'Oh la la Saxo Bank!' in the Flanders, random rumour about the Schleck brothers, Breschel undergoing another operation and more:

Ladies and gentleman, miss Fede is ready to write a little random post containing some little random news. And guess what? She's learned how to underline words so that you can click on them and end up on the webpage I suggest you watching! Isn't that cool? (ok, 2 years and a half to learn a things like that is a very long time, but who cares?)

So, let's talk cycling. First of all, today there was Dwars door Vlaanderen ('A traves de Flanders', 'Attraverso le Fiandre', 'Through the Flanders' or how else that race is called!), which I could see on real time for the first time ever. Yay!

Landbouwkrediet rider Frederic Amorison starred in a long breakaway of about 240 kms. With about 12 kms to go, Geraint Thomas and Nick Nuyens broke clear from the peloton and joined Frederic (see, his name is almost like mine!). They had an advantage of about 20 seconds on the peloton and, with 1 km to go, they just had a 4" advantage. Amorison got caught, while Nuyens hung on together with Thomas. In the last few meters of the race it was 'Oh la la Saxo Bank!', since Nuyens got the victory in front of Geraint, who started the sprint too early. Third, a few meters behind, was Tyler Farrar, while 4th was Matthew Hayman. 5th was another Saxo Banker, Baden Cooke, while the best Leopard Trek rider was Poosthuma, 31st (32nd was Marcel Sieberg, a rider that I really like).

After the arrival, they showed the top 3 riders in a gazebo and I got very worried when I started to hear female screams of joy while the cameras were filming the riders. Then I saw Nuyens' wife and everything became clear ;)

I'm happy for Nuyens, especially because good old Saxo Bank needed a good victory after a pretty disappointing Sanremo. I'm sorry, but I can't help supporting that team!

Talking about other races, the first stage of Volta a Catalunya was won by Smukulis, a 23 year old Latvian rider of Columbia. The second one was won by Petacchi (as a consequence, Italian newspapers have finally understood that Petacchi hasn't lost all his sprinting skills during the winter), while the third one, which ended uphill, was won by Contador. A great day for Saxo Bank, that's for sure, although I'd wait a few months before making the final classification of this stage become official.

Second was Scarponi, 3rd was Leipheimer. It's so good to see Levi racing for himself and not for Armstrong! He's a very strong athlete and I expect him and Kloden to be at the top at this year Tour.

4th was Daniel Martin, one of the best pure climbers, while 5th was Horner. A surprising Biel Kadri was 11th, while Chris Anker Sorensen was 21st. Best leopard Trek rider was Zaugg, 25th.
Denis Menchov was 71st (he arrived 9 minutes after Contador), but he's been having health problems in the last weeks, so I think we should forgive him for that.

Talking about another race, the 4th stage of Tour de Normandie was won by Fabien Bacquet (ok, I don't expect you to know who he is, but his father added me on Facebook for unknown reasons and now I'm a virtual friend of his too). Yay for Fabien!

Settimana Coppi&Bartali instead sees Emanuele Sella as race leader. 'That's a little step forward for cycling, but a big step forward for me'. I didn't know that cycling improves every time that a former doper (one of the worst ones of the last years, to be more precise) gets an important result! I thought that cycling improved when a young, clean rider won something, but apparently I was wrong.

On to other news, poor Matti Breschel had to undergo a minor operation on his knee yesterday. Now he'll be able to go back training in two weeks time.

Talking about another (luckier) Dane, Jakob Fuglsang had his 26th birthday yesterday (and not today, as someone said on Twitter). Birthday boy gets his toy, as they say... Or perhaps he'd prefer some candies and some pancakes. Anyway, happy birthday Jakob! (Hippi has explained me how to say it in Danish, but I can't write it :P)

On to the last Dane about which I'm going to tell you today, Chris Anker Sorensen has updated his blog twice in the last 3 days. And, after reading 'Liquegas' in one of these two entries, I've understood what Susanne means when she says that Chris often makes spelling mistakes.

However, the worst mistakes are the ones of Google Translater. At a certain point, it translated a sentence from Chris' blog in this way: 'A small eruption on 4 men rode away'. A man erupting, that sounds dirty. A part of another blog entry instead was translated as 'I figured I might as well try to erupt'. Please, don't!

On to the Schleck brothers, which I haven't mentioned for a few posts now, I have some rumours and of some complaints about them. First of all, the rumour: La Repubblica (a very important Italian newspaper) has claimed that, after the 'bikes with engine incorporated', there may be a new kind of technlogical doping in the peloton. According to the unknown Denis Mignani, some riders have been using a special kind of 'cuscinetti', which are the things that you put in the central part of the wheel, the one from where the spokes start. Those 'cuscinetti' seem to make the cyclist gain 2.5 seconds pro kilometre and, according to mr. Mignani, they were used by Andy Schleck (and by Fabian Cancellara) during the mountain stage of last year Tour. Now, here are some opinions of mine about this thing:
1) Using that kind of equipment is legal. So, it isn't technological doping. And then, every rider (even amateur ones) can get it, they just need to call an engineer and get it fixed on their wheels.
2) Do you really want me to believe that Andy Schleck was the only one who used those things in last year Tour? Come on!
3) Better using strange cuscinetti than clenbuterol! At least, you don't end up in a doping trial for that (and you don't have to accuse Spanish breeders in order to get away with it!)

On to another news regarding Andy, Vincenzo Nibali has recently said that he doesn't like riders like Andy, 'who ride fast in just two races pro year'. The same was said by Claudio Chiappucci. Ok, I can understand that some people may not enjoy the fact that Andy always focuses just on a few races and doesn't even try to win the other ones, but at least I like the fact that, every time he focuses on an important goal, he achieves it. Moreover, it's not easy to have a good condition during the whole season, is it?

To close this pretty bitter post, on pressphoto.lu you have some pics from a party at the Schleck fanclub in Luxembourg. The brothers's grandmother seems such a really nice person ;) And just look at how big Leea has become! The baby is growing, Frank and Martine must be very proud parents! :D

Voigt officially heading to Team Luxembourg + other random news du midweek:

Eventually, the end of the 2010 cycling season has come. In less than a week time, in fact, we'll also know the name of the Lombardy Tour's winner and the long and cold winter will begin.

From the cyclistic point of view, this winter will be very different from the past 3 ones. In fact, for the first time, me will have to divide her attention between the new upcoming Luxembourg team of the Schleck brothers and the old and fading team Saxo Bank.

I've been supporting Riis' team for the last 3 years of my life and in this period I could cheer on the boys' successes and, sometimes, also get desperate because of their problems/ defeats. In particular, me has always been a supporter of the Schleck brothers (that's obvious) and of Chris Anker Sorensen. As well as them, on my 'favourite riders' list there are also riders like Voigt and Breschel, who've been racing for Saxo Bank too. But from next year, things will change a lot for me. In fact not only are los Schlecks leaving Riis and creating their new team, but also Matti Breschel has decided to leave Bjarne and the only one (between my favourite riders) who's remaining faithful to his chief is Chris Sorensen. Therefore this Fangirl next year will have to divide her cyclistic support between 2/3 different teams and 3/4 different riders and this will obviously be a bit difficult.

But still, the 'it ain't over 'til it's over' rule can be applied also to cycling (luckily), so here I stop getting depressed while thinking about the cyclistic future of my favourite riders and try to think about the upcoming races, without getting worried about the future of these boys (although I have to admit that, lately, I've been much more interested in my own problems than in those of cyclists and cycling teams).

Anyway, talking about the riders' exodus from Saxo Bank team, it is now official that Jens Voigt has signed a 1 year contract with the new Luxembourg team of the Schleck brothers (http://www.wort.lu/wort/web/sport/artikel/2010/10/119201/routinier-voigt-ist-auch-mit-dabei.php ). To wort.lu Voigt also told that, in two weeks time, the team jerseys and the whole roster of riders should be decided.

RANDOM NEWS DU MIDWEEK:
BREAKOUT GESINK NEWS:

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/gesink-out-of-tour-of-lombardy : Robert Gesink, one of the main favourites for Giro di Lombardia, won't take part in the Classica delle foglie morte because his father had a bad crash with his mountain bike and so Robert decided to go back to Netherlands to stay close to his father in this delicate moment. Hopefully everything will end up well for the Gesink family.

HUSHOVD HAS NEVER SEEN DRUGS IN CYCLEDOM:

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/hushovd-i-have-never-seen-drugs-in-cycling . New World Champion Thor Hushovd said that he's never seen drugs in cycling or in society. He didn't deny the existence of these problems in sports and in society, but he has stated that the abuse of these substances "is about what you want to achieve. If I wanted to dope in the cycling context, I would have found it, and if I wanted to dope to have more fun on the town - if it's possible - I would have certainly found the drugs there, too, of course". By chance, these are the same words that Italian teachers use to reassure children when they start to go to the high schools. 'If you don't want to use drugs, you'll never discover where to find them. If you want to use them, you'll have no problems in getting them. It's all up to your will and to your conscience'. And the surprising thing is that, although this may sound very naive, during my scholastic experience I've found out that these words correspond to pure truth.

RIDERS WITHOUT CONTRACTS:

(http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/furlan-hopes-paris-tours-result-will-secure-new-contract ). After arriving second in Paris-Tours, Furlan has sent out messages to all the teams of Cycledom: 'if you want me, here I am, with no contract for next year'. Unfortunately this sad situation doesn't regard just Furlan but also another great Italian rider who's called Matteo Tosatto.

GP EMILIA:
Emilia is one of my favourite one day races since it's very hard and always has important people riding it. For the 18th year in a row me couldn't go to see it live because of some stupid reasons involving school and the fact that it's a 3 hours long drive from here to Bologna, but hopefully next year things will change.
Btw, the race this year was won by a great Robert Gesink, while second was Daniel Martin and third was Scarponi. 4th was Kolobnev (will he ever win a race?), 5th Nibali, 6th Pozzovivo and 7th was the surprising Coppel. 9th and 10th were too of the most loved people in Cycledom, Patrik Sinkewitz and Riccardo Riccò. I have to admit that, when Riccò was in the group together with all the best riders of the race, I feared he was going to win also this race (last week he had already won Coppa Sabatini). Luckily my horror dreams didn't turn into reality.

I swear that I do try to behave in a 'normal' way towards Riccò, but that's a kind of 'mission impossible' for me. I've never liked him as a person, but after what he did in the Tour 2008 my esteem for him got as low as possible. I know that the fact I like Vinokourov and dislike Riccò could make some of you think I'm a hypocrite, but I really can't do anything about this. I can stand Vinokourov but I can't stand Riccò. Perhaps it's because of the fact that Riccò in 2008 directly damaged some of my favourites riders, while Vino in 2007 didn't damage any of them; or perhaps it's because Riccò receives such a big attention from supporters here in Italy who consider him the savior of Italian cycling, while Vino is still seen as the cycling devil by a lot of people; or, more probably, you're right in saying that I'm a hypocrite. But the thing is, I can't stand Riccò. Sorry, but that's how things are right now.
Going down in the race classification,btw, we found Fuglsang at 11th and the incredible Johnny Hoogerland at 12th. They created one of the best action of the race and I was really sorry when I saw they wouldn't have won this race. Jakob is in an astonishing condition and Johnny impressed me once again with his strength and courage.
14th was Chris Anker Sorensen (yay!), while 17th was Niemiec and 19th was Szmyd.
Andy Schleck didn't finish the race and said on Twitter that he's a bit ill. Get well soon boy!

PARIS-TOURS:
Paris- Tours is a very strange-and difficult-race. You never know how it will finish-in a bunch sprint? in a sprint between 4 or 5 riders? or will someone get to the finish-line alone?
The great charme of this race then lies in its very beautiful landscape: little narrow streets in the woods and, in the end, the great Avenue du Grammont, a 2.7 kms long road which is very large and doesn't have any curve. Unfortunately this was the last time the race arrived on this road, since next year a tramline will be built in the traditional finish zone. What a shame.
Btw, with 20 kms to go the breakawayers du jour had been caught by the peloton. Everyone was awaiting for an attack of Philippe Gilbert, but the Belgian kept on hiding himself (just like Pozzato). With a few kms to go Radioshack's stylist,ehm, rider, Lequatre, launched a solo attack. In the peloton there were some moments of confusion in which no one pulled, so that Lequatre soon reached an advantage of about 30". Some riders like Tosatto or the always good Van Marcke tried to chase him, but didn't manage to. So, with 2.7 kms to go, Lequatre was alone at the head of the race, with 20" of advantage on the peloton.
Poor Geoffre was caught with just 400 meters to go (I felt awfully sorry for him) and at that point also the sprint was launched. Hondo appeared on the right of everyone's tv screen, then Furlan rode past him in a much faster way. Then, from behind, a rider with an orange kit on appeared, rode past Furlan and raised his arms to the sky. This rider was Oscarito Freire, who's said that he'll finish his career in 2011. Oscar had a great sprint, since he managed to win although during the sprint he had been closed against the barriers twice. Third was Steegmans, while second was Furlan.
4th was a surprising Lodewyck (Topsport is a very good team, they always have new surprising riders!), 5th was the amazing Arashiro, 6th R. Feillu, 7th the good Offred, 8th Weylandt and 9th was Eisel. Sebastien Chavanel was 10th, 11th was McEwen,14th was Hondo,15th Vanmarcke, 16th Van Avermaet.
18th was a very good Fabien Bacquet, a 24 year-old rider who rides for the Continental Team Big Mat- Suber 93. Fabien is a very good rider and, although this year he didn't achieve any victory, he got some very good results anyway. After this 18th placement in such a hard race, I'm sure Fabien can head into holidays in a very serene way and enjoy a very well deserved period of rest. If you want to know more about him, here's the link to his official website: http://fanclub-fabienbacquet.com/default.aspx .
Breschel was then 25th while Bennati was 42nd; last year's runner up Bozic instead got lost in the middle of the classification just like Gilbert and Pozzato.