Xavier Tondo Volpini, 5th of November 1978 - 23rd of May 2011

Exactly two weeks ago, Wouter Weylandt passed away on a Giro descent. This morning, Movistar's Xavier Tondo lost his life in a domestic accident.

Xavier Tondo Volpini passed away this morning, after that his garage door fell on him while he was preparing for a training ride together with his friend Intxausti.
I had to stop twice while reading this news on Cyclingnews because I couldn't realise what I was reading. My eyes were watching the words, but my brain couldn't understand them. 'Xavier Tondo died this morning'. Unbelievable. Dying in such a terrible way, when you're just 32, really makes no sense.
Xavier was a great rider, one of the best climbers of the world and one of the most honest guys in the peloton. He became a hero in December, when he told the Spanish police about a group of people who sold doping products.
Right now I really can't believe that Xavier has really died. I'm shocked, sad and confused and I'm waiting for someone to come and tell me that this is just a joke. Not again, not two weeks after Wouter, not Xavier.
Unfortunately, no one will come - Movistar's manager has confirmed the news and the riders are already paying their tribute to their colleague.
I feel useless, powerless and I can't find the right words for this tragedy. Moreover, I cannot understand why those things can happen. And I cannot understand how our destiny can be so cruel.
Now I'd really like to send all my strength and support to Xavier's family, to his teammates, to his friends and to his supporters. Once again, the cycling family has to face another terrible loss and grief again all together.

Descansa en paz, Xavier. We will all miss you terribly. May you stay close to all the ones that loved you and support them in this awful moment. Once again, DEP.

Ciao Wouter

"Wouter has never gone away, he's remained with us on every single stage and he's become the most loved rider of the Giro. Everyone of us could see his name written on the roads, his race number repeated without a pause. On a sheet of paper, on a message written by a group of children, on the roof of a country house, always in memory of Wouter. His presence inside the peloton has become stronger and stronger. His memory strikes us and saddens us in different ways, but there's one thing that unites us all: his absence. The peloton isn't the same anymore, now that it's lost a man. But his memory has got us as close as never before, as no one else could have done. We'll meet us again in the next race. Rest in peace, Wouter'

David Millar remembering Special WW today at the Giro

Giro d'Italia: always with us.

The show must go on:

Yesterday was a very hard day for the whole cycling family. In fact the Giro riders didn't cope with the traditionally busy flat stage they had on schedule, but they had to face a long, tiring march in order to say goodbye to one of their friends, Wouter Weylandt, who abandoned the peloton on Monday afternoon.

Surprisingly, yesterday I managed to keep the tears in check until the riders reached the last km of the stage. I had resisted the terrible image of mrs. Weylandt kneeling down where her son died, I had resisted the sight of Ann-Sophie putting a red heart where her boyfriend abandoned this life, but that last km was too much for me to take. At that point, all of a sudden, I found myself crying like a baby together with Tyler Farrar, with Fabian Wegmann, with Davide Viganò, with the whole Leopard Trek and with the whole cycling family. Wouter's teammates looked so down that I would have liked to take a car and drive to Livorno just to give them a big hug. Farrar was a destroyed man, whereas the support of the tifosi really did move me.
My father decided not to watch yesterday race. He's as sensitive as me and at funerals we're always the first ones to burst into tears. I knew that watching yesterday stage would have caused me to cry, but I felt like I had to watch it. You can't watch cycling just when things are going well: you must watch it also on sad days like yesterday. It's on these occasions that cycling needs its big family to stay close and, being unable to watch the stage in person, all I could do was watching it on my telly. It was like watching a colourful, long funeral. 4 hours of procession, no coffins and the feeling that Wouter was there, together with the Leopard riders and with his friend Tyler. '108 presente', as thousands of people said during the parcours.
'Those who really die are those who remain in this life', Marco Pastonesi wrote on today Gazzetta. In my opinion, this is one of the big truths of human life. After all, what comes after death? Perhaps there's another life as a different human being; perhaps there's a Paradise where, I'm sure, Wouter has met his old friend Frederiek Nolf; or perhaps, and this is the most dreadful idea, after death there is nothing. Anyway I'm sure that, after a person dies, the people who suffer more are those who remain in this life. Those who'll have to go on without a son, a husband, a brother, a father or a friend.
'Those who die are those who remain'. Those who remain in this life and also those who remain still, blocked by shock and horror. It may sound insensitive but, in moments like this, the best thing to do would be to take the time to mourn the loss and then try to go back to normality as soon as you can. It's impossible to make it in a few months / years time, but it's the only way to keep on living.

This morning, Leopard Trek decided to leave the Giro. In this case there isn't a wrong decision: everything the riders would have chosen, it would have been right. Hopefully the boys will manage to find a bit of peace in their houses, with their loved ones near.
Also Sporza's commentator has decided to abandon the race, just like Tyler Farrar. Moreover, this was the last Giro for the race number '108'. In fact, the Giro organisers have decided to retire it as a sign of respect for WW Special.
If you want to do something concrete to help Wouter's family, on http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/leopard-trek-create-donation-account-to-help-weylandts-family there are some info about how you can make donations to Ann-Sophie and to the whole family of outer. They will have the toughest task in the future, especially because the surreal atmosphere of these days will soon be gone and they will finally be able to realise the gravity of their loss. May they have all the stength of this world, because they're really gonna need it.

As I said previously, the best thing to do in these cases is to try going back to normal life. Although I didn't know Wouter, the last two days have been pretty hard for me and, honestly, today I didn't feel like watching the Giro. But then I saw that the riders, although they were probably feeling much worse than me, were doing their best to honour the race, so I watched the last part of the stage. Here I'm writing some observations of mine about it.
First of all, it must be said that today stage was pretty dangerous. In fact the cyclists had to face some gravel roads and, as you all know, gravel can be very tricky (when I was little, I had some very epic crashes on the gravel road outside my house... ). Obviously safety is a very hot topic right now and some riders have complained for the difficulty of the parcours. However, I think it's too late to complain about the parcourses now: if the riders really didn't want to face the gravel roads, they should have said it before, when the Giro route was announced.
Anyway, I agree with Di Luca about the fact that road cyclists should race on roads, because they're not cyclocross riders and they're not mountain bike riders. If a rider wants to ride on gravel roads, he can go to Eroica. And the same goes for the Tour: if someone wants to race on cobblestones, he can go go to Roubaix. It should be up to the riders to decide whether they want to ride on gravel roads or cobblestones, it shouldn't be the GT organisers that force the guys to face such particular terrains!
Said that, we can go on.
On the gravel descents Nibali showed a lot of braveness, whereas Tankink clearly looked in troubles. Many riders crashed and the most unlucky guy was poor Tom Slagter. Surprisingly, his crash didn't occur on a gravel descent, but in an asphalt part of the stage.
As soon as I saw the Rabobank rider lying on the asphalt, I froze. 'Here we go again!', I thought. Saxo Bank and Euskaltel's mechanics were screaming and Tom wasn't moving and looked unconscious. Then, luckily, he started moving his legs and he started talking. He was immediately taken to the hospital, where he discovered he has broken his eye orbit bone and that he's suffered a concussion. Hopefully he'll feel better soon.
Some of the other riders who crashed were Cataldo, Kiryenka (he fell in a really stupid way), Millar and Vicioso. These last two riders touched wheels with one another and fell together. Not a very lucky Giro for them, since Millar has worn the Maglia Rosa on two of the saddest days in cycling history, whereas Vicioso has won the saddest stage ever. I don't want to imagine how he felt right after he had won, when his ds told him through the radio: 'I'm really sorry, Angel, but something very bad has happened...', making his joy disappear all of a sudden. The poor boy burst into tears as soon as he got to know about Wouter and no one will remember his stage win as a happy one.
However, the riders weren't the only ones who had problems on the gravel roads: Savoldelli's motorbike in fact got blocked in the middle of a gravel climb and he had to push it for a lot of meters. Before he had that problem, Paolo had mentioned a Vacansoleil rider who was 'cursing while riding' and another cyclist (Reda) who stopped at the side of the road in order to let the white dust provoked by the cars disappear. Reda didn't hop back on his bike as long as the white dust disappeared and I think this is a very funny anedocte.
Talking about the race, Martin Kohler broke clear of the peloton after 12 kms and he was caught with 11 kms to go: chapeau to him!
Niemiec was very good, Nibali was extremely brave, Tankink was very unlucky, Stetina showed he's a true cycling promise, Lovkvist said 'I'm here too!', Di Luca rode without saddle and John Gadret attacked very often. But in the end, the winner du jour was the skinny Pieter Weening from Rabobank, who won the stage and got the Maglia Rosa from Millar. He looked very enthusiastic after the finish-line and I'm very happy for him and for Tien & Marleen from Ride On! ;) Before closing this post, I have some quick communications for you all:
First of all, the girls at 'Bananas about Bikes' would like to create a little tribute post for Wouter Weylandt. Therefore, if you have pictures / supporter's stories regarding him, we'd be very happy to receive them and publish them in the next days. As you know, our e-mail address is bananasaboutbikes@gmail.com . Every contribution would be very much welcomed.
Still talking about the poor Wouter, I didn't answer the comments that some of you wrote about my last post because I think there's nothing to add to what we all have already said.
Third thing to say, in the next days I'll probably try to bring back some cheerfulness on this webpage: anyway, I want you to know that I'll always remember WW Special.

Pic 1 by Riccardo Scanferla; pic 2 by Bettini (Rabobank Orange + Giro Pink = No, not again!!!)

27th of September 1984 - 9th of May 2011

A post that I would have never wanted to write.

Wouter Weylandt passed away a few minutes ago after crashing with 25 kms to go on the Reggio Emilia-Rapallo stage of the Giro. The ambulance arrived immediately after the crash, but they couldn't save him.

I had never supported a rider as much as today. Unfortunately, Wouter lost his most important race.

I don't feel like writing anything else right now. I'd just be able to say stupid clichés. Moreover, I've just started crying and sobbing like a baby - and I'm not good at writing when I'm feeling so bad. Cycling is like a family and right now I feel like I've lost a relative.

My thoughts go to Wouter's family, his parents, his wife, his teammates and his friends. My most sincere condolences go to them.

Rest in peace, Wouter: we'll keep you in our thoughts forever and ever. And this is a promise.

Menchov not invited at Tour de France:

As you probably know, today ASO has published the list of teams invited to this year edition of Tour de France. To my horror, the name of Geox team didn't appear on said list. The teams that were invited to the prestigious French race in fact were Cofidis, FDJ, Team Europcar and, dulcis in fundo, the super famous Saur-Sojasun team. After all, why should ASO have invited Menchov and Sastre's team when they knew they could have Casper and Coppel's equipe? It would have been a non-sense choice! Moreover, Saur-Sojasun team kits perfectly match the colour of Movistar's ones and this fact may cause some confusion between supporters. What a joy! And, perhaps, after being invited to the Tour this team will assume such a 'grandeuristic' attitude that they'll start to send mails to the journalists and tell them to write the team's name in capitals. That would be great for French cycling, wouldn't it? And then, Saur-Sojasun is a French team, so its riders will surely enter a breakaway on the Bastille Day, won't dope during the race and they won't force French journalists to speak English. And then, in this team there are so many unknown riders! I mean, Geox has Sastre and Menchov, ok, but none of them is a great beauty, right? And then, those guys have been racing for about 10 years now, we supporters are fed up with them! So, let's give space to French teams, they deserve it so much! And then, let's not forget that Geox kit may look like Footon-Servetto's old one and ASO guys don't want naked-looking guys riding on the French roads in July, right? It would damage tourism!!
I'm trying to be funny while writing this post but, believe me, I am scandalised, I mean, 's-c-a-n-d-a-l-i-s-e-d-', by ASO's decision. Ok, Carlos Sastre was pretty disappointing in the last 2 seasons, but you can't decide not to invite Menchov at the Tour! How can a person without mental problems consciounsly decide not to invite him there? Denis is the most complete Grand Tour rider of the world (Andy Schleck is better than him on the climbs, but the Russian is better in time trials) and was 3rd in the last Tour; moreover, in the last years he won two Vueltas and a Giro. Why not inviting him then? What kind of illegal substance damaged the brain of ASO's guys so much to make them take this decision? Did they sniff clenbuterol?
'Contador has damaged cycling', McQuaid has recently said in an interview. Well, in my opinion ASO organisers have just joined the Spaniard in his attempt of trying to disgust cycling supporters once again.
As a supporter, every time I watch a Grand Tour I hope that, in the end, its winner will be a rider that has deserved that victory. A rider that isn't doped, a rider that has made me feel strong emotions, a rider that has beated all the other strongest riders of the world. This happens to be particularly true for the Tour de France, the most important cycling Grand Tour of the world. All the best riders of the world should be able to take part in it, no matter the Pro Tour systems or b******** like that. Then it's true that it's almost impossible to have all the best riders of the world in the same race, because unfortunately there is always someone who is injured or has had health problems or so on. But still, I think that the best riders of the world shouldn't be excluded by the most important race of the world because of the organisers' stupidity. Because, when a team as Geox is excluded from a race like the Tour, then it means that we're not talking cycling anymore. It means that we're talking politics, patriotism, revenge or things like that. But we're not talking sport. And sport, when I watch cycling races, is the only thing I actually care about.
Talking about cycling races, the Tour is considered the best Grand Tour of the world. Therefore, from the theoric point of view, the rider who wins it should be the best Grand Tour rider of the world. Now, me wonders: how can we know if 2011 TdF winner would have beaten Menchov if he had had the chance to race? Personally, if right now I were a Tour de France's possible contender, I wouldn't be happy to know about Denis' exclusion from the race. In my opinion, in fact, a Tour without all the best riders of the world is a Tour without value.
Talking about Menchov, I really don't know how he must be feeling right now and I wouldn't like to be in his shoes tonight. I mean, Denis was born in 1978 (on the 25th of January), isn't a 'young gun' anymore and, perhaps, he won't have many other years at this level in front of him. If I were him, I would be terribly angry at ASO right now. Perhaps they didn't realise it, but with their decision the ASO guys might have just destroyed Menchov's sportive dream. It's easy for us to say 'He can always try to win the race next year', but there are many things that can change in 365 days time- everything can change in 365 days time.
Now of course Menchov and Sastre hope that their team will be invited to Giro and the Corsa Rosa will become their main goal of the season. Hopefully mr. Zomegnan cares about cycling more than his colleagues at ASO and so he will invite Geox to his race.
It will surely take me some time to get used to the idea that Menchov won't race the Tour, but perhaps the most disgusting thing about this story is that supporters can't do nothing about it. Riders are said to count nothing in the cycling world, but supporters count even less than them. 'It's another defeat for cycling, it's another delusion for the tifosi, it's another blow for cycling's credibility!', that's what Very Important People say every time a rider is caught positive at the anti-doping. Too bad that, imo, also not inviting the best riders to the most important race of the world is a loss of credibility for cycling, another defeat for the sport and, most important, another delusion for the tifosi. Personally, I've rarely felt so disappointed because of cycling. People always believe there's justice in this world, too bad that it's not true... Btw, I realise that I'm slipping into cliché, moralism and all those kind of things, so it's better if I stop this post here. The lack of solutions for this situation leaves me disappointed and disgusted, powerless and worried.
Unfortunately there is nothing we can do about it, apart from thinking that, of course, there are more important things in the world (and I'm perfectly aware of this, don't worry). For example, HTC Columbia rider Carla Swart, 23 year-old, died the other day while training. My deepest condolences go to her familiars and friends.

PS1: I wrote this post as soon as I got the news of ASO's decision, when I was even angrier than now at the Tour organisers, therefore anger might have caused me to make more mistakes than usual int. If so, I apology.

PS2: in the first part of this post I wrote about Saur-Sojasun. I want to make it clear that I don't have nothing against that team and that I perfectly know that it's not their fault if Menchov's team was excluded from the Tour.

Team Luxembourg's mistery, Saxo Bank's training camp in Didier and Sorensen's words:

Hear ye, hear ye- and be part of this blogger's joy: miss Fede has no homeworks for tomorrow (it's the first time since September that I can write this sentence!!) and so she's going to write a new random post. Happiness!
So, first of all, let's talk a bit about Team Luxembourg. Or whatever its name will be. In fact, yesterday the team's name mistery was apparently solved by our dear Jakob Fuglsang, who told Cyclingnews that the new squadra was going to be called 'Team Leopard'. Moreover, he added that the team kit should have a classical design and should also have a big leopard printed on it.
This news had actually got me in despair, since the idea of screaming 'Go go Leopards!' to my favourite riders for the next 4 years doesn't actually appeal that much to me. About the leopard on the kit, well, I would have bet they would have printed the Luxembourg lion on it, instead I was wrong. How strange.
Btw this morning Brian Nygaard denied the news that Jakob had given yesterday and he said that, to know the true name of the team, we'll have to wait until the 5th of January. Now, let's reflect a bit about this.

Some weeks ago, Nygaard had already said that the team wasn't going to be called 'Team Leopard'. Therefore, after reading Fuglsang's words, me was a bit sceptical about them and that's why I didn't publish the news immediately. In fact, Nygaard has denied it earlier today.

But still, me smells a rat about this story. I mean: Jakob seems an intelligent guy, so I don't think he said that name, 'Team Leopard', completely by chance. Moreover, me was a bit disturbed by Nygaard's reaction. In fact not only did he deny the news immediately, but he also seemed a bit angry on his Twitter. In fact there he said it was time people stopped all these speculation about the team's name and he added that we have to wait until the 5th of January if we want to know more about the team.

The little problem is that, unfortunately, the day of the team presentation I will be in Austria, with no Internet connection. Does this mean that I'll have to wait until the 10th of January just to know the name of m favourite riders' team and what their new kits will look like? Gosh, don't people at team Lux realise that we've been waiting for these details since August?

I had already got fed up by this 'secret-mania' in September, so you can imagine how I feel about it right now. And the funny thing is that Nygaard also got angry at those who speculate about the new name of the team. Ask yourself some questions, dear.

Still talking about the secret-mania: everyone talked about Crans Montana's training camp in a very happy and entusiasthic way, but no one mentioned that O'Grady crashed while skiing and broke two ribs (http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/ogrady-set-for-tour-down-under-in-spite-of-skiing-accident ). Now, if I'm on a training camp and one of the people who are there with me breaks 2 ribs while skiing, I wouldn't probably talk about said training camp in very euphoric terms. But still, guys at team Lux didn't mention O'Grady's injury until yesterday. And, still talking about that training camp, I haven't seen any 'official' picture from it yet.

Did I miss something or are the only pictures of the training camps the ones that the riders posted on Twitter? Is someone else fed up by this secret-mania, or is it just a product of my impatient imagination?
Anyway, back to the name's mistery, Frank Schleck has recently given an interview to Tageblatt (which appeared also on Cyclingnews) in which he said: ”I like 'Team Lëtzebuerg' (as a new name for the team)”. I have to admit I like it too, although almost everything is better than team Leopard. I mean, leopards are cute (see pic below), but I just can't imagine to see my favourite riders being called 'leopards' in every single race of next year. That would be a bit disturbing, imo.

On http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/frank-schleck-eager-for-2011-season-with-number-one-team , Frank also talked about the new team in a very entusiasthic way. He also said that Linus Gerdemann is a nice guy. This is funny, since Chris Anker Sorensen actually can't stand poor Linus and also said that, in the peloton, Gerdemann hasn't got so many friends.
In the interview Frank also said: “We can't wait until things finally start and we can finally do what which we do best – that is, ride races.” I can't wait either!

SAXO BANK NEWS...
Talking about the other team, Saxo Bank, on http://www.lessentiel.lu/fr/news/dossier/%20newsletter/story/28605173 there's a nice interview with Laurent Didier, one of the riders who didn't follow los Schlecks in their new team. This is actually a bit strange, since Laurent is Luxembourgian and Frank Schleck praised his skills last year.
Talking about the training camp in Fuerteventura, Laurent said that everything went well - in other words, no one broke anything. Didier also said that at first the Spaniards had remained a bit on their own, while in the following days he spent a lot of time with Navarro. The Luxembourgian also claimed that the training camp was also a good chance to practise English. Considering that I need to practise my spoken English too, can I join you in your next training camp too? I'm small and tidy! ;)
Talking about los Schleck brothers, Laurent said that they're good friends of his, but that he's paid by Saxo Bank and so he's riding for them also in 2011. He also adds that he had been in contact with Kim Andersen, but then Riis didn't want him to leave the team and so he decided to respect his contract. 'This is normal when you're a pro cyclist', said Laurent, who ended the interview by saying that he doesn't want to talk about a possible team change in 2012 yet.

Still talking about Saxo Bank's training camp, Chris Anker Sorensen wrote a very funny (as usual) post about it. Here's a little translation of it.
'Morkov and I chatted about the fact that we were happy that, during this camp, we did not have to sleep on some mountains with BS in a rainy weather. It goes without saying that this year's team building was very different from the survival camps with BS. I would say that both camps have their advantages and I can't actually decide what the best training camp method is (...)', Chris wrote about the survival camps.
Then he talked about the different things he did during this year camp. Talking about the strange human pyramids and things like that, he said: 'We may use some of the things we have learned in the training camp during the presentations of some of the 2011 races . For example, we could build a human pyramid, a thing on which we are quite keen now. One thing that none of us really liked instead was kitesurfing. We all went down like flies. I kept on checking whether my falling teammates were going to land on my head (ndt: there may be something wrong in this sentence, since Google Translater translates it in a very strange way :P). Surfing was much better, I really liked it and I think I could do it again. However I was a little annoyed by the fact that, between all the clips in which I was surfing perfectly, TV2 chose to broadcast one of the few ones in which I was having some troubles'.
Then Chris said something about being a 'culture bearer' of Cycling. Or, at least, that's what Google said that Chris wrote. Shall I trust the damn thing or not? Mistery.
Then Chris said: "Also this year we played some tennis (...). Our doubles matches Vandborg / Chris Anker vs. Morkov / Nicki always ended up with a victory for Vandborg and me, mainly because of Brian's skills. If a sport consisting of tennis, badminton, table tennis and cycling existed, Vandborg would be a champion in it".
The guys also had apnea lessons during the training camp and Chris wrote: "I started the training as the absolute worst hold breather, in fierce competition with our Pole Jaroslaw. In fact, we got an impressive result of 15 and 16 seconds in the first attempt we did of holding our breathes. After three days of training however I improved my performances and could hold my breath for 1:45. I could have probably reached the goal of the 2 min, if JJ and I hadn't swum into each other".
Surprisingly, Chris ends his post by wishing everyone a merry Santa Lucia. This is the proof that Chris knows what Santa Lucia is - and this makes me like him even more.
However, I've already talked too much for today. So here I close this random post too.

PS: I obviously offer my condolences to the family of Aldo Sassi. He was a great man, a 'living biologic passport', as Pastonesi called him on today's Gazzetta, and cycling has lost a great personality after his death. Rest in peace Aldo.

R.I.P.Frank:

A very bad news arrived to me this morning: Frank Vandenbroucke has died while he was on holiday in Senegal.Reports in Belgium have said that 34-year-old Belgian cyclist was found in his hotel room and early reports indicate that he died of a blood clot.
Vandenbroucke was out of contract after leaving Cinelli-Down Under but was looking for a team in 2010 just a few weeks ago.
"I'm satisfied with this year," he told reporters last week."I understand that the teams are reluctant to give me another chance,because I carry this past with me.But I think I proved this year that even without a monthly salary,I am still able to live a 100 percent for pro cycling."
Frank had a very brillant,even if short,career.He won the Liege-Bastogne-Liege in 1999 and in the same year he won also 2 stages at the Vuelta.In 1998 instead he won a Gand-Wevegelm.These were probably his most important victories.Vandenbroucke also came in 7th at the Verona Worlds in 1999 although he had 2 broken wrists.He was a champion,but a fragile person,just like Marco Pantani or "El Chaba" Jimenez.Great champions, but fragile people.
Right now there are lots of articles about Frank's death on http://www.cyclingnews.com/ ,on http://www.gazzetta.it/Ciclismo/ and on every other cycling website.
I'd like to offer my condolences to Frank's family,friends and supporters.May he rest in peace.

PS: there's a news about Jonathan Bellis on this link:http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/bellis-out-of-coma-still-in-serious-condition .He's out of coma but still in serious condition.My fingers are crossed for him.

Bad News :(

Something of very bad happened in the night between wednesday and thursday.A young rider,Frederiek Nolf,died in his bed at the Tour of Qatar,probably for a heart attack.He was just 21 and was a good rider.More news on Cyclingnews. :(