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?

La Vuelta: crashes, victories and heat

Spain is a hot country, everyone knows that. And that is the reason why Spaniards are known in the world for their very particular daily routines. For example, they have lunch at 2 pm, they dine at 10 pm and their shops are usually closed from 2.30 pm to 5.30 pm. These three hours of the afternoon are usually dedicated to the so called 'siesta', aka the moment of the day during which people can relax and defend themselves from the hot temperatures outside their houses. Unfortunately, the three hours of the siesta are also the hours in which cycling races usually take place. Now: take the wonderful Spanish cities, take some of the best riders of the world and have them racing in Spain in the warmest afternoons of the year. To make this recipe even better, add a few climbs and shake everything with energy. Then, serve this dish to all the cycling supporters you know: they'll surely approve. Oh, and if they ask you the name of this tasty dish, tell them that it's called 'Vuelta a España' and that they can have a free sample of it every day for three weeks between the end of August and the first half of September.

So far the 2011 edition of la Vuelta has been very exciting and also very moving. Drama, excitement, sufference, joy: this is cycling, this is la Vuelta.

The third stage of the race was a very exciting one: whereas in other competitions you must wait at least one week before you can start experiencing some emotions not connected to riders crashing and retiring, the Spanish competition is known for its exciting and always thrilling parcours. On Monday, for example, people expected the race to end with a bunch sprint. Instead, 5 brave and strong riders (Irizar, Lastras, Chavanel, Pydgornyy and Edet) attacked after 6 kms of race and successfuly exploited the hilly terrain of the stage in order to stay out of the peloton's reach for the rest of the day. 

After 90 kms of race, the unlucky Edet was dropped by his companions because he had been stung by an insect. In the meanwhile, Cavendish and Kittel were having problems too and they soon got dropped by the peloton. They eventually crossed the finish-line 12 minutes after the winner (and together with tough guys like Taylor Phinney, Toni Martin and Nick Nuyens). This sudden defaillance obviously caused the alarm-level in the heads of Cannonball' supporters to raise. The Manx rider in fact showed he's not in a very good form already in the TTT, when he got dropped from his teammates. Will Mark manage to get back into shape before the Worlds? That is the question everyone would like to answer.

As Cav and Kittel were struggling, Team Leopard tried to defend Bennati's leader jersey. On the last climb of the day, however, the peloton lead was taken by team Sky, which did their best in order to set a good pace at the front.

With about 13 kms to go, the breakaway still had an advantage of about 1' 30" on the main peloton and Chavanel, Irizar, Pydgornyy and Lastras all started to dream of the stage victory. The Movistar rider was particularly keen on getting this victory, especially because his last victory before Monday dated back to 2008. Not a flattering thing for a rider who has improved a lot in the last few years and who has often been close to getting prestigious results... Lastras was aware of that and, right before the end of the last climb, he laucnhed a strong attack, thuis dropping Chavanel & Co. Pablo gave it all in the last kms of race and he eventually managed to cross the finish-line in triumph. Even in this great moment of joy, however, the Spaniard had a thought for some colleagues of his who aren't in the peloton anymore. In particular, Pablo dedicated his victory to his teammates Xavier Tondo and Mauricio Soler and to the Belgian rider Wouter Weylandt. "I think that I won today because of the expertise that I've built up as a veteran rider, I think it was a good win", the Movistar rider told Cyclingnews after his victory. "I really wanted to raise my arms at the finish today and I dedicate the win to Xavi Tondo and to my teammate Soler who is very ill, as well as to all the friends who have been lost this year". As well as winning the stage, Lastras also managed to get the leader jersey. In fact the former owner of the red jersey, Daniele Bennati, ended his day on the saddle 3' 06" after Lastras. However, 'The Panther' was in good company: also Denis Menchov, Steven Kruijswijk and Robert Kiserlovski finished the stage with him, 23" later than the other GC contenders.

On the following day, the riders had to face the Sierra Nevada climb. A tough day for the riders, not just because of the heat and of the toughness of the final climb, but also because of the memories.

Exactly three months before, in fact, the Movistar rider Xavier Tondo lost his life in a garage atop of Sierra Nevada, a few meters far from the finish-line of Tuesday stage.

Benoit Inxausti, who was with Xavier on that day, finished the stage 18' after the winner. 'I still remember a lot of what happened on that day. I would prefer not to remember it, but I can't help it. And tomorrow, I'll remember that moment in an even worse way', the young rider said at the end of Monday's stage.

The first uphill finish of the Vuelta wasn't clement with the riders who weren't in a good form. With 10 kms to go, halfway up the final climb, Igor Antòn (one of the main contenders for the overall victory) lost contact from the rest of the peloton and ended the stage 1' 38" after the winner. Mark Cavendish, on the other hand, got retired with 40 kms to go. 'I'm tired and I want to sleep', he said as he hopped on his team car, before hiding his head with a towel in order to get shelter from the photographers.

As the last climb began, the breakawayers du jour were caught and Liquigas took the lead. With 5 kms to go, however, Chris Anker Sorensen managed to escape from the peloton. The Danish rider was followed just by Daniel Moreno and really gave it all in order to get a victory for his newborn daughter Laerke. Unfortunately, in the end the stage winner was Moreno, who got the victory by outsprinting Chris  in the last few meters of race. In spite of that, Sorensen was pretty happy after the stage. 'It’s huge to finish second on Sierra Nevada and I’m naturally proud of the result. The team put me in a great position at the foot of the climb. Rafa Majka was close to me and his attack created the opportunity for me to launch a counter-attack. Moreno was simply stronger than me. I tried to drop him with 1.5 kilometers to go, but he remained with me and maybe he was even fresher than me. However, I have no regrets and I will try winning again'.

As most of the GC contenders seemed to ride on the climb without many problems, the race leader Lastras ended the stage 18 minutes after Moreno and 17 minutes after Chavanel, who became the new leader of the race.

On the following afternoon, another tough climb was waiting for the riders: the Valdepenas de Jaén wall, which is 2 kms long and whose central slopes have an average of 24%. With about 8 kms to go, David Moncoutié went on a solo attack. He got caught with 2 kms to go, after that Liquigas had chased him at a very fast pace. When Dani Moreno attacked in the steepest part of the wall, the only ones who could follow him were his captain (and favourite du jour) Joaquin Rodriguez, the surprising Wout Poels and Vincenzo Nibali. Unfortunately the Liquigas rider isn't as good as Rodriguez at riding on extremely steep climbs, so he soon had to abandon the rear wheel of the Spaniard who, led by Moreno, managed to get a prestigious victory on one of the hardest short climbs of Europe.

Bauke Mollema was a great 4th, whereas Scarponi was 5th, Fuglsang was 7th, Roche 8th and Menchov (who usually prefers longer climbs) was 14th. Sylvain Chavanel grit his teeth and managed to keep the leader jersey for another day.

Today's stage saw the peloton riding towards the amazing city of Còrdoba and losing some important riders. Kurt - Asle Arvesen's retire was caused by the consequences of his surreal crash of the day before, when he hit a child who was picking up a water bidon in the middle of the road. At that point the riders were riding at 75 kmph and, as a consequence of the crash, Arvesen's bike got shattered and Kurt-Asle suffered some bruises. The child suffered some bruises as well, but he didn't break any bone. The Sky rider managed to finish yesterday's stage, but this afternoon he decided to retire from the competition. The Norwegian has no broken bones and has promised that he would do his best to make it to the Norwegian line-up for Copenhagen Worlds. That in fact would surely be the perfect way to end his amazing career.

Unfortunately, Arvesen wasn't the only one who crashed badly in the last few hours and who had a lot of bad luck during the whole season. In fact, a breakout news says that Matti Breschel (who crashed during today's stage) has two broken fingers and isn't likely to take part in the Worlds.

Talking about crashes, however, it must be underlined that la Vuelta isn't experiencing the same amount of crashes as the Tour. Of course this is a consequence of the fact that the riders are  less nervous and stressful in the Spanish race, but the hilly terrain of the first few stages surely helped the peloton to avoid the dangerous situations that supporters had to witness during the first week of the Tour de France 2011.

As some riders abandoned the race and some other ones tried their luck by going on a breakaway (Taylor Phinney was amongst them), some sprinters (Haussler, Farrar, Petacchi, Haedo) lost contact from the main group. As a consequence, Bennati's team started to set the pace in the final kms, but the situation changed when, with about 20 kms to go, David Moncoutié attacked on on the 'Alto del catorce por ciento' ('Mountain of the 14%'). The Frenchman was soon joined by Toni Martin, Kevin Seeldrayers and David De La Fuente, whereas Liquigas took control of the main peloton. In the last few kms, the whole Liquigas team set a hellish pace on a downhill road and this caused a split in the peloton. Four Liquigas riders (the team leader Nibali, Peter Sagan, Valerio Agnoli and Eros Capecchi) found themselves at the head of the peloton together with an intruder, Pablo Lastras. Behind them, Chavanel understood that his leadership in the race was in danger and gave it all to limit his time loss. With him there were Rodriguez and Toni Martin, one of the best time trialists of the world.

Liquigas rode a superb TTT towards Cordoba, whereas the chasers couldn't get any closer. When the final sprint was launched, Sagan easily won in front of Lastras, whereas Agnoli made a big mistake. In fact he crossed the finish-line in third, thus stealing the bonus of 8" from his captain. Nibali looked slightly angry at that but, after all, everyone knows that it's hard to think things through when you're riding at 75 kmph and adrenaline is running through your body. However, at the end of the day, Liquigas can surely be happy with what they've achieved. So far Nibali has raced like a true champion, since he attacked whenever he could and he had his team working really well. Antòn has already got a big delay in the GC, but it's still too early to count him out of the race for the podium. Scarponi has hidden himself while waiting for the stepper climbs, whereas Rodriguez has showed a lot of strength. Moreover, Joaquin has a very good helper, Daniel Moreno. Denis Menchov, on the other hand, doesn't seem to have a good team behind him, but I'm sure he'll slowly start gaining time in the GC. The Russian in fact usually improves his form in the second / third week of a GT, so Nibali should paying a lot of attention to him in a few days time.

As far as the Worlds-favourites are concerned, this Vuelta seems to bring bad luck to them. Haussler and Farrar haven't got any good result yet, Cavendish, Goss and Breschel all retired. Kittel hasn't had any reat gresult either, whereas the only sprinter who really did shine was Peter Sagan. This Vuelta is his first GT and, although he's the youngest rider of the Spanish peloton, he's already won a stage. If he's improved his resistance in the longest races, it will be hard to defeat him in Copenhagen.

As far as other races are concerned, GP Industria e Commercio was won by Giovanni Visconti. Second was the exceptional Simone Ponzi, whereas third was  Manuel Belletti.

As far as the Tour of Colorado is concerned, instead, the prologue was won by Gretsch. Fifth was an amazing Jens Voigt, whereas Basso received very harsh critics for his 52nd placement. Imo Gazzetta was pretty disrespectful towards him and Juraj Sagan, since that newspaper began the (little) article about ToC by saying: 'Ivan Basso is as good as Juraj Sagan. It sounds like a heresy, but it's true. Ivan isn't better than Sagan (...) and we're not talking about Peter, but about Juraj, who is much less talented than his brother'. It's always so nice when people are respectful towards the riders!

The second stage of ToC, however, was won by Levi Leipheimer. Second was the strong Henao, third was Frank Schleck. Given the condition of Schleck and Leipheimer, perhaps someone should remind these guys that at this time of the year there is another race going on, that it's called Vuelta a Espana and that is one of the most important races of the world. If someone is interested, I'll tell them a secret: a victory in the Vuelta is something that people can use to get a better reputation amongst European journalists and it is something that people can write in their CV in caps. Ah, but I was forgetting: the sponsors seem to care more about the American money than about the Spanish traditions.

The third stage of ToC saw the victory of George Hincapie, whereas an excited Van Garderen got the leader jersey from Leipheimer.

 

 

So, that's all from me for the moment - and, perhaps, for the month. I'm leaving on Saturday and I won't be back before September the 9th. In the meanwhile, enjoy la Vuelta and use the comment area as you please - and don't forget to take a look at Figbash's reports from the Tour on Bananas about Bikes!!!

PS: who has just come across this webpage by writing 'Menchov, hugs' in Google? And, more important: were they satisfied with what they found?

Tour de Crash, 6th stage (plus three random links):

Today's stage of the TdF was won by Mark Cavendish, who found his second victory of this year Tour in the same place where he got his first win at the Grande Boucle. Cav was amazingly helped by his whole team (P. Velits, Martin, Goss, Renshaw, Goss, Van Garderen, Bak and Eisel) and managed to outsprint Petacchi and his old nemesis Greipel, who had tried to anticipate the sprint.

The Italian sprinter was particularly down after the stage: in an interview with Italian tv, not only did he sound sadder than usual (if you can imagine that...), but from his voice it sounded as if he was going to burst into tears. 'Ale, what is happening to you?', a RAI journalist asked him. Petacchi didn't answer immediately, but then he said: 'I don't know'. A few seconds later, the journalist ended the interview by saying: 'Sorry, but this is a very hard moment for Alessandro'. We couldn't see the images of what was happening, but I suspect that Ale actually started to cry. And all because of that stupid rule approved by the Italian Cycling Federation. Absurd.

Back to the sprint, it must be said that Chateauroux is a friendly pace for sprinters. In 1998 it was Cipollini who won a stage there, whereas in 2008 the French town witnessed the rise of Mark Cavendish. On both occasions, Erik Zabel was one of the toughest adversaries for the two eventual winners (he was 2nd in 1998 and 3rd in 2008).

Unfortunately, this stage gave us strong emotions not only during the sprint, but also in the last 35 kms of race. ''How nice! Why do you say 'unfortunately', then?'', I hear some of you ask. Well, the problem is that those emotions were produced by different crashes which involved many different riders.

A few kms after the beginning of the race, the first sad moment arrived when Boonen decided to give in and abandon the Tour. Too much sufference for the Belgian, who was really down when he had to leave the race. Hopefully, he'll be back in his top shape soon.

Then, with 35 kms to go, a very big crash (caused by the riders' lack of attention) put an end to Bradley Wiggins' dreams of glory. The English champion looked great at the start of the race, since I had never seen him so skinny (this year he weighted 2 kgs less than in 2009) and motivated. Unfortunately, for him the Grande Boucle ended on the way to Chateauroux.

Also Remi Pauriol was involved in the same crash as Wiggo and had to abandon the race. Horner, on the other hand, managed to keep on riding, although he crossed the finish-line with 12 minutes of delay. Levi Leipheimer instead had a mechanical after being involved in the crash and lost about 3 minutes in the GC. The same happened to Kreuziger.
As you can see, it was another bloody day at the office for some of the Tour riders.

Hoping to cheer you up a bit (this evening I'm in hurry), here I share with you some useful links.

http://blog.tv2.dk/chris.anker.ol/entry405528.html : as my most faithful readers already know, in July Chris Anker Sorensen writes on his blog more often than usual. Therefore, me links his blog to mine much more often than usual. In his last two posts Chris revealed us that he's rooming with Richie Porte, who teaches him a lot of Australian slang and snores a bit. Nicki Sorensen, on the other hand, is sharing a room with Brian Vandborg.

http://sansenmag.livejournal.com/: if you want to have some fun during the Tour, I suggest you taking a daily look at miss Sansen's blog. On it you can even find an exclusive list of 'who is rooming with whom' during the Tour :)

http://www.independent.ie/sport/other-sports/nicolas-roche-robbie-williams-was-in-my-room-giving-it-socks-2812834.html : thanks to miss Sansen, miss Fede has recently come across the blog of Nicolas Roche. The guy is not only good-looking - he's also very good at blogging. And yes, he can ride bikes too. In this post, Nicolas tells us about a misadventure that he had after watching 'Finding Nemo' the other evening.

Enjoy!

Heaven and Hell on the way to Cap Fréhel:

Heaven and Hell. Two words that are simply perfect to describe today's stage of the Tour and some other things that have recently happened in Cycledom.

Hell. Perhaps some of you don't know it, but this morning an Australian rider called Carly Hibberd lost her life while she was training near Milan. The 26 year-old from Brisbane died shortly after being hit by a car. For the thousandth time this year, cycling must face a very hard moment.

Heaven. This afternoon Marianne Vos got her fourth victory at the Giro Donne, the most important stage race of the women calendar. The Dutch rider (who is just 24) won in Piacenza by outsprinting pure sprinters like World Champion Giorgia Bronzini and Ina-Yoko Teutenberg. And, to make things even more special, Vos won the stage while wearing the Maglia Rosa.

Hell. Tom Boonen crashed with 60 kms to go in today's stage of the Tour and he crossed the finish-line 12' after the stage winner. He looked in pain and he could count just on one teammate, Addy Engels, who helped him just in the last 50 kms of race.

Heaven. Although the stage finale didn't suit him, and although his team made a disaster in the last km of race, this afternoon Mark Cavendish managed to get one of the best victories of his career in Cap Fréhel, a village located in a spectacular French bay.

Heaven and Hell. Reading about Fabian Wegmann's newborn baby Otto (he was born on the 29th of June and I wish him a very happy, long and serene life!) after discovering what happened to poor Hibberd can make you understand how the limit between these two things is very thin. We had two demonstrations of this fact during the last Giro, we had a demonstration of it also today, at the Giro Donne and (in a less tragic way) at the Tour de France.

Today's stage of the Tour de France looked tricky even on paper. The last kms of race in fact were very close to the sea, in a part of France (Bretagne) which has a very characteristic windswept landscape. Moreover, with 2 kms to go the riders had to face a difficult descent that would lead them to the last km of race, which was 3% steep.

The narrow streets of Bretagne, together with the fear of the echelons and with the nervousness of the peloton, didn't help making the stage easier for the group, which soon had to deal with many crashes.

One of the first riders to fall off his bike was Sylvain Chavanel who, as a consequence of his crash, had his acromion-clavicular joint dislocated as a consequence of his crash. Luckily, the French national champion could soon hop back on his bike and managed to end the stage.

"In the fall I also hit my head and broke my helmet," Chavanel told Cyclingnews. "The consequences could have been much worse. Tomorrow morning I'm lining up for the start as usual, but it’s obvious that tomorrow I can look forward to a day of suffering". Also Wiggins was involved in Sylvain's crash, but didn't suffer any injury. Other riders, unfortunately, weren't that lucky.

Janez Brajkovic and Robert Gesink crashed soon after Chavanel. Also Alberto Contador was involved in their crash, the second one of the day for the unlucky Spaniard, who threw his bike to the ground as a sign of anger. But still, Conti was pretty lucky in getting it away without major injuries: Gesink in fact is reported to have bruises all over his body, whereas Brajkovic had to abandon the race with a broken collarbone and a concussion.

Unfortunately, Janez wasn't the last rider to crash this afternoon. In fact, a few minutes after having helped his captain in chasing the main peloton, it was Nicki Sorensen's turn to end up on the ground. Nicki's crash was a really shocking one, since it was caused by one of the photographers' motorbikes. The motorbike rode so close to Nicki that, apparently, the handlebar of the Danish rider got glued to it. As a consequence, Sorensen found himself on the ground and had to bear the sight of his bike being drawn by the motorbike for 200 meters.

Luckily for the Danish national champion, his crash didn't have any consequence. "I was riding safely in the side of the road and then a motor bike knocked me off the bike", Nicki told Cyclingnews. "He was actually going so close that my bike was drawn after his motor bike for 200 meters and I landed heavily on the ground. Luckily, I'm ok and am able to ride again tomorrow" .

'Wiggins, Chavanel, Brajkovic, Gesink, Contador, Nicki Sorensen... Enough crashes for just one day of race!', some of you may think. And instead no, this afternoon bad luck really wanted to create a lot of problems to the TdF riders. As Kern withdrawned from the race because of a tendonitis, it was Barredo, Boonen and Steegmans' turn to crash.

Tom Boonen remained on the ground for a while, looking worried about the condition of his left shoulder. The Tour doctor immediately tried to help him but, at first, it looked as if Tommeke's Tour had to end on that road in Bretagne. And instead, the Belgian found the strength to get up, hop back on his bike and keep on riding. His leg was bleeding and his collarbone worried everyone of us, but Tom didn't care. He wanted to reach the finish-line of this damned 5th stage and he fought hard to make it.

At first Boonen had to do everything on his own. But then, Addy Engels stopped and waited for his captain. Then, with 50 kms to go, the two Quick Step riders began to ride together to the finish-line, fearing to end up out of time limit and trying to hold on.

In the end, Tommeke crossed the finish-line 12 minutes after Cavendish, thus managing to remain inside the allowed time cut.

'Ok, enough crashes for today?' Oh no, dear readers, not yet. In fact, this afternoon the last rider to fall off his bike was Euskaltel's Ivan Velasco, who broke his right collarbone after hitting the ground with about 20 kms to go.

Luckily, that was the last crash for today. I actually didn't mention everyone who crashed this afternoon, because it would actually be impossible to mention all those riders. However, I've read articles saying that also Leipheimer, Horner, Tjallingi and Popovych crashed. I'm sure about Yaroslav's fall (I saw him going to the doctor' car), but I don't have any details about the other crashes. Was Tjallingi with Gesink when Robert crashed? It may be, but I'm not sure.

Anyway. After talking about the hellish parts of today's stage, let's finally talk about the most beautiful part: Cavendish's victory. Mark may be arrogant and he might have changed too many girlfriends in the last months, but after today it is impossible to deny that the boy has class. Class, strength, power, speed: everything a sprinter needs to be successful. And everything a sprinter needs to offer us such great victories.

Although I've been following Mark pretty carefully since 2008, I must admit I had never seen him winning in such a great way as he did tis afternoon. Ok, his Milan - Sanremo victory had been great too: but today Cav was simply superb. His win was exciting, unexpected, amazing, fantastic: a true masterpiece - and, mind you, this is a word which miss Fede rarely uses in her posts.

Anyway, let's talk about what happened in the last kms of race in a more detailled way.

The last breakawayers du jour, Voeckler and Roy (again!!), were caught with a few kms to go. The previous beakaway had included Gutierrez (the friend of the French camera men) and Delaplace, the Tour's youngest rider (he's going to be 22 in September).

With 2 kms to go, HTC Columbia was at the head of the peloton. Velits, Goss, Martin, Eisel, Renshaw, Cavendish: the yellow and white train was ready to roll into Cap Fréhel. But then, with about 1 km to go, something happened: the little train had a problem and Goss found himself at the head of the peloton, with some meters of advantage on everyone else. Therefore, he tried to go for the victory.

Too bad that it was still too early for him and that Boasson Hagen rode past him at amazing speed. It looked as if the Norwegian rider had almost made it, but then a cartel told us that there were still 450 meters to go: too much for the Sky rider to hold on.

As Edvald's speed seemed to vanish, a colourful jersey appeared on the screen: Philippe Gilbert, trying to get his second victory in this Tour. Bonnet, FDJ's rider, looked like a true threat for the Belgian, whereas Hushovd's figure was scarcely visible behind the first line of riders. Then, from the left of the screen, a lightning - or, to say it better, a Cannonball - arrived. Mark Cavendish gave it all in the last meters of race and managed to win the race in front of PhilGil, Rojas and Toni Gallopin.

As Cavendish was dedicating his victory to his pet golden retriever Amber, who passed away a few hours ago, Tom Boonen slowly made it to the finish-line. Hell and heaven, once again. One rider cheering, the other one suffering, One rider happy, the other one disappointed and in pain. That's the Tour de France baby, and that's cycling - and, actually, that's also life.

Random post about random things:

Lots of news to comment, dear readers, and just a few free moments to talk about them. How annoying.
So, let's start from the saddest part ever: as you could understand from my last post, yesterday the Belgian city of Gand hosted the funeral of WW Special. I decided not to watch the vids from the funeral in these days because I know they would really bring me down - and right now I can't actually allow myself to spend a day crying.
However, I did risk to break into tears while reading today's Gazzetta and other reports from the funeral. Fabian Wegmann and the boys who carried the coffins looked so sad and An Sophie and her sister were really destroyed. Even Wouter's father, a firefighter who had always looked very controlled here in Italy, was a broken man. May his son rest in peace forever and ever.

As our dear blogmate Figbash has recently pointed out in one of her last comments, on http://www.roadid.com/Wouter/ there is a simple way to help the family of Wouter: you just need to buy a bracelet which costs 15 $ - all the money will go to An Sophie and to her daughter. So, what are we waiting for? Let's all get one!!

CALIFORNIA, HERE WE COME...
Talking about happier things, Andy Schleck was second in yesterday's ToC stage. He was outsprinted just by Horner and he was really satisfied with his result. "This is my first race back and I really didn't know where I would sit," Andy told Cyclingnews. "I knew that I was not lazy and that I was working hard. On the bottom when Chris Horner and Levi Leipheimer went, I was a little bit in the red zone. I wouldn't say that I took it easy, but I went a little slower and went in the group behind. Linus Gerdemann (the team leader) was just a little bit behind the group and I thought that he could catch up with us but, in the end, he didn't," he added. "The last kilometre I tried everything I had. I was surprised by second place. I feel confident for Mt Baldy." We're looking forward to it too! However, has Our Glorious Leader done something to his hair? They looked a bit longer in some recent photos...
Still talking about ToC, Jens Voigt had a bad crash the other day. "I survived today so that is a good sign", Voigt said yesterday. "The good thing is that I didn't lose much skin but my hand hurts and I can't really move it, also I can't really use it. I will go and have an x-ray tonight to see if anything is broken, at least I would know the recovery and what to do next. My shoulder is functioning and I have a contusion and hopefully my hand is not broken". Let's hope everything's alright with good old Jens!
(Little suggestion: to read more about ToC, visit http://eisenandy.blogspot.com/ ).

GIRO TIME!
Now, let's finally talk about the Giro. Yesterday's stage was very thrilling, while today's and Tuesday's ones weren't that great. Or, actually, they weren't that great if you, like me, were able to see just their last 3 kms (stupid school...).
The Teramo stage (that arrived after a rest day and after a long transfer by plane, after which an exhausted Pinotti could finally get in his hotel room at 1 am) was won by Cavendish after that Petacchi had actually worked as his lead-out man. Poor Alessandro in fact paid the bad day at the office of his friend Hondo, who wasn't that good the other day. Talking about helpers who haven't been that good lately, poor Szmyd has a bronchitis (you were wondering why he had disappeared, weren't you?), whereas Agnoli is on antibiotics. Oh, and talking about Liquigas and bad luck: Basso has had a very bad crash while training on Etna, he got 15 stitches in his face but now he's fine.
Back to Mark's victory, it wasn't very appreciated by Ventoso, who got second. 'The team cars helped him to remain in the time limit on Etna!', Francisco claimed right after the finish-line, together with other riders. Chicchi on the other hand said that 'Cavendish, the other gruppetto riders and I did everything on our own, we recuperated even 2 minutes from the leading group in the last kms of race!" (wait, are you telling me that Cav rode stronger than Contador and Nibali on Etna?!?). Mark instead said that 'Ventoso'd better shut up, I could tell many things about him too". A recent news, however, says that a supporter vid shows Chicchi and another gruppetto riders getting helped by their team cars on Etna. Will this be true?
Talking about another polemic, Mario Cipollini has said that, in his opinion, Cav doesn't lead 'the athlete life'. In fact, according to 'The Lion King' (which is Mario, and not Simba), Cannonball ate too many ice creams before the beginning of the Giro and so he is a bit fat.
Fat or not, Cavendish won even today's stage in Ravenna :P Today's stage actually had a very tricky finale and in fact at the last curve there was a little crash involving Sacha Modolo. However, it looks like no one got seriously hurt.
Second behind Cav was a great Appollonio, third was Petacchi.
Talking about riders who've recently got injured, poor Kristof Vandewalle is racing with very bad facial wounds after a crash on Wednesday. That stage was very exciting, although Scarponi didn't show us the attack he had promised.
At the beginning of the day Nibali had tried enter a breakaway in order to force Saxo Bank to work a bit and that was a very good move. Then other guys broke clear from the peloton and Vincenzo went back in the group.
The breakawayers du jour were all really good: Christophe Le Mevel, Daniel Moreno, Marco Manzano, Valerio Agnoli, Fabio Taborre,Carlos Alberto Betancourt, Simone Stortoni, Steven Kruijswijk, Ignatas Konovalovas,Tiago Machado and Lars Petter Nordhaug. Le Mevel was the virtual Maglia Rosa of the race for a lot of time (apropos: when was the last time that a French wore the pink jersey?), but then he had to give up to his dreams of glory.
Betancourt attacked bravely, but blew up on one of the last climbs, just like Stortoni. Moreno and Konovalovas (love this guy!!) instead were caught with less than 1 km to go (damn!!), on the Castelfidardo final climb. The victory there went to John Gadret, a peculiar Frenchman who prefers the Giro to the Tour and who worked in a grapewine until he was 23. All the GC riders ended the race together.
Talking about GC riders, Contador has recently said that: 'This Giro could be won in the hotel' (Evilness reminds me that Pinotti and I had already understood that thing in December 2010). Therefore the other day he decided to skip the pos-stage press conference with the Maglia Rosa. How nice.
Talking about Contador, I haven't replied to the comments that were left after my last post: don't worry, I'll do it as soon as I have enough time. Moreover, now Optimism is definitely leading the match against Pessimism, so I'm really looking forward to tomorrow's stage. Wir gehen nach Oesterreich, wie schoen!!!

Petacchi gets a great victory in Parma:

The first 'true' stage of the Giro had a hero: Sebastian Lang. 'What?' I hear you ask in surprise. 'Lang? Who is he? And how can he be the hero of the day if he didn't even win the stage?!?' Well, here are the answers to your questions ;)
Sebastian Lang is a 31 year-old German that rides for Omega - Pharma Lotto and this morning he went on a breakaway after just 3 kms of race. Eventually, that breakaway lasted for 215 kms.

When he attacked, the German probably thought that someone would have followed him. He waited, waited and waited, but then he realised that no one wanted to join his attack. In spite of this, he continued his action and he remained alone at the head of the race for almost 6 hours, reaching a mazimum advantage of 20 minutes of the peloton and keeping an average pace of 42 kms pro hour in the first 4 hours of race. After his loong and tiring deed, Lang received the Climber Jersey as a prize.

So, can Lang be considered the hero of the day for what he did? Imo, he can.
Talking about the stage, today the riders faced the roads that lead from Alba to Parma, two important towns that in the last century were characterised by many facts connected to anti-fascism. Alba in fact won a Gold Medal for Military Valour for the heroic activity of its citizens during the Italian resistance movement. In October 1944 in fact the town was liberated by partisans who established a Republic of Alba, which for a few weeks was able to maintain its independence from the Fascist Republic of Salò. You can find many references to this town in the works of Beppe Fenoglio, which often regard partisans. I've read just one of them ('Una questione privata') and I simply loved it.
As far as Parma is concerned, it was he hometown of Giuseppe Verdi, an Italian composer whose works were really important as far as Italian patriotism is concerned. Just think that, after the unification of Italy, people used to scream 'Viva Verdi' in order to honour Vittorio Emanuele, the king of Italy (Viva Verdi in fact meant: 'Viva Vittorio Emanuele Re d'Italia').
As far as anti-fascism is concerned, in the August 1922 (two months before Mussolini took the power), the fascist officer Italo Balbo attempted to enter in the Parma quarter of Oltretorrente. However, the citizens organized into the Arditi del Popolo ("People's assaulters") and pushed back the squadristi, showing great strength and braveness. Moreover, Parma was an important Partisan center also during World War Two.

At the start of today stage there was a minute of silence in order to commemorate the 47 year-old Pietro Ferrero, who died last month. Ferrero was the son of Michele, the leader of Ferrero SpA (the Italian factory that produces Nutella and other sweets), and he was a great cycling lover. In fact, he sponsored the Giro for a lot of time.
As soon as the race began, as already said, Lang went on a breakaway and he was caught with just 26 kms to go. At that point, Farnese Vini's Leonardo Giordani attacked. He was followed by Golas, Bakelandts, Pineau, Righi, Marzoli, Vorganov and Hunter. The breakawayers forced the peloton to chase them, whereas Vorganov got angry at Righi because he wasn't taking turns at the front. Interviewed on real time about his rider's attack, Farnese's ds candidly answered that Giordani and the other ones had 'zero chance' to make it to the finish. After all, sincerity is a rare quality :P
The breakaway was caught with about 8 kms to go. At that point the fight for the first positions in the peloton became very tough. In that moment I didn't envy the race chronists at all: how can they recognise riders in sprints as messy as today's one? I would make so many mistakes if I were them!!
Btw, Petacchi was the first one to launch the sprint with 200 meters to go. Cavendish looked susprised (Renshaw looked even more astonished) and he immediately followed the Lampre rider. Unfortunately, he wasn't fast enough and he had to be satisfied with his second place.

Right after the finish-line, Cannonball complained about Petacchi's behaviour in the sprint. 'Petacchi is a good guy but in the last 200 metres he moved three times. The judges usually relegate someone when they do that', he told Italian tv. Petacchi, on the other hand, said he didn't do anything wrong.
Cav was still angry at the judges (who didn't relegate Petacchi) when he got the pink jersey, whereas Ale - Jet seemed annoyed by Mark's complaints.
Talking about Petacchi, I noticed that he smiles even less often than Menchov. Come on Ale, you know what they say! 'Smile at life and life will smile back at you'! You're a great champion, show a bit of entusiashm when you climb on the podium!
As far as Cavendish is concerned, instead, I noticed that he speaks Italian better than English. He had a few problems in talking (everyone kept of interrupting him), but he has a lovely English accent when he talks Italian.

Third in the sprint was Manuel Belletti, 4th was Ferrari, 5th was Bozic (he did look happy as he crossed the finish-line), 6th Appollonio, 7th was Farrar, 8th was McEwen, 9th was Weylandt and 10th was a surprising Montaguti. Talking about Farrar, he had been in a perfect position until the very end of the race, when he simply got lost in the haze.
As far as Leopard Trek is concerned, Viganò had to work for Weylandt (eventual 9th). Thomas Rohregger instead crashed together with Kiryienka. I saw some scratches on his face, hopefully it was just my imagination.
Another rider who crashed this afternoon was Vorganov, who touched wheels while he was in the same breakaway as Pineau and Giordani. The sprint, in spite of the last curves, was luckily crash-free.

So, this was todaystage: Petacchi won the stage, Cavendish got the pink jersey from Pinotti (who punctured twice during the race), Lang got the green jersey, Bjorn Selander has the white one. Tomorrow there will be another flat stage and Cav is likely to take revenge on Petacchi - but still, be careful about the other guys!

(Pic 1 by Sirotti, pic 2 by Bettini)

Ruta del Sol stages 2 and 3:

The 2nd and the 3rd stage of the Ruta del Sol,also known as Vuelta a Andalucia,saw the Saxo Bank riders getting good results once again.

The second stage of the race (the first one was won by Pardilla) saw Jesus Rosendo (team Andalucia-CajaSur) getting away alone after forming part of an initial move with Johnny Hoogerland (me really likes this guy) and Garikoitz Bravo (CajaRural).The brave Rosendo was caught after 100 kms of race and no one attacked during the second half of the race because of the strong wind.

With few kms to go,every team began to prepare the path for their sprinters.

Lots of people were probably expecting a Cavendish's victory,but the Manx boy is still suffering for a teeth problem and therefore he arrived "just" 4th.Because of this problem with his teeth,Cav rode just 300 kms since January (lots of other riders have ridden more than 2000 kms since the New Year's beginning) and he lost weight because he couldn't eat.Now things seem to go slightly better for Cav,although he has to wear dental braces.Me wore dental braces for 4 years in the past (also because of the already mentioned gap between my front teeth,a gap that still exists nowadays in spite of all the pain caused by that terrible thing),so I feel a bit sorry for Cav whose name,after all,doesn't appear in the list of riders that I can't bear at all (not yet,at least).

Anyway,going on with the race report,the winner of yesterday's stage was Oscar Freire. Richard,ehm,Robert Wagner was going to be the first rider to cross the finish-line,but he started celebrating too early and so Freire managed to win the stage.Poor Robert Wagner-I believe that we can't even imagine how annoyed he was yesterday afternoon...

Third in the sprint was Alex Ramussen,Saxo Bank's track rider,who got a very good result .

"As we entered the streets of Córdoba,I moved to the front of the peloton and teammate Jens Voigt guided me the last meters to Cavendish's wheel where I stayed until 500 meters from the finish line.I felt there was nothing to lose so I opened the sprint immediately and was only passed by Freire and Wagner Of course,it's a pleasure for me to beat the best sprinter in the world as I am still not feeling in peak shape.For a while,I have found it hard to get my real breakthrough on the road but today,I showed myself that everything is possible for me.Now, I am looking very much forward to do the Spring classics and the World Cup on the track which are this season's biggest events for me”,said Alex after the race.

5th in yesterday's stage was Ventoso,whereas Jens Voigt got an amazing 9th place and Schleck was 38th.

The 2nd stage was also characterised by a crash with 500 meters to go.In fact a barrier near to the finish-line fell into the riders' path because of the wind and caused a crash in which 6 riders were involved.Laurens Ten Dam suffered a cracked pelvis (ouch!!) and Jelle Vanendert suffered head,facial and knee injuries,whereas Damiano Cunego had a severe pain in his right forehand, although it seems that nothing's broken for the Italian rider.None of these 3 riders took part in today's stage.

Gerdemann was the first rider to fall and received some bruises,just like Kiendzys and Janiszewsky,2 Polish riders who were also involved in the fall.Anyway,they were luckier than their colleagues and managed to race also today.

3RD STAGE:

Although it wasn't completely flat,today's stage of the race was supposed to suit sprinters. Anyway Brice Feillu and José Marchante attacked on the first climb of the stage and were caught with 25 kms to go,after gaining a maximum advantage of 4 minutes.

Luckily during the sprint nobody crashed and the victory went to Oscar Freire for the second time in a row.Second was young Lampre's Slovakian rider Grega Bole,while third was the "climbing sprinter" Simon Gerrans.6th was His Amazingness Jens Voigt,who punctured with 30 kms to go and had to make a great effort trying to get in the peloton again.

Frank Schleck was 14th.The race leader is still Pardilla.

Tomorrow stage of the race is a TT,in which hopefully some SB riders will get a good result. With "some SB riders" I don't mean just Gustav Larsson (who is a TT specialist),but also Jens Voigt.After today's stage,Jens said: “Man,I am glad I stayed on my bike this time.I had a puncture with 60 km/h but managed to keep the balance.Soon after,André Steensen,Alex Rasmussen and Jakob Fuglsang were there to help me back to the front.Fortunately,I had a few kilometers to catch my breath before the slight uphill finish which actually suited me perfectly. Who knows what might have happened if I didn't have to close the gap? I am looking forward to tomorrow's time trial which is five kilometers along the coastline and back.I'll keep my head down and go full power.I am feeling stronger every day".Allez Jens!

(Pics by Bettini)

2009 cycling awards decided by moi:

Since the current year is ending,me thinks it's time for Fangirl to make a final balance of the 2009 cycling season.After all,it's a matter of "now or never",isn't it?

So,2009 has been a good year for Schleck supporters.12 months ago I wrote a very Fangirlistic post about my dreams for the 2009 cyclistic season and some of them became true.For example,Andy Schleck won the Liége and arrived on the Tour podium.Frank didn't arrive on the podium because of a damned TTT,but he won the Grand Bornard stage.And then Andy won the Luxembourgish RR Championship,the white jersey at the TdF and a stage at the Tour of Luxembourg,while Frank won a stage at the Tour of California,a stage and the overall classification at the Tour of Lux and the already mentioned Grand Bornard stage at the Tour. Considering all these victories,I think that the tifosi of the 2 brothers can be fully satisfacted with the 2009 season.Ok,the Schleck brothers also made us worry a lot sometimes (just think about Frank's crash in the Amstel or Andy's recent crash with a car while out training),but they've also allowed us to live a very good cyclistic season this year.So,I must say a big "thank you" to the Schleck brothers because of all the emotions they gave me during this year.

Of course the Schleck brothers weren't the only riders who gave me emotions during this year. For example,this year I supported Chris Anker Sorensen (this actually isn't a great news,since I've been supporting him since 2007),I felt terribly happy when Nicki Sorensen and Sylvester Szmyd won some races,felt extremely relieved when Menchov won the Giro and I've also felt terribly disappointed when Kreuziger lost the Avila stage of the Vuelta,when Gesink crashed in the Vuelta and in the Tour and also when Kenny Van Hummel had to retire from the Tour.

Unfortunately this year there have been also some bad moments not connected with losing races or seeing some riders crash.Nolf's death at the beginning of the season,Vanderbroucke's one and all the doping cases were some of the worst moments of the year,and hopefully we won't have to go through problems like this also in 2010.

Anyay,since everyone's writing things about the 2009 season,here are my "2009 season awards".The first ones are serious,while some of the last ones have been suggested by Fangirl and,consequently,are pretty stupid.Enjoy.

Best performance: The winner of this award,no doubts about it,is Andy Schleck's performance in Liége-Bastogne-Liége.Also Contador's victories at the Tour,Devolder's victory in Flanders, Guderzo's and Cancellara's victories at the Worlds and Nicki Sorensen's victory in the Tour de France have been great,but Andy's amazing ride towards Liége was simply the most perfect moment of the season,at least in my opinion.

Best Team: Team Columbia.Who else has won so many races with so many different rider this year?

Best sprinter: Cavendish.He's not the nicest guy on Earth,but he's the fastest man in the peloton.
Best TT rider: Cancellara.Take a look at what he did at the Mendrisio TT race and you'll understand why this award has to go to him.

Best young rider: Andy Schleck.Second at the Tour and winner of the Liége,no one else under the age of 25 did better.

Best helper: Sylvester Szmyd.He's always helped Basso,although the Italian rider never paid him (and his other teammates) back.And then,one of the few times he got the chance of doing what he wanted,this Polish rider won the Mont Ventoux stage at the Tour of Dauphiné Libére. Chapeau.

Most emotional moment of the year: the Grand Bornard stage.See what happened in the last km and immediately after the end of the stage and you'll understand what I mean.

Most surprising rider of the year: Heinrich Haussler.He won a great stage at the Tour and did very well at the classics.And I must confess that,until this March,I had no clue about who he was (sorry for the ignorance).

Rider to watch in 2010: I couldn't decide which rider to choose between Chris Anker Sorensen, Matti Breschel and Jakob Fuglsang,but at the end Fangirl forced me to say that the rider to watch in 2010 will be Chris Sorensen.This is due to the fact that,according to Fangirl,Chris in 2010 will win the Zoncolan stage at the Giro and arrive in the overall top 3 of the race causing great surprise and confusion ("Wasn't he called Nicki when he won that stage in France?",people will ask) in Cycledom and in Italy.

Craziest moment of the year: Everything that Menchov did in the month of May.This involves going around Venice in a gondola,attacking on the Alpe di Siusi climb,screaming under the Colosseo,falling during the last stage of the Giro and laughing in post-race interviews.

Best race I saw live this year: The Mendrisio Worlds because on that occasion I could see my favourite riders a lot of times and I could also get very near to Andy Schleck without looking mad or doing something that would have caused me to end up in a psychiatric hospital.

Best brothers du peloton: Like the dear Italian chronist Bulbarelli always reminds us,the 2 Sorensens who ride in the Saxo Bank team aren't related,therefore this award has to go to the Schleck brothers,Andy and Frank,because Fangirl wants so.

Best hair du peloton: The choice is between Thomas Lovkvist and Linus Gerdemann.But since I do know that Lovkvist's hair are perfect also after a race of 250 kms (I got the chance of observing this phenomenon in Mendrisio) and I have no clue about how Gerdemann's hair look like after such a hard proof,I guess I'll go for Lovkvist.

Most supported rider of the year: Kenny Van Hummel.The Tour streets talked clearly.

So,these were,say,the "good awards".Of course there have been also some bad moments during the season.Here are the "worst things of the season" awards:
Biggest doping disappointment of the year: Rebellin.I did not expect his positivity.He really let me down.

Worst crash of the year: It's a battle between Jens Voigt's crash in the Tour,Frank Schleck's one in the Amstel,Impey's one in the Tour of Turkey and Pedro Horrillo's one in the Giro. Considering the consequences of his crash,I'd say that Pedro Horrillo was the protagonist of the worst crash of the yer.

Most unlucky rider of the year: Poor Robert Gesink because of his crash in the Vuelta.And Serge Pauwels because of what happened to him during the Giro stage eventually won by Bertagnolli.

Worst supporters of the year: those stupid guys who booed at Garzelli after the Blockhaus stage.I just hope they felt a bit sorry for what they did when they found out about Di Luca's positivity.

So,these were my very personal 2009 awards.If some of you have other opinions,feel free to tell me.

Random Post:

Yes,here's my usual random post with random news about random things.
JAPAN CUP RACE: Fangirl doesn't believe (or,better,she doesn't want to believe) that the 2009 season is "already" over,not just because this means she won't be able to watch any cycling road race on tv for the next 3/4 months,but especially because she's waiting for the Japan Cup Race on Sunday before of starting getting depressed.Said race is important for Fangirl because it's Chris-Anker Sorensen's last chance to win a race this year.According to the team website, Saxo Bank team for the race will be formed by both los Sorensens,Jens Voigt,Michael Morkov and Gustav Larsson.

WAITING FOR THE GIRO: the awaiting for the Giro parcours already started last month here in Italy,but in the last days I've began to feel it as well,especially after reading the news that Milano won't be included in the 2010 race parcours(http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/%20giro%20-ditalia-to-skip-milan-in-2010 ).Considering that the Corsa Rosa probably won't arrive in my city either,Fangirl's already asking:Where the hell will I go to see the Giro live? Btw,Logic has suggested her waiting until Saturday before of getting depressed about this as well.
CIAO CIAO BULBARELLI: Yes,Italian chronist Auro Bulbarelli is leaving his job.This news is oh so heartbreaking,especially because we Italian tifosi won't have any chronist left to talk about food during the Tour de France stages.Btw,I'm sure that the famous "Sorensen sentence" that every Italian cycling fan has heard at least once (and that says:"There are 2 Sorensens in the Saxo Bank Team,one is Nicki and the other one is Chris-Anker.Nicki is the one who won a stage during 2009 Tour de France,while Chris-Anker is the one who didn't win anything.Oh,and remember:the 2 Sorensens aren't relative") will survive even after the departure of his creator.
PINOTTI WINNING A TT (http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/pinotti-ends-season-on-high-with-time-trial-win): The funny thing about this TT was that the rider who came in 2nd is Ivan Basso's cousin.And guess who came in 3rd? Yes,Ivan Basso.
GALA DI CONEGLIANO: Tatiana Guderzo has been the first woman to receive the Atena d'Argento (an Italian prize that is given to the best cyclist of the year) and I'm very happy for her. Together with her at the Conegliano Gala there were also Cavendish and Menchov,and you can see Cav talking Italian and Menchov understanding Italian and speaking Spanish on this link: http://www.gazzetta.it/Ciclismo/20-10-2009/russo-annata-d-oro-501682599139.shtml

BYE BYE MARCUS AND KURT: Yes,Marcus Ljungqvist and Kurt-Asle Arvesen have decided to leave the Saxo Bank team because they are both going to Team Sky (Marcus will be Sky ds,while Arvesen of course will continue his career as a rider).Some articles about them can be found on http://www.riis-cycling.com/
LAMPRE AND ASTANA CHANGINGS: According to La Gazzetta dello Sport,after the Lombardy Tour Cunego got angry at Santambrogio and Tiralongo got angry at Cunego.Solution: Santambrogio is riding for BMC in 2010 and Tiralongo is riding for Astana.Gasparotto hasn't argued with nobody,but he's going to Astana anyway.
CHRIS ANKERS BLOG (http://blog.tv2.dk/chris.anker.ol/): 2 posts in 4 days,one of which has an Italian title ("Ci dispiace ma hai dimenticato la tua mortadella",aka "We're sorry but you've forgotten your mortadella") and is very hilarious one (if I have time,will and enough linguistic skills I may translate something from Sorensen's blog during the winter months).
VID WITH ANDY (http://www.youtube.com/teamsaxobank): Yes,I know,you've already seen it for about 5 times,but Andy looks sooo nice in this vid! Anyway,a question about Andy and Frank:is it true that they're going to Curaçao? Please answer "yes" or "no" if you have some sure info about this.

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)