Mors tua, vita mea:

Mors tua, vita mea: the old Latins had already understood that, in life, one's defeat often corresponds to the victory of someone else. And, considering that cycling is a metaphor of life, this old rule applies also to it, just like we could see this afternoon at the Tour de France.

13th stage of the TdF 2011, from Pau to Lourdes. The riders started the stage from one of the most visited towns of the history of the race and arrived in a city that was visited by the Grande Boucle just once, in 1948 (on that occasion the winner was Gino 'the Pius' Bartali). Between the two cities, a giant called Aubisque was ready to create problems to the athletes.

In the morning the atmosphere around the buses of the riders who did well yesterday was euphoric and relaxed at the same time. Basso was describing how his son Santiago had told him off for not having won on Luz Ardiden, Cunego looked as happy as in the Giro 2004 and Voeckler was smiling while wearing the yellow jersey.

However, at the start of the race there were also people who weren't that relaxed. Some adventurers on wheels for example were already focused on entering the breakaway du jour, whereas Alberto Contador refused to give interviews to the non-Spanish journalists and Andreas Kloeden was ready to another day of sufference. The German rider eventually decided to end his Tour shortly after the beginning of the stage and even had problems in getting into the team car.

As soon as the stage began, the riders started to fight in order to enter the breakaway du jour. Everyone wanted to break free from the peloton because today's stage looked too difficult for the sprinters and too easy for the climbers. Therefore, those who wanted to win a stage thanks to a breakaway knew that this afternoon they would have had good chances of making it to the finish-line without being absorbed by the peloton.

After 56 kms faced at a very fast pace, the names of the lucky riders who formed the daily break were decided. And, between those names, there were also some surprises. Sprinters like Petacchi and Hushovd, strong all rounders like Pineau, Boasson Hagen, Fofonov and Tjallingii, time trialists like Bak and Gusev, a climber like Moncoutié and a brave engineer like Jeremy Roy: these were the 9 lucky men who rode peacefully towards Aubisque.

As the 9 men approached the climb, Lars Boom got retired, just like Isaichev and the already mentioned Kloden. Steegmans, instead, hadn't even started the stage because, after 10 days of pain, this morning he finally discovered that he has a broken bone in his hand. Therefore the Belgian decided to say 'Adieu!' to the French race, which so far has been extremely painful for most of the Quick Step riders.

When the Aubisque began, Thor Hushovd was the first rider to try and gain some time on his adversaries. But still, he was soon overtaken by Moncoutié and by Roy, who are less heavier than the Norwegian. The first rider to arrive at the top of the climb was Jeremy Roy who, at the time, had 2 minutes of advantage on Hushovd and Moncoutié. The other breakawayers instead had a bigger delay and therefore they had to say adieu to their dreams of glory with more than 40 kms to go. Dreams of glory which, at the time, had already started to dance in the head of Jeremy Roy.
Now, let's look at Jeremy Roy more carefully: his cycling-ID says that he's 28 year-old, that he's French and that he's been riding for Française des Jeux since he turned pro at the age of 20, although he could actually start racing in a professional way just when he ended his university studies 3 years ago.
Since the beginning of this year Tour from Passage du Gois, Roy has been looking for glory almost daily. Flat stages, mountains, hills, valleys: the Française des Jeux rider gave his best on many occasions and on many terrains. Until this morning, however, the rewards for his efforts had been just the most combative rider award and a decent amount of money (2000 euros), which he earned yesterday by becoming the first rider to ride atop of Tourmalet. As predictable, Jeremy wasn't satisfied by these prizes. In fact he wanted (and he still wants) a stage victory, which he would like to dedicate to his 1 month old baby.

While riding to Lourdes, Jeremy gave everything he had. He ordered his legs to shut up, he tried to catch his breathe several times and he tried to ignore the pain and the fatigue in his muscles. He was on his way to a stage victory in Lourdes, the city of miracles, the city where Bartali won more than 60 years ago: he couldn't believe it and he tried to make his dream last as long as possible. That's why he kept on giving it all, although he knew that two strong guys like Moncoutié and Hushovd were chasing hard behind him.

The World champion this afternoon was as determined as always - or, perhaps, even more determined than usual. Last week he had the honour of covering his rainbow jersey with a yellow one and he lived a great afternoon on Super Besse, as he managed to remain with the best grimpeurs of the world on a difficult climb. Then, on the following day, when he had to abandon the leader jersey, Thor probably realised that he still wasn't fully satisfied with his Tour de France: in fact, the icing on the cake was still missing. And for a guy like Thor (who has won at least one stage of the Tour every year since 2006), the icing on the cake could be just a great stage victory. His will to get a stage win made him enter today's breakaway and it forced him to chase Jeremy Roy with just one thing on his mind: the finish-line in Lourdes, where he could have won in front of thousandth of people, thus making all the Norwegians (and the Norwegian chronists in particular) go crazy once again. But still, in order to win Thor needed to annihilate his delay from Jeremy Roy.

With 20 kms to go, Roy still had a gap of 1 minute on his chasers. His ds was trying his best to encourage him, to make him grit his teeth once again because, in that way, he could have become the first Frenchman to win a stage in this year Tour. Jeremy grit his teeth and kept on pushing hard on his pedals, but the fatigue of the previous days soon started to claim its tribute. While Hushovd kept on pulling hard, Roy started to lose seconds. With 7 kms to go, he had just 20" of advantage on the Norwegian.

The final kms were extremely exciting - and heartbreaking. Hushovd was pulling and gaining time, whereas Jeremy was just losing seconds. 'Come on Jeremy, you still have a chance! Oh no, Thor is getting closer and closer and now even the wind has started to bother you! Poor Jeremy, come on! You deserve this victory and you can stil get it! David is not pulling, so it's a one-against-one battle! Come on boy, you can make it!', people were screaming from behind the barriers, from behind their televisions, from behind their computer screens. Unfortunately, those screams were in vain. With about 1 km to go, in fact, Hushovd overtook Roy with ease. Moncoutié followed the Norwegian, who soon dropped him as well, thus being able to cross the finish-line quietly, with his hands raised above the sky.

A few seconds after him, Moncoutié crossed the finish-line, whereas Roy was the third one to end the stage. Everyone's eyes were fixed on the brave French rider, which started to cry and which didn't feel better in spite of getting the polka dots jersey and the 'red number' as awards for his efforts. "Jerseys are only temporary", FDJ's ds said while talking about Jeremy's disappointment.

As Roy's sportive drama moved half of the cycling world, the other half was amazed by Thor's triumph in a stage between the mountains. By winning today's stage, Hushovd demonstrated that he's a perfect all rounder: this year he won the TdF stage featuring Aubisque, last year he won the cobblestones stage which cost a collarbone to Frank Schleck, two years ago he won on the little climb of Montjuic and a few years ago instead he triumphed on Champs Elysées. Calling Thor 'a sprinter' is unfair and we had a demonstration of that also this afternoon. 'We own the cycling world!', the Norwegian chronists screamed after Boasson Hagen's victory a few days ago. Well, with a rider like Thor, owing the cycling world doesn't even seem that difficult.

While the 'mors tua, vita mea' way of saying found another demonstration of its value in the battle between Hushovd and Roy, the Europcar team led the group on the narrow roads inside Lourdes. Voeckler looked a bit nervous this afternoon, especially when he asked Andy Schleck to help his team in the chase of Gilbert, who had escaped from the group at the end of Aubisque together with Bauke Mollema. In spite of that (and of the fact that the Belgian rider gained 2 minutes in the overall), Thomas managed to keep the yellow jersey in an easy way. Now the question is: will he manage to keep it also tomorrow? The question is difficult to answer, since Voeckler had one of the best days of his career on Plateau de Beille and is determined not to abandon the leader jersey. 'It's incredible how this jersey can transform a rider', Thomas said yesterday evening.
Unfortunately for him, tomorrow Voeckler will have to stand the attacks of the other GC riders, each of which hopes to win the stage and continue the tradition according to which, so far, all the riders who have won a stage ending on Plateau de Beille managed to be on the top spot of Paris podium a few days later. Will the tradition continue also this year? In case of a Schleck's victory, I really do hope so.

PS: Remember the 5 euros I betted on Hushovd yesterday? Well, unfortunately they were 5 imaginary euros. That means, no prize for me (just a big disappointment because I supported Roy in the last kms of race)!

(Pic by Bettini)

Fireworks towards Luz-Ardiden:

Ok, I admit it: I didn't watch yesterday's stage of the Tour because I preferred watching Harry Potter 7 in 3D. And, apparently, I made the right choice.

However, dear readers, the important stage was today's one: in fact this afternoon the Tour officially started also for the serious GC contenders - or, at least, it started for the GC contenders who are still up and running (and they aren't a lot).

So: 12th stage of the Tour de France 2011, from Cugnaux to Luz-Ardiden, on the 14th of July. A big day for Thomas Voeckler, a French rider who rides for a French team and who could wear the yellow jersey on one of the most important days for the French people. And, to my surprise, Thomas managed to keep the leader jersey without problems, so that he'll be able to wear it also tomorrow.

Actually, Logic thought that Voeckler could have been able to keep the leadership in the race, but she would have never imagined that he could have made it in such a brilliant way. In fact, the Frenchman managed to remain with the best climbers of the world for the whole day, showing his determination and his love for the French race to the whole world. Therefore, miss Fede takes the chance to send a big chapeau to monsieur Thomas Voeckler, also known as 'Give me a yellow t-shirt and I'll smash the world'.

Anyway, let's go back to the start of the stage. This morning the riders had three difficult climbs on their menu: Hourquette d'Ancizan, Tourmalet (aaah, sweet memories!) and Luz Ardiden, where Ullrich once waited for Armstrong, who had crashed because of a young supporter who had accidentally hit him with his rucksack. Since Lance was wearing the yellow jersey, the German rider decided to wait for him, thus becoming the protagonist of a good action that is still remembered nowadays.

Apparently, the stages to Luz Ardiden never bring good luck to the riders who wear the yellow jersey during them. This afternoon in fact also Voeckler crashed at the beginning of the descent towards Tourmalet. However, the Frenchman could immediately hop back on his bike and get back in the peloton, which waited for him. 'When the yellow jersey crashes, the peloton must wait for it', the Italian chronist said. Apparently, last year no one had informed Contador about that (or, perhaps, that rule doesn't apply if the yellow jersey has a mechanical).

Unfortunately, Voeckler wasn't the only one who crashed. In fact the athletes who were involved in his crash were a few and amongst them there were also important guys like Peter Velits and Andreas Kloeden. Luckily for Radioshack, tomorrow's stage ends in Lourdes, so that they'll be able to make a pilgrimage there in order to ask Virgin Mary for some good luck.

Also Geraint Thomas, who was one of the breakawayers du jour, had previously crashed in the very same point as Voeckler. The Welsh rider this afternoon showed us that his biking skills aren't actually that good, since in the descent towards Tourmalet he lost 40" from his companions of adventure (Kadri, Roy, Gutierrez, Mangel and Ruben Perez). However, the Sky rider could use his good uphill skills to catch his companions on Tourmalet and he was one of the last riders to get caught by the best climbers.

Talking about breakaways, this afternoon there were many guys who tried their luck. Amongst them there were also Chavanel and Kreuziger, who escaped from the peloton at the beginning of the first climb. I think that Chavanel attacked especially because he wanted to show off his jersey of National French Champion on the Bastille Day, whereas Roman probably hoped to win the stage. Kreuziger gave it all, but he never managed to reach the other breakawayers (the ones who had abandoned the company of the group after a few kms of race), so that his attack was in vain.

Johnny Hoogerland tried to break free from the peloton too this afternoon, probably because in that way he thought he had more chances to finish the stage within the time cut . Considering that our boy ended the stage 21 minutes after the winner and 12 minutes before the gruppetto, I think he can say 'Mission accomplished!' as he goes to bed tonight.

Talking about time cut and gruppetto: poor Denis Galimzyanov won't start tomorrow's stage because he didn't make it to the finish-line within the time cut. The gruppetto itself ended the stage 33' after the winner, which means that today's stage was really hard. Still talking about the gruppetto, this afternoon it was formed by a great amount of riders: 79 riders out of 175 ended the race all together, a few minutes before Galimzyanov. The other riders instead crossed the finish-line slowly, one after the other.

The toughness of the race was also a consequence of Leopard Trek's great efforts at the front. In fact, at the beginning of Tourmalet the whole Luxembourgian team got ready to set the pace at the head of the peloton. Unfortunately, I think that things didn't actually go as planned. Let me explain you why.

The first one to set a high pace at the front was Cancellara, whose efforts were followed by those of O'Grady and Voigt. The German engine made an amazing job and he managed to pull until the end of Tourmalet (and he even remained with the brothers until the beginning of the last climb). 'What's the problem then?', I hear some of you ask. Well, the problem is that, if Jens hadn't felt as good as he actually felt this afternoon, the brothers would have remained without helpers even before the end of the Tourmalet. In fact halfway through the climb guys like Gerdemann, Monfort and Fuglsang had already got dropped. So, what if one of the brothers had had a serious mechanical? Would have they remained all alone because they had run out of teammates?  I can understand that some riders can have a day off, but apparently this afternoon half of the Luxembourgian team didn't feel well. And, considering that this should be the strongest team of the world, I don't think they can be satisfied with that - or, at least, I think they can't be satisfied.

Anyway. End of the first bitchy moment du jour. Let's go on.

On the Tourmalet some important riders (Toni Martin, Robert Gesink, Ryder Hesjedal, Peter Velits, Andreas Kloeden and Christian Vandevelde) were dropped, whereas an amazing Gilbert kept the wheels of the best riders until the end of the climb. Then the wonderful Belgian champion attacked. His move was a bit suicidal, since it didn't bring him any benefit - but still, it was nice to see a Classic rider giving it all in one of the hardest mountain stages of the Tour.

Shortly after the beginning of the ascent towards Luz Ardiden, Kreuziger was caught by the group of the yellow jersey, whereas Roy and Thomas still had a little gap on the best climbers.

With 8 kms to go, Jelle Vanendert and Samuel Sanchez attacked. They found a good pace and they kept on riding together until the finish-line, when Samu managed to get the victory ahead of the 26 year old Belgian. Samu was really happy to win in front of his people (Pyrenées = Basque Country) and to be back in the top spots of the GC, whereas Jelle confirmed his great talent once again. Finally, after getting over some injuries of the past, this young man is ready to give his best - not only in the Classics but, as he showed us this afternoon, also in the GTs.

While Sanchez and Vanendert were riding happily to the finish-line, thus overtaking all the guys who had gone on a breakaway earlier, the battle between the giants of the Tour began. Andy and Frank Schleck, Contador and Evans were all there, but the one who started the duel was Basso, who ordered to his teammate Szmyd to start riding full gas. Sylwester is an excellent and loyal helper, who couldn't do well in the Giro because of a bad bronchitis. But now he's recovered and everyone could see that this afternoon.

While Szmyd was pulling, some talks were going on in the group of the best climbers. Frank and Andy talked to each other, whereas Contador talked to his teammates. Unfortunately, the magic trio of Saxo Bankers formed by Jesus Hernandez, Richie Porte and Chris Sorensen (it was strange to see him riding against my favourite brothers!) soon got dropped together with Nicolas 'Finding Nemo' Roche. The Irish rider soon started to suffer because of Szmyd's hellish pace (the poor thing has a sore knee right now) and it was touching to see him being helped by some teammates who, if only had they been allowed to, would have immediately hopped off their bikes in order to push Nicolas.

When Szmyd ended his turn at the front, just a few riders remained in the group of the yellow jersey, so that the Schleck brothers thought it was time to do something. The first one to attack was Frank, followed by Andy. Then the older brother attacked again until he finally managed to disappear from the sight of the other riders. Frank's attack was really impressive and, in about 3 kms, he almost managed to get back on Sanchez and Vanendert, who crossed the finish-line a few seconds ahead of the Luxembourgian.

In the meanwhile, Ivan Basso tried to attack twice, whereas Andy kept on paying attention to Contador. 'Attack!', I screamed. 'Attack!', I screamed again. 'ATTACK!!!', I shouted. And instead no, the one who attacked was Evans. Our Glorious Leader followed him together with Basso and the magic trio managed to cross the finish-line 13" ahead of Contador (and 20" after Frank Schleck). Cunego lost 5" to these three riders, whereas Voeckler arrived 7" after the Giro winner and thanked his teammate Rolland as they crossed the finish-line. Andy Schleck looked extremely tired as he crossed the finish-line, whereas Basso used some of his energy to turn his head and watch where Contador was.

So, this was today's stage. What can we say about the big GC contenders?

First of all I think that, although this afternoon Contador got dropped, no one should underestimate him. As Basso keeps on saying, 'one can win a Tour with just one attack'. And Alberto, if he's on a good day, can gain lots of seconds with just one attack made at the right moment.

Talking about the other riders, I must say that I loved Frank's attitude during today's race. But still, I think Andy should have tried to attack Evans. Cadel in fact is a very strong rider and, if bad luck doesn't hit him, he can make it to the top spot of Paris podium without many problems. He has the final TT on his side and, considering that he seems very solid also in the mountains, I think that Andy (and all those who want to win this Tour) should try to attack him as much as they can. In about 10 days the race will be over and, until there, the tough stages aren't that many. We're not in the Giro, where everyday there's at least one tough climb. We're at the Tour, a race in which a historical climb like Aubisque will be faced more than 40 kms far from the finish-line. Perhaps Andy had a bad day this afternoon or he was afraid to be worse than Contador, but I hope that in the next days he'll try to get some seconds of advantage on the Aussie. Because, unless he has some serious problems, it seems that this year it'll be hard to take the victory away from Evans.

Anyway, here's the GC after today's stage:

1	Thomas Voeckler (Fra)	51:54:44
2	Fränk Schleck (Lux)	0:01:49
3	Cadel Evans (Aus)	0:02:06
4	Andy Schleck (Lux)	0:02:17
5	Ivan Basso (Ita)	0:03:16
6	Damiano Cunego (Ita)	0:03:22
7	Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa)	0:04:00
8	Samuel Sanchez Gonzalez (Spa)	0:04:11
9	Thomas Danielson (USA)	0:04:35
10	Nicolas Roche (Irl)	0:04:57

I'm very happy about Cunego and Roche's placements and I hope that they'll keep the good stuff coming also in the next days. In the meanwhile, let's enjoy Frank and Andy's placements and let's hope they'll improve again in the next days.

As far as tomorrow is concerned, I'm going to bet 5 euros on Hushovd and 5 on Gilbert. Although, to say the truth, I think we shouldn't rule Cavendish and Farrar out of the 'possible winners list' either.

(Pic 1 by Sirotti, pic 2 by Bettini)

Tour de France presentation seen from Logic and from Fangirl:

For those of you who were afraid that the season here on My Blog had ended with Sunday post, here I am to reassure you that no, although the season has ended me will go on writing cyclistic bullshits during the whole winter. What a happiness.

As probably everyone in the world right now knows, the new Tour de France parcours was presented the other day in Paris. The parcours seems very well done and this time no cobblestones carnage are in sight.

The first stage starts at Passage du Gois and ends on Mont des Alouettes. So, no prologue for next year Tour, but a little ascent at the end of the first stage. The second stage is a 23 kms long team time trial (guys at Luxembourg Pro Cycling Team-is this the official name?-will probably be very happy about this, especially if it's true that Cancellara is joining them),while the 4th and the 7th stage are perfect for sprinters.

The 5th stage ends on Mur de Bretagne which, apparently, is the Britanny version of Muur de Huy. The 6th stage instead may be tricky because of the wind, while the following stage will probably end up in a sprint.

The eight stage instead ends at Super Besse. For those of you who have forgotten it, that's where Riccò won a stage in 2007 Tour de France,on the day when a very unlucky Andy Schleck lost some precious seconds because the yellow jersey (Schumacher?) had crashed right in front of him.

3 stages (and a rest day) later the riders will arrive on Luz-Ardiden, first 'serious' uphill finish of the race. On that stage the riders will also have to face le Tourmalet and another new (and apparently difficult) climb, so we supporters will surely have a lot of fun. The following day the stage will start in Pau and end in Lourdes and on the parcours the riders will have to face L'Aubisque (although the finish-line is 50 kms far from the top of the last climb). The last stage in the Pyranees instead will end on Plateau de Beille.

After these 3 tough stages, the riders will arrive in Montpellier, have a rest day and then face another flat stage ending in Chateaux. Then, on the 20th of July, they will start from Gap and arrive in Pinerolo after facing Monginevro and Sestriere. Hopefully, I'll be there ready to cheer on the riders.

The following stage will start in Italy and see the riders facing Colle dell'Agnello, col d'Izoard and finishing their daily fatigue on Col du Galibier. A day later, the riders instead will face Telegraph and Galibier before of ending up on l'Alpe d'Huez. Mont Ventoux is actually harder than Alpe d'Huez, but obviously l'Alpe is the climb on which every rider would love to win one day.

After these last days of pain, the riders will face an individual time trial in Grenoble, which will be 41 kms long. Then, the following day, we'll know the name of the 2011 Tour de France winner and the riders will have their usual parade on les Champs Elysées.

So, this is the parcours. Me likes it because it seems reasonably hard and because there are just a few kms against the clock. Then it looks like there won't be too many boring stages and this is obviously good. Moreover, the only stage that seems a bit dangerous on paper is the first one, with the riders facing Passage du Gois. Anyway, according to some experts, this time this stage won't create a carnage like the one of 1999 because the Passage will be faced at the beginning of the day, and not at its end (let's hope so). Then, last but not least, the riders are coming to Italy for one stage and, as an Italian, I'm obviously very happy about this.
Anyway, that's what Logic suggested me to write. Now, it's time for Fangirl to write her ideas about the Tour presentation. And, as you've probably already started to fear, this is the moment of the post in which me will talk briefly about skinny men dressed in suits.

At this year presentation Contador and his shiny pink tie weren't present, but this time the one who decided to wear pink was Vinokourov. After watching him dressed that way, I think everyone has understood why Astana kits get worse year after year.

Thor Hushovd looked great in his casual look (I loved the blue shirt), while Ivan Basso's green scarf (see pictures on Tim De Waele's website) terrified me. Nibali instead looked good, just like the Schleck brothers. Andy finally decided to give us the honour of seeing him dressed in a suit at a Tour presentation, and I thank him for this. Imo, he probably looked better than everyone else on Tuesday (even better than Frank). Cavendish opted for a more casual look, but I didn't like it very much. Evans was ok, just like Hincapie and Voeckler.

Sastre went for a classical grey suit that made him look terribly old. Menchov opted for a classical look too and looked very bored at the presentation. Poor Denis, trapped between the Schleck brothers and the Italian couple Nibali-Basso (or at least, that's what it seemed from some pictures).

Pozzato, for once, didn't wear anything of particularly strange and had to seat next to Vinokourov. Something tells me that Pippo gave Vino some advice about his look and this may have horrible consequences for next year's season (read: Vino could wear moustache at next year Giro/Tour/Liége/whatever else). If this happens, we'll know who we'll have to put the blame on,

As far as the other riders are concerned, I didn't see anyone making fashion disasters. Hopefully, the boys will dress well also on Saturday.

So, this was the presentation of 2011 Tour de France (and Fangirl's stupid opinions about what was fashionable on Tuesday and what wasn't). While waiting for the Giro presentation on Saturday (please tell me they're arriving in Bergamo city and not in Caravaggio!), I close this useless post by wishing you a good night.

A fangirl in Milan:

Sorry for the delay,but yesterday I was too busy to write a decent post about Sunday. On that day in fact my family and I decided to go to Milan to see the 9th stage of the Giro.Here are some pics and some funny stories about what happened...
Frst of all,that's the place were riders went to sign the start document (I don't know how you call it in English,sorry for my ignorance).

As soon as my family and I arrived in Piazza Duomo,we saw Cipollini and Bettini talking in front of the crowd.I didn't have anything to do,so I took a photo of the Cricket.

Then Ilaria and I finally met and we went to watch the riders arrive at the start.My sister and I took some videos of the riders,but the only one in which you can see someone very well is Pozzato's one.And,sorry for Sansen,I'm not going to post that video on this blog.Fortunately he wasn't the only one we saw at the start line.Just to say one name,for example,we saw Thomas Lovkvist.My mother begged him for an autograph,but he said "NO".Btw my sister forgave him after 2 seconds because,while he was riding in front of us,he heard her screaming "Bravo Thomas!",so he turned his head towards her and smiled at her. Surprisingly,my sister didn't faint.
Then we saw also His Amazingness Jens Voigt (who said something to the Dutch guy near me),Menchov,Di Luca and Armstrong.I really laughed a lot when an Italian rider of Fuji Servetto rode in front of us and said: "Fuck,cobblestones!!!" while riding.The funniest thing was that he wasn't actually riding on cobblestones...Perhaps he had some bad memories of Bergamo's stage (or,more probably,of Roubaix).
When the last rider (sir Lancelot) had signed the start document,we decided to go to eat and to find a good place where we could see the race well.

This was the crowd near to the finish line: at 2 pm in the afternoon there was nobody there and so we managed to watch some laps from that point of view,then we left our "battle places" for some time and,when we came back there at 4.30 pm,they had disappeared.
Anyway we managed to find some places which were even better than the ones at the finish line.

In fact the place you can see down here was not very crowded and then it was just in front of the team's buses.

This one is Katushsa's bus:it's a really big and nice one and it has a big television inside.In fact all the fans went there to see the final sprint (which was won by Cavendish). After watching the sprint,my family ran to Columbia's bus (that you can see here)...
...while Ilaria and I ran to Saxo Bank's one. As you can see in this photo,there was a little table with some nuts and crisps on.Then a man with a lot of bread came,but none of the riders ate anything.

After few seconds,Cancellara arrived at the bus (see pics on Ilaria's blog).A boy asked for his gloves and Fabian replied: "I give it to you if you give me 50 euros".He said it in a really funny way and also the boy started to laugh.After having put his bike near to the bus,Fab Fab started to talk with the mechanic.He said something about his tyre and about the parcours,then he went on the bus,without considering us poor fans begging him for an autograph in 3 different languages.

Fortunately Amazing Jens Voigt was the next to arrive at the bus and he immediately signed lots of autographs and then went with the other guys to take a fast shower.

There were a lot of fans near to SB bus and most of them (me included) was waiting for Cancellara's autograph.Anyway,he kept on ignoring us.At a certain point Lars Bak (who looks much better live than in tv,just like Klostergaard does) got on the bus and came back with lots of photos of him.He gave one of them to each fan and then signed them.Then he forgot whose pen was the one he was using,so he watched me and tried to give it to me.I shook off my head and he remembered that the pen was actually his.Then he laughed and went back to the other guys.

Also Uncle Bjarne gave me his autograph and then Jens Voigt started to watch me and,after a while,he came up to me.In fact he had forgotten he'd already given me his autograph,so I reminded it to him.Anyway,I couldn't let him go away without a photo with him,could I? Fortunately Ilaria was near to me,so she could take this nice photo (I look like an hamster,but Voigt looks good):15 minutes after the photo,I finally managed to get the autograph of Cancellara.I was sooo happy!!! When the guys started to get prepared to go away,I went to meet my family near to Columbia's bus.I didn't take any photo of Saxo Bankers because we've got just one photograph machine and my sister took it with her because she hoped to make a photo with mr.Lovkvist. Anyway,I think she used it well:here are Columbia's bikes......and here is Michael Rogers,who gave his autograph to my mother.

Here's Boasson-Hagen being interviewed by Norwegian tv:it was his birthday and so the journalist (a cute girl,that's what my mother told me) gave him a big birthday cake.All the fans noticed he was very embarassed:in fact he blushed red and spoke in a very shy way.
And finally,here he is:Thomas Lovkvist.My sister made some videos with him,but they're all very short and not very nice.That's the only photo she took of him.She eventually managed to get his autograph:she said it was pretty hard since he made a strange road in order to get to the bus without meeting fans.Anyway,my sister was cunnier than him and waited for Emo Boy in front of the bus' entrance,so that he had to sign her an autograph if he wanted to get on the bus. As soon as I rejoined my family,they told me a nice story about Konovalovas,a young (and cute) rider of Cervélo.My mother asked him for an autograph and said that he looked at her,told her to wait a minute,got on the team bus and came back with lots of photos of him,of his teammates and a big poster of the team,which he gave to my familiars as present.So cute!!

Another cute rider is Silence-Lotto Francis De Greef.I went to ask for his autograph while he was looking for his shoes inside the team car (I swear I didn't know he was busy,otherwise I wouldn't have gone near to him!),so he smiled at me,closed the car and signed the autograph.He's a really nice guy and he really seemed surprised and pleased when he noticed that there was someone who wanted his autograph.

A rider that my sister really wanted to see was Cavendish.And,eventually,she managed to see him.He arrived last,when his team bus had already left.A fan near to me congratulated him for the victory and then told him: "I'm your friend on Facebook!".Cav looked a bit thoughtful and surprised,then he said (In Italian): "No io.E'...American." ("It's not me.He's an American").
Then he agreed to take a picture with my sister and I:

Then,while we were walking out of the bus area,we had a final surprise:in fact we saw Basso,riding fast toward us.Some fans called him and he,in a very kind and polite way,stopped himself,signed autographs,took some photos and then rode away,apologising for being in a terrible hurry.He's a very kind guy as well.Without any doubt,Sunday was a very nice day.
(All photos were taken by me and my sister)