Tour of Norwegy:

At this year Tour de France there are just two riders from Norway: Edvald Boasson Hagen and Thor Hushovd. And this afternoon Edvald won the 6th stage of the Tour, whereas Thor managed to keep the yellow jersey for the 5th day in a row. Considering how the Norwegian chronists reacted when Arvesen won a Tour stage a few years ago (get ready to hear some histerical screams /laughs and take a look at  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgFhiIK7wyk&feature=related), I wonder what they did this afternoon.

Actually, I don't have much to say about today's stage. The day began with two topics of discussions: the crashes of the previous stage and the argument between Petacchi and Rojas. According to the Spaniard, Petacchi was having problems following Cavendish, so he got on the wheel of the British rider by overtaking Alessandro. Ale - Jet didn't enjoy this fact and hurt Rojas with his fist, so that the Spaniard couldn't breathe properly for a few seconds.

However, Petacchi has another version of this story. In fact he said he was on Hondo's wheel when Rojas dangerously overtook him in order to get on Cavendish' wheel. Petacchi reacted by putting his hand on José's hip, but he didn't actually hurt him (that's what Alessandro said).

After crossing the finish-line, the two riders kept on fighting. 'Petacchi is a pig!', Rojas said; 'Rojas is a s***!', Petacchi claimed after getting onto the team's bus. It's always nice to see two riders getting on in a pacific way, isn't it?
Actually, yesterday wasn't a very good day at all for Rojas. Ok, he did end 3rd on the stage, but he lost the green jersey because, according to the jury, he and Boonen had been unloyal towards Cavendish at the intermediate sprint.

Anyway. Back to today. Tom Boonen decided to start the stage in spite of the crash of the previous day, whereas Ivan Velasco didn't start because of a broken collarbone. Sylvain Chavanel, who really looked in pain, managed to finish the stage, whereas Vasil Kiryenka crossed the finish-line 27 minutes after the winner and was forced to abandon the race.

The breakawayers du jour were Lieuwe 'The Beast' Westra, Johnny Hoogerland (again), Anthony Roux, Leonardo Duque and Adriano Malori. With about 50 kms to go, Malori and Westra said 'adieu!' to their breakaway companions and decided to continue the race on their own. Adriano and Lieuwe are both very strong time trialists, but unfortunately this afternoon they were chased by Omega - Pharma Lotto and by Columbia.

With a few kms to go the riders had to face a steep little climb and that's where Malori's chances of victory faded away. With about 15 kms to go, in fact, the Italian rider had abandoned Westra in order to continue his adventure all alone. Unfortunately, good luck wasn't on Adriano's side this afternoon and the Lampre rider was caught with just 3 kms to go. As a little solace, Malori (who was the last rider in the GC of last year's Tour) was awarded with the 'most combative rider du jour' prize. A very good thing, if we consider that Adriano is still very young and is one of the most talented riders of the peloton.

The winner du jour was eventually decided by a sprint. Vinokourov was seen at the head of the race, but he didn't attack. Vanendert, on the other hand, created a little gap between himself and the peloton, but it was just a consequence of the fact that he was pulling too hard for his teammates to follow him. Voeckler ('V' was the magic letter in today's finale) instead attacked intentionally, but couldn't go very far.

When the sprint began, it looked like the favourites were Thor Hshovd (who considered winning today's stage as one of his main goals of the season) and Philippe Gilbert. Also Goss looked in a great form, just like Feillu. And instead, the man who crossed the finish-line first was the young Edvald Boasson Hagen, who was wonderfully helped by Geraint Thomas.

Edvald was very moved after the victory, also because his parents were there to watch him (not a great news, considering that the Boasson Hagen family is always present at the French race ;) and because this victory came after a difficult period for the Norwegian. A few days ago in fact the Sky rider had to deal with herpes zoester and didn't even know whether he would have been able to race the Tour. Not taking part in the French race would have been a bad blow for Edvald who, after an exceptional 2009, had lots of health problems in 2010. Anyway, BH managed to grit his teeth and, today, he was awarded with his first TdF victory. Chapeau!

While Boasson Hagen was already celebrating with his teammates, Levi Leipheimer angrily rode towards the finish-line. The Radioshack rider crashed against a guard-rail with 4 kms to go and lost a minute to the main GC contenders. Luckily, he didn't suffer any injury - just a bruised elbow.

So, this was today's stage of the TdF. As far as the Giro Donne is concerned, the Mortirolo stage was won by Marianne Vos, who's getting 'pinker' day after day. However, the other girls (Pooley, Guderzo, Arndt...) are ready to create her problems in the next stages.

(Pic by AFP)

San Pellegrino, Macugnaga and Sestriere before the last stage:

After two days spent between San Pellegrino and Bergamo, stalking Smiley Menchov and bringing bad luck to Pinotti and Lewis, here I'm back again, resuming the last 3 stages of the race.

Morbegno- San Pellegrino Terme
Pinotti and the other Bergamask riders really wanted to win this stage, which ended in a villagethat is famous worldwide because of its mineral water. Actually, at the beginning of the 19th century San Pellegrino was also a very famous holiday location and its 'Grand Hotel' hosted members of the Romanoff and of the Savoia families, as well as celebrities like Maria Callas and Federico Fellini, the football players of Helenio Herrera's Inter and Italian poets like Quasimodo and Montale.
Anyway, back to the Giro. Amongst the Bergamasks who tried their luck on Thursday there were Carrara, Vanotti and Pinotti. Possoni remained hidden in the peloton, whereas the Sicilian Tiralongo decided to attack too (he lives near San Pellegrino as well).
The first hour of race was really fast (the riders had an average speed of 53 kmph) because everyone wanted to enter a breakaway. Eventually, in Bergamo Alta some riders managed to escape from the peloton. They were Carlos Sastre (he's aliveeee!), Oscar Gatto, Gianluca Brambilla, Russel Downing, Bram Tankink, Jerome Pineau, Paolo Tiralongo, Marco Pinotti, Kevin Seeldraeyers, Jan Bakelandts and Eros Capecchi.
On Passo Ganda (and not 'Gandalf') just Seeldrayers, Capecchi and Pinotti managed to remain at the head of the race. The trio reached San Pellegrino with a minute of advantage on Brambilla and Tiralongo, so they had a lot of time to 'study' each other. In the end, the victory was decided by a sprint, won by Capecchi.
This was the first professional victory for Eros, who comes from a family of farmers and who, according to Gazzetta, is 'so handsome that every day even the podium misses turn their heads towards him as he rides towards the start'. Eros gave us a very emotional moment after the stage, when he burst into tears after remembering his grandfather, who died 5 years ago, and his cousin Rudi, who died last winter at 18.In the meanwhile, Pinotti did look disappointed, but he was also very happy because the people on the road (including the 5 inhabitants of Tagliata, one of the least populated village of Italy) supported him in a great way.
I'll just tell you that, when he reached the spot where I was staying, I screamed 'Go go Marco!!!' as loud as I could. In spite of my effort (and in spite of hurting one of my vocal chords while doing that), I couldn't even hear my voice, such was the noise made by the crowd. And then, as soon as we got the news of Capecchi's victory, everyone stopped screaming and talking. But still, we were all very proud and happy - both for Pinotti and for Eros.

Bergamo - Macugnaga:
On the following day, me went to the start in Bergamo. Amongst the riders I saw there were Pinotti and Lewis, who were really kind with me and with the other supporters. I got Craig's autograph (he was really nice with me) and I wished Marco good luck, happy because I had also managed to take a pic with him.
However, as soon as I got home I learned that Marco had broken his 'acetabolo', which is the part of the femur that ends in the pelvis. Ooops...
A few seconds later, my dad told me that also an American teammate of Marco had crashed. 'What? Don't tell me...It wasn't Lewis, right?', I asked, worried. 'No, it wasn't. Or perhaps...No no, you're right, it was Craig Lewis, he broke his femur', he said, putting an end to my hopes. Well, at least now I know that I'll have to avoid the HTC bus for a lot of time now :P
The Macugnaga stage saw the victory of Tiralongo, who eventually got his first (deserved) victory as a pro at the tender age of 34. For that result he really has to thank His Majesty Contador, who let him win the stage (Alberto and Paolo are really good friends).
Contador yesterday had a very good reason to be happy, since his trial has been postponed. Therefore Riis is already talking about bringing him to the Tour, causing great despair amongst cycling fans, who don't want to see Alberto ruling another Grand Tour in such a boring way

Verbania-Sestriere:

Today's stage was another tough one. The riders had to face Colle delle Finestre, where Savoldelli won the 2005 Giro. Colle delle Finestre is about 20 kms long, has 45 (45!) hairpin turns and it isn't completely asphalted. The scenery, as usual, was great, although I don't know how some supporters could watch the race from the top of the mountains.
The riders who went on a breakaway this afternoon were Yaroslav Popovych, Kevin Seeldrayers (again!), Eduard Vorganov (who didn't pull a meter), Angel Vicioso, Frederik Veuchelen, Luca Mazzanti, Josep Jufre, Vasil Kiryienka, Sebastian Lang, Cristiano Salerno, Diego Ulissi (this time it was him who complained about Vorganov's lack of collaboration, and not the opposite), Carlos Betancourt (the youngest rider of the race) and Miguel Minguez.
On Colle delle Finestre Kiryenka abandoned his companions, whereas Szmyd set the pace at the front of the peloton (welcome back at the front, Sylwester!). Rujano attacked a lot of times and eventually managed to escape the group of the best riders. He wasn't the only one who absolutely wanted to break free this afternoon. In fact, Kruijswijk often attacked in order to annoy (and possibly drop) Kreuziger, while Gadret wanted to drop Nibali and Menchov attacked in order to improve his GC placement (no, I didn't wish him good luck when I saw him the other day :P).
Eventually, the ones who got the worst consequences from this stage were Sivstov and Nieve. Poor Kanstantin arrived 9 minutes after the winner, whereas Nieve arrived 1 minute before him. However, we must point out that the winner, aka the amazing Kiryenka, won with 6 minutes of advantage on Contador, Scarponi and the other GC riders.
Vasil was really moved towards the finish-line and he dedicated his victory to his fallen teammate Tondo (*sobs*). After the stage, Kiryenka admitted that he had worn his looking glasses in order to hide the tears.
Vasil is a really good rider and I think one can't help liking him. This rider from Belarus in fact has a very tough past, since in 1986 he lived near Chernobyl. As a consequence of the nuclear disaster, he lost both his parents and his brother. And the other day, he even lost a teammate. "This was the best way to remember a teammate that was with us only for this season, but yet seemed to have been here for so much time,” Kiryenka said after the stage. “We decided that the best form to pay him tribute was staying into the Giro, and I think we made a good choice because winning in such a hard mountain stage and from such a long break, it was a kind of winning that he liked so much”. Joaquim Rodriguez, interviewed after the race, didn't feel like commenting about Xavier's death, since he was a very close friend of his. Back to the race, Kruijswijk, Gadret and Scarponi managed to gain a few seconds on Nibali and Kreuziger. This last rider made me close my eyes a few times during the descent from Colle delle Finestre, since he really risked a lot there.
Second in the stage (4'43" down on Kiryenka) was Rujano, whereas third was the promising Betancourt. Dupont (yes, I know you're all rooting for him now) was 12th, Brambilla 13th and Nieve 17th. 64 riders ended the race 42" after the winner.

So, these were the last 3 stages of the race. Tomorrow there will be the last stage of the Corsa Rosa, which is taking place in Milan (I can't go, desperation!). Let's hope it'll be an exciting one! (and please Denis, do not crash, really, I don't want a heart attack!)
Pic 1 by Sirotti, 2 by Scanferla, 3 by Bettini