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!