About cycling market and university life:

As some of my faithful readers have probably noticed, in these last few weeks me hasn't blogged as much as usual. Moreover, I haven't even answered some of my readers' comments (I'm so, so sorry!!!). The only thing I can say in my defense is that, as predictable, university life is really wearing me out: every day I attend my first lesson at 9 am and 4 days pro week I walk out of the classroom at 5 pm. Luckily on Tuesday I have just a Russian lesson, so I'm ready to come back home already at 11 am (that's why I've started to love Tuesdays!). Still, finding the time to blog isn't easy, even if I have free Saturdays and (almost) free Tuesdays: in the weekend in fact I'm usually too tired to do anything but going out with friends, and on Tuesdays I'm too busy studying Russian. Talking about that subject I must say that, as @ Brenda had predicted, the number of my fellow students is decreasing day after day, especially now that our Russian teacher has started explaining 'difficult' things and has started telling us that we need to study at least 20 new words pro day if we want to learn the language well.

As far as my German lessons are concerned (our friend @ Barbara asked me about it some time ago and I excuse myself for replying her question just now), during the lessons we read newspaper articles, then we translate them. In the end, we study the new words. Those lessons are actually pretty boring, but I realise they're actually more useful than it seems.

On to other lessons, I've begun my computer classes. And, surprise surprise, I'm terrible at them - so terrible that I'm even considering the chance of not passing the exam on the first try. Another exam that pretty worries me is the 'Italian Language' one: you get a text and you must correct the grammar and insert some words (this part of the text is called 'Fill the gaps!'). I know, this exam sounds easy, but the difficulty of the task actually depends on the topic of the text: give me a text about cycling and I'll do a great job, give me a text about Great Britain's economical system and I won't be able to insert two correct words in a row.

On to other classes, I like my Linguistics class, whereas I hate the Italian Literature one. I've never really loved the subject and the other day, when our professor said: 'Let's start our lecture about Manzoni', I almost had a heart attack. Geez, I've been studying Manzoni since I was 10!

As far as my classmates are concerned, I adore my Russian lessons because they make me feel as if I still were at high school: everyone knows everyone and we often talk all together. However, I must admit that the atmosphere of these lessons has been slightly ruined by the arrival of many new entries and by a few discoveries I've recently made (aka: my crush has got a girlfriend and they seem to get on extremely well, whereas the other boy I like isn't straight). As far as the other lessons are concerned, some Linguistics students are simply hateful, whereas some guys in my German class are extremely lovely. Well, I think we can say that those two classes compensate each other ;)

Anyway, enough about boring university stuff: let's now talk a bit about cycling market - or, better, let's talk about the latest news regarding Team RaNT, Geox, Vacansoleil, HTC and GreenEdge (more teams will follow in the next days).

The last coup de scene has seen Geox stating that they're not going to sponsor Menchov & Co. anymore.

The thing about Geox is that not only was it meant to be a longtime project (just like Leopard Trek), but that the riders found out about the loss of their main sponsor just a few days ago. And, whereas Menchov and Cobo probably won't have problems in finding themselves a new important team, I'm afraid we can't say the same about guys like Kump, Mizbani or Furdi.

Imo, Mr. Geox never got over the fact that his team wasn't invited to the Tour de France and that's why he probably decided to end his cycling adventure after just one year. Unfortunately it takes a while to create a winning cycling team (ask Becca, Radioshack and Sky for further information) and those who aren't patient enough soon lose all their interest in the sport. Mr. Geox wanted his riders to win the Tour already this year: they didn't even get the chance to try winning it, so he got immediately fed up. What a mature behaviour, isn't it? If I can make a suggestion, mr. Geox, try becoming the sponsor of an Italian soccer team: buy a few good players, pay the referees some money and you'll see your team getting good results in no time (still, this recipe may not work in the Champions League matches :P).

After talking a bit about Geox, let's talk about the team of another lovely millionaire: Team RaNT. There are interesting news about this team, since it looks like most of the former LT riders are doing their best to escape from it. According to Cicloweb, in fact, Denifl and Mortensen are off to Vacansoleil, Lund and Pires have signed for Saxo Bank (I see a bald Danish ds laughing!!), Klemme and Stamsnijder are off to 1t4i (tu quoque, banana boy!), Feillu is off to Saur, Clarke is off to a team called 'Champions Syst.' (or something similar), Pedersen has signed for Christina Watches, Wegmann is off to Garmin and Viganò has chosen to ride for Lampre. I'm pretty sad about Clarke's decision, because the boy had talent and I would have liked him to remain in a top level team for another couple of years. I'm also sorry about the fact that Wegmann and Viganò are off to new teams, even if I can understand them: Fabian's year (both from the professional and from the personal point of view) has been terribly influenced by the death of his roommate Wouter Weylandt, so I think he really wanted to change team in 2012. As far as Viganò is concerned, I completely support his choice of going to Lampre. There he'll have the chance of riding for experienced riders like Petacchi and Hondo and he'll finally get all the media attention he deserves.

As far as the 'new riders' list is concerned, instead Cicloweb claims that the new entries who've already signed a contract for Team Rant there are Bakelandts and Roulston (right now, the Jan-fan in is screaming all her joy). Also Selig has signed a contract for the team and this obviously makes me really happy.

After confusing you with this long list of arrivals - departures (seriously, it feels like being in an airport here!), let's write a little resume. So, next year Team Rant should be formed by the following riders: Andy Schleck, Frank Schleck, Fabian Cancellara, Linus Gerdemann, Daniele Bennati, Joost Posthuma, Maxime Monfort, Jakob Fuglsang, Jens Voigt, Robert Wagner, Giacomo Nizzolo, Oliver Zaugg (former Leopard riders), Chris Horner, Andreas Klöden, Gregory Rast, Ben King, Matthew Busche, Tiago Machado, Ben Hermans, Jesse Sergent, Yaroslav Popovych, Markel Irizar Haimar Zubeldia (former Radioshack athletes), Tony Gallopin, Laurent Didier, Gianni Meersman and Rudiger Selig (new entries). The leaving Leopards  instead are: Viganò, Wegmann, Klemme, Stamsnijder, Clarke, Lund, Pires, Pedersen, Mortensen, Denifl, O'Grady and Feillu. Nice, isn't it?

Let's now talk about another team: the glorious HTC-Highroad. Gretsch and Degenkolb are off to Skil Shimano (or how else will it be called), whereas the Velits twins, Rabon, Grabsch, Brammeier and Toni Martin have already signed a contract with Omega (something tells me that Omega will be very dangerous in the TTTs :P). Ghyselinck is the only one who's signed a contract with Cofidis, whereas Pinotti and Van Garderen will be teammates at BMC. Goss, Howard and Albasini are off to GreenEdge, whereas Renshaw has betrayed Cavendish in order sprint for Rabobank in 2012. The promising Smukulis is off to Katiusha, whereas Eisel, Pate, Cavendish and Siutsou have all signed a contract for Team Sky.

Good luck to all those riders and also to the ones (Fairly and Lewis) whose future team is still unknown!

After talking about mergers, retiring teams and so on, let's welcome with a loud applause one of the new superteams of the 2012 season: team Green Edge. Said team will have a great roster and so far it has given a contract to: O'Grady (Stuey, I already miss you!), Bobridge, the Meyer brothers, Weening, Langeveld, Gerrans, Mouris, Simon Clarke, Tuft, Cooke, Wilson, Vaitkus, McEwen, Beppu, Albasini, Goss, Keukeleire, Howard, Sulzberger, Lancaster, Davis, Dean, Docker, Kruopis, Meier, Impey, Durdribge and Hepburn. If you still haven't found a team to support in 2012, here's the perfect equipe for you: it has two excellent neo pros (ok, I admit it: I have a crush on Hepburn :P), some great experienced riders (O'Grady, McEwen, Tuft, Cooke), some people who've recently got very important results (Bobridge, the Meyer brothers, te Sanremo winner Goss) and some Classics riders (Weening, Langeveld, Keukeleire). Moreover, there are some fast sprinters (go go Impey!!) and some good all rounders (Albasini, I'm talking about you). The only flaw in this great team? The lack of a GC contender. Still, I think I like it even this way ;)

Last team I'm going to examine tonight, Vacansoleil: this very likeable team has freed Belkov, Mouris, Golas and Van Leijen, but it has given a contract to some important riders like supporters' hero Kenny Van Hummel, the Austrian promise Denifl and the strong Swedish time trialist Larsson. I am soooo looking forward to watching Hoogerland and Van Hummel racing for the same team!!!

So, that's all for tonight - I'm going to talk about the other teams soon, so stay tuned. In the meanwhile, have a great week!