Random post with random news:

Alright, I know. I haven't written anything on this blog for the last 20 days and I haven't even replied to some comments regarding my last post (don't worry, I'm going to do it tomorrow evening). I'm a bad blogger, I know. I hate not updating my blog, but sometimes I just don't have the time to do it. And, if I don't update it for too much time (one week or more), then the thought of all the things I would have liked to talk about scares me and I decide not to update it for another week. It's a horrible thing, really. A horrible thing which reminds me of something that Cavendish once wrote in his book, 'Boy Racer', while talking about his relationship between food and races. In it Mark wrote: 'When I don't win, I eat because food helps me not getting depressed. But if I eat, I get fatter. And if I get fatter, I win even less and ride even slower. And if I ride even slower, I get more depressed. If I get more depressed, I eat even more. And if I eat even more, I ride even slower'. Luckily it seems that Cav has brilliantly got over this problem, especially if you consider that this year he's already achieved 3 victories in less than 2 months of races. Mark's latest victory dates back to today, 26th February 2012. In fact this afternoon the World Champion exploited the great work of his team and grabbed the victory in Kuurne-Bruxelles-Kuurne. I surprisingly managed to watch the last 13 kms of said race, which weren't actually very exciting. Cav triumphed in front of Hutarovich and Van Hummel, whereas Greipel was 10th. André always begins his season in a great way at TDU, but unfortunately he seems unable to achieve important victories as soon as the 'true races' begin. Hopefully this afternoon the German just had bad legs!

Talking about KBK, however, I think the way Cavendish won it was simply impressive. No one could keep his wheel and the world champion won in a great way. Chapeau Mark!

Talking about sprinters, during the Tour of Qatar Tom Boonen got some very good results. Yesterday Tommeke was second in Het Nieuwsblad. The winner of the race was outsprinted by the young Sep Vanmarcke and I was very happy for the Garmin's rider, since he's a young and talented boy who definitely deserved some attention. Look out for him during Tour of Flanders!

Still talking about sprinters, Guardini has recently achieved two victories in the Tour de Langwaki. The Italian sprinter has worked hardly on his climbing skills this summer and hopefully this will help him during Milan-Sanremo. After all, la Classicissima is right behind the corner!

Another Italian sprinter who's been doing pretty well in the last weeks is Elia Viviani. The Liquigas rider is definitely growing on me and I'll probably support him if he decides to ride Milan-Sanremo.

Talking about Liquigas, the Italian team has always kept a special eye on the most interesting U23 riders. We had another proof of that during GP Laigueglia, the first important race of the Italian calendar. This race has an interesting parcours (very similar to Milan Sanremo's one) and this year it was won by Moreno Moser, another cyclist belonging to the famous Moser family. Moreno is a neopro and he was simply shocked by his own victory. In the post-race interview he looked pretty nervous and goofy and this made me like him even more. This young rider won the Laigueglia in great way, with a powerful attack launched with  about 2 kms to go, on the last uphill road of the race. No one could follow him and Moreno got his first professional victory in a wonderful way.

Unfortunately me hasn't been able to follow many races in the last few weeks, especially because university has started again and right now I'm a very busy student. Moreover, last week my History teacher kindly told us that for his exam we have to study 3 books (the shortest one is 432 pages long) and that those who want can take half of the exam already on the 20th of March. Aka, in less than a month time. As soon as I heard about that, the part of my brain that I usually call 'Fangirl' went: 'WTF? Is he crazy? There's no way we're taking that exam next month!', but Logic immediately noticed the advantages of taking a part of that exam in March. In fact, for the March exam I'll have to study just 1 of the three books, and then I'll be able to complete the missing part of the exam in the summer. Instead, if I don't take the exam in March, I'll have to study all those 3 books one after the other. Nice, isn't it?

As well as being busy with History (and with Russian, of course), in the last few days me has solemnly promised to take part in more German lessons, given that in the last few months my knowledge of German has been sinking as fast as the Titanic. As a consequence, every week I now spend 3 hours of my time hearing an old woman talking German and asking us to learn words like 'barrister' or 'long-life imprisonment' or 'river dolphin' in German. As you may imagine, this isn't particularly interesting.

PRONOUNCIATION NOTES:

I know, I know. I promised you a pronounciation post 3 months ago and I still haven't created one. I'm a horrible person. Anyway, here I have two little pronounciation notes for you. First:the word 'Astana', at least here in Italy, is usually pronounced as 'Astana', with the stress on the first 'a'. Still, the other day I discovered that said word is supposed to be pronounced as 'Astanà', a thing that quietly shocked me.

On to another pronounciation news, you probably remember Evgenij Petrov, the Russian rider who won L'Aquila stage of the 2009 Giro. His name is usually pronounced as 'Petrof', but after spending 5 months studying Russian I can finally reveal you that said surname is supposed to be pronounced as 'Pitròf'. Nice, isn't it?

Unfortunately, that's the end of my 'pronounciation notes'. Let's now go on with a few random links.

RANDOM LINKS DU JOUR:

- Italian riders Modolo and Coledan were 'shot at' during a training ride, Cyclingnews says. The riders were training in the area around Scomigo di Conegliano when a man on a grey Alfa fired plastic pellets at them. None of the riders got seriously injured, but this episode makes me sick anyway.

- Still talking about sickening things: tomorrow UCI will decide whether they should cancel Saxo Bank's ProTour license or not. This is another consequence of the delays in Contador's case and it really makes me sick. If Contador had been banned earlier, in fact, Riis would have probably employed other strong riders and rght now the Danish team wouldn't find himself in this situation. Still, Saxo Bank should be able to get a wild card for Tour of Flanders and for Vuelta a Espana.

- Sickening news n. 3: after more than 30 years, the Tour of Basque Countries and the Clasica de San Sebastian could be excluded from the World Tour calendar because of the lack of funding. UCI, listen to me: stop sponsoring absurd races like Tour of Beijing and starts giving funds to those races!!!

- On to a happier news now (at least for me): 20 year-old Arnaud Demare won the final stage of Tour of Qatar after outsprinting Galimzyanov and Renshaw. I really like this French rider and I hope he'll do well also in the next races! Allez Arnaud!

- Schleck news: the youngest of the Schleck brother, Andy, told Cyclingnews that this year he'll focus more than ever on the Tour de France. "(in the last few years) I was focusing on the Classics maybe too much, and I've got to change this year so I'm better at the Tour, especially at the start of the Tour", he told the cycling-dedicated website during his first press conference of the year. Of course this news caused many hysterical laughs amongst Fangirls and cycling lovers in general, since no one wants a guy like Schleck to lose his talent while trying to follow Armstrong's footsteps.

- It was a sunny day back in 1997. With 2 kms to the end of Paris-Roubaix, Tchmill was at the head of the race together with Moncassin. Museeuw, Sorensen, Planckaert and other riders were trying to close the 15" gap that divided them from the breakawayers. With 800 meters to go Tchmill and Moncassin were caught by the poursuivants and a sprint started. Everyone expected Museeuw or Planckaert or Sorensen to win, but in the end the one who raised his hands in Roubaix was Frederic Guesdon, a 26 year-old French rider. Now, 14 years later, Guesdon is still a rider, although he's planning to retire during this year P-R. The problem is that the poor rider broke his leg in TDU. Will he able to get back on his bike by the time the North Classics begin? We hope so.

- Talking about another rider that was injured some time ago, Mauricio Soler has finally been able to take a little bike ride around his home, in Colombia. The Movistar rider was involved in a terrible crash 8 months ago and after that he even had problems breathing, talking and swallowing. Now, things seem to go better for him. "Being able to ride a bike again was one of my big goals, alongside seeing my son again," Mauricio told Cyclingnews. "Cycling is something I really love. Mentally I feel better than ever, and I'm improving further day by day." We're with you man!

Ok, that's all for the moment. Now that the season has officially started, I promise I'll try blogging more often. In the meanwhile, I hope you all enjoyed this chaotic post and I thank those of you who still have the patience to follow this blog after all this time. Have a nice week everyone!

That's a shame.

I'm ashamed, scandalised and most of all disgusted for how Contador's case was handled by UCI and WADA. After more than 18 months of await (during which the Spaniard could quietly keep on racing and winning) in fact WADA's jury finally reached a verdict about the infamous clenbuterol case. And that verdict is: Contador is banned for 2 years. Unfotunately for the credibility of the world of cycling, WADA decided to give Alberto a retrospective ban. This means that the Spaniard will lose all the victories he's achieved since July 2010 and that he won't be able to come back racing before the 5th of August 2012. This also means that the winner of 2010 Tour is now Andy Schleck and that the winner of 2011 Giro is Michele Scarponi.

Now, I actually see some logic in the fact that the Tour 2010 was taken away from Contador (after all, he 'doped' during that race), but in my mind and my eyes the winner of the Giro 2011 will always be the climber from Pinto. His deeds during the 2011 Giro were too good to be forgotten (do you remember his victory on Etna? And the one on Plan de Corones? And the way he controlled the race on Zoncolan, Grossglockner and Macugnaga? I do, and it still gives me goosebumps), but now for UCI it will be as all those victories never took place. In just one day, UCI and WADA have cancelled a part of the recent history of cycling. 

People who'll start following cycling in 2040 (if cycling still exists in 30 years time...) will learn that the 2011 Giro d'Italia was won by Scarponi in front of Nibali and Gadret, but they won't be able to remember Contador's egemony in the competition. Those supporters will learn that Schleck won the 2010 Tour in front of Menchov and Sanchez, but they won't be able to remember the furious battle between the Spaniard and the Russian in order to get on the third step of the podium. Now, two years later, those two riders have both achieved the aim for which they battled so much during that race. Still, Sanchez (just like Schleck) will never have the 2010 award ceremony on Champs Elysées back, whereas Menchov will never have the chance of re-writing his 2011 season. In fact me thinks that, if Denis' second place in the Tour had become official already at the end of 2010, his team would have surely been invited to the 2011 Grande Boucle.

At the same time, Andy Schleck will never be able to know how his career would have unfolded if Contador had been banned immediately after the 2010 Tour. Who knows, perhaps right now Andy wouldn't be so Tour-de-France-centric and perhaps this year he would come to the Giro. Perhaps people (me included) would criticise him less and perhaps he would have won also last year Tour. Actually, this is the thing that annoys me the most about this verdict: even if UCI has the power of deleting a rider's result in a certain race, no one can delete the effects that said rider's presence had on the development of the race itself. Let me explain. 

In Giro 2011, Nibali often tried to drop Contador. Unfortunately the Spaniard was way too strong for the Italian, who often worn himself out because of his useless (even if very brave) attacks. In spite of this, Vincenzo was eventually third on the Milan podium, with about 40 "of delay from Scarponi. However me believes that, if Contador hadn't taken part in the 2011 Giro at all, Nibali would have raced in a much more conservative way and, perhaps, in that circumstance he could have actually won the race in front of Scarponi. 

Let's take another example: Tour de France 2011. During the whole race Andy Schleck was so focused on Contador that he let Evans slip under his radar. And when Contador attacked on le Telegraphé during the Alpe d'Huez stage, Schleck followed him like a shadow; a move that, according to many people, caused the Luxembourgian to lose the race. Now, 6 months later, UCI has deleted Contador's final 5th place in that race. However, who will give Schleck the chance of modifying the final podium of the competion? No one, simply no one.

Another hateful thing about this whole trial, then, is the fact that all these problems were caused by a very small quantity of clebuterol. Actually, said quantity of clenbuterol was so small that people (journalists, supporters, ecc.) weren't even supposed to find out about it. Then a scientist from an anti-doping laboratory made a leak, the press found out about this case and, in less than three days, Steak-Gate began. If WADA had banned Contador as soon as Steak-Gate began, I would have probably agreed with their decision. But banning him retrospectively now, well, this is just ridicolous. Especially because this retrospective ban will be over in just 6 months time, so that Contador will probably be back stronger (and angrier) than ever and won't have to face all the problems that traditional 2 years ban involve (a come back after 2 years in fact involves the search of a new team and of a new sponsor, it can cause a rider to get depressed and it can also cause him problems once he comes back racing, since finding the race rythm again after 2 years of 'rest' isn't easy). Instead, Contador won't have any of these problems. Simply, WADA decided to destroy part of his career in just one day. And, perhaps, that's even more painful, especially because I'm sure that Alberto's recent victories were clean ones.

Unfortunately, as usual, we supporters can't do anything against this injustice. UCI is said to work for improving cycling, but so far it is doing the opposite. This verdict is simply ridicolous and I really don't know how Alberto mus feel right now. To me it seems that WADA didn't care about banning a rider because he doped, to me it seems that WADA tried to destroy a man by deleting all his recent, most important victories. And that's something I can't stand. The cycling politicians have disappointed us once again. And this makes me feel sick. Hopefully when Contador comes back racing in August he'll be able to get many, wonderful victories that will be remembered forever and ever. That's all I hope right now.

Sorry for the confused post, but I needed to get this off my chest.

Random Post about Random Things:

Ladies and gentlemen, the last two weeks have been full of interesting things, both in the world of cycling and in my offline life. For example, me passed her IT exam and her Russian exam and had to face two earthquakes in three days, whereas Contador got two victories and Basso got married. Anyway, let's go in order.

Let's start this post by talking about the uninteresting thing: me. Last Thursday, at 9.06 am, I was woken up by the noise produced by my bedroom door, which was shaking. At first I thought my cat was trying to open it, but then I realised that also my bed was shaking, therefore I understood that my cat had nothing to do with what was going on. Here's the faithful reproduction of what went through my mind during those seconds: 'Uhm, the bed is shaking, as well as the door, so I suppose we're having an earthquake. Shall I get up and find shelter under my table desk? Naah, this earthquake doesn't seem so dangerous right now. If it gets more violent, I'll get under that table. Otherwise, I'll just stay here. Geez, stupid earthquake, you're not allowing me to sleep as long as I'd like to!!' Yes, these were my thoughts during those 10 seconds - and yes, I'm much better than Joyce at using the 'streams of consciousness' technique.

About 48 hours later, however, we had our 'Earthquake, take 2' special show. I had just come home after my IT exam and, while walking down the corridor in my house, I heard that the door of the shower was shaking. Still, the lights in the bathroom were off. So I screamed to my sister: 'Hey, what are you doing in the bathroom?' Surprisingly, my sister appeared behind me and told me: 'I'm not in the bathroom'. Less than a second later, she screamed: 'What the f**k?', whereas my mum yelled: 'Earthquake'  and I went: 'Geez, again!'. Luckily this earthquake didn't last long and didn't cause damages either. As soon as it ended, sister said she wished the earthquake had destroyed her school, whereas I started laughing while thinking about my poor best friend, who was facing her IT exam in that very same moment. In the evening I phoned her and she told me that taking that exam 'was a weird experience. The computer screen started shaking, just like the lights and the windows. Still, I remained calm and kept on doing the exercises. We had just 30 minutes to do them all and I wasn't going to fail the exam just because of a stupid earthquake'. Nice way to see things, isn't it?

However. Whereas last week was the 'earthquake festival' here in the North of Italy, this week instead has been a true 'snow festival' in the whole country. The funny thing is that the schools here in Bergamo didn't close, because 'the roads inside and outside the city are perfectly clean, so there's no danger for the students who must take the bus to get to their schools. The only dangerous area is the one around **** (aka miss Fede's village), since the main road there is already covered in ice '. How. Lucky. However, luckily in these days I don't have to go to university, so right now I'm enjoying the Christmas atmosphere, drinking a lot of hot chocolate and hoping that the roads in the Upper City won't be covered in ice when university starts again. The Upper City of Bergamo in fact is full of uphill and downhill little roads, which can become extremely slippery when it rains. Considering this fact, I really don't want to think about how slippery the roads there can get when they're covered in ice.

Anyway, enough about me: let's now talk cycling. I have many different things to tell you about, so let's start immediately.

First of all: the 27th of January was the 'Memory day', aka the day of the year dedicated to the memory of the poor people who died in the Nazist lagers during World War II. Perhaps you don't know it, but one of the people who saved the lives of many Jewish during the war was a cyclist, a certain Gino Bartali. Between 1943 and 1944 in fact the Italian cyclist rode his bike from Florence to Assisi (380 kms) on about 40 occasions. During those 'trainings' he wore a jersey with his name on it, so that people  could recognise him. Even the German soldiers would  recognise him and they often stopped him in order to ask him some cycling-related questions. Bartali used to answer and, then, he continued his long journeys. Luckily no one ever controlled his bike, since the TdF winner used to hide false identity cards and false passports under its saddle and inside the handlebars. Then, when he reached Assisi, Bartali gave the false identity cards to the nuns of a local convent, which took them to Jewish people who, thanks to those false IDs, could safely travel to the South of Italy, which at the time was already controlled by the Allies. Thanks to Bartali's journeys, about 800 people could be saved. As well as travelling to Assisi, Bartali often travelled also to Genova, where an international fund raising organisation used to give him some money for the Jewish Community of Florence. Moreover, when the Nazists first reached Florence, Bartali hid 4 Jewish people inside his house. A true hero, on and off the bike, that's for sure (read more here ).

After telling you this story, which I considered very important, let's start talking about Tour de San Luis, cyclo-cross and more.

First of all: the cyclo-cross World Championships in Koksijde. I could watch just the recaps of the race, so I can't describe you how it actually unfolded. Still, I know who the winners of the different categories were. The Junior Men Race was won by Mathieu Van der Poel (Netherlands) in front of Wout van Aert (Belgium) and Quentin Jauregui. The winner, Van Der Poel, comes from a very special family: his father Adrie in fact was cyclo-cross World champion sixteen years ago, whereas the father of his mother is (fasten your seatbelts) Raymond Poulidor.

The women race was won by Marianne Vos (what a surprise...), who ruled the race and crossed the finish-line 37" earlier than her teammate Van Den Brand and than the Belgian Cant.

During the men competition the Belgians eventually took revenge on the Dutches and took the first 7th positions in the race. The winner was Albert, second (with a delay of 24") was Peeters, third was Pauwels. First non-Belgian rider was Czech Radomir Simunek, 8th.

On to the Tour de San Luis, the first stage was won by Francesco Chicchi. The Italian sprinter was considered one of the possible Italian leaders for the Copenhagen Worlds, but last year he had a very disappointing season and didn't win any race. Luckily, this seems a much better year for the Omega Pharma rider, who outsprinted JJ Haedo and Richeze. While talking about the 1st stage of Tour de San Luis, a special mention goes to the hail and the rain that caused the riders to pull to the side of the road and seek shelter from the storm.

Also the second stage of the race was won by Francesco Chicchi. This time the Italian outsprinted his teammate Boonen and Jake Keough. "I was supposed to help Boonen's sprint in the end, seeing as that was what we had decided during the morning meeting," Chicchi told Cyclingnews. "I started the sprint with Jimmy Casper and Tom right on my wheel. About 300 meters from the finish line I looked behind me and I didn't see Tom anymore". Tommeke added: "With one kilometre to go I thought I'd lost the sprint. There was a little incident and I lost maybe 10 or 15 spots and Chicchi didn't see me. I came back to the front on Casper's wheel, then I was on Chicchi's wheel. He started the sprint, then I started my sprint, and in the last 50 metres we saw each other side-by-side. We both put our hands up, none of us jumped, and it was nice".

The third stage of the race had some climbs on its menu and its final winner was Alberto Contador, who outsprinted Leipheimer in order to get the victory on the top of Mirador del Potrero. Tour de San Luis' organisers had done their best to secure Alberto's presence in their race and the Spaniard paid him back in a great way.

Vincenzo Nibali, who finished in the top 10, was pretty angry after that stage. 'Contador says he has 7.5 kgs of extra weight to lose and that he's just started training, Leipheimer says he's just started training too. Am I the only fool who starts training hard already in the middle of the winter and then gets these results?', he asked a Gazzetta's journalist.

The 4th stage was a 19.5 kms long TT, which was won by Leipheimer. Second in the race was Nibali, 3rd was Stefan 'the doper' Schumacher. I usually give a second chance to every rider (Riccò included), but please don't ask me to do the same with Schumacher. Before being banned in 2008 in fact he had already resulted positive to the anti-doping at least twice, but on both these occasions he said that diarrhea had altered his blood-results and, surprisingly, judges believed him. I've always thought that this was simply ridicolous and, when Schumacher was eventually banned, I actually considered it a great relief. Now he's back, and I'm not happy about it. However.

On the following day the riders had to climb up to Mirador del Sol and Alberto Contador won once again. This time he outsprinted local rider Daniel Diaz and Leipheimer. Watching Leipheimer and Contador (who're both targeting the Tour) racing so well, so early in the season, me would like to compare them to some other riders I know way too well. Still, I know that that comparison would just make me angry, so I'll leave it to you, my dear readers. Alright, I know that right now Conti wants to show he doesn't need Spanish steaks to win races, but I think that the fact that both he and Leipheimer are already on such a good form is pretty impressive. Anyway.

The 5th stage of the race was won by Elia Viviani, who outpsrinted JJ Haedo and Guardini. Italy has a lot of faith in these two young sprinters, which are both very talented and have already achieved many victories. Actually, Gazzetta adores them so much that it can't stop praising them. Let's hope this won't put too much pressure on their shoulders!

The last stage of the race was won by Tom Boonen, who's determined to do well during this season. In an interview to la Gazzetta' the Belgian also said that he's just gone back living in Belgium. 'Lore (his girlfriend) told me she wanted to work in Belgium', Tommeke told the Italian newspaper, 'so we decided to move back there. If bad weather creates me problem, I'll simply go training in Spain'.

Second in the stage was Guardini, third was Richeze. Boonen's teammate Leipheimer won the GC ahead of Contador and Daniel Diaz.

Let's now talk about three little random news, just like I often do on this blog. First of all, Ivan Basso has recently married his wife Micaela with a religious ceremony (the couple had had his civil marriage already 11 years - and 3 sons - ago). The ceremony was very simple and it was attended by a few selected guests. Basso told a Varese newspaper that marrying Micaela 11 years ago was his biggest victory (*chorus of 'how sweet!!!' from all over the world*).

Second news, some of you may already know that Cadel Evans and his wife Chiara have recently adopted Robben, a little African boy. Talking to 'la Gazzetta' about this choice, Evans has said: 'Now everything is different. After training I don't stop for a cappuccino anymore, because I know that Robben is home with Chiara, waiting for me'. How sweet!

After this sweetness-immersion, something funny: Katusha's General Manager Hans-Michael Holczer has promised that, if Menchov wins the Tour de France, he'll walk all the way from Paris to Moscow (source: Cyclingnews). Perhaps I could join him, couldn't I? :P

Last but not least, a sad news: last week Mino Baracchi, creator of the 'Trofeo Baracchi', passed away in his hometown, Bergamo. The Trofeo Baracchi originally was an individual time trial race for amateurs, but from 1949 it became a two person team time trial race and it was open also to professionals. The last edition of the race was ran in 1991 and it was won by Toni Rominger. Amongst the champions who won this special race there were Fignon, Saronni, Moser, Hinault, Maertens, Gimondi, Petterson, Ocana, Mercx, Anquetil, Stablinsky, Motta, Baldini, Coppi, Magni and Defilippis. The race was Fausto Coppi and Eddy Mercx's last one and was won by Moser 5 times.