Unstoppable Cavendish takes the rainbow jersey!!

First of all, let's say that I'm not in a very good mood right now. I couldn't see the Worlds 'live' (I've just finished watching the recordings), I didn't sleep enough last night and I must learn how to write every letter of the Cyrillic aphabet in corsive characters before tomorrow. Therefore, I hope you will forgive me for the bitchy moments that I'll have while writing this post.

So, the Copenhagen Worlds 2011 - also known as the only Tour de France flat stage that was raced at the wrong time of the year (today, 25th September 2011) and in the wrong part of Europe. Seriously,in my opinion the only difference between the Copenhagen Worlds and the boring flat stages of the Touris the fact that the winner of a TdF flat stage usually receives a yellow jersey, whereas the cyclist who won today's special stage received a special rainbow jersey.

To prove you that I'm not joking when I say that today's Worlds race was just like a TdF stage, I'll give you 3 proves:

First: HTC ruled the race, just like it usually does at the Tour.

Second: the last 2 kms of race featured 8 traffic islands, one roundabout and a curve with 800 meters to go - just like at the Tour.

Three: Thomas Voeckler attacked.

Anyway, back to 'seriousness'. During the whole race (which lasted 5 hours and 40 minutes) I counted three thrilling moments: the final sprint, the crash that destroyed Hushovd's hopes of winning another edition of the Worlds and the moment when they showed Bjarne Riis next to his super-hot son. Yes, these were the three top moments of the race. Every single breakaway in fact looked hopeless even before it was created, especially because the whole British team worked extremely hard in order to chase every man that managed to break clear from the peloton. The funny thing is that, since Great Britain didn't look strong enough, with 18 kms to go someone (the Irish rider Brammeier) decided to help Wiggo & Co. in their attempt of chasing the brave riders (Voeckler, Lodewyck, N. Sorensen and Hoogerland) who had just managed to create the last, desperate breakaway. Of course, the British/Irish poursuivants succeeded without problems.

The last 5 kms of race were the only exciting things of the day. Great Britain looked perfect, Australia was struggling to find a place in the sun for Goss, Italy and Spain were desperately trying to create a leadout train. Sagan was in the first part of the peloton, Boasson Hagen was invisible, the cameras still hadn't caught a glimpse of Farrar's face.

And in the end, after about 5'39" hours of race, the final sprint began: Cavendish ruled it, Goss arrived second, an amazing Greipel was third. Fourth was a super surprising Cancellara (well done to Barbara who yesterday evening included both him and Cav in his 'top favourites' list!!), 5th was Roelandts, 6th was Romain Feillu. The underestimated Bozic was 7th and he crossed the finish-line right before Boasson Hagen, Freire and Farrar. Sagan was 12th, Bennati was 14th. Frank Schleck didn't finish the race whereas his brother Andy didn't bother taking part in it because of some strange connections between his wisdom teeth problems and a possible heart muscle infection (his words, not mine!).

Anyway. The 2011 Worlds have come and gone and they'll always be remembered as the race with the easiest parcours of the last 10 years. Cipollini, who won the rainbow jersey in Zolder in 2002, said that this year the parcours was even easier than on that occasion. As an Italian chronist said, 'this year the roads of the Worlds Championship didn't choose the World Champion of cycling, they chose the World Champion of sprinters'. Of course we all know that Cavendish is a champion (he won Sanremo in 2009 and everyone knows that La Primavera isn't an easy race at all), but this parcours was simply too easy to be fun/good: not a hill, not a climb, not a slope. Nothing. I personally compared it to a TdF stage, but with a difference (as well as the 'colour of the jersey' one): in the TdF you need also a lot of luck to win a flat stage and, even if you fail winning the first bunch sprint of the race, you can give it another try about 24 hours later. This afternoon, instead, it was a matter of 'do or die': those who weren't lucky enough or who had problems with their leadout trains will never get a second chance.

Talking about 'having problems with your leadout train': Italy made a mess in the last kms of race, but I think everyone expected that. Bennati is a good rider, but not a champion, whereas Modolo and Viviani are still too young to win a World Championship. Criticising the boys is useless, because Bettini created the best possible team for this Worlds. And if you're disappointed because the Azzurri didn't win any medal, then go ask the Italian Cycling Federayion why they didn't allow us to bring Petacchi to Copenhagen.

So, the 2011 Worlds week is over. Now some riders will go on holiday, whereas some will keep on fighting until Tour of Lombardy. In the meanwhile, cycling market and polemics will surely keep us busy: Cancellara and Fuglsang in fact have recently announced that they've signed a contract with team RaNT (chorus of 'Nooooooo!!' coming from the fangirls of the whole world), whereas Teutenberg, Bronzini and Vos reacted openly to Pat McQuaid's words about the creation of a 'minimum wage rule' for women riders. The UCI president in fact has stated that the women's movement 'hasn't developed enough' to deserve a rule like that. Of course, these words are going to create a very hot debate in the next days.

PS: LeopardTrek's information system gave us another special moment this afternoon. In fact, right after the race, on their Facebook page they published an article called 'Cancellara takes the bronze medal also in the Road Race!' Amazing, isn't it?

Some cycling news plus Royal Wedding Fever (yes, I've come down with it too)

Almost one week after my last post, here I am writing a few things about cycling and about (guess what?) the Royal Wedding. Oh yes. You thought you could break free from the 'event of the year' by ending up on this blog, didn't you? Well, sorry to disappoint you, but I've come down with 'the Royal Wedding Fever' too. If you feel you can't stand another long comment of someone about the 'marriage of the century', go to the second part of my post: I won't be offended by your decision.
Actually, in the last months I did try to ignore the royal marriage as long as I could. After all, I don't know Kate and William, so I thought that I shouldn't have cared so much about their wedding. 'Just leave them a bit of privacy, poor things!', I thought every time I heard news about their marriage.
Just this morning I abandoned my indifferent attitude and I started feeling pretty excited about the wedding. So excited (and curious) that, as soon as I came home, I abandoned my dignity in the garden, entered the house and immediately asked: 'What was Kate wearing this morning?!?' to the first person I saw (who was my dad, aka the only creature in the house who hadn't watched the wedding). Ok, perhaps I've exaggerated this part. Actually, I must confess that the first thing I asked as soon as I entered the house was: 'How many seconds of advantage does Sorensen have on the peloton?'. Then, I asked about the wedding :P

In the last days I've tried to give a reason for all the big interest around weddings and , in particular, I've thought a bit about why women love marriages so much.
In my opinion, there are at least three elements that make most of us women go crazy about weddings. First of all, there's a 'historical' reason, if we can call it this way. In fact, girls start hearing stories like 'Snow White' and 'Cinerella' when they're 3/4 year old and they don't forget about them until they eventually come down with Alzheimer. These fairy tales enter our girly genes as soon as we start understanding things, just like they entered our mothers and our grandmothers' genes in the past. And how do these fairy tales always end? Well, simple: there's a commoner who marries a gorgeous prince and has an amazing wedding. An amazing wedding with 4 WHITE horses pulling a carriage, the prince wearing his best uniform, the bride wearing the most beautiful dress ever and the church bells ringing happily as soon as the married couple leaves the church. Now, compare this typical 'happy ending' of a fable to the story (and the marriage) of Kate Middleton: there isn't any difference,is there? (No, the fact that William is becoming bald can't be considered a difference). Imo, that's what we girls love so much about important weddings: every time, it's like watching a fairy tale that comes true.
Another important 'marriage love' factor, imo, is that there's a truly important wedding just once (or twice) every 30 year. Watching it (even if on your own little telly) makes you feel like you're part of the history of the world, it makes you able to say 'I was there!' when people in the future will talk about the wedding of William of England and his wife. After all, who doesn't love being part of the world history?
As we girls grow up, actually, another 'wedding love' factor makes its appearance on the stage: the love for dresses. And where can you see more dresses than at a wedding? And where can you see more dresses than at a royal wedding?
I think it's because of these three reasons that many people (especially women) couldn't help watching the wedding this morning (or catching up with it this afternoon). Apropos, thank you BBC News for the super long coverage!!!

Anyway, I realise I'm digressing. Talking about the Royal Wedding, I must say that I really liked it. Kate looked very nice and natural and with William she forms a very nice couple. Talking about the Prince, my mother's best comment about the ceremony was: 'Poor guy! And to say he had so much hair when he was a kid!' Btw fear not, William: you can ask Berlusconi what treatment he used to make his hair reappear on his head again. If it succeeded with him, it will surely succeed also with you.
Talking about fashion, I really liked the dresses worn by Kate (of course), by her sister, her mother and by Victoria Beckham. As far as the Queen is concerned, my sister said 'she looks like a banana'. I actually found her very sweet, in her yellow dress, looking like a normal granny who goes to her nephew's wedding. Actually, this morning the most discussed issue at school was: how does William address to her grandmother? I mean, does she call her 'Dear Grandmother'? Or does he refer to her as to 'Her Majesty'? Or do Harry and Will simply call her 'Betty the Granny'? (It's a fascinating topic of discussion, isn't it?)
Still talking about today's topics of discussion at school, one of the most 'successful' ones was the following: 'which prince am I going to marry?' Here you have some pictures of the Princes that haven't got married yet. Most of my friends went for Harry, but I'm afraid that they're not the only ones who had this idea today, while watching the marriage...
Talking about the nobles who took part in the ceremony, it was nice to see the faces of some people whose existence I had ignored until this morning. I was really curious to see the Grand Duke of Luxembourg (of course) and I was shocked when I saw the dresses of two of the members of the Royal Family (the Duchesses of York, perhaps?). However, I was very relieved that no one from Italian government attended the ceremony. Otherwise, we would have distinguished ourselves in a negative way even today. Moreover, I was very happy to see that no one from Casa Savoia went at the wedding either. I wouldn't have beared it if Emanuele Filiberto had started singing and dancing at the post-ceremony party. In fact, whereas Holland has a guy like Boogerd taking part in 'Dancing with the Stars', the Italian edition of the programme has had the Prince Emanuele Filiberto amongst its most famours performers. Thanks God Italy's no longer a monarchy.

CYCLING NEWS:
After expressing my few trivial thoughts about THE wedding, let's finally talk about cycling. Today was a joyful day for the whole AAVL, who could cheer for Vinokourov's victory in Neuchatel stage of Tour de Romandie. Vino followed Toni Martin (who had attacked with 2 kms to go) together with Cherel and he eventually won the eventual 3 men sprint. Cherel complained about Vino's way of sprinting, but imo the Kazakhistan rode in a correct way. The Frenchman tried to pass where there was no space, it's not Vino's fault if he made that mistake!
Still talking about Tour de Romandie, yesterday stage was won by Damiano Cunego and everyone was very happy about it (at least here in Italy). Moreover, CA Sorensen tried to escape from the peloton yesterday and he tried again this afternoon. Today he's even remained alone at the front o the race for some time, before being eventually caught with just 10 kms to go. Chris looks very good in these days and this makes me ask why he's not taking part in the Giro (and the same goes for Vinokourov and Cunego).
A rider who certainly won't take part in the Corsa Rosa is poor Daniele Bennati, who crashed two days ago in Romandie and broke his right collarbone and 4 ribs. I wish him a fast recovery and I hope he'll be able to race problems-free in the second part of the season.
Also Kiserlovski has had some physical problems lately. The Croatian rider in fact has just discovered that he has a cracked vertebrae, which is a consequence of his Paris-Nice crash (the one in which he ended up under a truck parked at the side of the road). Hopefully he'll be able to take part in the Giro, since I have high expectations on him.
Talking about another race that is going on right now, Tour of Turkey is a goldmine for sprinters. In fact, every stage of the race so far has been won by a sprinter. Today it was the turn of Andre Greipel, whereas Saxo Banker Jaroslaw Marycz, who attacked in the last km of race, couldn't get to the top 3. However, chapeau for trying.
So, these are some of the cycling news of the last days. As you can see, it isn't much. In the next days I'll probably post something about the Giro, so stay tuned!

Team Leopard-Trek presentation:

To everyone's joy, miss Fede is back on her blog after an entertaining (and devasting) short holiday in Vienna. Many things have happened in the cycling world and in the Blogosphere over the last days, so let's start talking about them.
First of all, I want to say that I'm very sorry for the disappearance of the Schleckland blog. However, I'm sure that Cougar Girl had her good reasons to stop writing it and I think that she's not obliged to tell us what happened. Btw, I'd like to thank her here for the good time I had while reading her hilarious posts. I'm going to miss them a lot, CG, and I wish you all of the best for your future.

On to another issue, someone has recently come across my blog by writing 'radom' in Google. I'm astonished.
Anyway, let's now talk about some important events that happened last week. Or, better, let's talk about THE event that took place last week, aka Team Luxembourg's presentation. During it, we poor supporters finally discovered that the official name of the team is Team Leopard-Trek and we could finally see the team's kits. It was high time (and the guys in the pic below completely agree with me)!!

First of all, let's say that the presentation was attended by about 4000 fans and by Pat McQuaid in person. At the beginning the riders were wearing black suits and white shirts. None of them wore a tie, a thing that surprised me a bit. In fact, miss Fede has always loved men with suits and ties, mainly because that's what John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd were wearing in the Blues Brothers movie (my favourite film ever). Anyway, the Leopard riders accompanied their suits with some scarves. Talking about scarves, here you have a nice picture of Fuglsang, looking as lovely as usual at the presentation.
If you, like me, couldn't watch it live, on http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/team-leopard-trek-presentation-video there's a video of the presentation, which made me notice Kim Andersen's good German. From the vid the presentation looked very exciting, no doubts that the organisers did a very good job with it. However, why did the guy playing with the circle wear a zebra kit? It should have been a leopard kit, shouldn't it?
Anyway. Talking about the part of the show in which the riders were presented, it was very nice to see the new guys, especially the young 'unknown' ones.
Stefan Denifl looked really handsome, although I had the impression he was a bit embarassed. Martin Pedersen looked very nice too, although he looked short next to the woman who was presenting (she was wearing very high heels and that didn't help at all).
When the woman had to present Bennati and Viganò, she obviously pronounced those names in a pretty wrong way. Italian names aren't easy to pronounce, but here's a clue for everyone of you who'd like to say them correctly. First of all, the double 'n' in Bennati's name and the accent on Viganò's last 'o' aren't there just because they look good. They're there because you should stress the last 'o' of Davide's surname and because you should double the 'n' in Daniele's one. Oh, and since I'm talking about this boring subject, let me remind you that you should say Nìbali (and not Nibàli) and Cùnego (and not Cunégo). Ok?
Talking about Bello Benna, he looked very nice on the stage and the man who was presenting told him (in Italian) that he was a very handsome boy. What a funny man. Still talking about the riders on the stage, Brice Feillu looked taller than ever, while Fuglsang was incredibly lovely and made many fangirls melt (right Leela and Mar?).
The Schleck brothers were the last guys to be presented, together with Fabian Cancellara. The brothers received great applauses, that were completely deserved. They got on the stage with their new bikes and I must say that I really do like them (although light blue isn't actually one of my favourite colours).Let's now talk briefly about the team kits. I'm not that keen on classic looks, therefore I find the new jerseys boring and unoriginal. Moreover, I don't like the national champions jerseys at all (how are we supposed to recognise those riders during the races?). But still, the designers were intelligent enough to use black shorts and they didn't make a complete disaster. So, I think we can all have a sigh of relief now that we've seen the new kit, which isn't as horrible as Footon Servetto's 2010 one. In addition, I predict we'll get used to it in few weeks time.My last thought about the team presentation is that it looked as if there was a very thrilling atmosphere in Luxembourg that night. It was pretty strange to realise this, because it doesn't happen often to feel such strong emotions while watching a video on the computer. Actually, while watching the replay of the presentation I had the feeling that a big new adventure has begun. If I feel this way and I'm just a supporter, I can't imagine how the guys on the team must feel now...
So, this was the long awaited presentation of team Leopard-Trek. My post doesn't probably add anything new to what has already been said/written/thought about it over the last days, also because I've come back in contact with the cycling world just today. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it anyway. As I said, a new big adventure has just begun- and now, finally, it is true racing time.

(pictures from Bettini and Cyclingnews)