Random post about random randomness: RadioSchleck, Giro d'Italia and more

Good day everyone, dear readers! Exactly one week after the end of the Worlds, miss Fede is blogging again. Unfortunately there isn't much to blog about, apart from the RadioSchleck (nickname by Ania :))-related news. Bruyneel's equipe in fact has just signed Machado and Didier and this makes me wonder once again who is on the 2012 team and who isn't. So here's a little scheme that, hopefully, will help us understand what may happen to our favourite riders in the next few months.

RADIOSHACK:

In her last few posts miss Fede focused her attention just on Team Leopard's riders, whereas she never paid attention to the RS athletes who are losing their jobs. Therefore, here's a little scheme that will help us understand what may happen/has happened/is happening to the riders who have been racing for the Shack in 2011.

2011 roster (28 riders): The riders of the 2011 Radioshack team have beem: Beppu, Bewley, Brajkovic, Busche, Cardoso, Deignan, Hermans, Horner, Hunter, Irizar, King, Kloden, Kwiatowski, Leipheimer, Lequatre, Machado, McCartney, McEwen, Murayev, Oliveira, Paulinho, Popovych, Rast, Rosseler, Rovny, Selander, Sergent and Zubeldia.

Riders who are changing team (12): Many Shack riders decided to find a new team as soon as they found out about the merger with LT. These guys are  Cardoso (off to CajaRural), Brajkovic and Murayev (Astana), Rosseler, McEwen, Hunter and Beppu (GreenEdge), Leipheimer and Kwiatowski (Omega Pharma - Quickstep), Paulinho (Saxo Bank), McCartney and Deignan (Team United Health Care).

Riders who are not changing team (11): So far it seems that the riders who will keep on riding for Bruyneel  are: Horner, Rast, Zubeldia, Kloden, Hermans, Sergent, King, Machado, Busche, Irizar and Oliveira.

'Lost in the merger' riders (5 + 2): Right now, the 'lost in the merger' riders are Bewley, Lequatre, Popovych, Rovny and Selander. Moreover, Gianni Meersman and Toni Gallopin had signed a contract with RS before the merger was done, so that now they still don't know anything about their future.

LEOPARD TREK:

2011 roster (25 riders): Andy and Frank Schleck, O'Grady, Clarke, Denifl, Pires, Feillu, Klemme, Voigt, Wegmann, Cancellara, Wagner, Gerdemann, Stamsnijder, Posthuma, Zaugg, Lund, Fuglsang, Mortensen, Pedersen, Bennati, Viganò, Nizzolo, Rohregger, Monfort.

Changing team (1): As known, Stuart O'Grady has recently signed a contract with GreenEdge.

Riders whose contract is expiring (4): Right after everyone got to know about the merger, Becca said that the riders who had a 1 year contract with him would have been 'let free' (translation from Beccansense: 'be fired') at the end of the 2011 season. According to this statement, the guys who will surely be forced to change team at the end of the season will be Feillu, Pires, Pedersen and Rohregger.

Riders who are not changing team (16 + 1): The cyclists who are sure they'll be racing for Bruyneel in 2012 are los Schlecks, Cancellara, Voigt, Fuglsang and the new entry Laurent Didier.

Apart from these names, nothing is clear about the future of the other LT riders. In fact Radioshack will offer 11 new riders to Mr. Becca's new project, whereas 5 LT riders are 100% sure they'll be racing for Bruyneel next year. As well as these 5 lucky guys (plus Didier), also other 11 LT riders will keep on racing together with the most famous brothers of the peloton. However, now the question is: what are the names of these lucky cyclists? Unfortunately, no one can answer that question yet. Rumours say that Gerdemann and Wegmann were both offered a contract by Katiusha, but they refused the offer. As far as the other riders are concerned, nothing is known.

Riders 'lost in the merger': At the end of the day, the riders who will surely have to find a new team are Feillu, Rohregger, Pedersen and Pires plus other three athletes whose names are still unknown.

So, this is what we can say so far about the Radio Schleck affaire. This post is likely to be updated day after day in the next few weeks, so keep an eye on it.

Talking about the next few weeks: although the weather doesn't show it, autumn has already begun. In 2 weeks time the cycling season is over and, after the pics from Curaçao will be posted throughout the Blogosphere, every single cycling blogger will have to find ideas in order to keep themselves and their readers busy during the off-season. In the meanwhile, Cougar Girl has already had a wonderful idea: take a look at her new post at  http://eisenandy.blogspot.com/2011/10/andy-and-frankie-just-another-day-in.html and you won't be able to stop laughing out loud!

As far as me is concerned, I already have some winter-related ideas, which include a 'Pronounciation post!', perhaps featuring some Russian names - you can't imagine my surprise when I discovered the correct pronounciation of the surname 'Petrov'!!

Anyway, it's still a long way before the end of the cycling season, and I'm sure that interesting news will keep us busy until then. However, in the next 2 weeks don't bother wondering whether the Schleck brothers will take part in the Tour of Lombardy or in other races like that: in fact Andy and Frank have already ended their season which, according to themselves, was another great success. 'Two brothers on the TdF podium, we entered history!!' Two riders wasting so much talent, you've entered history! Ok, apologies for the bitchy moment.

Still talking about 'entering history': the new Giro d'Italia was said to be 'more human' than in the previous editions, but the new race director, Michele Acquarone, said that the penultimate stage will feature the Mortirolo and the Stelvio. Of course, said news was welcomed by a loud 'WTF?!?' from all over the world (and from mr. Jakob Fuglsang in particular :P). Of course, I agree with everyone who thinks that this penultimate stage is way too extreme. People want cycling races, not carnages!!

After writing a completely useless post which may include some big maths mistakes, miss Fede now salutes you and wishes you a good evening: it's time to study a few new Russian words and to get ready for the new academical year, which begins tomorrow. Hasta pronto!