'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