Tour de France: silly remarks and stage reports

I know, ladies and gentlemen, the Tour started over a week ago and I still haven't written anything about it. However here I am, ready to keep my promise and delight you with my silly remarks about the competition.

So, let's start talking about the first stage of the race. Said stage wasn't won by Cavendish, and that's already a news. Second news: at the grande depart du Tour (and also on the following days) the weather was sunny - a great thing for the poor riders who had to take part in this year Giro too. Third news: yes, Corsica looks really wonderful. Btw, let's talk about what happened during the stage. The first breakawayers of the 100th Tour de France (what a honour!) were Jerome Cousin (Europcar), Juan José Lobato (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Lars Boom (Belkin), Juan Antonio Flecha (Vacansoleil-DCM) and Cyril Lemoine (Sojasun). Unfortunately, these brave riders were caught with about 40 kms to go.

Everyone knows that cycling is an unpredictable sport - as well as that, cycling can also be pretty weird. An example? Just imagine that your team bus gets stuck under the finish banner, when the riders are facing the last 10 kms of the race. Weird, isn't it? Well, that's what happened exactly a week ago to the Orica GreenEdge bus. Luckily the bus driver and the TdF staff managed to solve the problem before the arrival of the athletes.

Another thing about cycling that everyone knows is that the first week of the Tour is usually full of crashes - and this year's first week, unfortunately, was no exception. One of the first riders to hit the deck was Johnny Hoogerland, who fortunately managed to keep on racing. Oh, and talking about Johnny: he's the new Dutch champion, isn't that great?

Unfortunately also Ryder Hesjedal crashed during the first stage. Actually, the Canadian champion is still riding in spite of a broken rib. Unbelievable, isn't it?

Still talking about crashes, the biggest bunch crash of the first stage took place with a few kms to go and involved Mark Cavendish, Peter Sagan and Alberto Contador. It was a very scary crash, especially for the supporters who were at the side of the road and risked to be run over by the riders. Luckily Cavendish, Sagan and Contador didn't get hurt.

As the few riders who survived the crash were ready to face the final sprint, poor Greipel punctured and couldn't take part in the fight for the first victory. Victory that went to Marcel Kittel, who outsprinted  Kristoff and the 19-year-old (yes, I'm feeling old too) Danny van Poppel.

Talking about the first stage, a few silly remarks. Firstly, Cavendish, Sagan and Greipel have won the national championships in their home countries. Isn't it cute? Secondly, I'm moving to Germany in 2 months time and since last Saturday, every time I feel scared about this, I think about Kittel's eyes and about his way of speaking English. Something tells me that I may get used to blue-eyed German boys who speak a very good and understandable English!

The second stage was very thrilling too. Lars Boom broke free from the peloton again, but he didn't have a lot of luck and was recaught with many kms to go. The stage featured a few climbs and this had bad consequences for Marcel Kittel, who lost contact from the main peloton with about 75 kms to go. Also Toni Martin lost contact. Poor Toni crashed hard during the first stage and is still riding in spite of some awful bruises - chapeau!

On the last climb there was an attack by Gautier, who was followed by Chris Froome. Impressing your rivals? You're doing it right, Chris.

With about 9 kms to go Gautier was caught, but other riders (Bakelants, Fuglsang, Izagirre, Mori, Chavanel and Flecha) broke clear from the peloton. With 2 kms to go, it looked like the breakaway riders had no chance of winning, but Bakelants attacked once again and managed to win the stage by crossing the finish-line one second before Peter Sagan. And Bakelants didn't only win the stage, he also got the yellow jersey :)  I was very happy for Jan's victory, since he is a rider who always attacks and always tries to get good results. Moreover, this was the first professional victory for the 27 year-old Belgian rider, who turned pro 5 years ago. Last but not least, the boy has also had to undergo an operation on his knee this year and I think that this makes his victory even more special. After all the bad luck he had so far (just think about his crash in the Giro stage to L'Aquila back in 2010), the boy fully deserved an amazing victory like this. Chapeau!

The third stage saw a head-to-head fight for the victory, starring Simon Gerrans and Peter Sagan. In the end the first place went to the Australian.

After the first three stages, the peloton said 'adieu' to Corsica and moved to Nice for a team time trial. Orica GreenEdge got a wonderful victory by riding 1 (one!) second faster than Omega Pharma guys. Third in the stage were the Sky guys, 4th was a very good team Saxo-Tinkoff (I was writing 'Saxo Bank'... ah sweet memories! :P). The yellow stage changed owner and ended up on Gerrans' shoulders.

The 5th stage brought the riders to Marseille. With about 13 kms to go there was a bad crash and poor Christian Vandevelde was involved in it together with many other riders. This was Christian's last Tour and he had to retire because of this crash. I think that this was very sad, because Vande Velde has always been a good GC rider and, if he hadn't been that unlucky, I think that during his cycling career he would have achieved many great results.

The stage was eventually won by Mark Cavendish, who outsprinted Boasson Hagen, Sagan and Greipel and got his 24th victory in the Tour.

The 6th stage ended in Montpellier. Jurgen Van Den Broeck didn't start it, just like Maxim Bouet. With 30 kms to go Mark Cavendish crashed and had to spend a lot of energy in order to go back in the peloton. With 10 kms to go instead bad luck hit Janez Brajkovic, who crashed and hurt his knee.

The final sprint was controlled by Lotto-Belisol and André Greipel repaid his teammates with a great victory. Second was (once again) Peter Sagan, whereas Marcel Kittel came in 3rd. The yellow jersey instead went to Daryl Impey and this made me very happy. Impey has been the first African rider to wear the maillot jaune and I think this was very nice, especially because of the hard time that Daryl had a few years ago, after his horrible crash in the last stage of the 2009 Tour of Turkey. If you want to know what happened during that stage, take a look at this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4d1EXmSp4D4 . Horrible, isn't it? Luckily Daryl managed to get over his injuries and has become the first African rider to wear the yellow jersey. Chapeau!

The 7th stage ended in Albi, which imo is a really gorgeous town. Brajkovic, Vande Velde and Malori all retired because of the crashes in which they were involved in the previous stages.

The parcours featured some climbs and Cannondale riders took advantage of this in order to drop Peter Sagan's main rivals. Cavendish, Greipel, Kittel, Van Poppel and many others crossed the finish-line with more than 14 minutes of delay, whereas Peter Sagan could finally get his first victory in this Tour. Second was Degenkolb, third was Bennati.

Talking about Sagan, you probably expect me to say something about his moustache... Well, I think they make him look more mature - and much hotter :P Fangirl approves!
And so we arrive to today's stage, which imo was simply depressing. I hated last year Tour because it was very boring and I'm afraid that also this year the race will be completely ruled by the Sky guys - first Froome, second Porte. And you know what? Next year Richie Porte will be the winner, whereas Henao will be the runner-up. What.a.bore.

Don't get me wrong - Chris Froome fully deserved this victory and Richie Porte was simply amazing. But this looks like the remake of the 2012 Tour, aka one of the most boring things I've ever seen. At least when Contador killed the 2009 Giro on Etna, the second rider to cross the finish-line wasn't a teammate of the Spaniard :P

The tempo that the Sky guys set on the Ax 3 Domains climb was simply terrible. One after the other, all the GC riders were dropped. Eventually, Valverde came in 3rd after a good performance - still, he crossed the finish-line with 1 minute and 8 seconds of delay. 4th was a very good Mollema, 5th was Ten Dam. Ten Dam over the last few years has become a very strong GC rider and I think that this year he may fight for a placement in the Tour top 5. As for Mollema, he's one of the promises of the Dutch cycling and I think that today, perhaps for the first time in his career, he's really showed all his talent. 6th was a good Nieve, who crossed the finish-line with 1' 34" of delay.

One of the main favourites for the final victory, Contador, crossed the finish-line in 8th, with a delay of 1' 45". Contador was helped by his teammate Kreuziger and crossed the finish-line with Anton, Quintana and the Liége winner. Kreuziger looked very strong this afternoon and hopefully he'll show us some good things also during the next stages. Quintana impressed me a lot as well: he's very young, but also very strong - and he can also ride downhill (which isn't that obvious for a Colombian rider :P)!

Rodriguez, who this year has focused just on the TdF, had 2'06" of delay. Rui Costa (a very good GC rider, look out for him!) was 12th, Daniel Martin 15th. Martin crossed the finish-line together with Talansky, Fuglsang and Rogers, 2' 34" after Froome.

Zubeldia had a delay of 3' (he's riding despite a broken hand, so imo his performance was simply amazing), whereas Kwiatowski arrived 3' 27" after Froome. Seven seconds after him, it was Andy Schleck's turn to cross the finish-line. Pierre Rolland and Roche (two riders I really liked) crossed a few seconds after the Luxembourgian.  Cadel Evans arrived 4' 13" after Froome, whereas Pinot crossed the finish-line with a 6 minutes delay. Apropos, the boy needs to improve his riding skills! :P Impey fought hard and had just 7' of delay, but that unfortunately wasn't enough to keep the yellow jersey. Hesjedal lost 8 minutes (the boy has a broken rib and is still riding, chapeau!), De Gendt arrived 17' after Froome.

After today's stage it's hard to find a rider who can seriously challenge Froome in the quest for the final victory. Still, I think that Evans, Contador and (why not?) Schleck will surprise us in the next stages. Moreover, young riders like Quintana may surprise us too.

Talking about Andy Schleck, I think he's finally back at a good level. 'But he's lost more than 3 minutes!', I hear you screaming. Yes, but I've finally seen him giving everything he had for a race, once again. The boy's gone through a tough period (just think about Frank's ban and that ridicolous story about him getting drunk in München), but I think he's got over it - and I can't wait to see him smiling for a race victory once again, perhaps already in this year Tour.

Talking about Andy, I think we all know about the hateful shitty thing that Radioshack just did to his brother Frank. Firing him just a few days before his ban expires was a disgusting thing and I wish there was a way to express all my disgust, hatred and whatever else to Radioshack's guys. I've always disliked them and now I think I was right. Hopefully the other riders on the team will defend Frank and find themselves a new team at the end of the season. I'm sorry for the honest people who work on that team, but there's always been something rotten in Radioshack. Hopefully Frank will soon manage to find a new team and get many amazing victories. Allez Schlecks!!

 

Back to blogging

Hello dear readers. Is there anyone left around here after the long break from blogging that I took last year? I don't think so, but still... If there's anyone left around (and no, I'm not talking about the stupid liars who spam every single post of mine), thank you. Otherwise, you're fully forgiven. After all I haven't written anything since... Oh my God, I can't even remember the last time I wrote a post! This is quite serious, isn't it? Seriously Fangirl, how come you haven't written anything about Gilbert's victory at the Worlds? And you haven't written anything about Sagan's performances in Flanders and Sanremo either! And... Menchov's retirement! You haven't written anything about it! Seriously, you must have come down with something really serious in the last few months. However, don't worry dear readers: after so many months of silence Fangirl and I have finally decided to start boring you again. Therefore, sit back and relax ;)

First of all I'd like to tell everyone that, as you can see, I'm still alive - and I'm also quite fine too actually. The last few months of my offline life have been quite hectic. For example, I've fallen in love with my best male friend, which of course is kinda weird. And no, I didn't need to end up on 'Friendzone' to tell him how I feel about him - and yes, it was embarassing enough even without cameras all around us and so on. Of course my 'You're growing on me, what do you think about this?' speech wasn't successful at all, but now at least I know what to expect from him. Moreover, this didn't change anything in our friendship, which is simply great. Another funny thing about my offline life is that in less than 4 months time I'll be living and studying in Germany (I'll go there in September and be back in July). Nice, isn't it? ;)

After talking a bit about my offline life, let's talk a bit about this blog. First of all, I'd like to insult every single person who's wasted their time spamming my blog in the last 8 months. Seriously guys, you need to get a life. And please, try writing down better comments if you want me to visit your little sweety website. Secondly, I'd like to tell everyone that I've quite missed writing these posts in the last few months. Now that I've taken up blogging again, however, I don't think I'll be able to keep my webpage updated. However, if I ever decide to end my career as a blogger, I'll surely tell you. In the meanwhile, enjoy this post, expect some updates for the Tour and let me thank you for reading and checking this page again after all this time. I've missed you all during the last few months!

And now let's finally talk about something serious. The Giro d'Italia is over and this year it was won by Vincenzo 'Enzino' Nibali. I'm really happy about this because I think that Nibali is a very modest, kind and strong rider who deserves all the best. I remember his attempts to win Tour of Lombardy and Liége last year and I simply loved his attacks. Moreover I like Nibali because he does well not only in TTs, but also when the road gets steep. I don't really like riders like Wiggins who kill a Grand Tour after the first time trial, so I was really happy about Nibali's triumph. And then he and his family are so sweet! On Sunday (apropos, how many people were there in Brescia? It was amazing!) his parents and his wife talked on the Italian tv and they were all very cute. His father remembered when he had to saw Enzino's little bike because he had been naughty. His mother instead said that Vincenzo used to skip school when he was a kid and of course she and her father didn't approve this at all. Nibali's wife instead said that her husband is very nice, although he has a bad relationship with the curtains of their house (it looks like the new Giro king is unable to mount them - is this correct in English? :P). Lovely, lovely Nibali! :D

Second in the race was Uran. The boy's got a lot of talent and a very sad story behind. His father in fact was accidentally killed in a gunshot when Rigoberto was still a young boy. In this Giro the Colombian riders did very well: just think about Uran, Duarte and also about Betancur, the white jersey of the race. I really like Carlos because he looks very kind and open. Moreover, the boy wears tooth braces: how cool is that?

Third on the podium was Cadel Evans. The Australian is the oldest rider  to end up on the Giro's podium in the last 85 years. Talking about the podium, how sweet is Cadel's son?

Talking about the Giro, every rider who made it to Brescia should be considered a hero. This morning I risked to freeze while walking in my town and I was wearing a sweater and a leather jacket. These guys instead, dressed in their lycra kits, managed to climb Tre Cime di Lavaredo in spite of the snow. Chapeau!

Nibali simply ruled this year's race, still I really enjoyed the daily battle for the stage victories. Visconti's triumph on Galibier, for example, was simply touching. Giovanni went through depression this winter, so it was nice for him to get such a huge victory. And he won in a similar way also a few days later, chapeau!

Unfortunately in this Giro there was also a very unpleasant thing called Danilo Di Luca. His ds got mad at him when he found out that Di Luca had used epo and he called him 'asshole' while talking to Cyclingnews journalists. Bettini instead said that Di Luca is a jerk. Nice, isn't it?

Talking about cycling, here's the last thing for today:

http://russiaoggi.it/sport/2013/05/27/denis_menchov_lascia_il_ciclismo_24345.html .

Yes, unfortunately it looks like Denis Menchov has retired. Of course Fangirl is very sad about it, but Logic thinks that Menchov's choice deserves a lot of respect. Why? Well, simple: Stefano Garzelli has retired too and his last race was this year Giro d'Italia. I don't know about you, but I found out that he was racing only on the last day of competition, when journalists complimented him on his great career. Menchov decided to avoid this situation and, now that he's retired, the last memory I have of his career is the victory on the Bola del Mundo. Not bad, isn't it?

However, talking about the Silent Russian, here are some parts of the article linked above (which reports some parts of an interview that Menchov had with a Russian newspaper):

'During my first months on the Banesto team, I used to speak in French. As a student I had very high marks in French and this helped me a lot because at the time we would often race in France or in Belgium. Then I bought myself a couple of books in Spanish. Believe me, when you're forced to learn a foreign language, you really do your best to achieve your goal. I moved to Spain at the beginning of February and in May I could already speak Spanish freely. At the time there was no Internet, so I had just a vocabulary, two grammar books and a phrasebook. Then one day I realised that I didn't need them anymore and that I could speak without problems'.

Talking about his nicknames ('The silent storm' and 'the silent killer'), Menchov said: 'Silent storm? Really? I simply don't like talking after a race, especially if it's an important one'.

Talking about his future plans, Menchov said: 'one day, maybe, I'll sit under the July sun to support Katusha team while drinking beer and watching the Pyrenees stages of the Tour'.

Aaah, I'll miss my Silent Russian (and to say that I've taken up Russian just to be able to meet him and ask for his signature in Russian)! :)

Well, this is all for the moment. The next update will probably come out in the Tour period - however, check out this page at least once every fortnight ;) Good evening and thanks for reading!