Unstoppable Cavendish takes the rainbow jersey!!

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

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

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

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

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

Three: Thomas Voeckler attacked.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A surprise winner for an exciting Roubaix:

The season of the outsiders continues. After Goss and Nuyens' victories, the third Monument Classic of 2011 was won by another outsider, the lanky Johann Van Summeren.
Not that I complain, of course. Actually, I was very happy to see Van Summeren (can I call him 'Summie?') triumphing in Roubaix because it was like a breath of fresh air for this Fangirl. In fact, me likes unpredictable races - and unpredictable races often have unpredictable winners. And yesterday race was really unpredictable, since crashes, punctures and motorbikes did their best to create more suspence.
Having to predict the name of the race winner, yesterday morning I would have said 'Thor Hushovd'. At the end of the day, however, it wasn't Thor who entered the velodrome first, but it was Van Summeren. At least, I had guessed the winning team.
Talking about Garmin, their race was really good. Hushovd was simply flying, while Van Summeren entered a very important breakaway right after the Arenberg forest. Said breakaway was formed also by Bak, Hayman, Quinziato, Guesdon (winner of 1997 Roubaix), Cooke (who was feeling very well) and Roelandts. After the forest, these 10men bridged up to the leading group, which was formed by Boucher, Engoulvent, Tjalingii, Docker, Oliveira, Veilleux, Seubert and Elmiger. Van Summeren & Co. however weren't amongst the last guys to join the main group at the head of the race: their example in fact was soon followed also by Degenkolb, Rasch, Rast and Leezer. Arenberg forest was one of the key points of the race also because it saw Hincapie and Boonen puncturing before/while facing it. Quick Step was actually chased by bad luck, since a few kms later Chavanel and Boonen even crashed and eventually said 'Adieu!' to their victory chances. Also Pozzato crashed, just like Sagan, and had to abandon his dreams of glory.
With about 35 kms to go there was the decisive moment of the race. With one of his usual attacks, Cancellara got rid of the other peloton guys. The only ones who could follow him were Hushovd and Ballan. The fate of the race seemed almost decided but, when the magic trio had a disadvantage of just 25" from the leading group, Cancellara (who hadn't received a single turn at the front yet) suddenly stopped pulling. 'I'm not going to bring you into the main group if you don't pull too', Fabian probably said to his fellows in that moment. Both Ballan and Hushovd looked a bit confused and in the end they decided not to help Fabian. That was the decisive point of Roubaix, since after that moment Fabian stopped pulling and the advantage of the breakaway guys went back to the previous 1 minute gap.
Imo both Hushovd and Ballan did the right thing in not helping Cancellara in that moment. Fabian is a very dangerous adversary and he had no one in the leading group. Garmin and BMC, on the other hand, had Van Summeren and Quinziato at the front.
Talking about Quinziato, he suddenly disappeared from the first positions of the race. This happened because he hit a motorbike on le Carrefoure de l'Arbre (right after Van Summeren had attacked) and he lost all his victory chances there.
Motorbikes often disturbed the riders yesterday, not just because of the dust that they caused (a necessary thing, unfortunately for the athletes), but mainly because of the obstacles that they created to the guys. Cancellara even had to stop one of his attacks because of a motorbike, that was a true scandal!!

Talking about the eventual results, I must underline once again the great race that Garmin managed to do. As well as putting a key rider like Van Summeren in the leading group, Vaughters' team also exploited the huge talent of Sep Vanmarcke, who worked hard for Hushovd and arrived 20th anyway. As you could read on my Twitter page, yesterday I was supporting Sep, since he's now become one of my favourites 'Cobble riders' (together with Breschel, Iglinskiy and Leukemans).
Still talking about Garmin guys, Hushovd paid a lot of attention to Cancellara and it was great to see someone being able to resist Fabian's attacks on the cobblestones. Poor Haussler instead abandoned the race after a crash. Talking about Van Summeren, he was simply amazing. He even punctured with 5 kms to go, but he kept on riding because he couldn't change his bike wheel. He held on and he won. Amazing.
People often say that Roubaix is the 'Hell of the North', but Johann actually found his own Paradise in this terrible race characterised by dust, cobblestones and risks. In fact, not only did he enter history by soloing to the finish-line of Roubaix alone: he also proposed to his girlfriend at the end of the race! Things couldn't have gone better for this lanky Belgian, right? ;)
Talking about other riders (and other teams), Fabian Cancellara was a great second. When he attacked with a few kms to go I thought he was going to catch Van Summeren! Unfortunately, Fabian didn't have a very strong/experienced team yesterday and that was a pity. If he had had a teammate at the front, things might have gone in a different way. Fab ad Mortensen in fact were the only Leopard Trek riders who finished yesterday race, while Nizzolo, O'Grady, Posthuma, Stamsnijder, Klemme and Weylandt all got retired.
Third in the race was a surprising Tjallingii, the only vegetarian rider of the peloton. Rabobank also had Boom and Langeveld who were in a great condition and this makes me wonder how things would have gone if poor Matti Breschel had been able to race.
4th in the race was Rast, who got one of the best seasonal results for Team Radioshack.
5th instead was Bak, a Columbia Danish rider. Columbia rode well, since Eisel was a good 7th and the young Degenkolb attacked after the Arenberg forest and eventually came in 20th. The boy has all the physical qualities that the North Classics demand and moreover he seems to have a great mentality. Therefore, I'm sure that in a few years time he'll surely take home at least one of the North races.
Talking about Bak, was I the only one who laughed when he made that gesture to tell the others that they all needed to take regular turns at the head of the breakaway?
The 6th rider to cross the finish-line yesterday was Ballan, whose team was very unlucky. In fact, as I already mentioned, BMC lost Hincapie because of a flat tyre and Quinziato (who had excellent victory chances) because of a stupid motorbike.
The best Sky rider instead was Flecha (9th), while Hayman was 10th. Poor Thomas crashed together with Boonen and other guys (I almost had a heart attack when I saw him crashing).
11th was the eternal Frederic Guesdon, whereas 13th was a surprising Mirko Selvaggi. Vacansoleil team leader, Leukemans, crashed a few times during the race and he eventually got retired (just like De Gendt, Mol and Bozic). Stijn Devolder instead was 105th, but at least managed to cross the finish-line.
Also Hoste and Pozzato got retired and Pippo said that he had lost all his victory chances when Katiusha's car punctured. Actually, I must say that I've seen him at the front on a very few occasions in this year North classics.
Quick Step was cursed by bad luck as well, although Sylvain Chavanel managed to cross the line in 38th, together with his brother Sebastien. Also Liquigas didn't have a lot of luck, since Sagan crashed when he was in a very good position.
As far as Saxo Bank is concerned, Cooke had high ambition for the race, but he was stopped by bad luck too.
Talking about Riis' team, I'd like to point out Marycz's performance: the Polish rider went on a breakaway in the very first kms of race and then he managed to cross the finish-line in 93rd. Chapeau!

So, these are my opinions about the 2011 edition of the Queen of the Classics. There was dust, there was blood, there was sweat and there was excitement. And in the end, there was also a wonderful (although surprising) winner. Well done Johann - and best wishes for your marriage!

PS: If you haven't done it yet, check out Marleen's post on Bananas About Bikes (the one about the Bourg Saint Maurice stage of 2009 TdF). And remember that, if you have tales from old/recent cycling races, you can send them to bananasaboutbikes@gmail.com and see them published on our wonderful blog!

Frankie boy gets his joy!

FRANK SCHLECK WINS THE FIRST STAGE OF CRITERIUM INTERNATIONAL! YAY (*faints*)A Fangirl can't even study Nietszche in peace in these days ;) First, I was distracted by mr. Fabian Cancellara's triumph in Harelbeke; then, it was Frank Schleck's turn to distract me with his great victory at Criterium International (mind you, I'm not complaining for that... ;)

Today stage of Criterium International ended on Col de l'Ospedal, a climb that led the riders up to an altitude of 1.000 meters above the sea level. Frank Schleck crossed the finish-line alone, 16" before of Vasil Kiryenka and 22" before of Rein Taaramae. 4th was Lopez Garcia, 5th Geniez, 6th Lagutin, 7th Nordhaug, 8th Rolland, 9th Fedrigo and 10th was Andy Schleck. A very good result, especially if you consider that Andy was in the same gruppetto as Lagutin, Nordhaug, Rolland and Fedrigo.
Unfortunately I can't tell you many things about this race, since it wasn't broadcasted here in Italy. Luckily however I could watch E3 Prijs Vlaanderen - Harelbeke, which was won by a magnificient Fabian Cancellara. Leopard raced amazingly well and O'Grady had a very important role in the race.

Fabian looked very determined this afternoon: I just tell you that, when he had to change his bike for a gear problem, he actually threw it on the ground and, as soon as he got the new bike, he started riding immediately. The mechanic couldn't even help him to get started again!!
O'Grady was in the first group of breakawayers together with Roelandts, Van De Walle, Hinault, Bonnet, Vanmarcke, Iglinskiy and a few other guys (sorry, I can't remember their names). With about 30 kms to go, Sep Vanmarcke (one of my favourite riders, he was born in 1988 and has a bright future ahead of him!) tried a solo attack. In the meanwhile, Cancellara abandoned the peloton on a climb and started his race towards victory. After a few seconds, he joined the 3rd group of breakawayers. Every rider of that group started to follow Cancellara, without giving him a single turn at the front.
Then the Locomotive from Bern managed to join the second group of breakawayers. A few seconds later, he joined the first one. All the riders started to follow him, so that the 3 group of breakawayers just melted into one, formed by about 20 riders. Amongst them there were Terpstra, Chainel, Ivanov, Gusev, Jerome, Tuft, Tankink and Larsson.

Vanmarcke was caught by these riders and O'Grady helped Cancellara as long as he could. Then, with about 18 kms to go, Fabian said 'bye bye!' to everyone and soloed to the finish-line. He really looked exhausted after the finish-line (I thought he was going to throw up!), but he was also incredibly happy.
In the meanwhile, the guys who were chasing him didn't seem to be able to work together. Amongst them there were some strong guys like Larsson, Ivanov, Tuft, Haussler and Terpstra, but it looked as if they had already given in. Terpstra was the only one who tried to start a serious chase, but he soon got very angry at his fellows because of the lack of cooperation. I couldn't understand why everyone gave in all of a sudden and I was pretty disappointed by the riders' attitude. Moreover, I was very confused by Katusha's tactics: firstly, Gusev and Ivanov never cooperated with Terpstra. Secondly, with about 10 kms to go Ivanov tried to break free from his companions a few times. Did he want to chase Fabian on his own? Or was he riding for second place? In both cases, imo that was a totally useless move.
Eventually, second in the race was Roelandts, while 3rd was Gusev. 4th was a great Vanmarcke. Hopefully the Belgian rider of Garmin will show us a good race also tomorrow, at Gand-Wevelgem.

So, that's all from me for the moment. Now I'm off to celebrate Frank's victory ;) Let's raise one of our famous virtual toasts to Leopard Trek's victories, shall we? ;)

PS1: Some of you haven't checked the new post at Bananas About Bikes yet (don't try to cheat me because I have my secret ways to know whether you've checked it or not). Go do it now!
PS2: I couldn't find any pic of Frank's victory, so I posted an old one. However, someone found a picture that is even worse than the one I posted above. Why did they make that choice?!?

Random post about Stefan Denifl (and Fabian finally joining Team Lux):

To everyone's joy and relief, one of the worst-kept secrets of Cycledom has finally been revealed. And said secret is: Fabian Cancellara is officially joining Team Luxembourg next year.

Although Logic welcomed the news with a rude: 'It was high time they announced it!' , Fangirl was very euphoric after reading about it and would like all the fangirls out there to join her in a virtual toast and in a loud 'YAY!' in order to celebrate properly the signing of a 3 year contract by Fabian. So, girls: 1, 2, 3... all together: 'YAYYYY!'

Well done ladies, below you have a picture of Andy and Fabian as a prize for your effort (and for the patience we all had while waiting for the official news to come). To make your joy increase, however, miss Fede has decided to spend a part of her evening looking for information about a new promising rider who's joining Team Luxalicious this year. Said rider is Stefan Denifl, 23 year-old, who this season rode for Cervélo. In spite of having been a pro for already some years, Stefan isn't actually that famous, so I decided to write a post about him too.
So, let's start with some facts. First of all, Stefan was born in Fulpmes, Austria (near Innsbruck) on the 22nd of September 1987. He's 179 cms tall and has a weight of 62 kgs. He's been a pro since 2006 (he was just 19 at the time), but so far he's ridden for a ProTour team for just one year.
In 2006 Stefan rode for Volksbank-Vorarlberg, while the following year he joined ELK Haus, a team for which he raced until 2009.
In 2006 Denifl didn't take part in many races, whereas in 2007 he was 14th in the U23 World Championships in Stuttgart, which had a pretty tough parcours. In 2008 poor Stefan had to undergo an operation on a very delicate part of his body, but he managed to win the TT National Championships anyway. The following year instead he won the Thueringen-Rundfahrt for U23 riders. That same year he was 8th in the Tour of Austria (which is a very hard race) and he was 7th in the Tour of Bayern.
As far as the 2010 season is concerned, during it Stefan got a 7th placement in a stage of Vuelta a Murcia, was 8th in the GC of Vuelta a Castilla and had some good results in Tour of Austria. For example he was 8th in the Kitzbuehler Horn stage (where Chris Anker Sorensen won in 2008), 12th in the Grossglockner one, 12th in the final TT and 7th in the GC. As you can understand from these results, Stefan is a good climber who goes fast also in the TTs.
On to his hobbies, Denifl likes listening to music and surfing the Internet. Moreover, he has a big passion for winter sports and for the USA. He also likes training in the Dolomite mountains (Italy) and his favouite race, according to Cervélo's website, is the Tour of Bayern. His favourite charity organisation is Unicef (don't worry: I didn't dream a journalist asking Stefan this question, I simply read it on Cervélo's website!) According to Wikipedia, Stefan took up mountain biking in 2001. That year he rode for 'Team Bike Denifl' whose name, I presume, has something to do with the fact that Stefan's father was a professional mountain bike racer who even took part in the Olympic Games.
Denifl jr. took up road cycling after 2 years of mountain bike and he became pro in 2006.
To give you some more information about the guy I'm talking about, I'll just say that, on his first pro race, Stefan went on a 180 kms breakaway and eventually ended the race in 9th. Moreover, when he joined Cervélo he said that he just wanted to help his teammates. And according to Team ELK Haus website, Stefan's Motto (at least in 2008) was: 'If you want to change the world, you should start from yourself'. Last but not least, this year he didn't complain for not riding the Tour de France, saying that he was still too young for a race like that. Nice guy, isn't he?
If you want to take a closer look to him,

on http://www.eventarena.tv/pages/sportarena/radsport/oe-rundfahrt/interviews.php?article_id=340 there's a recent video interview with him. Below instead you have a picture of him riding at this year Tour of Austria.Unfortunately this is all I could find about this rider. In fact there are some old interviews with him around the Net (just take a look at Cyclingfever), but they're all pretty boring and always have the same questions: What do you think of doping? , Do you dope?, Are you going to change team next year?, ecc. This makes me wonder whether it is really that difficult not to ask obvious questions to cyclists. Apparently, the answer is: 'Yes, it is bloody difficult'. Actually, I have to admit that, if I had to interview a rider too, I would probably end up asking him the same boring questions too. Or perhaps I wouldn't.
Anyway, if you already like a lot this boy, here's a good news for you: Stefan, just like the majority of important people inside Cycledom (me excluded), has got Twitter. Here's the link to his page: http://twitter.com/stefandenifl/ .

(Pic 1 by Sirotti, 2 by Gepa, 3 by Klaus Titzer).

Picspam time 3: guys just wanna have fun :)

To everyone's joy, the picspam season here at My Blog isn't over yet.

The last 2 days have been a bit tense here in the Blogosphere, so I think it's better if we all relax ourselves and have a good laugh together. In order to do so, I suggest you taking a look at these pictures that Mar (thank you girl!) and I collected over the last days. Enjoy!

First of all, here you have Chris Anker Sorensen and Matti Breschel wearing funny viking helmets on the Champs Elysées. After 3 weeks of daily fatigue and stress, you're allowed to behave a bit in a strange way, aren't you? Here's another picture from Saxo Bank's celebrations on Champs Elysées. This time, the one behaving in a strange way is Stuart O'Grady :) Talking about funny guys, then, how can we forget about Fabian Cancellara? Here we can see him making horns to poor Andy. The skinny Luxembourgian (just notice how thin his arms are!) looks a bit annoyed, but Fabian doesn't seem to care about it :) This time instead the victim of Fabian's jokes was O'Grady, who probably ignored what Fabian was doing behind him. Luckily Tom Boonen knows how to take revenge on the Swiss rider :) Talking about other former Saxo Bankers, I think I'm almost obliged to put some pictures of Jens Voigt in a post like this. Here you can see him riding a very strange vehicle.Below instead you have Voigt-san having fun with a supporter in Japan. And here we have the FA Jens having a coffee-break at work.
Here instead we have Matti Breschel joking with a photographer. Let's now abandon our Sexy Bankers for a brief moment and let's watch 2 pics about the relationship between riders and animals. For example, take a look at this rider who wants to stay with his adorated penguin even while racing.
Here instead we have a guy showing us the perfect descent position for riders. I wonder what the bear thinks of it.
Back to the guys who raced for SB this season, here we have Chris Sorensen reading a foreign newspaper. Has he just read something about a defeat of his favourite football team, or is he just shocked by the language in which the newspaper is written?
To close this post, then, I couldn't avoid publishing 2 pics of the Schleck brothers. Andy, you cunny guy, what are you looking at?
And here's a classic picture of Frank and his concentration expression. Everything's ok dear?
So, that's all for now. Thank you again to Mar for the help and let's hope you enjoyed this picspam :)

Cyclingweekly's interview with Andy Schleck (and 2 random links):

On http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news/latest/505244/andy-schleck-gives-contador-his-support-in-clenbuterol-case.html there is a short interview with Andy Schleck. At first look it seems a bit boring (there are the usual questions about Contador's clebuterol case), but in it Andy says that he's not racing the Giro next year (*sad expression appears on her face*). Here are some parts of it:

A cynic would argue Andy Schleck, the 2010 Tour de France runner-up, could be the one with the most to gain if Alberto Contador is finally suspended for his clenbuterol positive, but the Luxemburg-born star doesn't see it that way at all.
"I don't think he's done anything wrong," Andy Schleck told Spanish sports daily MARCA after a criterium in Mexico.
"I hope he's innocent, and that he can show it. I'm no doctor nor am I an expert in this area and the authorities are the ones who make the final decision."
"But I don't want to win the Tour by default, I want to win it by reaching Paris with the yellow jersey on my shoulders. I don't know what will happen now, but this year I finished second."
Schleck told MARCA he has not spoken with Contador since the news of the clenbuterol positive broke, but that they have exchanged texts.
"I've wished him luck and I told him I hope he can prove he is innocent."
Schleck also confirmed that for 2011 he will not take part in the Giro D'Italia, the Grand Tour where he took his first big result when he finished second in 2007 and that both he and his brother will be team leaders for the Tour, "because both of us could win it."
He also recognised that he aims to be strong for the April Classics as well (...) and that he and Frank have signed for four years with the Pro Team Luxemberg squad. However, he gave no hint of who the mysterious top sponsor could be.
One Contador-related event that will remain with Schleck come what may in 2011 is the famous incident when the Spaniard attacked after Andy's chain slipped on the Port de Bales in the Pyrenees. There are even those who say that the 39 seconds he lost cost Schleck the Tour.
"I've forgiven Alberto for what happened," Andy told MARCA, "but I haven't forgotten it, either."

RANDOM LINKS:

News about Cancellara: http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/cancellara-says-contador-signing-prompted-saxo-bank-departure
Chis Anker Sorensen's latest blog entry: http://blog.tv2.dk/chris.anker.ol/entry386671.html

Game over for Frank Schleck:

Frank Schleck broke his collarbone during today's stage of the Tour de France and is now out of the race.“To be or not to be? That is the question”. After today’s TdF stage,well,I think that mr. Shakespeare won’t mind if I borrow this sentence from his masterpiece Hamlet.In fact I believe that the main question that this stage has left unanswered (especially for the Schleck fans) is:to be or not to be (satisfied with today's stage results)? So,let's try to give an answer.
Already yesterday evening,as you may have noticed from my last post,me was terribly afraid of today’s stage.In fact the thought of guys like Basso,Frank Schleck and Menchov (a man who can crash also while riding uphill) riding on cobblestones,together with other 188 riders,each of them trying to stay at the front,simply terrified me.

This morning Basso said: “During the cobblestons sections I’m going to close my eyes and open them just when I come back on the asphalt”.Of course he was just joking,but he gave a very good idea to this Fangirl.But since Fangirl can’t recognise what is dangerous for her mental health and what isn’t,she kept her eyes as open as never before during today’s stage,so that she could enjoy the riders approaching the cobblestones sections in a great hurry and notice how frightened some of them (Menchov and Basso,to say two names) looked.

With about 40 kms to go,then,Frank Schleck crashed.The helicopter showed us some riders touching each other on the cobblestones and me began to whisper: “What the fuck are they doing?” I stopped my whisper after the 'fuck' part because of Cassani’s scream: "Frank Schleck has crashed!". I was in panick.Pure cyclistic panick. Two SB riders stopped next to Frankie and tried to check his conditions.However,it was evident that Frank was in pain.

You can have bad crashes in races like Amstel Gold Race and be ready to take part in the following races,but you can’t crash like that in a Grand Tour and hope to be at the start the following day.So,as soon as I saw Frank in that situation,I understood that his Tour was over and that the collarbone curse had probably striked again.
The cameras soon abandoned Frank in order to follow the race that,after the crash (it’s sad to say,but it’s true) had become much more exciting.

At the head of the race,after Hesjedal,there were now Fabian Cancellara,Hushovd,Geraint Thomas (I had told you the boy is good!!),Evans (after all,he was a mountain bike rider) and Andy Schleck.Although Frank had crashed,in fact,little Bro was there,ready to save us from a total desaster.And,with him,there was the greatest Roubaix rider of the world.At least, something was spinning in the right side for SB tifosi.
Behind the blonde Luxembourg rider,with about 30” of delay,there was a group including Armstrong and Contador.But then,all of a sudden,Cancellara started to ride faster,Armstrong punctured and the time gaps became bigger.Soon the men at the front reached Ryder Hesjedal,the last of the breakawayers (and former mountain bike rider as well).Behind them Menchov (to Logic's surprise,he hadn’t crashed) and Vinokourov were pulling hard at the front of Contador's group.Behind them,then,sir Lancelot was fighting hard to come back on another group of riders,helped by Popovych and by some team cars.Eventually Armstrong managed to join the other riders with about 4 kms to go.
In the meanwhile the first group of riders was arriving in Arenberg.Cancellara could have attacked in the last kms,but decided to look after Andy until the very end of the stage (what a champion!).Hushovd easily won the stage,while second was Thomas and third was Evans.Andy was 5th.
The following riders (the ones who formed the ‘Contador’s group’) arrived pulled by Vinokourov.He was really giving it all and someone underlined that he had worked as a super helper for Contador and that he was still trying to help him in the last km.Little detail: Contador had lost the wheel of the guys pulled by Vinokourov, and so with his effort the Kazakhistani allowed Van Summeren,Wiggins,Van Den Broeck,Menchov and Roche to gain 20 seconds of advantage on the Spaniard.

Did Vinokourov did it intentionally? Did he make a mistake? Did he pull so hard because he wanted to help Contador and convince him that Astana is the best team for him? Or was he trying to help,say,Menchov? Conspiracy theories are open.Anyway the stage classification says that Contador crossed the finish-line 1’13 after Andy Schleck,while Kreuziger and LL Sanchez arrived 1’46 after the Luxembourgian,Armstrong arrived after 2’08”, Gesink, Sastre, Leipheimer, Kloden after 2’25”.Basso lost more than 2 minutes as well.Also Chavanel lost some minutes and so the yellow jersey went back to Cancellara.

So,this was today's stage.Cancellara is back in yellow and Andy is now 6th in the GC (Evans is 3rd),while Contador is 9th and Armstrong 18th.As well as that,Team Saxo Bank is now the best team of the race (*ah ah ah to Radioshack!*).In a virtual trade,on the 'good things o the day' plate Saxo Bank fans have a big jump in the GC by Andy Schleck and the yellow jersey for Fabian.On the 'negative things of the day' plate instead there is Frank's broken collarbone.

Personally I believe that things could have gone much worse for the Schleck fans.But still,I'm terribly sorry for Frank.This time in fact he really had a great form and even Logic thought that he could have ended up on the Paris podium.Then,Andy will probably miss him a lot in the next days and this may influence a bit his morale.Last but not least,it's always hard to see a GC contender crash,because these guys organise their whole year in order to be at their best in July and win the Tour.Unfortunately,Frank's Tour finished at the edge of a cobblestone section,in the stage that he probably feared the most.Wishing him a good recovery,that's all from me now.

(Pic by Cor Vos)

All's well that ends well:

On this blog,today's TdF stage will be known from now on as the "All's well that ends well" stage.Firstly,because the stage winner (Sylvain Chavanel) fractured his skull during Liége 3 months ago but managed to win a stage of the Tour anyway.Secondly,because the Schleck brothers didn't lose time in the GC in spite of crashing.Thirdly,because the title of 'Day of the many crashes' is no longer available.Fourthly,because miss Fede wants so.

I understood that it was going to be a dangerous day early in the stage, when a crash involved Cunego,Van den Broeck and Mickel Delage.Poor Delage,who really looked in pain and had a bad cut under his eye,was forced to abandon the race.
Then,with about 30 kms to go,Gavazzi crashed.The Lampre rider had a gap of a few seconds of the rest group (he was part of an early breakaway together with Chavanel and other riders) and he crashed during a wet,narrow descent.A tv motorbike avoided the Lampre’s rider (the wheel of the motorbike passed incredibly near to his feet) and crashed a few meters after the Italian. Gavazzi immediately went on the edge of the road, but his bike remained in the middle of it.So,when the peloton arrived after a few seconds,almost everyone crashed in order to avoid the bike and the motorbike.And,between the guys who crashed,there was also Andy Schleck,who really looked in pain.My heart skipped a beat when I saw him touching his arm and Logic immediately thought ‘He’s broken his collarbone’.Fangirl was desperate.A few seconds later,the tv showed Petacchi (he had crashed as well) and guess who was there,behind Ale-Jet? Frank Schleck,who had crashed as well.Fuck.
Luckily Matti Breschel had stopped (or crashed?) together with Andy and was ready to give him his bike. Suddenly,I found myself on the couch,with the eyes glued to the television,and I started to scream “Thank you Matti,thank you thank you thank you!”. At first Andy didn’t look good (he was riding very slowly and still looked in pain),but then things started to look better.
In the meanwhile Cancellara (who hadn’t crashed) began to talk with the other riders who were with him and they agreed to wait for the riders who had crashed.Gutierrez made a movement with his hand to indicate that the few people who hadn't crashed were going to wait for the other guys.Then,suddenly,Cervélo’s Hunt began to pull the little group of those who had survived the crash.At that point,Fangirl exploded (”What the hell is he doing?!?”) and started to scream "Stop pulling! Stp pulling! Stop! Now!" to her own tv,believing that Hunt could hear her.How embarassing.Btw Fangirl's attitude can be understood if you consider that she couldn’t see Sastre anywhere in the front group,so Hunt’s move was a mistery to her.Luckily (did he hear me?) Hunt soon stopped pulling and,in the same moment,the tv showed Nicki Sorensen and Jens Voigt helping Andy and Frank.I have to admit that I was very surprised by Frank's appearance.In fact,after hopping on Matti’s bike,Andy had begun his ‘peloton chase’ on his own,so it was very nice to see him there with Nicki,Frank and Jens.
In the meanwhile Chavanel was riding towards success.His advantage now was of 2’ on the yellow jersey group and this meant that Cancellara was going to lose the overall lead.But still,Fabian didn’t even think about chasing the Frenchman and defending the jersey,but decided to wait for his teammates.What a champion.
With about 20 kms to go a super group including Wiggins,Contador and Armstrong joined the head of the race.At that point Fangirl had a big doubt: in fact,what could have happened if,after that the majority of the GC contenders had joined the group,they had started to pull in order to leave the Schlecks behind? In front of that eventuality,Fangirl mentally repeated her vocabolary of international insults understandable to everyone who speaks English,German,Spanish and/or Italian,and got ready to support Cancellara in a possible boxing match against,say,sir Lancelot.Luckily I wasn’t forced to do these things because no GC contender started to pull after they had joined Cancellara’s group and,with 15 kms to go,the Schlecks could finally come back in the main peloton.What a relief!

The peloton then rolled quietly to the finish-line and Cancellara scolded off a rider (Bouet) that had sprinted in order to get the second placement in the stage.
So,this was today’s stage.A big protest (or,at least,something that looked like a protest),some frightening moments,a lot of crashes,and Chavanel’s victory.
As far as I know,immediately after the stage 2 ‘parties’ were born: the one of the ‘Stopping to wait for the others was a lack of respect towards cycling!’ party and the ‘fair play’ party.Some riders said that they weren't protesting,but that they decided not to take risks because the parcours was dangerous. Mr.Chris Horner however later said that,with the riders rolling slowly and united towards the finish-line, 'the Tour organisers got what they deserved' (http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/horner-tour-organisers-got-what-they-deserved ).Now,if mr.Horner complaints about today,I can imagine what will happen tomorrow.Surprisingly,Horner is a Radioshack rider and it's known to everyone that during 2009 Giro Lance Armstrong (who,in case you don't know it,is Radioshack's captain) tried to hickjack about 3 stages because he considered the parcours 'crazy and dangerous'.As you may know,this team wasn't invited to this year Giro (Mwhahaha).

Anyway,back to today,I’d like to point out the attitude of SB riders during the stage.Breschel was always next to Andy and made a super job,like O’Grady and Voigt. Matti and Chris Sorensen crossed the finish-line 19 minutes after Chavanel because they had lent their bikes to the Schleck brothers.Both Voigt and Nicki Sorensen gave it all to help the Schlecks.Fuglsang was glued to Cancellara after the crash in order to keep an eye on Spartacus ('And help him in a possible boxing match against Radioshack guys',Fangirl adds).And,more important,Cancellara gave up the yellow jersey in order to save the Tour of his teammates.Too bad that the team is going to disappear at the end of the year (*sniffs her nose and cries*).

Anyway,let's not think about the future of the team and let's just enjoy this TdF.And,in order to do so,I recommend you reading Chris Sorensen's latest blog entry http://blog.tv2.dk/chris.anker.ol/entry375763.html (what else?).

So,that's all for today.Let's hope that no one will have to abandon the race this evening and let's also hope that tomorrow there won't be too many crashes (and let's cross our fingers and pray for sun!).My fingers are already crossed.

An alien takes Roubaix: the Swiss train makes the double with Flanders

The cobblestones. The little roads. The punctures. The crashes. The nervousness of the riders. Breschel getting dropped because of a pain in his knee. Cancellara's attack with 50 km to go. Tom Boonen on the verge of a nervous breakdown.Hoste and Hincapie fighting to win Roubaix once again.Knaven ending the "Hell of North" for the 16th time in his career. Uncle Bjarne smiling.Cancellara crying.The female members of my family falling in love with the Swiss rider.Me getting over the shock caused by a Sidi's commercial in which Pozzato appears naked. In a few words, the 2010 edition of Paris-Roubaix seen by me. As you can see, for the first time in my blogger's career I wrote an introduction to a post (yes I know it is ridiculous). I know that now you're curious about the part of the post about Pippo, but first of all I have to talk about Cancellara's deed/ masterpiece/ numero/ work of art/ exploit/ call it whatever you want (me hasn't found the right words to describe it yet).In fact Fabian Cancellara,the train/ the airplane/ the alien yesterday won Paris-Roubaix by attacking all alone with about 50 kms to go.

Before of that attack,Boonen had tried to impress his adversaries by setting a fast pace on the cobblestones sections. Between the other things that happened before of Cancellara's attack there were also Van Summeren's crash, Devolder's puncture (which followed the Belgian's crash) and Cancellara's bike change (that was the last occasion in which I saw Breschel during yesterday's race). Then,with 50 kms to go, when Boonen wasn't paying attention to him, Fab attacked on an asphalted road. By the time Boonen and the other riders who were with him looked at each other,wondering "Who can go and get him now?",the Swiss airplane had already created a gap of about 30".

A few seconds after Cancellara reached Hoste,Leukemans an Hinault,who were at the head of the race. He rode past them with ease and just Leukemans tried to follow him.Anyway after a few hundreds of meters Cancellara dropped him as well and "Leukie" (does anyone mind if I call him that way?) reacted with a very understandable (although slightly unpolite) gesture.

At that point,the race was over.Fabian was flying towards Roubaix with 2' of advantage, Boonen was on the verge of a nervous breakdown, Flecha was angry at Hushovd, Pozzato was wearing a pair of horrible glasses. The only thing that could stop Fabian at that point was the infamous train that stopped some riders back in the 2006 edition of the race. But the Swiss was on perfect time and therefore the train couldn't meet his dear relative at all.
During the last meters of the race Fab showed once again his golden angel and he started to cry after the finish-line.

About 2 minutes after the Swiss champion came Hushovd and Flecha.Hushovd won the sprint and Flecha clapped his hand- was it a gesture towards Thor or was it a way to compliment Fabian on his great victory?

4th was Hammond and 5th was Boonen (luckily he's going to have a nice holiday after this week!). 7th was Pozzato,who received a special prize dedicated to Ballerini's memory.8th was Hoste, who had a 5 minutes delay from Fabian and a 3 minutes of delay from the human beings.From my point of view,yesterday's Roubaix was really great (although I don't think Boonen's tifosi enjoyed it as much as I did...).I watched it during a family celebration, when my house was full of relatives -and the most of them,when I switched on the tv at 3 o'clock,had no intention of watching the race. But then,with 20 kms to go,the questions asked by the female members of the family began: "How long is the race?" About 250 kms. "And can they still walk after riding their bikes for 250 kms?" Yes, they can."But don't the cobblestones disturb them?" Yes, they do. "Don't the bikes get broken?" They have a special equipment for this race."But couldn't these guys become employers, lawyers or whatever else rather than doing this job? Who makes them do this?" Sorry but I don't have any answer to this question.
With 15 kms to go,the subject of the questions became Cancellara."Who is he? Is he Italian? Gosh,he's very strong!" And then,the fangirlistic questions arrived."Is he married? Has he got any son? How old is he? Oh,he's 29 and he's already married? He must be a very serious and good guy.But is he bald or has he got hair under the helmet (yes,this was the funniest question I heard...)?" By the time Fabian arrived,all the female members of the family were watching the race. And when Fabian hugged his family after the finish-line and cried, they all went "Oooooh! So cute!" before starting to talk about his nose.And when Boonen arrived,a familiar also started to show interest for him as well.

After the race then I managed to talk to another female member of the family who wasn't with us while we were watching the race.Guess what she said to me? "Have you seen how that rider won? He was so sweet! He even hugged his wife and his daughter!!" Well,after yesterday's race I can say that in my family there are 5 new Cancellara's tifose.And even my sister admitted that he was really impressive yesterday.

Anyway I know that you've been reading all this boring post just to know more about the Sidi's commercial I mentioned at the beginning.Sidi, which is an industry that produces cycling shoes, always has strange commercials: last year there was one with Samuel Sanchez, Contador and another rider I can't remember right now (Chavanel perhaps?) and they all seemed crazy while playing with a shoe.Then the commercial with Contador (the one in which he wears a white suit and looks like a patient of a psychiatric hospital) came.And now,this commercial in which Pippo appears naked,covered in oil,with just a pair of shoes placed in astrategic point. I understood what was happening in that commercial just after some seconds (my first reaction was "It can't be true!") and I was really shocked by that. Anyway,after the naked thigh of HGS was shown, I covered my burning eyes with my hands and started to scream "What the heek is happening? Change channel! Change channel! Now!!!" (this time I'm not exaggerating,I really behaved like that!). What a shock.

A funny thing is that, a few minutes ago, I came across Pozzato's blog and read the phrasal verb "oil up".Since I'm a curious girl,I opened the link and that's what I read:

I understand a few people had a shock when they watched the Tour of Flanders on Eurosport last week. My shoe sponsor Sidi were one of the advertisers during the race and I appeared on screen naked with just a pair of Sidi shoes carefully placed in front of me.
Andy Schleck called me a metrosexual and I suppose the commercial confirms that I am. But I'm not scared of getting oiled up and showing myself like that. I enjoyed it and I understand lots of my female fans did too….

Unfortunately,I was one of the fans who were shocked by the commercial and that didn't enjoy that much. Luckily Fabian's triumph made me forget the commercial and allowed me to spend a quiet night,without nightmares regarding shoes,oil and Hair Gel Abusers.

Hoping I'll be writing a post about a Schleck's victory next week,I close this post.And look out for Sidi's commercials!!

(Pic 1 had no credit,while pic 2 was taken by AFP)

Faboulous Fabian wins Tour of Flanders:

Yes,Fabian Cancellara proved to be the strongest man in today's Tour of Flanders.The Swiss rider attacked with about 42 kms to go,on the Molenberg,and Tom Boonen was the only one who could follow him.

Team Saxo Bank had previously made a great work (together with Team Sky) and Cancellara and Breschel seemed 2 of the strongest riders of the peloton.Of course their main adversary was going to be Tom Boonen,whereas Devolder didn't look as strong as last year.Breschel showed his really good condition by leading the group on the walls before of Molenberg and everything seemed perfect for Saxo Bank.On the Koppenberg Breschel tried a little attack and Boonen followed him,showing he was ready to give battle to Saxo Bank riders.On that climb lots of riders had problems and decided to walk up the wall.In the previous kms there had been some crashes, one of which involved Kuschinsky (he really looked in pain) and Knaven (he fell in a pretty goofy way when he had already stopped his bike,but he didn't have any serious consequence).

With about 55 kms to go Cancellara changed his bike.Saxo Bank car braked in front of him, rather than behind him,and me got pretty worried at that.Anyway the bike change was fast and Cancellara,with a little help from O'Grady,could make his way back to the peloton with ease.

A few minutes after Cancellara's bike change,Breschel went at the back of the main group and started to move his hand in order to call the team car."He looks very nervous",a chronist noticed.And,considering what would have happened a few seconds after,Matti Breschel had all the reasons of the world to be nervous.In fact Saxo Bank's ammiraglia stopped in front of him,a man (who wasn't a mechanic) got off the car,tried to take Breschel's new bike off the car roof but-big big problem-the bike didn't want to come down.After a few long tries the man tried to give Breschel another bike,but he failed again in his attempt to pull the bike from the car roof,causing Matti to take the decision of continuing the race with his original bike.By the time Breschel got on his saddle again,me was simply, completely, terribly horrified.Do you remember when I wrote about the "Ice Age 2 opposum" feeling? Well,I had the same feeling also during today's race (read the post about Gand-Wevegelm if you don't know what I mean when I talk about the Ice Age 2 opposum).I remained in a state of horror for some minutes,screaming lots of things about bad luck,bike changes and Matti Breschel's new contract.My screams obviously became even louder when I realised that, in spite of a teammate's help,Breschel wasn't going to join Cancellara and Boonen's group anymore and that he was therefore forced to say "Farewell" to his chances of winning the 2010 edition of Ronde van Vlaanderen.What an anger.

After a few minutes of screams,me could start to follow the race in a calmer way,although Matti Breschel was now dropped.On the Molenberg,with 42 kms to go,Cancellara attacked and Boonen followed him.At the end of the climb the two riders had 18 seconds of advantage on the other riders-to continue or to stop? That was the question at that point of the race. And the answer that Fabian and Tom gave to said question was a loud "Let's continue!" that made everyone who was expecting a great race happy.

Millar,Gilbert,Leukemans,Hoogerland and other riders tried to make the time gap between them and the two riders at the front become smaller,but they didn't succeed. The time gap in fact started to become bigger and bigger very soon and,with 20 kms to go,at the beginning of the Kappelmuur,the victory fight already regarded just Cancellara and Boonen.But then,my sister (who was following the race with me and who was surprisingly sorry for Matti Breschel's problem with the bike change) said a few magic words: "If you support Cancellara,well,then I'll support Boonen.Allez Tom!" A few seconds after these words were pronounced,Cancellara attacked and Boonen got dropped.That was a really great moment: Boonen knew he had to stick up to Cancellara's wheel,but the Swiss managed to drop him anyway.What a champion.

In a few meters Cancellara managed to get an advantage of a lot of seconds on Boonen and it seemed that nothing could take the victory away from him. Although she was still thinking about Breschel, Fangirl found the energy to support the Swiss rider and to express her delight with a lot of exclamations like "This is one of the greatest rider ever!" and so on.

Cancellara was actually so strong that he even had the time to make his own little show a few meters before of crossing the finish-line.In fact he showed a little golden angel,smiled to the cameras,called Uncle Bjarne and shook his hand and,in the end,he even grabbed a Swiss flag and started to move it over his head while crossing the finish-line.

Tom Boonen eventually came 2nd with a delay of 1'15".About one minute after him the two chasers (a great Bjorn Leukemans and Philippe Gilbert) crossed the finish-line and the last podium place went to Gilbert.Then a group of about 20 riders arrived-and between them there was also Breschel (15th).5th was a surprising Farrar,8th was Maxim Iglinskiy and 33rd was a Geraint Thomas,a very promising young rider.

And now,things aren't over yet.In fact,next week there's a race whose name is "Paris-Roubaix" and that Fabian Cancellara will try winning for the second time in his career although his adversaries (a certain Tom Boonen in primis) will give it all to prevent him from winning.While waiting for Roubaix to arrive,I can't do anything but repeat,once again,that Fabian Cancellara is a champion.Chapeau!

MATTI BRESCHEL'S MECHANICAL PROBLEM:

If you've been reading this blog for some time,you're probably aware of my great ability in starting a post with a happy amazing topic and ending it with a less pleasant theme.And,in today's post,I'll give you once again a demonstration of this skill of mine by talking about Matti Breschel's mechanical problem. In fact with the help of the information that I found on these 2 links (http://www.fyens.dk/article/1571695:Sport--Frustreret-Matti-Breschel-raser-over-cykel and http://sport.fok.nl/nieuws/378928/1/1/100/breschel-mecanicien-verknoeide-het-voor-me.html) and with the help of my Online Translater,I managed to understand what actually happened to Breschel during today's race.

With 45 kms to go,Matti decided to have a bike change because he had problems with his brake and his saddle.At that time Fabian had already had bike problems and the mechanic who had helped Cancellara wasn't in the team car that was following Breschel.Therefore,when the team car stopped to help him,the the man who got off the car to help Matti didn't even know where Breschel' spare bike was.After asking Breschel for information (the poor boy probably had some cold shivers running down his spine at that moment),the man tried to pull Matti's bike from the car roof.After a few long tries,he decided to give Breschel O'Grady' spare bike but he couldn't take it down the roof either.Watching what was happening,Matti decided to continue the race with his own bike,although he had already lost a lot of precious seconds."I've never experienced anything like this before",Breschel said immediately after crossing the finish-line. "They completely fucked my race up",he said."It can happen to have problems with your bike, but things like this shouldn't happen.Luckily Cancellara won,and this is good,because tonight I'm going to drink champagne and forget what happened".

Considering that Breschel is already thinking about a possible team change for next year,I believe that today's problem with his bike was a very serious accident.Luckily for the team Cancellara eventually won the race and Breschel's mechanical problem didn't get a lot of attention,but I'm sure that the Dane won't be in a very happy mood tonight.By the way,I'm confident that he will surely be in super form also during Paris-Roubaix and that therefore he'll be able to do something good also there.

So,that's all for now-Chapeau to Cancellara for his amazing victory and good luck to Matti for his next race (he really needs it!).Allez Saxo Bank!

Marketing Rumours about the Schleck Brothers (plus few random links):

"My first race today and I'm happy did good work 'til I pull out after 160, but my knee didn't hurt only in the end a bit so that's good!!!!! ".Yes,this is what Andy Schleck wrote on his Twitter 2 almost 2 days ago.
Considering that Andy's happy,I think all his supporters should feel more optmistic about his form.After all,if my memory doesn't fail me,also last year he had some problems with his knee (he even had to abandon Tirreno because of this) but then he managed to get over them in a great way,therefore I'm confident that Andy will be able to get good results in the April Classics,aka his first goal of the season.
Anyway,the main reason I'm writing this post is a rumour that appeared on today's La Gazzetta dello Sport.In fact,according to the newspaper,the Schleck brothers are going to create their own team next year.It seems that the team manager of this "Schleck-team" would be Marc Biver,whereas the first ds could be Kim Andersen and the first "marketing goal" would be a certain Fabian Cancellara.The newspaper then points out the fact that Bivier,58 year-old, Luxembourgian,was the man who after Operacion Puerto (2006) transformed Liberty Seguros into Astana-and we all know how it ended up with Astana in 2007 (for those of you who have forgotten the 2007 Tour de France,I write here 4 names: Kessler, Mazzoleni, Vinokourov, Kasheckin. What do they suggest you?).

Of course the journalist who wrote the article also pointed out Kim Andersen's past.In fact Kim was the first Danish rider to wear the yellow jersey at the Tour de France in 1983,but then he resulted positive to an antidoping test and therefore he got 1 year suspension.He soon started riding again,but in 1992 he resulted positive once again and this put an end to his career.
Talking about Cancellara,Fabian's contract with Riis ends in 2011,so he won't probably become a "Schleck rider" in 2011 (of course it isn't known whether the Schleckteam will become reality next year).
If the Schlecks abandoned Riis then Team Saxo Bank (or whatever its name will be next year) might be able to sign a contract with a certain rider named Alberto Contador.In fact Contador's contract with Astana ends in 2010,but his contract with Specialized expires at the end of 2011.In order to mantain a contract with the best Grand Tour rider of the world,Specialized could pay 7 million dollars (!) in order to allow Riis to sign a contract with the Spaniard.

Now,I know that all the things that I've written above (and that I've translated from La Gazzetta website) are fantaciclismo (unrealistic cycling),but I think that the Schleck supporters out there who don't understand Italian could be glad to read about this rumour.Why do I call it "rumour",and not "news"? Well,firstly I know that we Italian sometimes go too far with our fantasy.Secondly,I don't believe to what the Gazzetta wrote.Not that I believe they have made up everything,mind you.Simply,in my opinion,a "Schleckteam" may be created just in case Bjarne Riis doesn't find any new sponsor for 2011. Otherwise,I think that the Schlecks will stay with Uncle Bjarne also next year,since they always say they owe a lot to him.In fact I think that Andy and Frank would never leave Bjarne and try to steal him Andersen and Cancellara (not if they aren't forced to,at least) because they seem very honest guys to me (that's why I support them),and honest guys don't do this kind of things.
Of course,in the awful event that Bjarne doesn't find a new sponsor before of the end of the year,the Schlecks will have to change team and I believe that just in that case they may decide to create a "personal" team.After all,the brothers are really popular (at least in Luxembourg), and a Schleckteam would be sure to get a lot of attention from the medias and money from the sponsors very soon.And considering that also the other Saxo Bank riders/mechanics/ managers/ and so on will need a new team,some of them may even decide to follow the brothers at their new team.

Anyway,I realise that we are in March and we can't make prediction about marketing yet,so here I stop.Apropos: did you remember when I wrote that Italian people sometimes go too far with their fantasy? Well,now you've probably understood what I meant when I wrote that... ;)

SAXO BANK LINKS:
http://blog.tv2.dk/chris.anker.ol/ :Chris Sorensen has updated his blog and he seems to have good expectations for the Paris-Nice.Allez Chris!

http://www.riis-cycling.com/ny_news.asp?n_id=2690 :Johnny Bellis has finally been released from the hospital.

Totally fangirlistic link whose publication on this blog is completely disapproved by Logic : http://twitpic.com/16mfqo (Jakob Fuglsang's new haircut).

(Pic by Waldbillig)

First Saxo Bank victory 2010!

Although he was out of training during January because of an illness,Fabian Cancellara won the overall classification at the Tour of Oman.In fact he arrived 2nd in the last stage of the race,a TT of 18.6 km which was won by Boasson Hagen.Congratulations Fabian!

(Pic by TDW)

2009 cycling awards decided by moi:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Random Links about Saxo Bank riders (Didier,Breschel,Cancellara and C.Sorensen):

As you may have thought considering my lack of posts in the last days,I'm in a very busy period at school.In fact all my teachers have entered their "OMG I need a mark!" period and so they've decided to make us do at least one test pro subject in this week.Nice,isn't it? This morning for example I had 2 P.E.tests (and realised that high hoopes have something against me),1 art test and 1 English test (that caused me and some classmates to repeat the sentence "Romeo,Romeo,wherefore art thou Romeo?" for the whole morning).This morning then it snowed and I even woke up later than usual.These 2 facts combined together forced me to skip breakfast,run to the bus stop in a terribly fast way,argue with my father because I couldn't find my wristwatch ("You've lost it!" "No,it must be somewhere here in the house!" "And why can't you find it then?" "You're putting pressure on me,that's why I can't find it!"),risk to break my neck by slipping on the ice right in front of the bus stop and freeze happily outside of the school building between 7.30 and 7.50.

Btw,in the next days I'll be blogging slightly more,especially because I'm finally going to post that old old old interview with Frank Schleck that I translated months ago.And then sooner or later I'll also post my personal review of the 2009 cycling year.In the meanwhile however you can take a look at these totally random links about Saxo Bank riders:

http://lequotidien.editpress.lu/les-sports/6916.html :that's an interview with Laurent Didier, the new Luxembourgish rider of team Saxo Bank.About the survival camp in Fuerteventura he said:"We were divided into five teams and each of them was formed by 11/12 people.One of my teammates was the French bus driver Lolo (Editor's note: Laurent Plu) and we really had a lot of fun,even if the camp wasn't that easy.Anyway,the riders who had already participated in other boot camps have said that this year's one was a bit softer than usual".
"One day we had to swim for 2 kilometers.In my group we helped a new rider who couldn't swim.The purpose of this kind of camp is obviously to develop human relationships.We form a team and we must remember that during the whole season.This isn't always obvious,because during races for example we never meet the mechanics.In fact when we return to the hotel in the evening,they immediately take care of our bikes and then they eat after us,therefore we don't have the chance of talking to them very often. "
"Obviously I already knew quite well the Schleck brothers,but when I sat at the table together with Cancellara,Voigt and O'Grady I realized that I'm in a very important team and I started to look at these riders in a new way.In Fuerteventura I discovered how these riders actually are in everyday's life"
Didier gives also a litte information to people who are interested in seeing the new team jersey: "We have already seen the 2010 team jersey.It is similar to this year's one,but it's alittle bit darker on the shoulders".

Didier said he hopes to race the Ardenne's classics and the Giro this year and I hope he will achieve his goals.

http://www.sporten.dk/cykling/matti-vil-vinde-paris-roubaix :In this article Matti Breschel talks briefly about the 2009 season and says that his main goal for the next season will be the Paris-Roubaix.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/indergand-beats-cancellara-to-swiss-cyclist-of-the-year : Both Logic and Fangirl have been incredibly surprised by this news.Now I wonder: are the Swiss fans taking revenge on Fabian because he didn't win the RR World Championship in Mendrisio?

http://blog.tv2.dk/chris.anker.ol/ :yes,Chris-Anker Sorensen has updated his blog,but the unusual thing is that he's updated it twice in the last 2 days (I remember you that we aren't in the Tour de France period,therefore this is a pretty strange thing).Btw,the reason for this frequent blog updates is the description of what happened during the SB training camp in Fuerteventura.Here's a very brief and uncomplete translation of what I understood from the posts.

http://blog.tv2.dk/chris.anker.ol/entry352660.html : Advent Calendar on the blog:
Lots of you may think that it is a bit late to start an advent calendar on the 16th of December.I can only agree and add that this calendar is ending on the 19th of December,since it will describe the boot camp that we Saxo Bank riders had to face this year.I would have preferred to post it on the blog before,but the Internet connection down in Fuerteventura wasn't working very well.
This year the boot camp started on the 1st of December on the beach of Playitas Resort.There in fact we started the training camp with a two-men kayak race.

We were divided into 5 teams and my teammates were Torsten Schmidt,Stuart O'Grady,Frank Høj,Gustav Larsson and other people (...).We won the kayak races and then we had to cope with other 4 disciplines: golf,orienteering,diving and swimming. (...).In the golf competition my team came in 3rd.Then we had a classic orienteering race and Gustav and I volunteered as the best runners in the team.Anyway other people were stronger than us and we came in 2nd (...).Diving wasn't our favourite competition at all and so we came in 4th (...).We came back to victory in the swimming race and we ended up as overall winner.In this competition we were abandoned with 2 surfboards in the sea,2 kms away from the beach.It's not a secret that it was a little challenging for me because I've never been a great swimmer.Before of the training camp,the longest distance I had ever swum in my life was probably 200 meters in a swimming pool.Anyway I managed to face that 2 kms without drowning,although at the end I had a very bad taste in my mouth because I had drunk a big amount of sea water.
After that we thought that the challenges were over for the day,but 30 minutes after dinner we were given some MTBs and we had to drive on some gravel roads in the dark.It was pretty exciting because we couldn't see where we were going.In spite of this,we did arrive to our destination without crashing (...) and there we made a great bonfire (...),sat for a while and chatted a little (...).When the fire stopped burning,we came back to the basis with our MTBs.By the time I entered my bed in the hotel,it was already 2:00 am.

http://blog.tv2.dk/chris.anker.ol/entry352788.html :Second day:

The following morning my alarm clock rang at 6:00 am and I was certainly not very satisfied with my sleeping,since 4 hours of sleep just aren't enough for me.However we were lucky to get a bit of bread before of the departure of the buses.

We got off the bus after a 1 hour travel and we found ourselves in a small town near to a pond. There we were controlled in order to avoid that one of us faced the day with some food taken from the hotel and then we got the prizes from the previous day (...).The prizes actually consisted in food and since we didn't know when we would have received other things to eat we decided not to eat them as long as we could.I actually waited to drink my cola so long that I actually ended up drinking it in the very last few days of the camp.

Btw then we received a map on which there was a marked point.The distance between the point and the little village where we were standing was of 10 kms.Of course we had to reach the point marked on the map by walking,and facing 10 kms by foot actually didn't look that hard.The real problem however was that we couldn't just walk in a straight line towards the marked point,but we had to get over a mountain before of reaching it.Btw when we got on the top of it,after a lot of sweat,the landscape was really worthwhile,since while we were there we could hear the roar of the Atlantic and see the waves rolling towards the coast.

The path leading down to the sea then led us in the wrong direction,so we had to walk in the sand for 5 kms.However we were the second team to arrive,so we had the opportunity to lie in the sun and sleep a bit.When all the teams had arrived,we were divided in 5 new groups and had to go and look for 2 marked points on a map (...). We had been told that in those points we would have found some food,but actually we could found just some water,a pan and something to make a fire with.Since the other groups had found something similar,plus blankets,we were a little worried about the food situation and I immediately ate my 7 biscuits.
In the evening,a surprise came.The local park ranger (...) in fact wasn't happy to see us.First he wanted to make us go away and then he started to threaten us.In fact the local authorities had forgotten to inform the park ranger of our permission to spend the night in that place.Since nothing,not even some calls,could convince the man that we were telling the truth,we decided to go few kms down towards the sea (...).