Giro di Sardegna, Rohregger and more:

23rd February 2011, 20.05. An Italian family is watching a cycling race on tv.

'Hey dad, did you hear what has recently happened to Tondo (ndr; whose name means 'circle' in Italian)?', one of the daughters asks the father. 'No, I don't', answers the father. The daughter is going to tell him the news of Tondo's tip to the Spanish police, when her young sister suddenly begins to speak: 'I know what happened to Tondo! He became Square!!'.

After reading these first lines of this post, I think you've finally understood why my mental condition is so bad: simply, it is in the family genes. However, that was just one of the little dialogues that I had with my familiars a hour ago, while we were watching Giro of Sardegna' second stage (one of said dialogues also included my sister screaming: 'Where the hell have the breakaway riders gone?' while Cunego was crossing the finish-line; in fact, in that moment she hadn't realised yet that the breakaway riders had ended their lonely adventure about 6 kms before of the finish-line).

Anyway, the most important thing about this post's beginning is that not only miss Fede's sense of humour could be even worse than it is, but the real great news is that she's finally managed to watch a cycling race on tv at a decent time of the day (allelujah!). Before of tonight in fact I had managed to watch just the first stage of TDU and a stage of Tour of Oman but unfortunately, in order to do so, I had to stay awake until 11.30 pm- not a very clever idea, if the following day you have to get up at 6.25 in order to go to the bus stop, where you'll find that disturbing, logorroic boy who stares at you during your whole journey to school.

By the way. I'm digressing again.

Talking about Giro di Sardegna, yesterday stage was won by Peter Sagan. Today stage, instead, was won by Damiano Cunego, who exulted in a great way after the finish-line. In fact, not only did he raise his arms: he even went towards a tv camera, shouted 'Evvai!' and started to shake it.
I was very happy for Damiano, because during last year Tour de France some people (*cough* journalists *cough*) were really terrible with him. Moreover, journalists had tried to eat him alive after Mendrisio Worlds. So, considering all the critics and pressure that Cunego has had to carry on his shoulder since May 2004 (and that have become even bigger over the last years), I always feel incredibly happy when he wins. When he wins, in fact, I always feel as if it's a deserved victory. I like Damiano, I can't help it.

Second in today's stage (which was very hilly and whose 7 final kms were completely uphill) was Serpa 'Zorro' Perez, whose moustache are much more stylish than Pozzato's ones. If you don't believe me, look at the pic above (by Sirotti). Third in the stage was the little Sella, José's teammate, while 4th was Peter Sagan. Unfortunately for him, Peter couldn't keep the leader jersey, which is now on Cunego's shoulders.

Amongst the riders who did a very good job today there are Hermans (the Radioshack rider was 4th), Capecchi (5th), Scarponi (who did an outstanding job for Cunego), Kiserlovski and Stortoni (Colnago riders are really brave, they always attack as soon as they can). Ballan was 15th (he was second in yesterday stage) and hopefully this means that he's back at the level that he had when he won the Varese Worlds. 25th was 40 year-old Noé, while a special mention must go to the breakaway riders du jour: Mikhail Ignatiev (who kept his knees in a very strange way while riding uphill), David Boily, Alessandro De Marchi, Elia Favilli and Alessandro Malaguti. De Marchi was the best breakawayer (?) du jour, since he abandoned the peloton after just 8 kms (18 if you consider the 10 kms between the start village and the true start of the race) and he was caught with just 6 kms to go. Therefore, chapeau to Alessandro!

RANDOM NEWS:
Talking about breakaways, you'll be happy to know that Andy Schleck was part of a breakaway during today's Ruta del Sol stage, wich was eventually won by Freire. Good to see our boy riding at the front of a race! :D
Still talking about Andy, he now has a new teammate: Thomas Rohregger, born on the 23rd December 1982, former Milram (and Pegasus) rider, winner of 2009 Tour of Austria. A good climber and another German speaker for Leopard Trek. All together now: *Herzlich Willkommen, Thomas*!!

On to another news, Jens Voigt has recently said that the riders should do something 'big', like boycotting this year Worlds, to show their disapproval of UCI's radio ban. Aren't we exaggerating a bit? (http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/voigt-calls-for-worlds-boycott-over-radio-ban ).

Still facing the news du jour, I've just read on Cyclingnews that Amstel Gold Race organisers have given their race's wild cards to the following teams: Topsport Vlaanderen (yay!), Landbouwkrediet (double yay!), Skill Shimano (we want Kenny Van Hummel!) and Verandas Willems.

I also wanted to put the link to a little Cyclingnews article in which Romain Feillu said that, perhaps, Vacansoleil shouldn't have given Riccò a contract, but unfortunately I couldn't find it anywhere. Well, it seems like someone was brave enough to say these things publicly.

Anyway, it is pretty late right now, so here I close this post (which isn't actually that great, but that was written in a big hurry). Have a good evening and a good night sleep!
(pic by Sirotti)

Useless random post about the last two stages:

Wihout any doubt,'quiet' is the perfect word to describe the first two days that Andy Schleck spent with the Tour de France yellow jersey on his shoulders.Over the last two days he was even seen while carrying water bottles for his teammates (!) and he was also spotted while chatting quietly with Contador.To la Gazzetta dello Sport,however,he said that he isn't going to reveal what the topic of his chat with the Spaniard was.According to a blog post that I've just read,anyway,the two champions talked about holidays (something to do with Curaçao,Fangirl wonders?).During today's stage Andy also talked with sir Lancelot ("He gave me one of his yellow bracelet for free",he told the journalists) and,after it,he said that tomorrow's going to be a hard day "because of the heat and of the parcours: the last climb will create gaps between the GC contenders".Therefore,tomorrow we'll have to pay attention to Contador and also to Joaquim Rodriguez, who could go for a stage win.

Talking about today's stage,we must say that it created at least one change in the GC: in fact,Adriano Malori isn't the lanterne rouge of the race anymore.This honour in fact went to Anthony Roux,who this morning stated that,rather than being penultimate,it was better to be the last rider of the GC.

Another change that happened during,sorry,after today's stage instead regards HTC Columbia. In fact Mark Renshaw was ejected from the Tour because his behaviour during the sprint was considered very dangerous by the race jury.I agree with this decision,since firstly Renshaw hit Dean with his head 3 times and then he disturbed Farrar during the sprint.I don't think Farrar lost the sprint because of that,but I do believe that Renshaw's behaviour was terribly dangerous (I don't want to imagine what could have happened if Dean had crashed at that point of the race).However I'm sorry for Mark since he usually is a correct rider and also because now he risks to enter Cycledom history because of this bad episode rather than for his riding skills.As well as that,he's probably feeling a bit depressed right now.

Obviously after the stage both Renshaw and Cavendish complained about the jury's decision. Anyway,considering that Chris Froome was kicked out of the Giro because he had been helped by a car during the Mortirolo stage,I think that for Renshaw that was the only possible punishment.

Today's winner however was Mark Cavendish,who outsprinted Petacchi and Farrar.Petacchi also got the green jersey,which hasn't been won by an Italian rider for the last 43 (if my memory doesn't fail me) years.Therefore,allez Ale!

Talking about Lampre's riders,it seems that also Cunego would like to fight for a jersey and,to be more precise,it looks as if he'd like to wear the polka dots jersey in Paris.Talking about Damiano's future,then,it looks as if he might end up riding for Liquigas,Garmin,Sky or Saxo Bank next year.

As far as yesterday stage is concerned,it was a very quiet day at the office for most of the riders.Paulinho won a 2 men sprint against Kiryenka and so he got the first important victory for RadioShack,while the peloton finished the stage at about 6.15 pm. In a few words,they took it easy.Extremely easy.And this gave Rai's journalists the chance of reviewing some past events of Cycledom connected with the city of Gap.

They started with 1972 World Championships.That edition of the Worlds is particularly famous in Italy not because Marino Basso won it,but because Franco Bitossi (last Italian green jersey of Cycledom) lost it with about 10 meters to go.Poor Bitossi every year has to stand phone calls from people who want him to describe how it felt to lose a Championship in that way and is more famous for that defeat than for his victories (which were more than 150).

Then,obviously,everyone yesterday remembered 2003 Tour de France stage ending in Gap,during which poor Joseba Beloki ended his career and Armstrong put on a great show by cutting across a field.Eventually,the stage winner was a happy Vinokourov.

Finally,Rai journalists ended up with phoning a famous autograph collectionist to ask him how much a signed picture of Davide Cassani (Rai chronist and former rider) costs.The answer was "About 90 euros".This gave everyone an occasion to tease Cassani and the other former riders who work for Rai.After all, heat creates problems not just to the riders,but also to the journalists and chronists who work for the Tour.

Giro d'Italia 2010: the parcours and my opinion

The parcours of the 2010 Giro d'Italia became known to everyone yesterday afternoon.The presentation of the race was held in Milan,in the "X Factor" (an Italian talent show programme) tv studios.The idea of doing the presentation there seemed a bit odd to me at first,but then it turned out that the choice wasn't actually that bad.

Lots of riders were in the studio:Cunego, Bennati, Nocentini, Petacchi, Pinotti, Garzelli, Ballan, Pozzato (why the tv kept on showing him,why?), Rujano (he travelled 20 hours to be in Milan this afternoon!),Tatiana Guderzo (poor girl,she had to sit near to HGS!), Denis Menchov and other great Italian riders of the past,like Gimondi, Cipollini, Moser, Magni,etc.

Me was a bit disappointed while listening to the stages of the first 2 weeks,but then I went crazy when I saw what kind of mountains the riders will have to face during the last week of the Giro.Anyway,let's go in order:

As you know,the Giro next year starts in Holland.The first stage,Amstedam-Amsterdam,is a TT of 8.4 km.

The second (Amsterdam-Utrecht) and the third stages (Amsterdam-Middleburg) will both be suitable to sprinters.The main problem in the 3rd stage will probably be the wind that usually blows in that part of Holland.Anyway,I must say that I pretty envy Fangirls from Amsterdam, since they're gonna have the chance of watching 3 stages live!!!

After just 4 days there will be the first rest day.After it,the riders will ride the 4th stage (Savigliano-Cuneo),a Team Time Trial of 32.5 kms (and Saxo Bank may get a good result there).

After the TTT there will be the Novara-Novi Ligure stage.This stage will remind everyone that in 2010 there will be the 50th anniversary of Fausto Coppi's death and it will probably suit sprinters.

The following stage is the Montalcino one,during which the riders will have to ride on some gravel roads during the last 10 kms of the stage.
After the Montalcino stage,the first uphill arrive,with the Chianciano Terme-Terminillo stage.The Terminillo is a 16 kms long climb and will probably show which riders won't be able to win the Giro.
After the Terminillo stage there is the Avellino-Bitonto stage,that is suitable to sprinters.
The following day there is the Lucera-L'Aquila stage,suitable to breakaways.This stage will probably be very emotional,since the riders will arrive in the city that suffered lots of damages after the earthquake that happened in Abruzzo during the April month.The stage will also be very long (256 km).
After L'Aquila stage there will be the Città S.Angelo-Recanati stage,which will be suitable to sprinters.I already know that someone will recitate Leopardi's poetry "L'Infinito" on that day,so I have about 7 months to get ready to that moment of intense poetry (I actually know that poetry by heart,just like every other Italian person who's gone to school).
After the Recanati's stage the riders will arrive in Cesenatico.This stage will end in the area where Pantani was born,so he will be remembered by everyone on that day.The stage will be suitable to sprinters.
The following day there will be the Ferrara-Asolo,during which the riders will have to face the Monte Grappa (19 kms,8% of average) with about 50 kms to go.
And until now,you may be disappointed.And I was disappointed as well,until that point of the presentation.Lots of sprinters stages,2 TT (1 of which is a TTT) and just one uphill finish in 2 weeks seems a bit poor to me.But fortunately things get very exciting during the last week of race.
After the Asolo stage in fact there will be the Mestre-Zoncolan stage.During that stage the riders won't face just the Zoncolan,but also the Sella Chianzutan,the Passo Duron and the Sella Valcalda.Of course Fangirl is looking forward to this stage.
After the second and last rest day,there is another TT,the San Virgilio di Marebbe-Plan de Corones.12.9 km uphill,with some parts of the climb at 24%.2 years ago,the winner of this stage was Pellizotti.
After the Plan de Corones stage there will be the Brunico-Pejo Terme,with the last 5 kms slightly uphill.
The following stage is the Cevico Terme-Brescia,for the sprinters who haven't abandoned the race yet.
The 3rd to last stage is the Brescia-Aprica,which features the Aprica climb,the Trivigno and the Mortirolo.During the last 100 kms of this stage,the riders will have to ride uphill for 52 kms.Obviously,I don't envy them at all.
The last mountain stage is the Bormio-Passo del Tonale,with an uphill finish.During this stage the riders will get over the Forcola di Livigno,the Passo di Eira,the Passo di Foscagno,the Passo di Gavia (2618 m-Cima Coppi) and the Passo del Tonale.Hard,hard,hard stage.

The last stage is a TT of 15 kms in Verona,that in my opinion is one of the nicest city in Italy.It's gonna be a difficult TT,since there are a 5 kms climb (4% of average) and some cobblestones sections in it (Menchov please be careful!!!).Since last year the Giro organizers have fallen in love with old Roman constructions,so this year the riders will conclude their 3 weeks of pain and fatigue inside the Arena of Verona,a very nice place.A thing that I liked a lot during the presentation was that the final stage was presented by Guderzo and Cantele:IMO,they fully deserve some attention after what they did in Mendrisio.

So,that's the 2010 Giro.And me likes it.Ok,the first 2 weeks will probably be very boring (and perhaps we'll have to put up with Cavendish winning lots of stages),but during the last weeks things are surely gonna be exciting.

Of course my evil mind has thought that this Giro is much harder than 2009 one because mr.Lance Armstrong is not going to take part in it,but that's just an evil thought of mine (and perhaps also of someone else,I don't know).

Logic thinks that the parcours is gonna be too hard for lots of riders and she doesn't think that this is a good thing.In fact,riders may feel like asking help to some doctors to get over the last week of the race,and we all know what this means.

Fangirl instead is happy,but she would be even happier if 2 riders that she really likes (the Schleck brothers) decided to take part in the race as well.I think the parcours would be very good for them:not a lot of kms against the clock,a TTT (and Saxo Bank may turn out to be the strongest team in that stage),lots and lots of climbs.Of course I know that the Tour is much more important than the Giro (or at least,that's what sponsors think),but I'd love to see the Schleck brothers in Italy during the month of May.

And talking about Fangirl: the Giro won't arrive nor in Bergamo nor in Milan,but she's already made her dream-plan that would consist in watching the last 3 stages of the Giro.Of course said dream-plan may not come to reality because of a series of stupid factors like school, tests,disagreement with the family car driver and so on,but I'm not doing anything wrong with making dream-plans,am I?

LINKS:

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/a-repeat-giro-victory-for-menchov :interview with Smiley. http://www.cyclingnews.com/features/gallery-giro-ditalia-stars-gather-at-the-2010-race-presentation :pics from the presentation.Perhaps I missed someone,but I think that no one made "clothes disasters" yesterday afternoon (some ties didn't actually match the suit that the riders were wearing,but it's always so hard to find someone with a good "tie-taste",so I'm not going to complain about it).
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/cunegos-2010-giro-ditalia-stage-wins :article about mr. Cunego,who says he'll go for stage wins in 2010 because going for the overall classification victory is too stressful (and causes too many arguments with journalists,I add).
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/saxo-bank-confirms-uci-license-approved :I know,this hasn't got anything to do with the Giro,but it's a good news,right? I must say I'm not blogging as I used to do before because school is keeping me busy.Sorry for that,but I've got a real life outside blogging (it may sound unbelievable,but it's true).