Some topics of discussion and Greipel's great victory:

Breakout news: Today at the Tour there were no crashes involving GC leaders. I'm so happy I could cry.

Finally, the Tour went back to what it's supposed to be about: a cycling race without cars knocking the riders down and without athletes ending up in hospital because of crashes.

This morning the Grande Boucle was still shocked by what happened to Hoogerland and Flecha the other day.

Many people feared that Johnny (who got 33 stitches and who couldn't sleep properly because of some dreadful nightmares) would have had to abandon the race, instead he grit his teeth once again and he managed to finish the stage and wear the polka dots jersey for the second day in a row. Also Flecha managed to end the stage in spite of the injuries caused by the infamous crash.

Juan Antonio has recently released an interview to Cyclingnews, in which he criticises not only the driver who knocked him down, but also the behaviour of Thomas Voeckler. The fact that that stupid driver (who didn't ask for permission to overtake the riders and who shouldn't even had been behind them at that point of the race) didn't even sound his horn before trying to drive past the athletes is simply shocking and it really disgusts me. There are no apologies for something like that, especially if you consider that that man didn't even stop to check if he had badly injured the riders he had hit.

As far as Flecha's critics of Voeckler are concerned, I don't think the Frenchman accelerated after his crash. I was actually very surprised when I saw the breakawayers riding on in spite of that accident but, actually, I must admit that I don't think that they could have done something different.

Still talking about Saturday' stage, la Gazzetta claims that Vinokourov is already thinking about coming back racing. Girls of the AAVL, I hope this makes you feel a bit better.

Talking about the rest day, instead, the topics of discussion were 3:

1. Will Contador retire before the end of the Tour?

2. Is Gilbert going to try to get a good placement in the GC?

3. What really happened between Contador and Karpets the other day?

So, let's go in order.

Topic 1: we all know that Contador has hurt his knee in two of his three crashes. This morning many people (according to Italian tv) feared that he wouldn't have started the stage, instead he took part in it and finished the race with all the main GC leaders. But still, Alberto might decide to retire if things don't go well for him on Thursday, in the Luz-Ardiden stage. 'I know Alberto', Tiralongo told Ialian tv this morning. 'And he's not here to get dropped on the climbs. If his form isn't good enough, I think he'll retire'.

Personally, I agree with Tiralongo. In fact, I believe that Alberto will retire if he realises his shape isn't good enough in the mountains. However, I don't know whether Conti is trying to bluff a bit with his condition (making it seem a bit worse than it actually is) or not.

Topic 2: apparently, after VDB's retire Gilbert has told a few Belgian journalists that now he'd like to focus on the GC. Eddy Mercx approves the idea of the Omega rider and so do I. In fact it'd be great to see someone like Philippe giving it all even in the hardest stages. Especially because, with nowadays GC, many riders have good chances to make it to the top 5 or to the top 10 of the race. Cunego, Martin, Vandevelde, Taaramae, Roche, S. Sanchez, Velits... All guys that can still fight for a position in the top 10, especially now that there are so many spaces left empty by the crashes of guys like Vinokourov, VDB and Wiggins. Will Gilbert enter in that fight too? The fact that he's thinking about it makes me really happy, but this doesn't mean that I believe he can make it. Unfortunately, in fact, so far Philippe has exploited his team on every single stage of the race. Moreover, long climbs don't seem to suit him. But still, I'd like to see Philippe giving it a try.

Topic 3: Take a look at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKuJCGV8m-w and pay attention to Vladimir Karpets, the rider with the half white/half red jersey. It took me a lifetime to realise what that video is about, but then I saw that Karpets made a strange movement which caused Contador to crash. Someone thinks that Vladimir did it intentionally, someone else (me) doesn't. I think Karpets made that movement at random, not because he really knew that Alberto was behind him. But still, there are many guys who disagree with me.

After mentioning these topics of discussion, let's talk about the stage du jour. As said, this afternoon no one crashed seriously and this is a very good news.

The breakaway of the day was formed by Delaplace, Marcato, El Fares, Minard and Vichot. They started their adventure after 14 kms and ended it with about 20 kms to go. At that point, on the last little climb du jour, the fireworks began: Toni Gallopin in fact attacked and he was followed by great riders like Voeckler, Gilbert, Martin and Devenyns. The 5 men worked well until they reached the 8 kms to go mark, where they gave it in. Actually, 4 of them did: Gilbert in fact kept on riding until he was caught with 7 kms to go. Once again, the Belgian showed us all his class.

The stage ended with a sprint in the town of Carmaux. Said sprint was very particular, since HTC couldn't form its leadout train and because there was a curve with just 350 meters to go.

Sieberg (a rider that I really do like) abandoned its place at the head of the peloton right before that curve, so that Daniel Oss fund himself leading the group. Cavendish was behind the Liquigas rider and Greipel was behind Cannonball. Cav began his sprint when he saw that Oss' speed was decreasing. In that way, unluckily for him, he spent too many energy, so that Greipel could overtake him in the last 10 meters of race. A great victory for André, who wins his first Tour stage in his first TdF right in front of his old nemesis Mark Cavendish. Someone must be very pissed off right now...

Johnny Hoogerland managed to finish the stage (just like Flecha) and this is a very good news. Farrar didn't look that great, whereas the GC leaders hid themselves.

Another day at the Tour is over, now we're waiting for tomorrow's flat stage, the last one before the riders reach the mountains.

Rest day: some reflections about yesterday's stage

Yesterday evening miss Fede decided not to write anything about the TdF stage won by LL Sanchez. In fact she was  too angry for what happened to Flecha and Hoogerland and too sad after hearing about Vinokourov's broken femur, so she went out to try to distract herself. Unfortunately, it didn't work. In fact, it's hard to forget that one of my favourite riders (remember that I'm a member of the AAVL!) probably ended his career yesterday, although he still had lots of plans for the future. Moreover, another rider who I really like (Hoogerland) had to abandon all his dreams of glory after being hit by a car and landing on a barbed wire fence, so you can understand why yesterday I wasn't in the right mood for writing a post. And even today, almost 24 hours after the end of the 9th stage, I'm having problems in writing down something decent.

As written, Hoogerland yesterday was badly injured because of a car who caused him and Flecha to fall off their bikes. If the riders threatened to boycott the Zoncolan stage of the Giro because of the presence of Crostis, I wonder what they should do tomorrow to protest against what happened to poor Hoogerland and Flecha. Moreover, if the riders once said that the Tour organisers were 'Assassins' (TdF 1910, if my memory doesn't fail me), I wonder what they should have said about the Tour's car drivers after yesterday stage.

Anyway, what happened during yesterday's stage?

First of all, Contador crashed. Again. He hurt his right knee and, apparently, this is creating him some problems.

Secondly, after 45 kms of race a breakaway was created. Said breakaway was formed by very strong guys: Voeckler, LL Sanchez, Casar, Hoogerland and Flecha (at the beginning there was also Terpstra, but then he got dropped). Talking about Sanchez: until yesterday Luis Leon (whose brother is a soccer player that Inter tifosi learned to love some time ago) had won two stages of the Tour - and both those stages had taken place on the 11th of July. Considering that this year on the 11th of July (aka today) there isn't any stage, Sanchez thought it would have been better to go on a breakaway on the 10th. And, in case you're wondering, yes, in the end he did win yesterday's stage.

With about 85 kms to go, supporters had to stand the sight of a dramatic and surreal scene: an Omega Pharma Lotto rider (GC contender Van Den Broeck) was lying on the asphalt, in the middle of the road. Two riders from Astana, instead, were running in the woods, looking for something - or someone. In fact, their leader Vinokourov had crashed as well and he had ended up straight into the forest, thus breaking his femur.

The following scenes were even more dramatic: while Van Den Broeck hopped back on his bike in spite of a collapsed lung and other injuries (he rode for just a few meters before giving in) , some Astana riders had to help Vino (who couldn't even walk) to get out of the forest and back to the asphalt, where the whole team was waiting for the Kazakh rider, who was forced to abandon the race because of a broken femur.
As predictable, Vino's retire made me (and Rolf Sorensen) really sad. Love him or hate him, one can't deny that Alexander is a very brave and attacking guy, one that can make an interesting stage out of a boring parcours. The Astana leader had great plans for this year Tour, in which he wanted to end up in the Top 3. Moreover, this should have been Vino's last Grande Boucle, although he had recently stated that, perhaps, he would have taken part in the London Olympics too. Unfortunately, considering that it takes about a year to recover from a femur fracture, I'm afraid the Kazakhstani won't be able to come back racing at the top level anymore. And this really hurts me, because since last April I became a supporter of Vino and I really hoped that this year he would manage to wear the maillot jaune for at least one day. And instead no, the dreams of Vino and of his supporters ended in that curve. Broken bone, broken dreams and, probably, broken career (*girls of AAVL sigh and cry*).
Unfortunately, Vino and VDB weren't the only riders who fell in that point. In fact also David Zabriskie and Fredrik Willems crashed and they both had to retire from the race.  DZ broke his wrist, whereas Willems became another fan of the 'Broke your collarbone!' movement.
Also Brent Bookwalter crashed and felt dizzy during the last part of the stage, but tomorrow he's likely to start. Another guy who fell off his bike during yesterday's stage was Andreas Kloden, who right now has problems with his back.

Unfortunately, the guys mentioned above are just the ones who crashed with 85 kms to go. In fact, supporters had to stand one last surreal scene before the end of the stage - and said scene was probably one of the most shocking I've ever seen.
Right after Vino/VDB/DZ/Willems' crash, the peloton slowed down a lot because everyone wanted to be sure that no one had got badly injured. In the meanwhile the 5 breakawayers du jour kept on racing at a normal speed, so that they soon reached 8 minutes of advantage on the chasers. Omega Pharma Lotto chased for some kms because Gilbert wanted the stage win, but then they gave in and it was Garmin's turn to work at the front. However, at that time Hushovd had already abandoned every hope of keeping the yellow jersey, so his teammates didn't make lots of efforts in chasing the 5 men at the front. Therefore, with 40 kms to go, Sanchez, Flecha, Voeckler, Hoogerland and Casar already suspected that they would have made it to the finish-line (at the time in fact they still had an advantage of 5 minutes) and Thomas probably began to dream about the yellow jersey.
Unfortunately, with 36 kms to go, Hoogerland and Flecha's dreams of glory were shattered by a terrible crash. In fact the Spaniard was riding quietly when, all of a sudden, a car (yes, a car) hit him, making him land on the asphalt. On the other hand, Johnny Hoogerland (who, at the moment of the crash, was behind the Sky rider) flew over his bike and landed on a barbed wire fence, thus having his legs cut in different places. The car (which, according to Italian tv, belongs to the French press) didn't even stop to check the riders' conditions, but continued its travel towards the finish-line. Voeckler, LLS and Casar couldn't help but keep on riding.
In spite of the terrible injuries and the broken bikes, Flecha and Hoogerland luckily managed to get back on their bikes. The Dutchman hopped back on his vehicle a few minutes after the Spaniard and he soon found himself at the back of the peloton. The Vacansoleil rider had blood all over his legs, looked very shocked and gave it all to reach the finish-line, so that he could wear the polka dots jersey during the podium ceremony (in fact, the poor thing had spent the whole day collecting points at the GPM).
He eventually ended the stage 16 minutes after the winner and 6" after Flecha, who soon found himself at the back of the peloton too and who stood side by side with Hoogerland in the last kms of race.
The Spaniard looked much more pissed off than the Dutchman and he clapped his hands ironically as the peloton overtook him. Johnny Hoogerland would have probably done the same, if only had he had the strength.
Of course, as Flecha and Hoogerland were riding slowly to the finish-line, the show had to go on so that, at the end of the day, Voeckler (who, in the morning, was just 1'30" down in the GC) got the yellow jersey, whereas Sanchez won the stage and dedicated it to his pregnant wife.
Although the GC contenders didn't attack each other in the last little climb, Ivan Basso lost 8" and Contador had problems in following the wheels of the best riders. If someone had attacked, the consequences could have been much worse.
After the stage, Flecha and Hoogerland were awarded with the 'most combative rider' award. Johnny also received the polka dots jersey and burst into tears on the podium.
I thought of Wouter Weylandt very often yesterday and I'm sure that, in that moment, the Vacansoleil rider probably did the same.
A few hours after the end of the stage, the car that caused Flecha's crash was expelled from the race. People keep on talking about safety in races, but now I really wonder why there are so many cars at the Tour. The team cars, the press cars, the motorbikes of the photographers, the Mavic cars, the motorbikes of the doctors, the ambulances: they all have the right to stay in the group. Unfortunately (according to Italian tv), the car that caused yesterday's crash was a car carrying some guests to the finish-line of the race. Now, can't these fucking guests get to the finish-line by driving their own fucking cars, like every other mortals do? If they want to watch both the start and the end of a stage ,they can go watching a TT- or they can go to Liége - Bastogne - Liége. But really, the guest cars are the most absurd thing on Earth. Especially when they follow the riders like they did yesterday - a thing that they couldn't actually do. I understand that some cars are necessary inside the peloton, but I really can't understand the existence of the guests cars (sorry for the use of the f*** word, I had a little 'Gordon Ramsay moment' there).

Still talking about yesterday's stage, let's focus for a while on the competitive aspect of this year Tour (yes, it may shock you, but the Tour also has a sportive aspect).
As you all know, on Saturday there was the first uphill finish of the race and the victory went to the brave Rui Costa. Vinokourov (sigh!) tried to get the yellow jersey but he failed, since Hushovd kept the wheels of the main GC contenders in a superb way. Considering his form and the fact that almost everyone is crashing, I think that the Norwegian can make it to the top 30 of the race.
Anyway. In the last two days we've also had the chance to see how Andy (and Frank) Schleck have decided to race. And in both those days, their main concern seemed to be Contador.
The brothers both looked great in the last two stages, but I think that they'd better pay a lot of attention to Evans right now. In fact, Cadel is feeling much better than Contador, has a strong team, a winning mentality and is a super time trialist. Contador, on the other hand, doesn't look as strong as he was in the Giro. Andy has focused on him so far and that is good - but he must remember that he has other contenders apart from the Spaniard.
And then, dear Andy, a little question: why didn't you attack yesterday, in the last km of race? Today it's the rest day, so I don't think it would have taken you too much to recover. And then, Ivan Basso lost 8" although no one attacked. What if you had made a little move? Perhaps the seconds would have become a bit more - and this is important, considering the 39" that cost you the 2010 Tour.
Of course this is just a random suggestion by a supporter, but I'm tired of having my uncles asking me 'Why didn't Schleck attack?' after every stage featuring a final climb!
PS: Given that you've been so kind to bear all my Maturità talks in the last few weeks, miss Fede is glad to tell you that she received her mark two days ago: 100 out of 100 (yes, the teachers gave him the 5 points bonus that those who do well in the written parts of the proves deserve). I don't say this to blow my own trumpet, but because I think you deserve to know this fact. And that's all from me for today.