Allez Schlecks!!!

Ok girls, the two decisive moments are finally approaching: the moment in which the Tour will finally be decided by the last climbs (holy Galibier save us all once again!) and by the TT in Grenoble and the moment when I'll abandon Italy for a few days.

This Tour has been like a rollercoaster so far: there were some epic deeds (Hushovd winning in Lourdes, Voeckler keeping the jersey yesterday, Andy Schleck's winning attack 24 hours ago, Boasson Hagen winning two stages, Gilbert giving it all whenever he could, Hoogerland keeping on racing), but there were also some negative moments (Vinokourov ending his career, a car knocking down Flecha and Hoogerland when they were on a breakaway, the boredom on the Pyrenées, the descents of the last two days, all the retires of the first week of race, the polemics between Cavendish and Rojas...). But still, after more than 25000 kms of race and many hours of sufference (both for the riders and for the supporters), the fight for yellow is still open. Voeckler, the tenacious French rider, has the chance of winning his home-race 26 years after Hinault; Andy Schleck, the Luxembourgian graceful flamingo, has the opportunity of winning his first Tour de France; Frank Schleck, brother of Andy (in 2007 people would have said: 'Andy, brother of Frank'), wants to join his brother on the final podium; Cadel Evans, who has often been rejected by the Grande Boucle, wants to overtake the Luxembourgian duo and the surprising Voeckler in the final time trial, thus reaching the Tour triumph that has slipped out of his hands on many occasions. With 2 days of race and a triumphal parade to go, these riders are divided (or, perhaps, united) by 72 seconds.  Now they have to give it all, once again, for the last time, today and tomorrow. Then, the Tour de France will give the crown of king to one of them.

As many of you already know, I won't be at home during the epilogue of this exciting and beautiful fight for yellow. In fact this evening I'm leaving Italy to enjoy a one-week holiday on the coast of Spain. Luckily the hotel has a tv in every room, so that I'll hopefully be able to enjoy the Tour even while I'm on holiday. Actually, I can already imagine myself upsetting my friends by leaving the beach at 4.30 pm in order to go watching the last two stages. There's no way I'm missing the TT (if I can't find a tv broadcast, I'll call my parents and spend a thousand euros on phone calls in order to know how the race is going second by second) and I'd love to see also the final parade to Paris. When one follows the Tour from its beginning, it's hard to be excluded from the final party on the Champs. But still, in order to do that, I'll have to find the Spanish channel that broadcasts the Tour. And, given my love for tvs, it'll be hard.

Talking about scenes starring myself and my passion for cycling, I bet that tomorrow morning at 7 am I'll be walking around the streets like a fool, looking for a newsagent's selling 'La Gazzetta dello Sport'. Seriously, I can't resist without my two daily pink pages about the Tour!!

Anyway. Time to go packing the last things. Of course, even when I'm away, the comment area is here for you, dear readers, to use. You can express ideas, have discussions, share links, do whatever you want - I'm sure you don't need me to create interesting, funny, moved and joyful (hopefully...) discussions.

Hopefully, when I'm back we'll have a Luxembourgian Tour de France champion. If so, I could go so crazy that, before leaving Spain, I may run down a street with a yellow tow in my hands, singing 'Eisen Andy' (no, I won't record that moment on my camera).

With the song 'Allez Andy' playing in my mind, I say 'good bye' to you all. I hope you had fun on this blog in the last two weeks (the number of new readers that have come across this page in the last few days is SCARY!!) and, if so, I recommend you staying tuned - the season, after all, isn't over yet.
So, this time this is really all from me for the moment - and for the Tour. Have a good weekend and get ready to support los Schlecks as loudly as you can.

Hasta pronto mujeres!

PS: I take this chance to wish a nice travel and a great holiday to the girls who are travelling to France in these days: Figbash, Mar, Marleen, Eva, Lee (who's been in France for a while now), Kara and all the other ones that I've surely forgotten. Rock Paris, girls!!! And stalk a Schleck (or two) also for me ;)

(Pic by Bettini)

Vuelta: start list

The Vuelta a Espana begins tomorrow and ends on the 20th of September in Madrid.The race begins in Holland and will move to Spain after 4 stages (the last of which ends in Liege).I won't be around for the next 2 weeks,so in my last post for this month I've decided to show you the start list of La Vuelta according to the official website of the race.Here it is:

Euskaltel Euskadi: The Basque team will be formed by the Olympic champion Samuel Sanchez,Igor Anton,Egoi Martinez,Alan Perez,Ruben Perez,Inaki Isasi,Aitor Hernandez,Markel Irizar and Amets Txurruka.Logic thinks that lots of Euskaltel men will take part in breakaways and that Sanchez will show something good.

AG2R La Mondiale: the team leader for the GC will be Tadej Valjavec,who wore the leader jersey for some days during this year TdS.The other riders will be José Luis Arrieta, Riblon,Alexander Efimkin,Hinault,Loubet,Nocentini (vai Rinaldooo!),Turpin and Dessel.Dessel is a strong rider,while Nocentini will surely be very motivated because he wants to be one of the Azzurri in Mendrisio.
Andalucia Cajasur: This team will be formed by Xavier Tondo,Javier Ramirez,Manuel Calvente, Jesus Rosendo,Jose Ruiz,Francisco Jose Martinez,Manuel Ortega,José Antonio Lopez Gil and Antonio Piedra.

Astana: Probably you all know that Vinokourov will be a member of this team.The other 8 riders of the Kazakh team will be Jesus Hernandez,Iglinsky,Bazayev,Navarro,Horner,José Luis Rubiera,Kloden and Zubeldia.Anyway,I can't understand one thing: according to the Vuelta website,Vino will be just a reserve.Anyway,I can't understand why Vino keeps on talking about winning stages if he actually isn' going to run.Mistery.

Bbox Bougues Telecom: Bernaudeau,Bonnaire,Bonnet,Bouyer,Claude,Gaudin, Gene,Lefevre and Fedrigo. I like this team and I like Fedrigo (his nose is one of the symbols of this year Tour for me) and hopefully the Frenchman will manage to win a stage.
Caisse d'Epargne: the team leader for the GC will be Valverde,who has recently said that he already knows how being on the podium feels,so this time he wants to win the race.Considering that he didn't race the Tour,he will probably be even more determined than usual and so I think he's one of the favourites for the final victory.His teammates will be Erviti,José Vicente Garcia Acosta,David Lopez Garcia,Daniel Moreno,Pasamontes,Francisco Perez Sanchez,Xabier Zandio and Joaquim Rodriguez,who is a very strong rider.

Cervélo Test Team: Sastre won't be racing the Vuelta this year,so the team hasn't got his usual GC leader.The Cervélo riders at the Vuelta will be Angel Gomez,Xavier Florencio,Deignan, Hammond,Konovalovas (allez Ignatas!),Gomez Marchante,Rasch,Rollin and the young Swiss rider Marcel Wyss.

Cofidis: The French team will be formed by Demaret,Duque,El Fares,Bingen Fernandez, Moinard,Moncoutie,Monier,Pauriol and Taaramae.Taaramae and El Fares are very promising riders and I think they'll show something good during the Spanish race.
Contentpolis-Ampo: this team will be formed by Javier Benitez,Sergio Dominguez,Oscar Garcia-Casarrubios,Mikel Gaztanaga,Francisco Jose Pacheco,Adrian Palomares,Aitor Perez,Julian Sanchez and Manuel Vazquez.

Française Des Jeux: the team riders for the Vuelta will be Sandy Casar (winner of the Bourg Saint Maurice stage at Le Tour after Astarloza's positivity),Sebastien Chavanel,Cherel,Di Gregorio,Gerard,Ladagnous,Le Mevel,Offredo and Roux.
Fuji-Servetto: De La Fuente,Cobo,Duran,Capecchi,Jesus Del Nero,Kessiakoff,Kiserlovski, Intxausti and Vigano are the riders that are going to race the Vuelta for this team.Also this time,the question remains: where has Ermanno Capelli ended up?
Garmin-Slipstream: Farrar, Tom Danielson, Daniel Martin, Hesjedal, Tuft, Millar,Dean and Vande Velde.Since Cavendish won't race the Vuelta,I predict that Farrar will win at least 1 stage.And I also predict that Vande Velde will race well (even if he's already been at the start line of the Giro and of the Tour this year).
Lampre-N.G.C: some of the Italian riders will be very motivated because the Worlds are rapidly approaching and the Italian coach,Ballerini,still doesn't know which riders to choose for the Azzurri world team;between the Italian riders that are probably going to be very determined there is also Lampre's Damiano Cunego,2nd at last year's Worlds.Ballan is the only Italian rider sure of his convocation for the Mendrisio worlds,but I think he'll show something good as well during the next 3 weeks.Other Lampre riders are Bindi,Tomei,Buts,Mori,Tiralongo,Zagorodny and Gasparotto.
Liquigas: also some Liquigas Italian riders will have a great motivation during the Vuelta.Basso is going to ride for a victory in the GC,Bennati would love to win at least one stage,Quinziato will give everything to convince Ballerini to bring him to the Worlds (last year he ran the TT race). The other Liquigas riders will be Bodnar,Carlström,Kreuziger (will he help Basso,I wonder?), Szmyd,Zaugg and Willems.Of course,after having screamed happily for his victory on the top of Mont Ventoux during the Dauphine Libere,Fangirl would love to see Szmyd winning again,but Logic thinks that this won't be possible because Sylvester will have a lot of work to do for his captain Basso.
Quick Step: Good team.Boonen will try to win the stages for sprinters,while the other riders will try to win other stages.Perhaps Devolder may try to get a good placement in the GC,like he did (not in a very succesful way,I must say) during the Tour 2008.The other riders of the team will be Van Impe,Cornu,De Weert,Tosatto (another one who will try to convince Ballerini) and Velo.
Rabobank: Smiley won't be racing,so Robert Gesink is going to be the team leader.He's a strong rider and I wouldn't be surprised if he ended up on the podium.Freire will try to win at least one stage and to do so he will have to beat guys like Farrar,Boonen,Ciolek,Greipel and Davis.The other Rabobank riders will be Garate,Boom,Leezer,Martens,Moerenhout,Tankink and Weening.
Silence-Lotto: after a disappointing Tour of France,No-Snore-Team will try to run a good Tour of Spain.On paper,they have the potential to do very well in the race.The team leader is obbviously going to be Cadel Evans.De Greef is a good young rider and I hope he'll do well. Wegelius has already raced the Giro and the Tour and is now going to race he Vuelta.Reading his Twitter,he sounds a bit worried.Matthew Lloyd is another strong rider,just like Gilbert (who won the Anagni stage at the Giro).The other members of the Team will be Brandt,Kaisen,Roelandts and Delage.

Team Columbia-HTC: Without Cavendish,the Columbia's "stage leader" is probably going to be André Greipel,while the GC leader will be KK,aka Kim Kirchen.Grabsch will try to win a TT,but with Cancellara around it won't be easy.The other Columbia riders will be Albasini (winner of a stage at the TdS),Siutsou (winner of the Bergamo's stage of the Giro),Hansen,Rabon,Reynes and Sieberg.
Team Milram: the team sprinter is Ciolek and I hope he can get a good result after all the placements he got this year.Linus Gerdemann is racing and hopefully his Vuelta will go better than his Tour.The other team riders are Knees,Roels,Rohregger,Russ,Martin Velits,Schroeder and Voss.
Team Saxo Bank: ah,Fangirl's favourite team...Andy and Frank will go for stage wins,at least that's what they said,but who knows what will happen? Perhaps their form is already very good and they'll get a good placement also in the GC (*Fangirl speaking,don't mind her).The team leader for the GC is going to be Jakob Fuglsang who,in my opinion,will be able to arrive in the GC Top 5.Cancellara of course will go for the TTs,while Kolobnev,Kroon,Arvesen,Breschel and O'Grady will go for stage wins (and work for the team leader).
Vacansoleil Pro Cycling Team:Bozic,Carrara, Hoogerland,Lagutin, Leukemans, Marcato, Mouris, Pronk and Westra will be the Vacansoleil riders.
Xacobeo Galicia: Ezequiel Mosquera will probably be a contender for the podium.The other riders of the team will be David Garcia Da Pena,Gustavo Cesar Veloso, Gustavo Dominguez,Serafin Martinez,Gonzalo Rabunal,David Herrero,Alberto Fernandez and Eduard Vorganov (Rus) Xacobeo Galicia.

So,these are the riders that are going to run the Vuelta according to the race website.Hopefully it will be an exciting race and Fangirl will have the chance to cheer on many Saxo Bank's victories.Allez Saxo Bank!

Saxo Bank team for the Tour,news about Frank and main results of the riders who are riding the TdF for SB:

This will probably be my last post for this month,since I'm leaving tomorrow to go on holiday and I'm coming back on the 5th of July.Yes,I know that the Tour starts on the 4th of July and that I'll lose the first two stages of the race,but going to the sea on holiday is always nice,isn't it?

Anyway,my holiday involves the fact that I won't be covering all the pre-Tour stuff and the first 2 stages,but that's not a tragedy: there are lots of other blogs where you can read about this.

Btw I can't go away without telling you the last news about Saxo Bank,can I?

So,the team for TdF will be formed by Andy Schleck, Frank Schleck, Fabian Cancellara, Stuart O'Grady, Jens Voigt, Nicki Sørensen, Chris Anker Sørensen, Gustav Larsson and Kurt-Asle Arvesen.Unfortunately for fangirls,Model Matti Breschel is not included in the team but,as you can see,Frank will race in spite of his knee injury.I've found some news about it on Cyclingnews and it seems that Frank's knee problem dates back to the crash in Amstel Gold Race.The pain was the reason for which the Luxembourgian rider didn't take part in yesterday's TT at TdS.

"Fränk has some problems with his left knee, but nothing that should jeopardize his start at the Tour," Saxo Bank spokesman Brian Nygaard said.

After the Crans-Montana stage (and his retire from the race) Frank said:“It hurt,even though it was a lot better than the day before.I still can't say that it is 100 per cent,but I sure hope that I can ride without pain in the coming days.The decision to pull out was made after consulting the team management.This was just a precautionary measure, I simply don't want to take any unnecessary risk."
Frank is next scheduled to ride the national TT championship on Thursday and to defend his national road title on Sunday.

Let's hope for him that his Tour will be at least as good as last year's one.In fact,as you may remember,last year he wore the yellow jersey for some days and arrived 6th in the GC (5th if you don't consider Kohl).In 2006 instead he won the Alpe d'Huez stage.Between Frank's other main results there are the victories of Amstel Gold Race 2006,Giro d'Emilia 2007,one stage at TdS in 2007,one stage at Tour of California 2009,one stage and the overall classification at last month's TdL.He also won the National road race title twice and also arrived 3rd once in the Lombardy Tour and twice in the Liege.He also arrived 2nd in 2008 Amstel Gold Race and in 2009 Paris-Nice overall classification.He arrived 4th in the 2007 World Championship as well,even if third was Stefan Schumacher,so I think it can be said that Frank actually came 3rd in that race.

Little bro' Andy last year arrived 12th in the TdF final GC (11th if you don't consider Kohl's 3rd place) but got bonked during Hautacam's stage.This year he'll run his second Tour and he's supposed to be Contador's main adversaire.As you probably remember,he arrived 2nd at the Giro d'Italia 2007,won this year's Liege,won the TT national championship twice and the young rider classification in the 2 Grand Tours he's run until now.This year he won a stage in TdL and arrived 2nd in Fleche Wallonne behind Rebellin.Between his other good results there are also the 4th place in 2007 Giro di Lombardia,the 4th one at last year Olympic Riad Race (Rebellin,who came 2nd,was then found positive to an anti-doping control) and the 4th one in last year's Liege.Regarding the other members of the SB team,Fabian Cancellara has just won the TdS,was 3rd at the Olympic road race last year,won the TT Olympic title,one Paris-Roubaix,one Milan-Sanremo,3 stages at Le Tour,some World TT championships and wore the yellow jersey for about 9 days during his career.Last year he didn't win any stage,but you must consider that Stefan Schumacher (who defeated him in the last TT of the race) was then found positive at the anti-doping.And even if he didn't win any stage,Fab Fab raced a great Tour in 2008,helping the team leaders (Andy,Frank and Sastre) during all the mountain stages.Oh and,talking about Cancellara:there's a little village in Basilicata that is called "Cancellara".And Fabian's father actually comes from Basilicata...
Stuart O'Grady is another great rider.He entered the SB team at the end of the year 2005 and in his career he's won 2 stages at Le Tour (plus one TTT) and one Paris-Roubaix.He used to be a track cyclist and he achieved a lot of good results in that discipline,for example he won the gold medal in Men's Madison at the 2004 Olympic Games (that he raced with Graeme Brown).He also wore the yellow jersey at the Tour in 1998 and in 2001.Although last year he broke a collarbone during the Giro he managed to run the TdF and did a very good job as a helper during the mountain stages.This year he had a bad fall in Milan-Sanremo,but now he's back and seems ready to fight in the Tour.Jens Voigt doesn't need any presentation.I think you just have to say that in one German village people decided to dedicate him a street if you want to make someone understand how great this rider is.He became pro when he was 26 year-old,but he achieved some very good results in his career.For example,he wore the yellow jersey at the Tour in 2001 and in 2006,won the Criterium International for 5 times (5!) and the Deutschland Tour for 2 times.Then he also won 2 stages at the TdF,1 stage at the Giro,1 Tour of Poland and he also arrived 2nd in a Liege.Last year he worked very well for the team in the TdF,which he rode after a good Giro in which he achieved his first victory in the corsa rosa.Nicki Sorensen has been riding for team SB since 2001.He's a Dane rider and he started his cycling career when he was 19 year old.He's a very good helper but he's never won any stage at the Tour.Instead,he's won a stage at the Vuelta (see photo).Last year he became national road champion.Chris-Anker Sorensen (which is not the same person as Nicki Sorensen) is racing the Tour for the first time in his life this year but has already ridden the Vuelta in 2007 and the Giro in 2008. He was 28th in 2008 Giro's GC and 19th in the Vuelta's one.He turned pro with Saxo Bank in 2007,lives in Luxembourg and,if somebody hasn't suspected it yet,he's one of my 3 favourite riders.He's won 3 races in his pro career: the TTT at the Poland Tour in 2007,the stage of La Toussuire at last year's Dauphine Libéré and the Kitzbuehel stage at last year Tour of Osterreich (where he even wore the leader jersey for one day and was finally 4th in the GC).He also came in 12th in the Olympic Road Race and in 13th at the Mendrisio World Championship.
Kurt-Asle Arvesen is a Norwegian rider who has been racing for Saxo Bank for the last 5 years. He's been the U23 Road World Champion in 1997,he's been 3 times road race national champion and 2 times TT national champion.He's achievced lots of good victories in his career,for example he's won 2 stages at the Giro and 1 stage at last year Tour.Then he's won the Ster Elektro-Tour once and the Denmark Rundt twice.He also came in 2nd at the 2006 Paris-Tours.
Gustav Larsson is a Swedish rider who's been racing with Saxo Bank since last year.He was born in 1980 and is a very good time trialist.He's been Swedish national TT champion twice and last year he arrived 2nd in the TT Olympic race in Beijing.
So,here are the Saxo Bank riders for this year Tour.I didn't include all the results of the riders but just the main ones and I hope I didn't forget anything of important and that I didn't make any mistake.Good luck to all the riders who are going to race the Tour and let's hope that Fab Fab wins the Monaco's prologue and that Saxo Bank riders will do well in all the other stages.Hear you again on the 5th of July! :)

(Photos made by TDW,Reuters and AFP Getty Images.Some of them were found on other cycling blogs and didn't have any credit).

German Break and HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO SOME BLOGMATES!

As some of you may already know,I won't be blogging for a week because tomorrow I go to Voigtland,ehm,Deutschland (Germany) and I stay there for a week.And because tomorrow at 3 pm I'll be on a bus,I won't be able to watch Milan-Sanremo :( You can find all the info that you want about the race on the usual websites (Cyclingnews "vor allem").Andy will be at tomorrow's start of the "Classicissima",while Frank (as well as Ballan,S.Sanchez,Freire and Kirchen) won't.

Btw,in today's post I'd also like to wish a nice happy birthday to two blogmates,Ilaria* and Maggie! Happy B-Day girls!

(* Ti faccio gli auguri adesso perché il giorno giusto sono in Deutschland).I hope you like these 2 photos of Andy,they're two of my favourite ones!

(Photo by Allan Crawford and by someone I don't remember-please don't kill me!)