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?

Remembering WW:

A little sign, after the finish-line: two hands that create a W in the air, not just once, but twice. W W : Wouter Weylandt, the Leopard Trek rider we'll all remember for our whole lives.

The first part of the third stage of the 2011 Tour de France didn't give lots of emotions to the spectators. But still, its final epilogue gave us one of the most touching moments of the year.

For most of the time, the only emotions for the supporters arrived when Gutierrez (one of the breakawayers du jour) decided to joke with the French camera man. For two times in fact the Spanish rider licked the tip of his index finger and then touched the camera lens, forcing the camera man on the motorbike to stop and clean it.

Since the race wasn't that exciting, the Italian chronists had a lot of time to talk about random things. For example, did you know that Riis complained with the jury about Contador's delay after stage one?Here's a recap of what happened.

As you all know, during stage 1 Contador lost contact from the other GC riders after the crash caused by Iglinskiy with 8 kms to go. In the end, Alberto lost about 1' 20" from the Schleck group, although Riis thinks this isn't right. According to Bjarne, in fact, Contador lost time also because of the crash that occurred with 2 kms to go, so his delay after stage 1 should have been the one that he had at the '3 kms to go' mark (43 seconds), and not the one he eventually had at the finish-line. Riis expressed his opinion to the jury, which actually didn't pay any attention to it. Therefore, Conti's delay remained of 1' 20".

Still talking about Contador, I must admit he didn't look that great in an interview he gave to Italian tv this morning. In fact, in it Alberto looked very tired and hadn't even shaved his beard. Moreover, he had a bit of acne (well, sort of) on his forehead. Now, does this mean that Conti is nervous and tired? Or is this a meaningless thing? I don't know how Alberto's skin works but, personally, I get skin problems just when I'm very nervous - and tired. Is this the same also for Bertie? Time will tell.

Back to today's stage, Beppe Saronni said on Italian tv that Alessandro Petacchi isn't feeling very well in these days. In other words: Ale-Jet has a very good form, but his morale is very low as a consequence of a rule that has recently been approved by the Italian Cycling Federation.

Said rule says that those who are banned from cycling after resulting positive at the anti-doping will never be able to take part in the Worlds and in the Italian championships anymore. 'Well, that's a nice rule!', some of you may think. 'What's the problem with it?' Well, the problem with this brand new rule is that it has a retrospective effect. This means that also riders who doped in the past won't be able to take parts in the Worlds anymore.

Amongst the guys who will never be able to take part in the Worlds anymore there are strong guys like Scarponi, Basso and Petacchi and this has obviously caused many polemics here in Italy. In fact, many people think it's unfair to prevent these riders from racing in the Worlds because:

1. when they doped, they couldn't now that they would have lost their chances of representing Italy in the Worlds

2. a rule like that exists just in Italy.

I personally believe that this rule is a very positive one, but I don't really think it should have a retrospective effect. Moreover, I think it's unfair to create it just in Italy. In fact, I don't see why Italians can't have Petacchi in the Worlds, whereas England can have David Millar in the TT and Kazakhstan can have Vinokourov in the road race.

Anyway, I was saying: as a consequence of this new born rule, Petacchi won't be able to take part in the Copenhagen Worlds (the biggest goal of this season for him) and this has really brought him down. Actually, this news has shocked him so much that Petacchi has even threatened he'll race the Copenhagen Worlds for Kazakhstan, if that rule isn't repealed in the next few weeks. Therefore, we can all understand why he isn't in a very focused mood right now.

In spite of all these problems, however, Ale-Jet was in a very good position as the peloton approached the finale of today's stage. In fact he was on Cavendish's wheel, right behind the HTC leadout train. Too bad that the HTC guys all lost themselves in the last curve of the race, so that Garmin could take the best positions at the head of the peloton. Thor Hushovd and Julian Dean did a very good job for Farrar, who eventually managed to win the stage in front of Feillu and Rojas.

As he crossed the finish-line, Tyler created a WW in the air, causing the whole word of Cycledom to get very moved.

"This has been a horrible last two months with everything that happened in the Giro," Farrar told Cyclingnews. "I've had a lot of ups and downs but in the end I wanted to come back and do something special and this is certainly the biggest stage that you can do that. I've trained hard and I could feel I was getting stronger over the last few weeks. It's a little bit unbelievable that it could happen. Everything just came together". And everything comes even more together if we think that Wouter won the third stage of the 2010 Giro, died in the third stage of 2011 Giro and that Tyler won the third stage of 2011 Tour (thanks to Marleen for making me notice this coincidence - if we can call it this way...).

On to other riders, Thor Hushovd kept the yellow jersey, whereas the green one went to Rojas. Talking about the other sprinters, Dumoulin crashed after having a collision with Oss in the last curve. The promising Galimzyanov instead was 11th.

One of my favourite riders, Chris Anker Sorensen, crossed the finish-line 4 minutes after the winner. It wasn't an easy day for Chris, since he had to work a lot at the front of the peloton in order to defend his teammates from the possible echelons. However, I must say that Sorensen also seemed to enjoy his day in the peloton. In fact, first I saw him talking to Voigt, then he rolled towards the finish-line while talking with Navarro and Hernandez (and while fighting hopelessly with his gloves :P).

On to tomorrow, the 4th Tour stage ends on Mur de Bretagne, a 2 kms climb that has some very steep parts (its first km in fact is 10% steep). Gilbert is the main favourite, although I think Cunego could do something good too.

Tomorrow we'll also have to pay a lot attention to the fight for yellow: in fact right now Gilbert (whose birhtday is tomorrow, whereas today was Gusev's birthday) has a delay of 33" from Hushovd, but Evans is just 1" down on Thor. And los Schlecks are just 4" down in the GC, just like Fuglsang and Gerdemann. 

And finally, Andy Schleck got himself a girlfriend too

Ok girls, remember the emergency procedure that we all practised when we discovered about Jakob Fuglsang's girlfriend? Ok, let's redo it now.

If you've just read the headline of this post (or, worse, you've just seen the picture above) and you're going to have a heart attack in a few seconds time, turn your back to the computer screen, immediately. Then try to relax and to breath slowly. Sloooowly and caaaalmly. Think about something happy, like the fact that miss Fede is almost done with her Maturità. If your mother is there, call her in. She'll surely help you. Ask her to switch off the computer's screen. Then, ask her to bring you to the kitchen. Once there, open the fridge and drink something. If you have some chocolate, eat it: it will surely make you  feel better. Sit down as you eat and count until 10. Sloowly and caalmly. Ok, do it once again. Think about the fact that in the world there are many tall boys with an overbite, with blonde hair and with blue eyes. Think that, somewhere out there, there is a man waiting for you.

If this procedure has made you feel better, you can try reading this post again. Otherwise, you'd better take a walk outside, enjoy some fresh air and avoid this webpage for a while, because we're going to talk about the news du jour for a while.
(Right now some of you are probably thinking: 'Hey, but how can I read the emergency procedure if I've turned my back to the computer screen immediately after step 1?' Unfortunately, I must admit I don't have a solution for that :P)

Anyway. After saving the life of a poor fangirl, let's go on with the news du jour. It is not a joke: Andy Schleck has really found himself a girlfriend. Oh, yes, a true girlfriend. Someone that he's already introduced to Frank and that has already appeared in the public eye together with him.
Now, let's not get desperate: that's how life goes. Our boy is 26, his brother is married and his best friend has a girlfriend. It was high time he found a nice girl that could stay close to him in the important moments, right?

I mean, imagine being a professional cyclist and having to face a race like the Tour: personally, in that situation I'd love to have someone special that could support me in tough moments and with whom I could relax and take my mind off my job for a while. And who could do that better than a partner? 'No one', that's the answer.

When I first read the news (who a very kind Anonimo posted in the comment area of my previous post), I was really surprised. I did expect Andy to get himself a girlfriend, but I didn't expect him to be that fast. But surprisingly (and shockingly), in my heart there was no space for feeling sorry or angry or disillusioned. I simply read the news, watched the pictures, thought 'OMG SHE IS GORGEOUS!!', mentally complimented Andy on his good choice, melted in front of the pic with the whole family (Andy, his girlfriend, Frank, Martine and Leea) and then I started smiling like a fool. Then I got up and went to my mother to tell her the news. She wanted to see the pictures too (we're women, we're curious creatures!!) and she was positively impressed by Andy's choice too.

In the pics posted by Anonimo, our Andy looks incredibly happy and relaxed. Is it also because his girlfriend was there with him? Yes, I think so. They look very nice together and they also look really happy. A young, beautiful and nice couple.

Hopefully now the Luxembourgian paparazzi will allow Andy and his girlfriend to enjoy their privacy in the future. If not, I'll go telling them off myself ;)

So, dear girl whose name is still unknown: congratulations on your choice (right now you're one of the most envied women worldwide) and take care of Our Glorious Leader. We say we adore him and things like that, but it's just platonic love. You don't have anything to fear from us, really ;) I wish you all of the best! (and since I'm at it, I wish all of the best also to Chris Anker Sorensen and to his girlfriend, who are becoming parents soon!!!)

PS: For more pictures, go to the great http://fuckyeahandyschleck.tumblr.com/archive . Thank you Anonimo for pointing it out!!

PS1: yes, I saw the pic of Jakob Fuglsang's new haircut. And that pic shocked me more than the one you can see earlier in this post.

Little random post about Suisse, France and exams:

Temporarily back from the land of the Hard Studying, miss Fede has finally found the time to leave her 'studi leggiadri' and her 'sudate carte' apart in order to update her blog.

'What? Update your blog? Are you crazy? You have an exam coming up, you should be studying like hell, girl!!'. That's what I hear you, dear readers, scream as you read the first lines of this post. But still, you shouldn't get so nervous about my exam. In fact, today I've done a really good job, since I woke up pretty early (well, early for my standards) and I've spent the last 12 hours of my life studying.

Although it actually took me a lifetime to review Leopardi and Manzoni (damned Promessi Sposi, how can those critics have so many things to say about it?), I'm pretty happy with what I've done so far. And what I've done so far is: the whole Romantic period in Italy, life/death/miracles of the depressing duo Leo & Manzo (those guys couldn't stand each other, isn't that hilarious?) and life/death (especially death) and miracles of Petronius, Seneca and Lucanus. Considering that I wrote a super-detailled scheme of every author I've mentioned above (scheme including all the possible matchings between the different subjects), I think I can be satisfied with what I've done so far.

Talking about the matchings between the different subject: I've recently discovered that I have an amazing ability to match Martin Heidegger to everyone/everything I've studied this year. Isn't that amazing?

Anyway. Let's finally talk cycling. Here you have a little dialogue between me and my sister, which took place at half past six as we watched the final sprint of today's stage of TdS.
Sister: 'The rider who won has lots of muscles'.
Me: 'Yes, I know'.
Sister: 'I don't like men with too many muscles'.
Me: 'Well, sprinters have muscles...'
Sister: 'Yeah, but I prefer climbers. Also Sagan has too many muscles for me. Uhm...Do you know one thing?'
Me: 'What?'
Sister: 'The rider who's won... I've seen his face before. He reminds me a lot of Thor Hushovd. They look a lot to each other, don't they?'
Me: 'Really?'
Sister: 'Yeah, he really looks like Hushovd imo'.
Me: 'Well, perhaps he looks like Hushovd because he actually is Thor Hushovd...'

From this special dialogue you can understand that, even after 8 hours of studying, my brain can still manage to work better than my sister's one. Amazing, isn't it?

Anyway. Tour de Suisse. Andy Schleck lost a big amount of time in the prologue, but he had problems with his bike, so he's justified for that (poor boy, he has a mechanical every time he hops on a bike!). Yesterday however Our Glorious Leader entered a breakaway and worked hard on the final climb, which was very steep (and long). He eventually got dropped, but he did a good training while pulling at the head of the race.

On to another LT rider, Jakob Fuglsang seems in a great shape right now. Yesterday in fact  he was in the breakaway together with Andy and today he's showed us his pretty face at the front of the race once again. Not that I complain, of course.

Jens Voigt looked very good too this afternoon, as he attacked with 4 kms to go. Also O'Grady showed his form in the finale and this is simply great.

Talking about Frank Schleck, instead, he did a great job on the second day of race, but yesterday he didn't attack. Btw, I'm positively impressed by the fact that he hasn't crashed yet in the race.

On to the other riders who are taking part in Tour de Suisse, some of them are already in a super condition. Cunego simply flew over the mountains yesterday, whereas Soler is finally back in shape. Hopefully he won't crash in the next stages.

Young guns like Van Garderen and Mollema are doing well too, whereas Di Luca seems to have gone back to the good old times when he was known as 'the killer'.

De Greef yesterday impressed everyone with his riding style ('He looks like a camel', the Italian chronist kindly said), whereas Leipheimer is always a dangerous threat for the GC. Bakelandts keeps on attacking every day (I wonder, has anyone ever told him that he's not forced to enter a breakaway once every 24 hour?), whereas Sagan has been showing his amazing talent once again.

On to the fast wheels, Zdenek Stybar (if he can be considered a fast wheel...) had a good 8th placement this afternoon, whereas Cavendish got dropped on the last little climb. He doesn't look very thin or is it just my imagination?

Talking about another sprinter, Matti Breschel has finally made it back to the peloton. Welcome back, Matti! We missed you terribly in the last few months!

Talking about another race, you all probably know that a race called Dauphine Libére took place somewhere in France last week. It is always a very good race, always very exciting and full of surprises. This time Contador didn't take part in it, but the Spaniard is going to take part in the Tour anyway. Oh happiness.

The winner of the 2011 edition of Dauphine Libére was Wiggins who, imo, can make it to the Tour's Top 5. I like Bradley, since he's always very ironical and since he's never afraid to speak his mind.

Second in the race was Cadel Evans. Will he finally make it back to his usual GC levels this year?

Third was Vinokourov (*cheerful screams from the members of AAVL*), who would like to win the Tour next month. Imo he can't make it unless Contador, Andy Schleck and other 10 guys all crash out of the race, but I think Vino has great chances of winning at least a stage. Apropos, did you know that he won the Champs Elysées stage a few years ago?

On to another rider, Van Den Broeck showed he's in a great shape and that he can make it to the Tour Top 5. A great surprise in the French race has been Cristophe Kern, winner of a stage and 6th in the final GC. Europcar will have a strong team at the Grande Boucle, since Kern is a teammate of Voeckler.

Talking about other French teams, next month you'd better look out for Coppel and Moncoutie. Moreover, pay attention to AG2R. This team is really growing on me and it has some very interesting young riders. Poor Nicholas Roche, however, was forced to leave Dauphine after a bad crash. Cyclingnews said he might have broken his elbow, but that his Tour partecipation wasn't at risk. Let's hope so!

Another interesting French rider who showed himself to the world last week is Thibaut Pinot. This boy (born in 1990, just like Sagan) won't take part in the Tour, but showed great things in the French race.

Also Bruno Pires from Leopard Trek was very good in Dauphine Libére (19th in the GC), since he rode better than guys like Gesink and Basso. Right now everyone in Italy is very worried for Basso, but you mustn't forget that the poor boy had a bad crash on Etna at the end of May. Also Samu Sanchez and Brajkovic were a bit disappointing, whereas Rodriguez won two great stages.

Talking about Saxo Bank, Chris Anker Sorensen was 11th in the final GC and 2nd on a stage. I'm very proud of him and I'm actually a bit sorry because, now that Contador is taking part in the Tour, Chris will have to work as a helper. 'It's logical!', Logic says, but the heart of a Fangirl is often immune to tactics and team gerarchies.

So, this is all from miss Fede for the moment. Have a good evening, as I go back to my 'mad and desperate studies' (ok, I'm joking: it's bed time also for me). Good night!

Phil Gil takes also Fleche:

Unbelievable. Simply unbelievable. I have no other words to describe Philippe Gilbert's latest victory (and the fact that I'm writing a new post just 3 days after the last one) :P
Fleche Wallonne is the strangest of the Ardennes Classics. The riders race for 5 hours and face the mur de Huy three times during it, but in the end the winner is always decided by the last 800 meters, the steepest ones that you can find in a Classic.
Marco Pastonesi from 'La Gazzetta dello Sport' once wrote a great description of the mur de Huy, saying that pilgrims used to climb it by foot during the Middle Ages. In fact, there are 7 little chapels on the road to the top of the mur and each of them is a different station of the via crucis. Talking about this fact, Pastonesi said: 'The pilgrims saw images of the Virgin Mary at every chapel. By the time the riders arrive on the top of the climb during FW, they see Virgin Mary in person'. I've never faced mur de Huy (I'm not fit enough :P), but I think that said climb can definitely help you if you want to have a deep, religious experience. In fact, here in Italy we usually say that someone 'has seen the Madonna' when that someone has done something very painful or very tiring. Painful and tiring like climbing the Mur de Huy, for example.

Talking about the race, nothing important happened before the beginning of the final km. The first breakaway du jour was formed by Paterski, Vantomme, Van Hecke and Helminen (and not 'Eminem', as someone said yesterday).
In the last 30 kms of race there was the second breakaway du jour, which was formed by Thomas Lovkvist (he's alive!!!), Alexandr Kolobnev, Enrico Gasparotto and Teejay Van Garderen. Also Kiryenka, Gorka Verdugo and Michal Golas joined the breakaway and eventually Kiryenka and Lolo (Lovely Lovkvist) said 'adieu!' to their fellows. Unfortunately, the couple was caught with 8 kms to go, as a consequence of the work made at the front by Omega-Pharma Lotto, Rabobank and Leopard Trek. At that point of the race, Pineau and Marcato attacked, but they arrived at the bottom of the mur with just 20 seconds of advantage. And to win on the mur, you need to arrive at its bottom with at least a minute of advantage on the peloton.
Before the beginning of the climb, Andy Schleck took a turn at the front before vanishing in the bottom of the peloton. He didn't feel well, but apparently his brother Frankie was doing fine. Also Rodriguez, Contador and Gilbert seemed to feel fine, since their men pulled hardly at the front.
During the first part of the climb, Wegmann pulled for some time, followed by Albasini and Le Mevel. Fabian kept on turning his head to see where Frank was, since it was very hard to spot him in the peloton chaos. Then, with about 300 meters, Gilbert launched a terrible attack and no one could follow him. Phil Gil started celebrating with about 15 meters to go and, in spite of this, he managed to finish the race 3 seconds before of Joaquim Rodriguez. Amazing.I was so amazed by Gilbert's strong attack that, when I saw the gap that Rodriguez had from him, my mouth fell open and remained so until the end of the race, when I whispered: 'How can he have done such a thing even today?' in a very allucinated way. I would have never bet on a victory by Gilbert yesterday and that's why I was so shocked. That boy has been winnng Classics since October 2010, isn't that amazing?

Talking about another Cannibal, the women race was won for the fourth (fourth!) time by the Wonder Woman of cycling, the 23 year-old Marianne Vos. Second was Emma Johansson, while 3rd was Judith Arndt and 4th a very good Elena Berlato.
Emma Pooley didn't take part in the race because she broke her collarbone last Tuesday, on a training ride in Switzerland. Hopefully she'll be back in good shape for the Giro Donne.

Back to the male FW, Omega Pharma-Lotto was, once again, the best team. Gilbert told the journalists that he thought that mur de Huy was too long for him and that he decided to try winning yesterday race just because his teammates suggested him doing so. As we could see, the guys were right.
Jelle Vanendert was amazing once again, since he helped Phil and he also managed to come in 6th. Also Van Den Broeck (17th) was really good, just like De Greef.
Second in the race was Joaquim Rodriguez. He was the main favourite, but for the second year in a row someone rode up the mur de Huy faster than him. Katiusha did a great work to help him and Kolobnev and Di Luca really did their best. Moreover, Moreno was a good 8th.
Third instead was Samuel Sanchez. Euskaltel, who was invisible in the North Classics and didn't shine in Amstel, worked really well yesterday and Samu was a surprising 3rd. In fact, I would have expected Igor Anton (5th) to ride better than the Olympic Champion, instead Sanchez managed to end up on the podium. Wow!
4th was Vinokourov (*chorus of joy coming from the AAVL sector*), whose team, Astana, worked well. Especially Iglinskiy and Gasparotto were good, while Vino was surprisingly faster than guys like Gesink, Contador and Hesjedal.

Giving a judgement about the teams in a race like FW is very hard, because in the end the team work doesn't count that much on the mur de Huy. In fact, in the last 300 meters of it (where the hardest part begins) the only things that count are the team leader's legs and his sense of timing. Therefore, the work that the team has done to help the leader until that point of the race doesn't always lead to a good result.
Leopard Trek, for example, did a great work yesterday, but Frank Schleck eventually ended up just 7th. He didn't sound very satisfied with his performance in an interview with Cyclingnews and he said that yesterday he made a mistake with timing. But still, I think that a 7th place in this race (which doesn't suit 'regular' climbers like him or his brother) isn't a very bad result.
As far as the rest of the team is concerned, Wegmann worked well on the climb, whereas Andy had a bad day at the office. "On the next to last climb I didn’t feel very good", Our Glorious Leader told Cyclingnews. "I'm not sure if it was due to the weather, but I had red eyes and some breathing problems. So I decided to work for the team and I did the best I could for Frank in the final kilometre". Hopefully our boy isn't experiencing 'allergy problems', since me perfectly knows that they're extremely disturbing and they can really limit someone's physical performances.
Another team who did well, although its team leader wasn't that strong, was Saxo Bank. Nicki Sorensen worked hard at the front, but Contador was just 11th, whereas Chris Sorensen was 24th. Allergy problems also for the Spaniard? I don't know.
Also Rabobank worked hard, although the best team rider, Martens, was 10th, whereas Gesink was 14th. However, I don't think FW suits Gesink, since he isn't a very explosive climber and mur de Huy is a bit different from the San Luca climb at Giro dell'Emilia (a race that Gesink loves and has already won twice).
Talking about other teams, HTC Highroad tried to do something with Van Garderen. The team leader, Toni Martin, was just 89th, whereas Albasini was 12th. This makes me wonder: why was the team pulling so hard at the beginning of the mur? Mistery.
Landbouwkrediet entered a breakaway too and Bert De Waele was a good 15th.
The climb was too steep for Simon Gerrans, whereas Ryder Hesjedal probably hasn't recovered properly from his stomach problems (he was 13th). Best Garmin rider however was Le Mevel, excellent 9th.
Talking about Italian riders, Cunego was just 61st, but he crashed with about 3 kms to go. Basso instead wasn't in a great form (moreover, the mur de Huy doesn't suit him), while Di Luca worked to help Rodriguez.
A disappointing rider, imo, was John Gadret, who should feel comfortable on climbs like mur de Huy. Still, he was invisible yesterday.
The same worths for the whole BMC team, who couldn't have Evans in the line-up. In spite of this, I think they could have showed themselves during the race, whereas me actually found out that this team was racing when I casually opened a 'start list' page on Cyclingnews a few seconds ago.

Before closing this entry, here's the link to Chris Anker Sorensen's latest blog entry: http://blog.tv2.dk/chris.anker.ol/entry401212.html . In it Chris says that he's asked himself whether Father Christmas has a holiday house in Italy. In fact one day Chris, while training, saw a man working in a field. Said man, according to CA, had the same belly, the same beard and the same face as father Christmas, although he obviously wasn't wearing the same clothes. That made him ask whether Father Christmas has a house where he can spend the summer and whether said house is in Italy.
Moreover, Chris wrote something about Jens Voigt in his blog. Unfortunately, Google Translater doesn't want to let me understand that part, so I beg one of you, dear Danish readers, to help me understand what Chris says in it. Every LT supporter out there would be very happy if you could me this favour!

So, that's all from me for the moment. Have a good time during the Easter holidays and let's hope that one Schleck will cross the finish-line before everyone else on Sunday!
(Pic by Bettini)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Random post about Sorensen, Dominic (yay!), Voigt and more:

To everyone's joy, a week after her last post, miss Fede has finally come back writing again (*sounds of people singing happily while jumping joyfully around their computers*) :D

It's been another busy week me here in Italy and now I'm finally enjoying some moments of peace after an afternoon spent writing the so called 'tesina' ('little thesis') that I'll have to present at that cursed final high school exam. Actually, I think it will be the first thesis in the scholastic history to mention Leopard Trek (written in caps, the examiner might be an Italian relative of Nygaard!), Contador, Menchov, Vinokourov, Katiusha and Proudhomme in its introduction. Of course, this has been done in order to ensure that none of the examiners will realise what I'm talking about (come on, have you ever heard of an examiner who knows who the Schlecks are?).

Anyway. As well as being very busy, over the last days I've been also trapped by the atmosphere of sadness that is surrounding Bergamo in these days (if you're Italian, you'll understand what I mean). Moreover, this morning another teacher of mine spent some long minutes telling me strange things that have no connections with truth. According to said teacher, in fact, if I study languages at university, in 5 years time I'll end up being an unemployed person. And, still according to her, in 15 years time from now I'll become either a frustrated housewife with a child that weeps all day long, or a frustrated teacher who'll let it out on her students-if I'm lucky, of course. Perhaps I won't even be able to find a husband and I won't even manage to become a teacher, imagine what a crap. So, what does my teacher suggest to avoid those future possible problems of mine? Simple: abandon Bergamo, go to Trieste, try entering the only 'Translater School' of Italy and, after 5 years of hard sudies, pack your things and g working at the European Parliament. Simple, isn't it?

Anyway. Forget about that. Let's talk cycling and, most important, let's party all together because this afternoon our super-hero Dominic Klemme took the first Leopard Trek victory of the year! YAY FOR OUR BANANA-MAN!!! YEAAAH! (Girls, all together: *Yay!*)
"I'm super happy," our red haired boy told Cyclingnews after winning GP Le Samyn."I had cramps in the final kilometres, but I knew I had to hang in there because everyone was half dead back in the chase.I wasn't sure my attack was going to last until the finish line, but the top of the climb was visible, so I could see the finish all the time. I was super motivated to win this one for us". Well done boy!

Still talking about Leopard Trek team (sorry, I can't write it correctly three times in the same post!), it now has a new sponsor, Enovos. On http://www.tageblatt.lu/sport/story/%20Selbs%20tvertrauen-pur-12652985 you have some pictures of the new jersey (it's the same as before, don't worry) with the Enovos sponsor on and you also have some pictures of the brothers.

Talking about LT riders, here's an interview with Jens Voigt: http://velonews.competitor.com/%202011/02/news/jens-voigt-concedes-slim-shot-at-criterium-international-record-holds-off-on-retirement-announcement_161966 . Talking about his retirement, the Fucking Amazing Jens said: "I take it day by day, year after year. We’ll see. At the moment, maybe I am good enough to go one more year, but maybe my wife gets pregnant with baby number seven and I have no time to train at all anymore.I don’t know yet. I cannot really tell you.”

On to another Leopard news, here are two interviews with the Schleck brothers: http://www.lequotidien.lu/les-sports/20709.html and http://www.lequotidien.lu/les-sports/20708.html . Unfortunately, I don't have time to translate it now (they're in French), so you'll have to use our terrible Google Translater.

About Google Translater: Chris Aker Sorensen has made his seasonal debut (yay!) in Tour du Haut Var and has written two posts on his blog (geez, this year he writes almost as often as me!). The last one is a good entry and it talks about radio bans (http://blog.tv2.dk/chris.anker.ol/entry397658.html ): "In my last post I wrote about the Tour de Haut Var", Chris wrote, "but in it I completely forgot to comment on my first experience of racing without radios. The change wasn't actually that big. However, I still support the radios and I'd like to be able to put them back in my ears again during races. In fact, competitions go in the same way, with or without radios: at Tour du Haut Var, the morning breakawayers were caught as usual and the race finale was run as usual. The only changes I saw regarded security. Sometimes a team car had to enter the peloton to talk with its riders and this always created stress and anxiety, because it's never comfortable to ride in front of a car. Moreover, the always stressful "feed zone" was even more stressful than usual. With the radios, we are told where our soigneurs are standing with our feed bags and what team they are next to. Without radios, nobody really knows where their soigneurs are, so everyone moves to the right side of the road simultaneously to take their food bag. The intelligent reader now will probably think: 'Hey, why can't they tell you where your soigneurs are going to stay BEFORE of the race?' It could be a great idea, but if all teams say that their soigneur must be the last one, we'd be back at starting point. (...) Actually, I'm going to propose a system that will make us different from any other team: I will suggest our soigneurs to buy some blue little flares (ndr; the translater suggested using 'rockets', but I don't trust it). When we approach the feeding zone, the soigneurs light up the flares, so we can immediately know where they're standing. The problem with this idea is that of course every other team would adopt it as soon as possible too. Therefore we'd see the sky become purple, gray and blue and the effect would be the same that you get when you mix the 9 tempera colours of your palette during your art lesson at school'.
So, this was a part of Chris' latest entry. Fangirl compliments him on the clever idea and wonders herself how someone can avoid to like this boy.

Changing subject, let's now talk about Matteo Pelucchi's victory in Clasica de Almeria, which was the first victory for Geox-TMC. Matteo, being the boyfriend of Marina Romoli, dedicated the victory to his girlfriend. A good way to remind everyone about the fight that this girl is still carrying on. Well done Matteo- and hold on Marina!

Last topic of a day, a not very pleasing one. In fact, Matti Breschel is unlikely to race the Classics this year because of his annoying knee injury. Actually, even his Tour de France participation seems to be in danger right now. About his schedule for this season, poor Matti said: 'I think the positive thing is that now I will have the energy and mental strength for late in the season. It might be hard to get up there after a long, grueling season. Now I’m doing everything I can to build my way up to the world championships in September.” (news from: http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/breschel-set-to-miss-classics ).

Let's wish Matti a lot of luck and let's now close this post with a 'good night everyone'. And remember: don't study languages at school if you don't want to end up unemployed! -.-"

Totally random Thursday post about a few different things:

Good day everyone, dear blogmates! Unfortunately miss Fede (or FeeDee, or Féd or however else you call her ;) has been very busy over the last days, so she didn't find the time to update her blog. Sorry for that, dear readers.
Between the things I had to do over the last days there was a lot of studying, especially for my philosophy test about Schopenhauer and Kierkegaard (again!). To my shock, when I first read it this morning, I didn't even understand what I had to do in the first exercise. If I couldn't understand that part, just imagine how well I could understand the extracts from 'Aut-Aut' and 'The world as will and representation' (I'm making up the English names of the books, I wouldn't swear they're correct!). Moreover, over the last days I've been preparing myself to the approaching end of my favourite tv series by watching many times the second episode of it. 'What is your favourite tv series?', I hear you ask. 'Whitechapel!', I reply proudly while thinking about the main character. 'What?', I imagine you asking. 'Whitechapel! Come on, you've never heard of Whitechapel? Think about it more carefully, I'm sure you've heard about it somewhere...Come on, Whitechapel! Whitechapel I say! What? You don't know what it is? No? Well, you're not the only one', I answer you. In fact, over the last 2 weeks I've found just one (one!) person in my class who watches that series and likes it. However, she doesn't find it as exciting as me and this morning she told me that my favourite character is very likely to end up in a mental hospital in the next (and last) episode of the series. And to say that this is the only police-series that has ever managed to thrill me in the last 18 years... What a sad possible end for it :(

However, let's talk cycling. First of all, congratulations to Jack Bobridge on the new world record in the individual pursuit. The former record had been made by Chris Boardman 15 years ago and to do it Boardman rode a very strange bike which was later prohibited by the UCI. Now, Bobridge has broken that record with a 'normal' bike. Chapeau to him then!

On to another news, the Ladies Tour of Qatar began yesterday with Rochelle Gilmore's victory. The Australian rider outsprinted world champion Giorgia Bronzini and Chloe Hosking.
This year I'm going to talk about women cycling more often than usual, because I think that becoming a professional cyclist and making a living out of it is much more difficult for a woman than for a man. Therefore, here there's a video with the highlights of stage 1: http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/video-stage-1-highlights-of-the-ladies-tour-of-qatar . You can't see the finish very well in it, but it's always better than nothing. Bronzini complained about another rider creating her problems in the sprint, but the video doesn't allow me to tell whether she's right or not. By THE way, the funny thing is that, when Giorgia won the Worlds in Geelong, Gilmore was working for Australian tv and she was the first one to interview the Italian rider. Yesterday, instead, the interviewed one was her.

On to another news, Menchov has recently declared that he's not going to leave Geox for Saxo Bank (I've always said that Denis is a great person ;)
Talking about Geox, the team presentation should have been held 4 days ago, but it was postponed to the 12th of February. However, UCI has published the list of Geox riders on its website (or at least, that's what I understood from an Italian unclear article I've just read) and it has accompanied the list with a picture of how the new team's jersey should look like: http://tribunatreviso.gelocal.it/sport/2011/01/27/news/geox-il-giallo-della-maglia-svelata-3291209 . Someone has already said that it isn't the true official jersey and I hope that those people are right. Geox' kit is better than Footon-Servetto's one, but what about the 'breathing shoe' on the front of it? Dreadful, isn't it?

Talking about another team, Saxo Bank has put the pictures of the riders wearing their new kits on http://www.riis-cycling.com/person_profiles.asp . Watcing those pics, I must admit it, my eye always fell on the eagle. I did try to fight that instict, but I couldn't: that animal is a real eye catcher (better if I stop here, otherwise someone may take this blog as a naughty one!). Anyway, has anyone else noticed David Tanner? ;)

Penultimate thing to say for today, I've recently got the news of the opening of Leopard Trek official website. I must admit I was pretty confused when I typed its name in Google and saw a picture of Giacomo Leopardi appear on my computer screen as I was writing, but luckily it soon disappeared and left me free of wandering around http://www.leopardtrek.lu/ . I must say I pretty like this website, although I find its design too classy. Moeover, the black and white style doesn't appeal too much to me. But hey, it is a good website anyway.

BTw, am I the only one who has confused Brian Nygaard with Bjarne Riis as I entered the 'Riders' section of the website? :S

RANDOM LINK OF THE DAY:

http://blog.tv2.dk/chris.anker.ol/entry395538.html : as you can imagine, this is the link to Chris Sorensen's latest blog entry, in which he talks about his first approach to track riding by saying that he stayed at the bottom of the steep track, 'looking like Bambi walking on the thin ice'. What a poetic similry!

The start of the season, interview with Frank Schleck, Sorensen's blog and more:

After a busy week in which we reflected more than usual about the pronounciation of the riders' names, miss Fede is back with another super-random post and is glad to announce that, finally, the 2011 cycling season has officially begun! Yayyyyy!
The first race of the year (apart from the Australian Championships) was Cancer Council Helpline Classic in Adelaide. The race ended in a sprint, which was won by the Tasmanian Matthew Goss for HTC Columbia.

2010 is over, but HTC Columbia keeps on getting great results in the sprints! Cavendish didn't have a good day, he eventually came 108th, but his teammates managed to get the Top 2 of the race anyway. Impressive, isn't it?
Talking about Cavendish, however, it must be said that Henderson crashed at the end of the race and his crash probably caused some problems also to other riders.
3rd in the sprint was Robbie McEwen (hope he'll win some races this year!), while 4th was a great Elia Viviani. 5th was Chris Sutton, while 6th was a very good Davide Viganò. Imo that was the best reply he could give to a Gazzetta journalist, who some days ago wrote: 'It's amazing how Viganò can manage to ride for such good teams although he has never got good results'.

Unfortunately I can't add anything new to what has already been said about the race, since I couldn't see it because of the time zone. Anyway, here you have some random randomness collected by me this afternoon.

INTERVIEW WITH FRANK SCHLECK:
http://www.tageblatt.lu/sport/radsport/story/21130532 : First of all, as you probably know, team Leopard Trek is having a training camp in Mallorca in these days. Photos are available almost everywhere and on the link above you can find some nice ones.

A Luxembourgian newspaper, Tageblatt (check link above again), is giving a lot of attention to Leopard Trek's training camp and is reporting the activities of every single day of training on its website.

On http://www.tageblatt.lu/sport/story/30253999 you can also find a great interview with Frank Schleck that was done by Tageblatt's Cristophe Junker. I found it very nice, so here you have a translation of some of its parts (I had to translate it from German, so I already apology for the eventual mistakes):
'Andy and I came here in Mallorca two, three days before of the other riders and I'm very happy about this. In this way we could ride our bikes for three days. You just need to look at the weather in Luxembourg to understand that it's very complicated to train outside in this period. Moreover, in December it snowed a lot in Luxembourg, so we had to catch up a bit with training before of the training camp (...). So far the time here at the camp has passed really fast. Our days are full of training, massages, interviews, photos...'
Journalist: the team has received a lot of attention from the press. Is it because it is the n.1 team of the world? Or is it a normal thing for a new team?
Frank: I think it's a combination of these 2 factors (...). Of course the 'new team' factor has been important. Moreover, in these team there are many strong riders and this creates a lot of interest in the team. We try to present us as very open people, we also try to be always very puntual at the interviews, not like I've done with you today (grins and looks at his wristwatch, ndr)'
(...)
Journalist: In March 2010 the Italian newspaper 'Gazzetta dello Sport' reported the first rumours about the creation of a Luxembourgian team.
'I will not deny that at the time we had heard something about the possible creation of a Luxembourgian team. People talked a lot about it, but these talks weren't interesting for us.
J: Why?
'Because there was nothing of concrete behind them'.
J: When did they become concrete?
'We had lots of talks and contacts going on with other teams, because many people were interested in making us sign a contract with them. What is happening right now, at the time it was just a dream, a dream that now has come true. After the Tour of Luxembourg we received a concrete offer. We were more than happy when we accepted it. 4 days later, we went to a training camp in Switzerland and we informed Bjarne about the offer we had received. We were 100% sincere with him and we informed him as soon as we could. Bjarne couldn't make us any offer, because at the time he didn't have any sponsor for 2011.
J: When did you hear the first rumours about Alberto Contador joining Riis?
'During the Tour de France, like everyone else. However, in the small article that appeared on la Gazzetta in March 2010, not only did they report many things about Luxembourg; they also wrote that Contador would have gone to Riis' team.
J: How is the relationship between you and Bjarne nowadays?
'There isn't any problem between us. Of course Andy and I were disappointed when Riis said that we had lied to him. In the meanwhile, however, we've got over it. (...)

'I still firmly believe that Andy and I are a bit late on our preparation. We miss kilometers. In the team, I actually feel like a captain. If there is a problem, the young guys come to talk to me. People respect me and I feel very well in this situation. This also derives from the fact that I feel very well in this team. I was surprised after today's test, it was very good. Andy and I were a bit afraid of it. However, during the winter I didn't put on weight, although I didn't pay attention to it'. (not: I'm not very sure about the translation of this part, if it's wrong please let me know)
J: What are the team's goals for the first weeks of the season?
A team is already 'down under'. Will Clark, who is a neo pro, won 5 races in 6weeks last year. And to win those races, you really need to be a good rider. I've seen him riding and I'm sure he has a bright future in front of himself. At Paris-Nice, Jakob Fuglsang and I will try to have good results, but we don't want to have pressure on us. If I get a good result there, good. If I don't, it won't be a problem.
J: What about Flavio Becca?
'My father has known him for a lot of time. He had the idea of creating this team. We owe him a lot.
J: How did you come to the team's creation? Did he phone you all of a sudden to tell you that he wanted to create a team?
'Yes, it was something like that. Like his father Aldo, he had always been a great cycling fan. His passion has become bigger and bigger over the years, and now it has brought him at this point. One day he gave us his word and, since he's a 'homme de parole', he respected it. This season we want to pay him back for what he did for us by creating this team'.
(Interview by Cristophe Junker)

NEWS FROM LEOPARD TREK TEAM:
Still talking about team Leopard Trek, the other day our blogmate Leela pointed out on her blog(http://justfuglen.tumblr.com/ ) a letter that Leopard Trek has apparently sent to the people who work in the cycling media. In said letter (read it on:
http://www.cyclesportmag.com/news-and-comment/cs-blog-an-open-letter-to-leopard-trek/ ) Leopard Trek guys pointed out that:
- you should never write Team Leopard Trek, but 'Leopard Trek team';
- you should pronounce 'Leopard' as LAY-oh-pard;
- you should never write Leopard-Trek.
- you should always write Leopard Trek in caps (LEOPARD TREK).
After noticing that I've made every single possible mistake while writing the name of this team, me thinks that I won't be following any of these rules on this blog. After all, I didn't receive any mail from LeOpArD TREK, did I? ;)

CHRIS SORENSEN'S BLOG:
Let's now talk about another team, Saxo Bank Sungard. Or, better, let's talk about one of its riders, Chris Anker Sorensen. Since the beginning of the new year, in fact, Chris updated his blog twice and his first 2011 post was really good. In it Chris talked about his 2010 achievements and here you have a partial translation of of it:
(achievements of the 2010 year):
'Won a stage in the Giro (...). Helped Matti B. to get a silver medal. Rode the Tour for the second year, this time without writing a book. I had 89 days of race and rode 33000 kms. I stayed in 80 different hotels during the year and had 193 travel days'.
'Changed Luxembourg with Lucca and Moyenne with Ciao' (...)
'Speaking of Bangkok, during the year I've often been told this joke by Richie Porte. "What is the capital of Thailand?", he asks. Then he yells "Bang Kok" and hits a certain part of his body (only Richie, who is a gentleman, actually does so)'.
'I broke a collarbone in Barcelona and slid into a wall on a descent towards Como'.
'I was in New York shouting "Deefence" in Madison Square Garden. It was during a basketball match and together with thousands other people, so I didn't do it because I'm mad (...)'
'I became really good at making risotto and got a good knowledge of Italian wine. Found out that I am completely hopeless to make cappuccino after visiting the real king of cappuccinos in Monsummano Terme'.

2011 KITS:
Last link for today, here's an artice by Cyclingnews about the teams' new kits: http://www.cyclingnews.com/features/the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly-2011-team-kits . I don't agree with saying that Radioshack's kit is the best one of 2011. Actually, I find it pretty unoriginal. Talking about other teams, I really like Quick Step kit and I'm pretty keen on Katusha's new one too. On the other hand, I think Lampre's jerseys are too flashy and I don't really like Liquigas' new ones. Btw, remember one thing: the day we're all awaiting, aka the presentation of Geox (former Fuji-Servetto), is the 31st of January. Will Geox guys shock the world with their kits for the second year in a row or will they improve? Me (together with Denis Menchov and Carlos Sastre) can't wait to know the answer.

PRONOUNCIATION ISSUE:
As I could see from the waterfall of comments that followed my last post, the pronounciation issue is a topic that interest everyone of us. Perhaps we could really have pronounciation classes, and now I'll explain you how.
Mar has said that she'll kindly do voice posts about the names of Dutch riders on her blog. If you want to ask her what the correct pronounciation of some names is, write her on her Tumblr (see 'my favourite blog' list at your right) and she'll surely help you.
As far as non-Dutch names are concerned, I think we could make a list of the most complicated names to pronounce (in our opinion) and divide those names in categories, according to their nationality. Then it would be great if a person from every country could tell us if the pronounciation of those names on Google Translater is right or not. If it isn't, those people could make us a big favour by posting a YouTube video in which the name of the rider is correctly pronounced. Anyone agrees?

(Pic 1 by AFP, Pic 2 by Jeff Lahr)

Personal hopes for 2011 cycling season:

And so another year is ending. Many things have changed over the last 12 months, although one thing remains the same. In fact, for the third year in a row, I find myself writing a 'personal hopes for next cycling season' post in the last days of the year. Unfortunately for you, this has become a traditional way to end the year for me- and I'm not sure you appreciate it very much...
My first 'new year's hopes' post appeared on this blog in 2008 and it was probably one of the most fangirlistic things I've ever written. For example, in it I wished that Andy Schleck became my boyfriend (*blushes red and tries to hide her head in the sand without succeeding*).How embarassing. Luckily last year post was much more serious and I can proudly announce that few of my hopes came true. For example, Chris Sorensen won a Giro stage.

Anyway, talking about the 2009 post, here I've got something that may amuse you. In that post, in fact, me wrote: 'I hope that some riders who doped in 2007 won't be able to get any good results in 2010'. Now, that was a not so hidden reference to 2 people: Riccò and Vinokourov. Yes, Vinokourov. In fact I have to admit that 12 months ago I couldn't stand him at all. He sounded too arrogant to me and I didn't think cycling needed a guy like him to come back racing. And instead, 12 months after writing that post, me has become a member of the AAVL (Anonymous Association of Vino's Lovers) and the Kazakh is one of my favourite riders. Funny to think about how things can change in 12 months time, isn't it?

However, let's finally start with my 2011 cyclistic hopes. First of all, just like last year, I hope that new year will have less doping cases than 2010.

Please boys, stop taking the mickey out of us supporters. It isn't fun. And then, when they discover you, you break into tears and feel like a s*** because no one trusts you anymore. Please, stop it. And, in case you're found positive at the anti-doping, don't invent strange stories involving you, Spanish steaks, your team's doctor, your dog's tail or whatever else. We're not stupid. Not that much, at least.
Another hope for the 2011 year is going to watch some live races, just like I've done over the last 2 years. Now that I have that cursed driving license, me has a very ambitious plan for next year. And that is: 1. watching the Sondrio, the San Pellegrino, the Bergamo and the Milan's stages of the Giro. 2. watching the Pinerolo stage of the Tour.
Unfortunately, it's going to be hard to achieve these goals. I live near San Pellegrino so, if I use the good old 'The Giro is riding through my village!' excuse (I did it in a very successful way in 2007), I should be able to skip school that day. In that case I could also go to Sondrio's stage, which is on the previous day. But to do so, I need someone to lend me their car. Will someone be that brave? I don't think so. Then, as far as Bergamo stage is concerned, it is likely to start from Bergamo at about midday. At that time of the day, however, me should be at school. Of course I could invent some random excuse for my teachers, but if I break the infamous '20 days of absence' limit, then I could have some troubles. Stupid school that doesn't allow me to watch the Giro' start in my town.
As far as the Tour is concerned, then, in July I'll have my bloody final exam. And, considering my luck, my final exam is very likely to be on the day of Pinerolo's stage. What an anger.

Anyway, on to my other hopes, let's start talking about my favourite riders. First of all, I hope team Lux won't be named Team Leopard and I hope that their kit won't be horrible. Then, I'd like the Schlecks to race well in the Ardenne's classics and I'd like Andy to win the Tour (and Lombardy); Frank instead could win the Vuelta (after arriving second at the Tour, of course). Hey, but wait a minute! Fuglsang was the one that should have won Vuelta! I wrote that in a comment and I can't change my mind now! Uhm, let me think about this problem for a while (*thinks, thinks, thinks*). Okay, I've got the solution ladies! Frank wins the Vuelta, Jakob (who is younger than Frank and has plenty of time to win a GT) arrives on the podium, wins Tour of Denmark and wins a Vuelta stage. Oh, and Frank will also win Liége next year and will dedicate the victory to Leea. Ok?
Talking about Chris Sorensen (who's not going to ride the Giro), I think it'd be good for him to win a Classic. What about Fleche Wallonne? Oh, and he could also win a Tour de France stage and Giro dell'Emilia (although, to achieve this latter goal, he needs to get over his Emilia curse).
On to other riders, I hope Pinotti will arrive on the TT Worlds' podium. Moreover, I hope that Breschel will win the Worlds in Copenhagen and an important North Classic (what about Flanders?). I also hope that some of my less known favourite riders (Jorgensen, Vanmarcke, Niemiec, not to mention Leukemans and Hoogerland) will do well in some important races.

In addition I'd also love to see Jens Voigt winning an important GT stage (what about coming to the Giro, Jens?) and I'd also love to see some young riders getting good results (yes, I'm talking about Stefan Denifl too).
As far as the Giro is concerned, I hope it will be won by Nibali. I like him and it'd be nice to see him winning the Corsa Rosa in front of, say, Riccò. On the other hand, I'd hate it if Riccò won.
I also hope that Geox will be invited to Grand Tours and that Menchov will reach the Tour podium again. And I'd also like Oss and Modolo to get some important results this year. I'd also appreciate it a lot if Szmyd managed to win Dauphine Libére.

So, these are my hopes for 2011. However, the most important thing for me is to be able to follow a great, exciting and 'clean' cycling season. Hopefully the riders will give us a great year and they'll also make some of our 'cyclistic personal hopes' come true.

Anyway, here we are at the end of 2010. Considering that I won't write anything new tomorrow, I take this chance to wish you all a happy new year- may 2011 bring you happiness, health, love and whatever else! And do feel free to tell me what your cyclistic hopes for 2011 are!

2010 Cycling Awards decided by moi plus some radom links:

So ladies, here I am again after our virtual party. I didn't post any news over the last days, therefore here you have some interesting links:
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/schlecks-to-be-ambassadors-for-special-olympics-in-luxembourg : not only are they cool and good-looking, the Schleck brothers are also golden-hearted boys (did we have any doubt about this?). In fact Frank and Andy presented a check for 7000 euros to the sport federation for people with intellectual disabilities. Didier, Kirchen and Serge Waldbillig presented a check for 5000 euros too (the link also contains some clues about team Luxembourg's cars which, as we already know, will be Mercedes).
http://www.team-saxobank.com/ny_news.asp?n_id=3007 : the new season is finally beginning and Richie Porte is going to ride TDU together with N.Sorensen, Tanner, Vandborg, JJ and Sebastian Haedo and Cooke. On this link you have a nice interview with him (and if you go to the right you can also book a signed copy of Riis' biography...).
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/geox-and-tmc-threaten-to-quit-cycling : what a bad story. Don't Geox and Tmc realise that, if they leave cycling now, their image could suffer some bad blows between cycling supporters?
http://www.team-saxobank.com/ny_news.asp?n_id=3008 : here you have a interview with Chris Sorensen, who has recently written in his blog that he's not going to take part in 2011 Giro d'Italia. Right now, I'm a disappointed Fangirl.
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/breschel-voted-danish-rider-of-the-year : Yes dear fangirls, over the last days the 'Best 2010 rider of the year award' has been held in Denmark. The prize was won by Matti Breschel (as predictable), who had a very funny comment on it(“I've always thought that this event was deeply corrupt, but now I have faith in it again").

Matti won in front of Chris Anker Sorensen, Jakob Fuglsang, Alex Rasmussen and Lasse Norman Hansen.

Since the end of the year is 'award time' almost everywhere, however, miss Fede's now going to give her own 2010 cycling awards. Here they are:

Best performance: Fabian Cancellara's Parix-Roubaix victory. Simply amazing.
Best Team: Liquigas, Astana or Saxo Bank? That is the question. Saxo riders won Flanders, Roubaix, the TT World Championship and one of them was second in the Tour. On the other hand, Liquigas won Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a Espana. Astana instead won the Tour and Liége. However, considering that the Tour and the Classics didn't go that well for Liquigas, that Astana didn't win anything at the Worlds, and that SB also got stage victories at the Giro (Richie Porte even won the Maglia Rosa), I think I'll go for Saxo Bank.
Best sprinter: Cavendish. When he's fine, he's unbeatable. Special mentions also goes to Yahueni Hutarovich for winning a Vuelta stage in a very surprising way, to Freire for winning Sanremo and making my race prediction come true, and to Petacchi for winning a great stage and the green jersey at the Tour.
Best TT rider: Cancellara (did anyone have doubts about this?)
Best new rider: Richie Porte. He rode an amazing Giro and showed that he has a bright future in Grand Tours. A mention also goes to Peter Sagan, great revelation of the first part of the year.
Most emotional moment of the year: imo there have been many emotional days this year. For example, when Chris Soensen won the Giro stage on Terminillo. However, I think the most emotional moment of the year was Andy Schleck's victory in Morzine-Avoriaz. That day I screamed as if I was mad!
Rider to watch in 2011: Richie Porte, of course. Also Peter Sagan has showed great things this year, just like Craig Lewis, Teejay Van Garderen, Sacha Modolo and Geraint Thomas. Attention also to Taylor Phinney.
Craziest moment of the year: The 60 men breakaway at the Giro, with everyone blaming everyone on what had happened, Vinokourov trembling in the rain, Chris Sorensen finding a random excuse for what had happened and Savoldelli transforming himself in Vinokourov's personal psychologist.
Most exciting Grand Tour of the year: Giro d'Italia. From the Dutch roads to l'Arena di Verona, going through Gavia's snow, Montalcino's mud and L'Aquila's stage, the Giro had a daily surprise for everyone who followed it (those surprises include Chris Sorensen going 'round with a Inter scarf in his hands the morning of the Zoncolan's stage).
Most exciting one day race of the year: the Worlds in Melbourne. Once again, I screamed as if I was mad when I saw that Hushovd had passed Breschel.
Worst moment of the year for Fangirl: Andy Schleck's chain pop on Port du Balés. In that moment I could have smashed my own tv. Then I managed to calm down, but Contador's stupid excuse had the power of making me get angry again.
Best chronist of the year: Savoldelli, of course. His Bergamask accent has become a symbol of this year Giro, just like his 'A Voi!' sentence. Moreover, he kept in contact with Rai during the Tonale stage by using his mobile phone and he commented what was happening through that. A genius.
Worst polemic of the year: there have been a lot of polemics over the last months. Beergate and Chaingate were probably the biggest here in the Blogosphere, but I think that the polemic that someone created with Cancellara ('You have an engine in your bike!') was probably the worst.
Best race I saw live this year: Tonale stage of the Giro (although I managed to meet Menchov at Tour of Lombardy, and not at the Giro).
Best brothers du peloton: and you expect me to give you an unpredictable answer? Muahahaha.
Best eyebrows du peloton: Jakob Fuglsang, of course. However, Logic doesn't accept the idea that those eyebrows have that natural shape.
Most unlucky rider of the year: For the second year in a row, this award goes to poor Robert Gesink for what happened to him at the end of the season.
Worst supporters of the year: those who booed at Vinokourov in Liége. If the system allows doped riders to come back racing after a disqualification, it doesn't make sense to boo at them as soon as they start winning important races again.

So, these are my random 2010 awards. You're free to create new categories or/and give me your opinions about my decisions, of course.
Considering that I'm not going to write anything new before of Christmas, I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a nice holiday break :D
(Pic by Scanpix).