Very funny photoshopped pictures and some random links about Saxo Bank (post including also other random randomness):

To everyone's delight, on this wonderful page lost in the Blogosphere you can see miss Fede's latest post, in which you'll be able to find the usual random links and, surprise surprise, two very funny photos that have been photoshopped by our dear blogmate Mar.
Our blogmate in fact has recently sent me an e-mail that contained two pictures that she had modified in a very funny way. The leitmotiv of the pictures was, attention attention, men and parfumes.
In fact Mar once read on a blog that Jakob Fuglsang would have looked good acting as a model in an 'eau de cologne' commercial (whoever had this idea is a genius!)

Mar thought a bit about this fact, pictured the commercial in her mind and then she made this really good picture, thanks to which Jakob magically entered the world of parfume's models ;)

Still talking about parfumes, who doesn't like the aroma of coffee? As far as I'm concerned, I really love it (and I'm sure I'm not the only one).
If Starbucks created a coffee parfume, not only would I buy it immediately (although I'd never use it to go to parties or to school), but I think I'd also have a good suggestion for the people who'll have to find a model for the new fragrance's commercial. In fact, who could advertise a coffee parfume better than Jens Voigt, one of the most famous coffee-aholic of Cycledom? ;)

RANDOM NEWS:
After having fun with the pictures above (thank you once very much for your nice work Mar!), let's now go on with some random links.
Let's begin with the first interesting link that I've found over the last days: http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/contador-attends-first-saxo-bank-sungard-camp . As you probably already know, Saxo Bank is having a training camp in Fuerteventura right now and Tim De Waele went there to take some pictures of the riders.
The shocking thing is that in some of those pictures you can see naked men coming out of nowhere and watching/being watched by the riders and the team's stuff in a very curious way. For example, there is a picture of a fat, naked man looking at the riders in a very strange way. Run away as long as you can boys!!!
The second shocking thing is that the naked man who appears in said picture looks at the riders in a strange way, as if he was aking himself: 'Hey, why are these guys windsurfing? And why the hell aren't they taking it easy as me?' Such question, made by someone who's walking on a beach in a very 'natural' way, seems a bit weird to me. Actually,that picture also reminded me of a boy that I saw while waiting to leave my town for the 2010 summer holidays. I was in the center of my village, with a bright orange suitcase, waiting for my friend to come and give me a lift, when there came this boy, dressed like a cowboy and riding a horse. Still, he was brave enough to look at me in a very strange way, as if he was asking himself: 'What is this girl doing?'. A question which, asked by a teenager dressed like a cowboy, in Bergamo, riding a horse in the center of the town, actually sounded a bit strange.
Anyway, back to the link. Another thing that pretty shocked me was the shirt that Chris Anker was wearing while Tim De Waele took some of his pictures. If you check mr. De Waele's website, and notice a Saxo Bank rider wearing a bright pink/blue shirt, you'll immediately understand what I mean. However, as they say, just true men can wear pink, therefore I should probably be happy to know that Chris is brave enough to wear it.
The last shocking thing that I noticed about the pictures is that Riis' idea of 'building team spirit' terribly looks like my P.E. teacher's idea of 'let's teach my girls how to work together!'
The main difference is that, at least, when I work together with my classmates (a kind way to say that I sit down and they stand up on my spine, as if that was a very normal thing to do), we don't have anyone taking pictures of us (after all, I don't think I could actually stand people taking pictures of me during my PE lessons- not if I'm sober, at least).

Talking about other shocking things, I'd like to know whether some of you can recognise the rider who appears in the picture below.
I know that that you won't believe me, but I must tell you that the rider in the picture above is Pellizotti.
'Pellizotti? That Pellizotti? Are you serious? It can't be him! Where did his golden curls go?!?', I hear you wondering in despair. Unfortunately I'm as shocked as you and I don't have the answer to your last question.

Changing topic, Kim Andersen has recently said that Brian Nygaard and he actually started to hire Saxo Bank riders for their team in mid-June 2010 (link: http://www.velonation. com/ News/ID/6612/Team-Luxembourg-and-Saxo-Bank-battle-began-in-June.aspx ) and Jakob Fuglsang said that he had already decided to join the new team of the Schleck brothers before of the Tour's beginning.
Still talking about Jakob, in the next days there will be 'best cyclist of the year' awards in different countries and, as far as Denmark is concerned, the riders who'll battle against each other for this prize are: Chris Anker Sorensen, Matti Breschel, Jakob Fuglsang and Alex Rasmussen. Sorry for you, Jakob's lovers, but this time this Fangirl will support Chris Anker in the fight ;) Go go Chris!
On the other hand, the best Luxembourgian sport personality of 2010 will be named on Thursday, but I think we can already say who the winner will be. Anyway don't expect any post about that prize from me, since unfortunately on Thursday I'll be drowning in a sea of sh..., ehm, homeworks.

On to another news, you must know that Silvére Ackermann was a young rider that I really liked. He used to race for Voralberg Corratec, but then he retired this June during the Swiss Championships. The news made me very sad, since I've always liked Silvére's riding style and I thought he could have been a very good rider also in the ProTour category. On http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/ackermann-explains-reasons-of-retirement, Ackermann explains why he got retired. At least, no one can deny that he did so in a very spectacular way, by getting retired as he was in the leading breakaway at the Swiss national championship.
I'm still very sorry about his retirement, but I wish Silvére all of the best for his new career anyway. Good luck for your future boy!

On to a last (and happier) news, on http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/saxo-bank-names-two-danes-in-giro-ditalia-squad it is said that 2 riders are already sure of riding 2011 Giro for Saxo Bank. They are Mads Christensen and Jonas Aaen Jorgenen.
I must admit that I don't know much about Mads, while last year I wrote a post about Jorgensen and so I followed his first season at Saxo Bank pretty carefully. He's a very good and young rider, so I'm really glad to hear this news. If the Schlecks really don't come to Italy next May, I surely won't have many doubts about who to support during the Giro!

PS: I know that I keep on writing about Saxo Bank and that this may annoy some of you, but:
1) finding interesting news about team Luxembourg is almost impossible, since even Wikileaks would have problems discovering something about it
2) I still love the guys on this team.
(Pic 1 and 2 by Mar, pic 3 by Bettini)

Liege-Bastogne-Liege Preview (post including the start list,some personal opinions of mine and random links):

Since my hell week is nearly over,me now has more time to write bullshits,ehm,cycling observations on this blog.Therefore,here's a long useless post about Liége-Bastogne-Liége,also known as La Doyenne.I'm sure you all remember what happened last year during this race: Andy Schleck attacked on the Cote aux Facons and he soloed to victory. This year things seem tougher for Andy and for his brother Frank,because there are lots of riders that are going really well right now.For example,Gilbert and Evans.But I could add also Ivanov, Kolobnev, Contador, Kreuziger,Valverde,Hesjedal and many others.In order to take a careful look to all the teams who are taking part in tomorrow's race,here's the provisional start list (taken from Cyclingnews and accompanied by the usual useless comments of mine).
ACQUA & SAPONE: Codol, Failli, Garzelli, Honig, Masciarelli, Paolini, Sarmiento.Garzelli was 2nd in Liége in 2002,Masciarelli is a strong climber and also Paolini could be dangerous.
AG2R LA MONDIALE: Bouet, Champion, Dupont, Gadret, Kadri, Lelay, Riblon, Roche.
ANDRONI GIOCATTOLI: Bertagnolli, Bertogliati, Bertolini, Ginanni, Margutti, Piemontesi, Solari, Wurf.Me predicts that someone will enter a breakaway,perhaps with other riders from a team like,say,Acqua & Sapone.
ASTANA: Contador, Fofonov, Gasparotto, Grivko, M.Iglinskiy, Jufre, Pereiro Sio, Vinokourov. What a team,Logic states. Vinokourov won a Liége back in 2005 (on that occasion second was Voigt and 3rd was Boogerd), Contador was 3rd in Fleche (and looked a bit disappointed for this result), Pereiro won TdF 2006, Gasparotto was 3rd in Amstel last week and Iglinskiy won Eroica. Vino is in good form,just like Gasparotto and Iglinskiy (the magic couple Enrico-Maxim is in a great form since March,to say it all). Contador is always in form when climbs are concerned, so I believe that in the last kms he'll surely be there with the group of the best riders.Anyway this team has so many good riders that it's hard to say who the most dangerous is.Contador keeps on saying that Liége will be just an "experience race" for him (but he said the same things also before of Giro 2008),while many people thought that Vinokourov would have abandoned Trentino during the last stage (in spite of being the GC leader) because he wanted to be at the top for Liége. Therefore,me thinks that Vino will be ready to give battle,even if Contador will be there as well in the end.And look out for the couple Gasparotto-Iglinskiy!
BBOX BOUYGUES TELECOM: Bichot, Charteau, Fedrigo, Gautier, Lefevre, Rolland, Trofimov, Voeckler. Pierrick is racing and me is happy.
BMC: Bookwalter, Evans, Frank, Louder, Morabito, Santambrogio, Zahner. The provisional start list also includes Santambrogio,but me doesn't know whether he'll really race because,from the theoric point of view,the team has suspended him before Flanders for that anti-doping investigation in Mantova.And if BMC had suspended Mauro's suspension (yes,I like stupid words play),Italian newspapers would all be cheering about that right now,wouldn't they? Anyway,this team features the promising Mathias Frank and,more important, the World Champion Evans. Poor Karsten Kroon broke his nose and other 2 bones in his face after a crash in Fleche (I wish him a fast and good recover),so the team captain will be this funny Australian man with a squeeky voice and a rainbow jersey.

CAISSE D'EPARGNE: Erviti, Garcia Acosta, Kiryenka, Lopez Garcia, Moreau, Pasamontes, LL Sanchez, Valverde. Here's another strong team.Kiryenka is oh so going to attack,while LL and Aliejandro,sorry,Alejandro (yes,it was another stupid word play with the fact that "Liége" in Spanish is "Lieja") will probably be there in the end.However I believe that Valverde (2006 and 2008 winner) will be the team captain,while the young LL will be a protected rider.
CERVELO: Deignan, Florencio, Gustov, King, Konovalovas, Sastre, Tondo, Wyss. Oh,Konovalovas is racing just like Wyss! Yes, Fangirl is happy. Anyway I believe the team's captain will be Tondo. "What about Sastre?",I hear you ask.Well, I believe that Sastre will just use Liége as a good test for understanding how his form is,and so he will probably leave the captain role to Tondo,the hero who last week drove for about 1600 kms in order to reach Maastricht before the start of Amstel (me is obviouly aware of the fact that,after writing these things, Sastre will show he is the team's captain since the very first km of race).
COFIDIS: Duque, El Fares, Kern, Kriit, Moinard, Moncoutie, Pauriol, Taramaae.Attention to Taramaae-he's not afraid of attacking and has the chance of getting a good result.
EUSKALTEL: Anton, Galdos, Isasi, Egoi Martinez, Oroz, Perez Lezaun, Sesma Sorbet, Velasco Murillo. Anton showed a great form in Fleche and he may double the show tomorrow in the last kms.
FRANCAISE DES JEUX: Cherel, Di Gregorio, Le Mevel, Meersman, Roux, Roy, Sulzberger, Vaugrenard.
GARMIN TRANSITIONS: Hesjedal, Kessiakoff, Lowe, D.Martin, Christian and Cameron Meyer, Peterson, Stetina. Hesjedal is a very good rider (2nd in Amstel last week),but also Kessiakoff is a good climber.
LAMPRE FARNESE VINI: Bono, Cunego, Gavazzi, Loosli, Mori, Pietropolli, Righi, Spezialetti. Cunego will probably feel the pressure of the fact that the Italians haven't won a Classic/Grand Tour since October 2008 ,just like the Gazzetta journalists love reminding to the readers every single day.He was 3rd in 2006 and I believe that,if he's in form, he can really do something good (although this week he didn't look very brilliant to me).As far as the others are concerned, Loosli is in super form.
LANDBOUWKREDIET: Bellemakers, Commeyne, De Waele, Delfosse, Dockx, Ricci Poggi, Scheirlincx, Verheyen. Well,a team whose name is "Landbouwkrediet" must have someone with surnames like Scheirlincx or Bellemakers in it,doesn't it? Although 'Delfosse' sounds like an Italian surname (it would mean 'of the ditches'),Sebastien is Belgian,just like Riccì Poggì,ehm,, Ricci Poggi is French.And then in this team there is also a rider called Bart (Dockx) and another one called Bert (De Waele).Anyway,talking about tomorrow's race,and not about the riders' surnames, me hopes that De Waele will get a good placement.
LIQUIGAS: Agnoli, Bellotti, Finetto, Kreuziger, Nibali, Pellizotti, Santaromita, Willems. Another very strong team, with the trio Pellizotti-Nibali-Kreuziger ready to give battle. Pellizotti however is getting ready for the Giro so I think he won't have a leading role.Kreuziger showed his form in Fleche,just like Nibali.They're both young,cunny,talented and brave,so I think that they'll be a danger for everyone tomorrow.
OMEGA PHARMA LOTTO: Aerts, Brandt, Gilbert, Kaisen, Moreno Fernandez, Peraud, Van Den Broeck, Van Goolen. Gilbert,the boy who lives near La Redoute,desperately wants to win this race after winning Amstel and so he'll give it all to try achieving this dream of his.He's a good climber,he's fast and he's got a great punch,so he'll be dangerous for everyone if he arrives in Saint-Nicolas with the best riders' group.The team will support him completely.
QUICKSTEP: Barredo, Cataldo, Chavanel, Devenyns, Devolder, Pineau, Seeldrayers and Van De Walle. Chavanel, Barredo and Van De Walle were seen at the head of the peloton during this week ,but I believe that the most dangerous in this team (together with them) is Seeldrayers. Devolder once wanted to win the Tour and has won 2 Tours of Flanders,but I don't know whether he'll be able to keep the pace on La Redoute.
RABOBANK: Freire, Garate, Gesink, Martens, Menchov, Moerenhout, Tankink,Ten Dam. Fangirl is happy because Menchov is racing (the Giro is approaching and I keep on annoying my sister about last year's result of that race),although the Russian who suffers from spring allergies (how I understand him!) has said that Liége will be just a test for him.Therefore,look out for Gesink.If he doesn't crash/puncture and if aliens don't kidnap him during the race,he could be dangerous.And I'm curious to see which role Freire will have.
SKY: Calzati, Carlstrom, Cummings, Froome, Gerrans, Lovkvist, Nordhaug, Wiggins.Oh,finally I have the honour of seeing Lovely Lovkvist's name in a start list.Wow. Wiggo is preparing the Giro,so he should be already in good form. Anyway I believe that the team's captain will be Lovkvist.
TEAM HTC COLUMBIA: Albasini,Guldhammer, Lewis, T.Martin, Monfort, Siutsou (how can he be in the start list if he broke his collarbone last month?),Van Garderen,P.Velits. Policeman Toni Martin (scoop from Miss Sansen's blog http://sansenmag.l%20ivejournal.com/182793.html ) will be the captain,whereas TJ Van Garderen showed a good condition in Tour of Turkey.
KATIUSHA: Ivanov, Klimov, Kolobnev, Mazzanti, Rodriguez, Vandenbergh, Vantomme, Vorganov. Kolobnev,Ivanov and Rodriguez showed an incredible form over the last days and they'll be at the front also tomorrow.Look out for them!
MILRAM: Frohlinger, Gajek, Gerdemann, Knees, Rohregger, Voss, Wegmann. Linus is going to be team captain's in Giro,so he should be already in good form.
RADIOSHACK: Busche, Hermans, Horner, Kloeden, Paulinho, Zubeldia. The Chinese rider Li resulted positive at the anti-doping after a race in March and was suspended by his team (news: http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/radioshack-suspends-li-after-doping-positive ).This has obviously caused some exaggerated title on some websites (for example, "Armstrong ramt af dopinskandale" by http://www.sporten.dk/cykling ),but since my blogging idea about doping is "let's talk about it as least as possible",I will go on with the start list and won't spend useless words about this. Horner is in good form,so he'll probably be the captain together mit Andreas Kloden.
SAXO BANK: Didier,Fuglsang,Jorgensen,Andy and Frank Schleck,N.Sorensen,Voigt, Steensen. Yes,I know that Cyclingnews says that also Chris Anker will race tomorrow but believe me, he's not racing.In fact he received the "you can go back training on the asphalt" message from the doctors just yesterday,so I don't believe he'll immediatly come back racing in tomorrow's Liége. Anyway, the team is strong.Didier has showed his talent also during Fleche,Jorgensen and Steensen are precious helpers and I guess there's no need to talk about Nicki Sorensen,Voigt and Fuglsang to make you understand how good they are.The captains will be the Schleck brothers and hopefully Frank will be the one who'll raise his arms to the sky in Liége.
TOPSPORT VLAANDEREN-MERCATOR: Armee, Baugnies, Coenen, De Gendt, Jacobs, Neyens, Van Hecke, Vanspeybrouck.

So,this is the start list.Now it's time to try and give my race predictions,starting from last year's winner Andy Schleck.Last year Andy seemed stronger to me (yes,I know you disagree),although this year his motivation is probably as high as never because,apart from being the 2009 winner of La Doyenne,he's also just become uncle.Lots of people then expect a lot from him this year, but this shouldn't be a problem since it seems that Andy can stand pressure in a perfect way. However it is also true that this time the other riders will try not to let him get away from the group all alone.And if Andy arrives in Liége together with a guy like Valverde or Gilbert,well,he's likely to be outsprinted by them (at least in theory).Anyway this year the parcours seems even harder than last year's one and so Andy and his teammates will have more opportunities to make their adversaris become tired before they arrive in Liége.
As far as Frank Schleck,is concerned,I think he's even more motivated than Andy and on him there is less pressure than on his brother.His form is very good and I think that Andy tomorrow will race for daddy Frankie rather than for himself.Anyway the sprint problem worths also for Frank.In fact I believe that he can outsprint guys like Evans or,say,Kreuziger,but I don't think he has many chances against Gilbert or Valverde.
And here we come to Gilbert.He's very motivated,knows the race by heart,he's in a perfect form and has already won Amstel last week.He's fast and can keep a high pace on climbs,so he's one of my race favourites,although we must remember that a wrong day can happen to everyone (Philippe included).

Valverde, just like Gilbert, is fast and is a good climber,although his form doesn't seem as good as Gilbert's one. Attention also to his teammate LL Sanchez.
Evans is in a great form,but he has to arrive alone because he's not very fast.The same worths also for Kreuziger,Gesink and Nibali, while Cunego and Garzelli are riders who can get good results if they're on the right day.And then there are the Astana riders,aka Contador and Vinokourov. Vino always tries getting good results and has already won Liége,while Contador is there just to get more experience.Should we trust him?
Joaquim Rodriguez was second last year,but also Ivanov and Kolobnev will be very important for his team.
Then there are obviously the "outsiders" (if we can call them this way) like Igor Anton, Toni Martin, Hesjedal, Horner, Gasparotto, Iglinskiy, Lovkvist and De Waele (first names that came into my mind).Hoping that one of the Schleck will win,I close this post with a pic from last year's Liége and some random links about the brothers.

RANDOM LINKS:

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/frank-schleck-sees-a-future-at-flanders : I totally agree with Frankie,especially when he talks about the management going to murder him if he decides to change his season schedule.
http://lequotidien.editpress.lu/index.php/les-sports/10852-Nous-avons-les-jambes.html :interview with Frank.
http://lequotidien.editpress.lu/index.php/les-sports/10851-Les-Schleck-centre-dbat.html :article about the Schleck brothers.
http://msn.tv2sporten.no/sykkel/schleck-gjoer-et-nytt-forsoek-paa-soendag-3191305.html : video interview featuring super cute Andy Schleck with unshaved upper lip.
http://www.saxobanktakingthelead.com/?p=2928 :ok, it's an interview with Jonas Jorgensen, not with the Schleck brothers,but you know I have a weakness for Danish cyclists who race for Saxo Bank team,so don't get angry at this poor mad Fangirl.

Wishing you all a good evening and a happy sight of 2010 Liége,I close this post.Allez Schlecks!

(pic by Bettini)

Random Post about Jonas Aaen Jorgensen:

Yes,here's the 3rd part of the "New Saxo Bank Pro Riders Series,2010 edition".When I had the idea of starting this series of posts,Saxo Bank website didn't have any information about Didier, Jaroslaw,Porte and Jorgensen yet,so the idea of presenting them on my crappy blog seemed pretty logic to me.Anyway,the guys who work on Team Saxo Bank Website have finally decided to dedicate some articles to the new riders,therefore I suggest you taking a look on said website in order to read interesting articles about the new team riders.

Anyway,since I don't like interrupting things that I've already begun and Saxo Bank team hasn't written anything about him yet,here is my random post about Jonas Aaen Jorgensen.It is a very brief one especially because of the fact that finding information about him was really tough,even tougher than finding information about Marycz Jaroslaw.Anyway,here's the not-so-great result of my work.

First of all,Jonas Aaen was born on 20 April 1986 in Denmark and turned pro in 2006 with team GLS.He raced in that team (that changed name in Team GLS-Pakke Shop 2 years ago) until the end of 2008,when he started to ride for Team Caponordic.

This young Dane boy is 174 cm tall and weights 63 kgs.According to the Italian website Cicloweb, Jonas is a fast rider who can defend himself also on steep short climbs,while according to a post that I've read on PodiumCafé,he is a "Bettini-style" rider.He'll probably ride the Ardenne classics this spring.

Jorgensen got his first important results in 2007.In fact that year,as well as winning a stage at the Triptyque des Monts et Chateaux and the GP Stadt de Zottegem,Jonas managed to arrive 3rd in the RR Danish Championship won by Alex Rasmussen.In September then he came in 6th in the Under-23 Road Race at the Stuttgart World Championships.That race was decided in a sprint between about 40 riders and was won by Peter Velits.John Bellis,Saxo Bank rider,came in 3rd behind Sulzberger.Jorgensen was 6th,while Dominic Klemme (another rider that now races for Saxo Bank team) was 7th.

2008 wasn't a great season for Jorgensen.In fact that year,after taking part in a SB training camp in Mallorca,Jonas broke one finger,couldn't train for some time and was also unable to race the Varese Worlds because of a disease whose name is ignored by my online Translater.

Anyway last year Jonas got some very good results.In fact in2 009 he won a stage at the Tour du Loir et Cher,an U-23 Scandinavian Race in Uppsala and 2 stages at the Tour of Slovakia.In said race,Jorgensen won 2 stages in a row (the last one and the previous one).

Considering that the Tour of Slovakia doesn't have a website and that I didn't manage to find any vid about the race,I have to stop my post here.Anyway,if someone of you can understand Danish and wants to know slightly more on Jonas Aaen,I suggest you taking a look at http://www.phcycling.dk/site.asp?vis=rytter&id=1 (Caponordic's website),a link on which you can find some "Nyheder" regarding him and the other team riders.

Random Suggestion: if you have some free time to dedicate to some useless cycling researches,I suggest you taking a look at the reports and live coverages of the U-23 World Championships raced few years ago,since it can be a very strange and funny experience to read things like,say, "Jakob Fuglsang attacks!" now that you actually know who Jakob Fuglsang is.

(Pic taken from Caponordic website)