Some cycling news plus Royal Wedding Fever (yes, I've come down with it too)

Almost one week after my last post, here I am writing a few things about cycling and about (guess what?) the Royal Wedding. Oh yes. You thought you could break free from the 'event of the year' by ending up on this blog, didn't you? Well, sorry to disappoint you, but I've come down with 'the Royal Wedding Fever' too. If you feel you can't stand another long comment of someone about the 'marriage of the century', go to the second part of my post: I won't be offended by your decision.
Actually, in the last months I did try to ignore the royal marriage as long as I could. After all, I don't know Kate and William, so I thought that I shouldn't have cared so much about their wedding. 'Just leave them a bit of privacy, poor things!', I thought every time I heard news about their marriage.
Just this morning I abandoned my indifferent attitude and I started feeling pretty excited about the wedding. So excited (and curious) that, as soon as I came home, I abandoned my dignity in the garden, entered the house and immediately asked: 'What was Kate wearing this morning?!?' to the first person I saw (who was my dad, aka the only creature in the house who hadn't watched the wedding). Ok, perhaps I've exaggerated this part. Actually, I must confess that the first thing I asked as soon as I entered the house was: 'How many seconds of advantage does Sorensen have on the peloton?'. Then, I asked about the wedding :P

In the last days I've tried to give a reason for all the big interest around weddings and , in particular, I've thought a bit about why women love marriages so much.
In my opinion, there are at least three elements that make most of us women go crazy about weddings. First of all, there's a 'historical' reason, if we can call it this way. In fact, girls start hearing stories like 'Snow White' and 'Cinerella' when they're 3/4 year old and they don't forget about them until they eventually come down with Alzheimer. These fairy tales enter our girly genes as soon as we start understanding things, just like they entered our mothers and our grandmothers' genes in the past. And how do these fairy tales always end? Well, simple: there's a commoner who marries a gorgeous prince and has an amazing wedding. An amazing wedding with 4 WHITE horses pulling a carriage, the prince wearing his best uniform, the bride wearing the most beautiful dress ever and the church bells ringing happily as soon as the married couple leaves the church. Now, compare this typical 'happy ending' of a fable to the story (and the marriage) of Kate Middleton: there isn't any difference,is there? (No, the fact that William is becoming bald can't be considered a difference). Imo, that's what we girls love so much about important weddings: every time, it's like watching a fairy tale that comes true.
Another important 'marriage love' factor, imo, is that there's a truly important wedding just once (or twice) every 30 year. Watching it (even if on your own little telly) makes you feel like you're part of the history of the world, it makes you able to say 'I was there!' when people in the future will talk about the wedding of William of England and his wife. After all, who doesn't love being part of the world history?
As we girls grow up, actually, another 'wedding love' factor makes its appearance on the stage: the love for dresses. And where can you see more dresses than at a wedding? And where can you see more dresses than at a royal wedding?
I think it's because of these three reasons that many people (especially women) couldn't help watching the wedding this morning (or catching up with it this afternoon). Apropos, thank you BBC News for the super long coverage!!!

Anyway, I realise I'm digressing. Talking about the Royal Wedding, I must say that I really liked it. Kate looked very nice and natural and with William she forms a very nice couple. Talking about the Prince, my mother's best comment about the ceremony was: 'Poor guy! And to say he had so much hair when he was a kid!' Btw fear not, William: you can ask Berlusconi what treatment he used to make his hair reappear on his head again. If it succeeded with him, it will surely succeed also with you.
Talking about fashion, I really liked the dresses worn by Kate (of course), by her sister, her mother and by Victoria Beckham. As far as the Queen is concerned, my sister said 'she looks like a banana'. I actually found her very sweet, in her yellow dress, looking like a normal granny who goes to her nephew's wedding. Actually, this morning the most discussed issue at school was: how does William address to her grandmother? I mean, does she call her 'Dear Grandmother'? Or does he refer to her as to 'Her Majesty'? Or do Harry and Will simply call her 'Betty the Granny'? (It's a fascinating topic of discussion, isn't it?)
Still talking about today's topics of discussion at school, one of the most 'successful' ones was the following: 'which prince am I going to marry?' Here you have some pictures of the Princes that haven't got married yet. Most of my friends went for Harry, but I'm afraid that they're not the only ones who had this idea today, while watching the marriage...
Talking about the nobles who took part in the ceremony, it was nice to see the faces of some people whose existence I had ignored until this morning. I was really curious to see the Grand Duke of Luxembourg (of course) and I was shocked when I saw the dresses of two of the members of the Royal Family (the Duchesses of York, perhaps?). However, I was very relieved that no one from Italian government attended the ceremony. Otherwise, we would have distinguished ourselves in a negative way even today. Moreover, I was very happy to see that no one from Casa Savoia went at the wedding either. I wouldn't have beared it if Emanuele Filiberto had started singing and dancing at the post-ceremony party. In fact, whereas Holland has a guy like Boogerd taking part in 'Dancing with the Stars', the Italian edition of the programme has had the Prince Emanuele Filiberto amongst its most famours performers. Thanks God Italy's no longer a monarchy.

CYCLING NEWS:
After expressing my few trivial thoughts about THE wedding, let's finally talk about cycling. Today was a joyful day for the whole AAVL, who could cheer for Vinokourov's victory in Neuchatel stage of Tour de Romandie. Vino followed Toni Martin (who had attacked with 2 kms to go) together with Cherel and he eventually won the eventual 3 men sprint. Cherel complained about Vino's way of sprinting, but imo the Kazakhistan rode in a correct way. The Frenchman tried to pass where there was no space, it's not Vino's fault if he made that mistake!
Still talking about Tour de Romandie, yesterday stage was won by Damiano Cunego and everyone was very happy about it (at least here in Italy). Moreover, CA Sorensen tried to escape from the peloton yesterday and he tried again this afternoon. Today he's even remained alone at the front o the race for some time, before being eventually caught with just 10 kms to go. Chris looks very good in these days and this makes me ask why he's not taking part in the Giro (and the same goes for Vinokourov and Cunego).
A rider who certainly won't take part in the Corsa Rosa is poor Daniele Bennati, who crashed two days ago in Romandie and broke his right collarbone and 4 ribs. I wish him a fast recovery and I hope he'll be able to race problems-free in the second part of the season.
Also Kiserlovski has had some physical problems lately. The Croatian rider in fact has just discovered that he has a cracked vertebrae, which is a consequence of his Paris-Nice crash (the one in which he ended up under a truck parked at the side of the road). Hopefully he'll be able to take part in the Giro, since I have high expectations on him.
Talking about another race that is going on right now, Tour of Turkey is a goldmine for sprinters. In fact, every stage of the race so far has been won by a sprinter. Today it was the turn of Andre Greipel, whereas Saxo Banker Jaroslaw Marycz, who attacked in the last km of race, couldn't get to the top 3. However, chapeau for trying.
So, these are some of the cycling news of the last days. As you can see, it isn't much. In the next days I'll probably post something about the Giro, so stay tuned!

Random Post about Martin Pedersen:

More than one week after my last post, here I am again, to everyone's joy (and mine in particular).
The last 7 days have been pretty tough for me. For example, I've recently shocked my English teacher by telling her that in her books Jane Austen complains about the conditions of women in the 19th century (the fact that they depended on men from the financial point of view and so on). Unfortunately, Teacher didn't agree with me and she spent half of the oral test repeating that my interpretation wasn't correct because 'Jane Austen wasn't a revolutionary, really. I mean... she wasn't a revolutionary. Did you understand? She wasn't a revolutionary!". She was so shocked about what I said that, during the examination (that lasted 40 minutes), she just asked me about Jane Austen and W. Blake. And who cares if I spent hours studying also Shelley, Coleridge, Wordsworth, the Victorian age, Dickens, Byron, the Industrial Revolution, the Corn Laws and the Bronte's sisters: The only important thing is that Jane Austen wasn't a revolutionary. Apparently, my interpretation of J. Austen's work was the biggest bullshit I've ever said in my scholastic career. But luckily, it didn't prevent me from getting a good mark in the tests :D
Anyway. Enough about me for today. Let's now talk about cycling.

Over the last days, Contador has been cleared of his doping accusation by the Spanish Cycling Federation. This matter has already been analysed by our dear Cougar Girl, so I think it's useless to write about it also here. Moreover, the name 'Alberto Contador' can cause me strong headaches and irrational anger in these days, so the less I pronounce it/write it/read it/ hear it, the better.
Still talking about news related doping, Riccò has been fired by Vacansoleil.

Another important news is that Spanish police has recently discovered an illegal commerce of doping thanks to Xavier Tondo. 'Oh gosh, was he found positive at the anti-doping too?', I hear you ask in a worried way. 'Oh no!', I answer you. In fact, Xavier received an email last December, which offered several doping products at special low prices. Tondo immediately passed it along to the police, who's now investigating this case carefully. Finally, a good news that shows us that not every cyclist is a doper.
On to a Schlecknews, it has been said that Frank Schleck may have to change his national jersey. http://www.velonation.com/News/ID/7432/Frank-Schlecks-Luxembourg-champions-jersey-may-have-to-be-redesigned.aspx talks about jersey changes of the recent years, mentioning Pozzato. As you may remember, Pozzato changed about 324567 different national kits when he was Italian national champion. And everything began because his first 'champion jersey' had the skyline of Moscow designed on the Italian Tricolore. And guys at the Italian Cycling Federation didn't like it, oh no. Hopefully Frank and LT designers won't have to change as many kits as Pozzato and will come up with a good solution to this problem.
As far as the races that are going on right now are concerned, Gesink has won two stages of the Tour of Oman in the last two days. Unfortunately, Leopard Trek guys haven't won anything yet.
Talking about Leopard Trek guys, here you can find a short introduction to Martin Pedersen, one of the least known guys on the team.

Martin P. (not to confuse with Martin M.) was born on the 15th April 1983 in Brondby, Denmark. As you can see, Martin's birthday is on the same day as Frank and Leea Schleck. He isn't the tallest guy of the peloton (170 cms) and he weights 62 kgs.
His first U23 team was Team PH, for which he raced in 2004, when he won the Danish National RR Championship for young riders for the third time (he had already won it in 2002 and 2003). Martin also has a past as a track rider, since he was Madison National Champion together with Michael Smith Larsen in 2003.
The following year Pedersen moved to team GLS and he won Liége-Bastogne-Liége for U23, Gran Premio San Giuseppe, a stage at Tour of Tuscany for U23, a stage at GP Veckan, a stage at Horsens, 2 stages at the Olympia's Tour and three stages at the Ringerike GP. Moreover, Martin was 16th in the Madrid RR Worlds for U23 riders.
In 2006 Pedersen became a pro rider and started to ride for Team CSC (oh my, is this enough to make him another 'bye bye Bjarne, hello Leopard' guy?). Frank and Andy were already racing for Riis at the time, so they probably got to know each other already 5 years ago. That year, Martin won the first stage and the GC of Tour of Britain. The following year instead he won the Mountains Classification at the Eneco Tour.
In 2008 Pedersen went back to Team GLS, for which he won Omloop van het Houtland, a stage of Circuit des Ardennes (see pic below) and a stage of Kreiz Breizh.
The following year Martin raced for team Capinordic together with Jonas Aaen Jorgensen, who's now a Saxo Bank rider. That year he won Rund um Koeln, Grand Prix Cristal Energie and GP de la Ville de Nogent-sur-Oise.
Last year instead Pedersen rode for Footon-Servetto (yes, he was one of the men with the ugly kits) and he won Aalborg-Aalborg, a Danish race. However, Martin took part in 2010 Giro d'Italia (he got retired after the 10th stage) and he also came 131st at Vuelta.

As soon as he joined Leopard Trek, Martin said: 'Although it is a super team, it's also a place where it will get very hard. It might not be there right now, but there will be a lot of pressure for us to deliver. I'm looking forward to that though'.
According to www.velonation.com , Martin is a fast finishing strong man who can do well both in one day races and in sprints. Talking about himself, Pedersen said: "I'm a rider that can work hard for the team, but I can also take the opportunity if it presents itself. It's probably going to be hard to get into the Tour de France squad, because in its current form, we could field two teams for the race and still be sharp. I could also ride the Vuelta, but I'll take it as it comes. My priority right now is to be fit to fight and be there for the team, then the the rest will follow". In another interview, he added: “I think my strengths rest in my ability to do well in many different terrains which will mean that I can be a service to the team in multiple situations.I also have a snappy sprint, so that I can take advantage of that when given the chance in breakaways, for instance".
During Leopard Trek presentation, Martin (who was presented with the young riders) was asked if he was superstitious: “No, I’m not that superstitious. I used to have a lucky charm, but it seems like it was better without it. Since then, I haven’t been that superstitious.I know it’s a dangerous sport sometimes ,but if you get too superstitious, maybe it’s a little bit bad for you.I try to stay calm and relaxed and just hope for the best".

Unfortunately, that's all I could find about Martin Pedersen. I didn't have a lot of time to look for information about him, so if you have more information and want to share, do it! And feel free to correct the mistakes that you may find in my post.
Now, to close this blog entry, here you have a picture of Martin (he was still racing for Capinordic at the time). The pic comes from http://www.cyclingstars.dk/ , where you have an impressive list of Danish cyclists. Amongst them there are 21 Pedersen, 19 Petersen and just 17 Sorensen :O

For more pictures/results of Martin, go on: http://www.cyclingstars.dk/Rider.aspx?id={d11c2b0a-6dfa-491a-9725-02f88617ac57}

Have a good weekend!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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