Tour de France's first week and more:

Alright, dear readers. I'm finally exam-free for the first time in two months, so I've been able to find a few minutes to update this little blog of mine. Before starting talking about the TdF, however, there are a few things I'd like to say.

First of all, I want to tell you that I won't publish any other post with my insights of the Giro. I'm very sorry about it, but in cycling there's a time for everything, and July is definitely the Tour time and not the Giro time. However, I hope I'll be able to write a post about me attending the Milan final stage soon.

Secondly, thanks to everyone who wished me good luck for my exams and asked me how they went. I received very good marks during them and, to say the truth, I'm actually  very proud of this :P

Thirdly, a big thanks to those who've kept on checking this blog even in the long days of silence between Andy Schleck's injury and today. Talking about this silence, I want to be honest with you and tell you how I feel about this blog. A few years ago, when I created it, I used to spend a lot of time working on it. It was a way to express myself, to talk about something I loved, to meet new amazing people. Still, this year things have changed as I don't have so much time for updating it anymore. I realised this already during the winter, when I also noticed that I didn't have the time to read other people's blogs either (and this really pissed me off, because part of the fun in blogging consists in reading others' blogs, leaving comments and having some very good laughs all together). However, I thought things would get better after the beginning of the cycling season. Unfortunately, the season began, but I didn't have enough free time for my blog anyway. As a consequence, in the last few weeks (in particular during the month of May) I even thought about putting the word 'end' to this webpage. During the exam period, in fact, I almost didn't have the time to watch the Giro, let alone writing about it on a blog lost in the Internet. During the stages I often noticed funny things about riders or about the race, and every day I would tell myself: 'Oh miss Fede, you must write about this, it's so funny!'. Still, I soon realised that Miss Fede (aka the blogging part of me) in those days wasn't very active. I would arrive at the end of the day with my head full of notions about syntax, Russian grammar, German ways of starting a formal letter and years and facts to remember for my history exam. In those evenings, I simply didn't have the time - or, worse, the will - to update this blog at all. So the days would go by, together with the stages, and before I could tell the Giro was over and I hadn't written a word about it. It wasn't nice, believe me. Especially because before creating this blog I used to write little comments about races on my personal diary, whereas in those busy days I couldn't update that diary either. 

Now, finally, those days are gone and I have more free time. Therefore, I'm back having fun with this webpage. However, I know that this period of calm won't last long, as I soon have to start studying for my next exam. That's why, dear readers, I've decided to tell you about how I feel about this blog. I love blogging and I don't want to give it up. Still, I want you to know that I'm sorry about not being able to update this blog more often and I want you to know that it's because of all these reasons that I can't keep my blog as updated as earlier. Moreover, from now my posts will probably be a bit shorter than usual.

Alright, after making these 3 things clear, we can start talking about the Tour. As far as the prologue is concerned, I saw just the last few riders racing because, surprise surprise, on that day I was studying like mad for my history exam (I made a big timing mistake with it , so that with just 3 days to go I still had lots of pages to study). Still, these were Logic's predictions right after the first stage of the Grande Boucle:
1. if things go on like this, Frank Schleck arrives in Paris with a 8 minutes delay
2. if things go on like this, Voeckler will become the most broadcasted face of the peloton of all times.
3. if things go on like this, this year Menchov gets on the podium.
4. if things go on like this, Cancellara can seriously enter the top 25 of the race.
5. if I go on like this, I'll pass my history exam next July.
The stage was won by Cancellara in front of Wiggins and a surprising Chavanel. Sagan risked to crash andafter the stage he was very angry with himself .

On the following day, la Grande Boucle faced a stage with a slightly uphill finale. The finale was extremely exciting and Sagan got an amazing victory in front of Cancellara. The Liquigas rider never took turns at the head of the race in the last 100 meters of the stage, leaving all the work to the yellow jersey. Sagan apologised for that right after the finish-line, whereas Fabian joked about it by saying that Peter owed him a good bottle of wine.

From the sportive point of view, Sunday was an important day for Italians, because our football team was competing against Spain in the finale of the European Championship. Interviewed about it by Italian tv, Samuel Sanchez said that we Italians were the favourite for the victory. Eventually, the final score of the game was 4 to 0 for Spain. Samu, I love you.

As for Sagan's strange way of rejoicing after the finish-line, at first Italian tv said he wanted to imitate Balotelli. Then the news arrived that Peter had tried imitating a chicken :P

Stage 3 was won by an amazing Cavendish, who outsprinted André 'Gorilla' Greipel. The two were big rivals when they rode for Columbia, but until this JulyCavendish had always seemed much stronger than the German. Still, Mark won the third stage of the race in a very narrow way, after that his team hadn't managed to create a good lead-out train. Lead-out train that, on the other hand, Lotto-Belisol formed in a perfect way. Still, the world champion managed to win the stage in a very classy style and in spite of the lack of a good lead-out train.

As for the 4th stage, it ended on a little climb. Too bad that before that little climb there was a little roundabout and poor Chavanel, who had attacked with about 4 kms to go, took the wrong road and lost all the time he had gained on the peloton. Also Valverde took the wrong road at the roundabout, whereas an unidentified Vacansoleil rider took the wrong road in the final sprint. Final sprint which, surprise surprise, was won by an amazing Peter Sagan, who this time rejoiced in 'Forrest Gump' style.
Two riders, Siutsou and Rojas, retired after a big crash. In particular, the Spaniard ended up in barbed wire, Johnny Hoogerland style. As for other crashes, I remind you all that Toni Martin, after all the bad luck he had in the first part of the year, is racing the Tour in spite of a broken scaphoid bone. Allez Toni!

The 5th stage of the Tour ended in Rouen, a very beautiful city. There was a big crash with 2.5 kms to go, which involved guys like Cavendish, Oss, Farrar and Eisel. Sagan miracoulously (is this a word? :P) managed to avoid the crash, just like a few other riders. Lotto Belisol organised a very good lead-out train and André Greipel won in an amazing way. The German proved to be to strong for Petacchi and Veelers, who rounded out the podium of the stage. After the finish-line, Petacchi said that he doesn't usually take risks anymore during the sprints, but that during the Tour he usually abandons his self-control because he knows that the French race is the biggest competition of the world. As for Veelers, he was a very good 3rd, especially if you consider that his team's official sprinter was Marcel Kittel, who's recently withdrawn from the race because of gastroenteritis.

As for the 2.5 kms to go crash, Nibali was involved in it too, although he didn't hit the ground. Still, he said he was pretty scared by it, because he didn't know whether he had already passed the '3 kms to go' banner or not.

Still talking about the crash, on Twitter I've read a funny comment about it (sorry, but I can't remember who wrote it). Eisel and Cavendish are pretty well known in the peloton because, every time someone causes a crash, they usually complain about it. Still, it looks like Wednesday's crash was caused by Eisel himself. In spite of this, as soon as he hit the asphalt the Austrian asked who the hell had caused the crash and this caused Tyler Farrar to reply by saying something that sounded a bit like: 'F***, it was you Bernie!' Luckily none of the riders retired because of this crash.

On the following day, another crash with about 2 kms to go influenced the outcome of the race. That crash happened in a very strange way and annoyed many riders (after the stage Paolini had very angry words for the 'young riders who have no respect at all and can't ride properly').

As far as I'm concerned, I saw Tyler Farrar (who was riding at the centre of the road, next to an Argos-Shimano rider) suddenly going down with his bike while moving towards his right. Here's what I first thought about the crash: 'Tyler must have touched wheels with the riders in front of him (Petacchi, who later said that he had felt someone touching his rear wheel right before the crash) and then he went down'. However, here's what happened after the stage: Tyler Farrar crossed the finish-line with about 4 minutes of delay from the winner and with his arm and leg bleeding. As soon as he arrived at his team bus, he put his bike against the bus and immediately started walking towards the Argos-Shimano bus in a very frightening way. After understanding what was going on in Tyler's head, one of his teammates immediately ran behind him and tried to stop him, whereas another (shirtless) Garmin rider suddenly popped out from his team bus and ran behind Tyler too. In the meanwhile the American had reached Argos's bus and was trying to get on it, but luckily his teammates calmed him down and successfully brought him back to the base before he hurt someone. The funny thing is that while this was happening Ryder Hesjedal was riding his hometrainer outside Garmin bus (that's a very strange habit he has) and started staring at the scene with a very shocked face - nevertheless, he never stopped pedalling. However, you're probably asking yourselves: 'why are you telling us about this?' Well, dear readers,  I've told you about this episode to let you know that, although it looked as if Farrar had caused the crash, an Argos rider probably had a part in it too.

Still talking about the crash, here's something a bit 'funnier'. Peter Sagan, after avoiding two bikes, eventually crashed too and, right after the finish-line, was interviewed by Italian tv. When the journalist asked him what he was doing, he said that he had hurt his elbow and also his 'culo', but that there was nothing serious. Now, that Italian word written above is a bit like 'bum' or 'arse', in English. Still, Peter said it in such a serious and innocent way that my dad and I couldn't help but laughing like mads when he said that (although I must admit we both had a 2 seconds: 'has he really said what I heard?' moment before bursting into laughs).

As for the victory of the stage, the final sprint was won by André Greipel, who outsprinted both Goss and JJ Haedo. The poor breakawayers du jour (Ghiselynck, Ladagnous, Simon and Urtasun) were caught with just 300 meters to go. Surprise surprise, Cavendish came in 5th and this made some journalists say that Mark may retire from the French race soon in order get ready for the Olympic Games.

And here we finally arrive to yesterday's carnage, sorry, stage. Once again, the thrilling moment of the day was caused by another crash, which involved some very important riders and has already destroyed the GC projects of many athetes. I think it's disgusting to see boys who prepare a race like the Tour for months and months lose every chance of getting good results in the race just because of a stupid crash in the first week and I think it's even worse to see other riders (not necessarily champions, but boys who have families and personal goals about the race) being forced to go home because of the same reason. Yesterday's crash was due to a distraction, alright, but if the organisers inserted an uphill finish in the middle of the first week, then I'm sure that we wouldn't have so many crashes every year.

So, the big moment of the day arrived with 25 kms to go, after that another crash had already brought down Greipel and other riders. At that point of the race, all of a sudden, French tv showed us a big pile of riders in the middle of a country road. Poor Viganò was lying in a ditch, together with Danielson and Poels. According to some recent reports, also Van Summeren was lying somewhere, consciousless. Most of the riders however were standing, but they were injured or were getting crazy while looking for their bikes. Also Cavendish was involved in the crash and that's why those lovely GreenEdge guys who had survived the crash decided to go full gas in order to cut the world champion out of the game. Also guys like Evans, Wiggins, Nibali and Menchov were in the first part of the peloton, the one that survived the crash. About 60 riders reached the finish-line together and the final sprint was won by Sagan in front of an injured Greipel. This time Sagan rejoiced in the 'Incredible Hulk' style, although some journalists tried creating a scandal by saying that he wanted to imitate a gorilla in order to make fun of Greipel (I was lost for words when I heard that).

However, let's go back to the 25 kms to go crash. Michele Scarponi and Schleck both lost their bikes during it and both crossed the finish-line with 2'09'' of delay. Schleck wasn't helped by any of his teammates after the fall and this really annoyed. I mean, what game are Radioshack ds playing at? If they don't want to help Frank winning this race, why did they leave Fuglsang at home? Really, this attitude terribly annoys me. And do you want to know what Radioshack guys said in their defense? That Frank Schleck was riding in a group formed by about 30 riders and, since also these other riders were pulling, there was no need to send Frank a helper. Now, are you kidding me? Alright, in Schleck's group there were about 30 riders, but the only ones who were taking turns at the front were Cobo (Valverde's teammate), Brajkovic (Astana's captain, first man of the Khazakh team to cross the finish-line), Gauthier (Rolland's teammate), Mollema and Schleck himself. Schleck who, I remind you, races for Radioshack, aka a team that had lots of men (Voigt, Zubeldia, Gallopin, Monfort, Cancellara and Kloeden) in the main peloton. Alright, I know that Kloden is a protected rider and that Fabian had the yellow jersey, but I don't think Voigt and Gallopin would have complained if their ds had stopped them. 

However. Amongst the riders who were in the 2'09" group together with Schleck there were also interesting GC guys like Brajkovic, Rolland, Pinot, Mollema, Vanendert, Valverde and Cobo. Kasheckin, Cavendish, Weening, Hoogerland, Voeckler, LL Sanchez instead crossed the finish-line with 6 minutes of delay, whereas Larsson arrived 10 minutes after the winner. Kessiakof, Kiserlovski, Vinokourov, B. Feillu, Westra, Karpets, Porte, Vandevelde, D. Martin, Hesjedal instead reached the finish-line after 13 minutes. Last rider to end the stage under a deluge was Vansummeren, who arrived covered in blood and with his jersey completely ripped down. Kruijswijk and Gesink arrived with 3 minutes of delay, whereas Astarloza, Viganò, Danielson and Poels had to retire. These riders' injuries were very serious. In particular, Poels is reported to have suffered a ruptured spleen and kidney, bruised lungs and three broken ribs, whereas Viganò broke his collarbone and Astarloza his right elbow. As for Danielson, I've found reports about a separated shoulder and some cervical problems.

Today's stage began with other bad news caused by yesterday's crash. Poor Ryder Hesjedal retired with a bruised hip and an injured leg, Hunter injured a vertebrae, Txurruka fractured his right collarbone, Wynants broke some rib and had a punctured lung, Erviti had a deep cut on his right leg, just like Gutierrez (who cut his knee in a serious way). Freire broke a rib and had his lung punctured, whereas poor Dupont broke his arm and his lombar vertebrae and sprained his ankle. Froehlinger started the stage in spite of a broken finger and managed to finish it, whereas Delaplace (who yesterday suffered a broken scaphoid and a broken arm) had to withdraw during today's stage. Of course, I wish all these riders a fast recovery.

The development of today's stage was obviously influenced by the injuries that many riders suffered yesterday. Before the stage, Samuel Sanchez and Ivan Basso predicted that nothing was going to happen on Planche des Belles Filles but, as we'll see, they were both completely wrong. As for the name of today's last climb, the area of today's stage was invaded by the Swedish army during the 30 years way (1618-1648). The soldiers killed all of the men in the valley and, when they reached the village at the bottom of the hill that nowadays is known as 'Planche des Belles Filles', the women of that village decided to climb up the hill and hide there. Still, the Swedish discovered their shelter and the women drowned themselves in the lake at the top of the climb because they didn't want to be tortured and killed by the soldiers. Happy story, isn't it?

As for the stage, some brave riders (amongst them there was also Chris Anker Sorensen) went on a breakaway, but were caught by the peloton at the beginning of the last climb. And that's when the problems began for many riders. Peter Sagan had already slowed down a few kms before the climb, just like Cavendish. Poor Valverde and Van Den Broeck punctured after a few meters into the climb and Alejandro had a 2'19" delay, whereas Jurgen lost 1'52". One of the first riders to lose contact was Vinokourov, soon followed by Kiserlovski, Basso, Scarponi and Gesink. Also Cancellara soon got dropped and was soon imitated by his fellow Frank Schleck. Schleck seemed to have a deep moment of crisis (once again, he was left completely alone), but then he found a very good rythm and managed to limit his time loss. Also Vanendert, Pinot, Rolland, Voeckler, Mollema and Horner soon lost contact together with Radioshack's second captain Kloeden. Then also Samu Sanchez and Daniel Martin lost contact and soon just 6 riders remained at the head of the race: they were Chris Froome (this afternoon Sky did a perfect work for Wiggo), Wiggins, Evans, Menchov (yay!), Nibali and Taaramae. Soon however this latter rider got dropped and, with about 2 kms to go, also Menchov suffered this fate. The last 400 meters of the climb were said to be the toughest and Evans launched an attack right there. The other riders followed him and, all of a sudden, Froome launched another terrible attack. No one could follow him and, as Chris raised his arms in triumph, Evans and Wiggins managed to drop Nibali (who eventually had a 7" delay from the winner). 4th was Taaramae (delay of 19"), 6th Zubeldia (44"), 7th Rolland, 8th Brajkovic (they both had a 46" delay from the winner), 9th was Menchov (50", ouch!), 10th Monfort (56"). 11th was a very good Roche, 12th Frank Schleck (1'09"), 13th Porte, 14th Rogers, 15th Pinot, 16th Sanchez (1'31"), 17th D. Martin, 18th Izagirre, 19th Galoppin, 20th an exceptional Fabian Cancellara, who crossed the finish-line together with Vanendert and Van Den Broeck (1'51"). KIoeden, Horner, Mollema and Valverde lost 2', Gesink lost about 2'50", Leipheimer lost 3', Kruijswijk lost about 4'. Sagan quietly crossed the finish-line in 120th with a 12' delay. Still, he had the time to joke with another rider while crossing the finish-line. The last three riders to cross the finish-line were Verdugo, Farrar and Vansummeren, who all suffered bad injuries in the last few days. Therefore, chapeau to them.

So, this stage shows us a terrible GC: Wiggins is the new yellow jersey and has the strongest team (Rogers, Porte, Froome all did an amazing work and are also very well placed in the GC). Evans is second, Nibali 3rd, Menchov 5th with a 54" delay, Frank Schleck already has a 3' delay and is 26th in the GC. One thing is sure: defeating Sky will be very hard this year.