't it?

Belgium will have Phil Gilbert, Roelandts, Kaisen, Lodewyck, Van Summeren, Van Avermaet, De Weert and Leukemans. A good team, which will hopefully give Italy a hand in making the race harder than expected.

Holland will have a good team too and will hopefully help Switzerland, Belgium, Denmark and Italy in their attempt of creating some problems to the fastest men of the peloton (Cav, I'm thinking of you). The Dutchies will be Gesink, Mollema, Boom, Hoogerland, Ligthart, Poels, Terpstra, Weening and Tjallingii.

Russia will bring Galimzyanov, Isaichev, Porsev, Ignatiev and Gusev to Copenhagen, whereas the French team will be formed by Voeckler, Chavanel, Dumoulin, Offredo, Kadri, Gallopin, Ravard, Roux and Romain Feillu.

Italy will have Bennati, Modolo, Belletti, Gatto, Visconti, Viviani, Gavazzi, Oss, Paolini and Tosatto: a great team,  in my (partial) point of view. Bennati and Modolo in fact can play their cards in case of a bunch sprint, whereas Viviani, Visconti, Gatto and Belletti are fast and solid riders, just like Gavazzi and Oss. Paolini is a fast man too and he and Tosatto will have to use their experience in order to decide the team's strategy during the race (in fact, the riders aren't allowed to use radios at the Worlds). Personally, I'm very happy with the Italian team, although I can understand Ponzi's disappointment in learning that he had been excluded from the roster. But still, I think Bettini preferred the experienced Gavazzi to the young Ponzi, who is one of the most talented Italian riders anyway.

On to other teams, the Americans will have Farrar, Bookwalter, Busche, Duggan, King, Louder, Phinney and Talansky; Great Britain instead will have a team formed by Cavendish, Cummings, Froome, Hunt, Millar, Stannard, Thomas and Wiggins.

As far as other teams are concerned, I'm going to write a start list including all the teams in the next days. Therefore, stay tuned - the Worlds fever is taking over ;)

After talking briefly about the Worlds, let's talk about a rider who is retiring at the end of this year - and that rider is Charles Wegelius, one of the most hilarious men who ever joined Twitter. The 33 year-old rider (who has always been a great helper) became a pro in 1999 and since then he's worked for many important riders,. But still, Charly has never got an individual victory. “One of the big regrets is that I never won a race. I was part of three team time trial winning teams but that is not like winning alone. I went very close this year at the Vuelta Asturias on a mountain finish but finished third after Constantino Zaballa passed me in the final kilometre", Charly has recently told Cyclingnews. Best wishes for your future, Charly!!

Let's now talk about another rider who is apparently doing everything he can to become one of the least loved riders in Cycledom. Unfortunately, I'm talking about Andy Schleck. As we (and poor Figgy in particular) know, our boy had a wisdom tooth removed on the 5th of September. That operation forced him to skip GP Québec and Tour of Wallonie - and now our boy has announced that he won't be able to take part in the Worlds either.  And all because of that wisdom tooth. I know that wisdom teeth are very annoying, but unfortunately the only feeling that people get from all this tooth-thing is that Andy is making up excuses because he wants to go on holiday as soon as possible. Or, at least, that's the feeling I get. I don't know if it's a problem of mine, but I have the feeling that Andy is self-destroying himself with some of his behaviours. Amongst the French journalist he's known as 'Andyfferent', amongst his colleagues his nickname is 'Torcicollis', some supporters think he's the worst guy of the peloton as far as creating race strategies is concerned. Moreover, the owner of his team thinks that he can't win a Tour unless he has a super ds telling him what to do. Personally, if I were him, I'd ask myself a few questions...

Anyway, end of the bitchy moment du post. On to another topic, let's talk a bit about Team RaNT. First news, Fuglsang has stated that he was disappointed by the way the merger was done. Second news, Didier is joining this new team. This of course means that another LT rider will soon find himself without a team. Now, we all know that O'Grady is going to GreenEdge (perfect timing, Stuey!), that Voigt has already signed a contract with Team Rant and that, apparently, those whose contract won't be renewed will be Pires, Feillu, Rohregger and Pedersen. Add Fuglsang (given his latest comments about the merger, I think he'll soon change team) and you have 5 riders from LT without a contract. Add Didier to Team RaNT, and another LT rider loses his contract. Now we just need to guess who. Luckily, news are expected to arrive within 24 hours. I'm looking forward to them!

Oh, and apropos: am I the only one who thinks that Rohregger terribly deserves having his contract renewed? :P