Fireworks towards Luz-Ardiden:

Ok, I admit it: I didn't watch yesterday's stage of the Tour because I preferred watching Harry Potter 7 in 3D. And, apparently, I made the right choice.

However, dear readers, the important stage was today's one: in fact this afternoon the Tour officially started also for the serious GC contenders - or, at least, it started for the GC contenders who are still up and running (and they aren't a lot).

So: 12th stage of the Tour de France 2011, from Cugnaux to Luz-Ardiden, on the 14th of July. A big day for Thomas Voeckler, a French rider who rides for a French team and who could wear the yellow jersey on one of the most important days for the French people. And, to my surprise, Thomas managed to keep the leader jersey without problems, so that he'll be able to wear it also tomorrow.

Actually, Logic thought that Voeckler could have been able to keep the leadership in the race, but she would have never imagined that he could have made it in such a brilliant way. In fact, the Frenchman managed to remain with the best climbers of the world for the whole day, showing his determination and his love for the French race to the whole world. Therefore, miss Fede takes the chance to send a big chapeau to monsieur Thomas Voeckler, also known as 'Give me a yellow t-shirt and I'll smash the world'.

Anyway, let's go back to the start of the stage. This morning the riders had three difficult climbs on their menu: Hourquette d'Ancizan, Tourmalet (aaah, sweet memories!) and Luz Ardiden, where Ullrich once waited for Armstrong, who had crashed because of a young supporter who had accidentally hit him with his rucksack. Since Lance was wearing the yellow jersey, the German rider decided to wait for him, thus becoming the protagonist of a good action that is still remembered nowadays.

Apparently, the stages to Luz Ardiden never bring good luck to the riders who wear the yellow jersey during them. This afternoon in fact also Voeckler crashed at the beginning of the descent towards Tourmalet. However, the Frenchman could immediately hop back on his bike and get back in the peloton, which waited for him. 'When the yellow jersey crashes, the peloton must wait for it', the Italian chronist said. Apparently, last year no one had informed Contador about that (or, perhaps, that rule doesn't apply if the yellow jersey has a mechanical).

Unfortunately, Voeckler wasn't the only one who crashed. In fact the athletes who were involved in his crash were a few and amongst them there were also important guys like Peter Velits and Andreas Kloeden. Luckily for Radioshack, tomorrow's stage ends in Lourdes, so that they'll be able to make a pilgrimage there in order to ask Virgin Mary for some good luck.

Also Geraint Thomas, who was one of the breakawayers du jour, had previously crashed in the very same point as Voeckler. The Welsh rider this afternoon showed us that his biking skills aren't actually that good, since in the descent towards Tourmalet he lost 40" from his companions of adventure (Kadri, Roy, Gutierrez, Mangel and Ruben Perez). However, the Sky rider could use his good uphill skills to catch his companions on Tourmalet and he was one of the last riders to get caught by the best climbers.

Talking about breakaways, this afternoon there were many guys who tried their luck. Amongst them there were also Chavanel and Kreuziger, who escaped from the peloton at the beginning of the first climb. I think that Chavanel attacked especially because he wanted to show off his jersey of National French Champion on the Bastille Day, whereas Roman probably hoped to win the stage. Kreuziger gave it all, but he never managed to reach the other breakawayers (the ones who had abandoned the company of the group after a few kms of race), so that his attack was in vain.

Johnny Hoogerland tried to break free from the peloton too this afternoon, probably because in that way he thought he had more chances to finish the stage within the time cut . Considering that our boy ended the stage 21 minutes after the winner and 12 minutes before the gruppetto, I think he can say 'Mission accomplished!' as he goes to bed tonight.

Talking about time cut and gruppetto: poor Denis Galimzyanov won't start tomorrow's stage because he didn't make it to the finish-line within the time cut. The gruppetto itself ended the stage 33' after the winner, which means that today's stage was really hard. Still talking about the gruppetto, this afternoon it was formed by a great amount of riders: 79 riders out of 175 ended the race all together, a few minutes before Galimzyanov. The other riders instead crossed the finish-line slowly, one after the other.

The toughness of the race was also a consequence of Leopard Trek's great efforts at the front. In fact, at the beginning of Tourmalet the whole Luxembourgian team got ready to set the pace at the head of the peloton. Unfortunately, I think that things didn't actually go as planned. Let me explain you why.

The first one to set a high pace at the front was Cancellara, whose efforts were followed by those of O'Grady and Voigt. The German engine made an amazing job and he managed to pull until the end of Tourmalet (and he even remained with the brothers until the beginning of the last climb). 'What's the problem then?', I hear some of you ask. Well, the problem is that, if Jens hadn't felt as good as he actually felt this afternoon, the brothers would have remained without helpers even before the end of the Tourmalet. In fact halfway through the climb guys like Gerdemann, Monfort and Fuglsang had already got dropped. So, what if one of the brothers had had a serious mechanical? Would have they remained all alone because they had run out of teammates?  I can understand that some riders can have a day off, but apparently this afternoon half of the Luxembourgian team didn't feel well. And, considering that this should be the strongest team of the world, I don't think they can be satisfied with that - or, at least, I think they can't be satisfied.

Anyway. End of the first bitchy moment du jour. Let's go on.

On the Tourmalet some important riders (Toni Martin, Robert Gesink, Ryder Hesjedal, Peter Velits, Andreas Kloeden and Christian Vandevelde) were dropped, whereas an amazing Gilbert kept the wheels of the best riders until the end of the climb. Then the wonderful Belgian champion attacked. His move was a bit suicidal, since it didn't bring him any benefit - but still, it was nice to see a Classic rider giving it all in one of the hardest mountain stages of the Tour.

Shortly after the beginning of the ascent towards Luz Ardiden, Kreuziger was caught by the group of the yellow jersey, whereas Roy and Thomas still had a little gap on the best climbers.

With 8 kms to go, Jelle Vanendert and Samuel Sanchez attacked. They found a good pace and they kept on riding together until the finish-line, when Samu managed to get the victory ahead of the 26 year old Belgian. Samu was really happy to win in front of his people (Pyrenées = Basque Country) and to be back in the top spots of the GC, whereas Jelle confirmed his great talent once again. Finally, after getting over some injuries of the past, this young man is ready to give his best - not only in the Classics but, as he showed us this afternoon, also in the GTs.

While Sanchez and Vanendert were riding happily to the finish-line, thus overtaking all the guys who had gone on a breakaway earlier, the battle between the giants of the Tour began. Andy and Frank Schleck, Contador and Evans were all there, but the one who started the duel was Basso, who ordered to his teammate Szmyd to start riding full gas. Sylwester is an excellent and loyal helper, who couldn't do well in the Giro because of a bad bronchitis. But now he's recovered and everyone could see that this afternoon.

While Szmyd was pulling, some talks were going on in the group of the best climbers. Frank and Andy talked to each other, whereas Contador talked to his teammates. Unfortunately, the magic trio of Saxo Bankers formed by Jesus Hernandez, Richie Porte and Chris Sorensen (it was strange to see him riding against my favourite brothers!) soon got dropped together with Nicolas 'Finding Nemo' Roche. The Irish rider soon started to suffer because of Szmyd's hellish pace (the poor thing has a sore knee right now) and it was touching to see him being helped by some teammates who, if only had they been allowed to, would have immediately hopped off their bikes in order to push Nicolas.

When Szmyd ended his turn at the front, just a few riders remained in the group of the yellow jersey, so that the Schleck brothers thought it was time to do something. The first one to attack was Frank, followed by Andy. Then the older brother attacked again until he finally managed to disappear from the sight of the other riders. Frank's attack was really impressive and, in about 3 kms, he almost managed to get back on Sanchez and Vanendert, who crossed the finish-line a few seconds ahead of the Luxembourgian.

In the meanwhile, Ivan Basso tried to attack twice, whereas Andy kept on paying attention to Contador. 'Attack!', I screamed. 'Attack!', I screamed again. 'ATTACK!!!', I shouted. And instead no, the one who attacked was Evans. Our Glorious Leader followed him together with Basso and the magic trio managed to cross the finish-line 13" ahead of Contador (and 20" after Frank Schleck). Cunego lost 5" to these three riders, whereas Voeckler arrived 7" after the Giro winner and thanked his teammate Rolland as they crossed the finish-line. Andy Schleck looked extremely tired as he crossed the finish-line, whereas Basso used some of his energy to turn his head and watch where Contador was.

So, this was today's stage. What can we say about the big GC contenders?

First of all I think that, although this afternoon Contador got dropped, no one should underestimate him. As Basso keeps on saying, 'one can win a Tour with just one attack'. And Alberto, if he's on a good day, can gain lots of seconds with just one attack made at the right moment.

Talking about the other riders, I must say that I loved Frank's attitude during today's race. But still, I think Andy should have tried to attack Evans. Cadel in fact is a very strong rider and, if bad luck doesn't hit him, he can make it to the top spot of Paris podium without many problems. He has the final TT on his side and, considering that he seems very solid also in the mountains, I think that Andy (and all those who want to win this Tour) should try to attack him as much as they can. In about 10 days the race will be over and, until there, the tough stages aren't that many. We're not in the Giro, where everyday there's at least one tough climb. We're at the Tour, a race in which a historical climb like Aubisque will be faced more than 40 kms far from the finish-line. Perhaps Andy had a bad day this afternoon or he was afraid to be worse than Contador, but I hope that in the next days he'll try to get some seconds of advantage on the Aussie. Because, unless he has some serious problems, it seems that this year it'll be hard to take the victory away from Evans.

Anyway, here's the GC after today's stage:

1	Thomas Voeckler (Fra)	51:54:44
2	Fränk Schleck (Lux)	0:01:49
3	Cadel Evans (Aus)	0:02:06
4	Andy Schleck (Lux)	0:02:17
5	Ivan Basso (Ita)	0:03:16
6	Damiano Cunego (Ita)	0:03:22
7	Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa)	0:04:00
8	Samuel Sanchez Gonzalez (Spa)	0:04:11
9	Thomas Danielson (USA)	0:04:35
10	Nicolas Roche (Irl)	0:04:57

I'm very happy about Cunego and Roche's placements and I hope that they'll keep the good stuff coming also in the next days. In the meanwhile, let's enjoy Frank and Andy's placements and let's hope they'll improve again in the next days.

As far as tomorrow is concerned, I'm going to bet 5 euros on Hushovd and 5 on Gilbert. Although, to say the truth, I think we shouldn't rule Cavendish and Farrar out of the 'possible winners list' either.

(Pic 1 by Sirotti, pic 2 by Bettini)

A Fangirl at Giro di Lombardia:

When you go to watch Giro di Lombardia live, you should keep clear in your mind that, on that day, the weather won't be sunny. Perhaps it won't rain, perhaps it won't be cold, but the weather won't be sunny. It's an unwritten law, according to which everyone who dares to go Como on the Lombardy day would better bring an umbrella, a pair of boots and a very warm jacket with him. And, keeping that unwritten law in mind, supporters who hear their familiars saying "We go to watch Lombardy unless it rains" should do everything they can to avoid this little trap, that also my familiars tried to use with me the other day.
'We'll go to watch Tour of Lombardy, dear, but if it rains we'll stay at home and watch the race from our couch'. When my parents told me this, looking at them, I said in a very calm way: 'We're talking about Tour of Lombardy. The weather won't be sunny that day and you know it. You're trying to trap me just like you did this May with the Brescia stage of the Giro!!'. Eventually my protest brought me a good result and, on yesterday's morning, my mum said that we would have gone to see the race, no matter the weather's conditions.
Actually, yesterday morning the weather in Bergamo wasn't that bad. It wasn't wonderful, ok, but I already knew this. It's the unwritten rule of Lombardy Tour, remember?
My day at school went away quietly. I didn't fall asleep on the bus and din't miss the bus stop (and that was good), my Latin teacher didn't examine me and also our English composition test wasn't as awful as I had predicted.
At 1 pm I got on the family's car and we drove to Como. After arriving there, we visited the city for a hour (the Cathedral is amazing) and learned that, if you want to visit Como, you have to pay a lot of attention to your feet. We learned this in a very disgusting way, since in less than 3 minutes every member of the family had walked on something that a dog had abandoned on the road a few minutes before of our arrival. How disgusting.
We got in Como at 2.05 pm and at 2.08 it started to rain- and it actually kept on raining all day long. Luckily I had my faithful green umbrella although it didn't save me from getting a dreadful cold and an amazing cough (every time I start coughing I go on for at least 20 seconds without stopping).
A 3.40 pm my family and I arrived near to the finish-line. There was the arrive-village there and me could see Beppe Conti. Then, while walking, I noticed a man under an umbrella, talking with other 3 people. I stopped all of a sudden, stopped my father and made a very astonished expression. In front of me, looking cool and relaxed, there was Denis Menchov.
Now, if there was someone I didn't expect to meet yesterday, that someone was Denis Menchov. And instead, there he was, looking relaxed and chatting with other people.
I looked at him for a while, not knowing what to do, when a boy asked him for an autograph. Denis didn't look annoyed by that and so I went next to him too. 'Denis, por favor...', I said. He looked at me and signed me an autograph.
Then, me went: 'Denis, por favor, podemos hacer también una foto?' He looked at me, said 'Sin problema' and so I could have my picture with Menchov taken. He was very nice with me and he really looked cool. And then, let me say, he looks much better and much younger live. As well as that, he also doesn't look that tall. In fact, he's 'just' 180 cms tall, while me thought that he was at least 185. Ah, the little surprises that you can have on a rainy day in Como...

By the way, surprises weren't over yet. We went to the bus area and there a member of my family started to joke. 'I'm sure that, if you go to SB bus, you'll surely meet Andy. It's raining, so he'll have already ended his race'.
We actually went to SB bus but we didn't meet anyone there. Or better, we didn't meet anyone from team SB. In fact, in that place together with SB bus there was also Rabobank's one. And there, guess who we met? Oscar Freire.

He got off a car together with Nardello and another man. Then he got two bike wheels out of the car and went to the bus. I didn't know what to do (to disturb him or not? that was the question!) but then Nardello told me that, if I wanted to ask Oscar for an autograph, I didn't have to be shy. So when Oscar reappeared from behind the bus I asked him for a picture.Also my father wanted to be part of the picture and in that moment he was probably one of the happiest person on Earth. He's always supported Freire and he's always liked Menchov, so he couldn't stop smiling after meeting him.

While going back to the finish line, we had one last meeting. In fact we saw some men talking to a boy and realised that said boy was Roman Kreuziger. In picture Roman doesn't alway look that good but, seen 'live', he is very handsome. And he's got wonderful blue eyes. We wished him good luck for next year, asked him for an autograph and then we also took a picture. In that moment, one of the Czech supporters who were there talking with him made a funny remark in his native language. I don't know what he said, but I just know that the other supporters laughed.
Eventually, while going back to the finish-zone, we also saw a Lampre rider. He had just got retired and he was shaking his teeth in a terrifying way. Poor boy.
Then my family and I found ourselves in the smallest bar I've ever seen, together with some supporters who had just arrived with their bikes and other people.
After drinking a cappuccino, we went to wait for the riders' first passage in Como. While waiting, we saw a Quick Step rider entering a hotel. I looked more carefully, noticed a tatoo on his leg and understood that I had just witnessed Chavanel's retire from Tour of Lombardy. A few seconds afterwards, also a Milram rider was seen riding towards a hotel.
While I was waiting then I also started to talk to some people. An old super appasionated woman told us that the riders were riding pretty slowly and that there had been bad crash on a descent. Then she complained about the fact that her husband didn't allow her to go to Australia to see the Worlds (at that point I was going to ask her whether she wanted to adopt me as niece).
A few minutes later I saw two Luxembourgians and decided to ask them (in German) whether they knew where Andy was. My question was very confused, but they understood and told me that they had no idea of Andy's performance.
Then a man started to talk with us and told us that Gilbert had just attacked. Then he phoned home and found out that Philippe was at the head of the race together with Scarponi.
We saw them riding in front of us a few minutes later. The faces of the riders were really dirty and they looked very tired.A minute after Gilbert and Scarponi, a group formed by Uran, Sanchez, Nibali, Mollema, Lastras, Barredo and Fuglsang arrived. After those riders had arrived, my familiars and I quickly ran to the finish-line and found a great place right under the 250 meters to go sign. From that point I could witness Gilbert's great victory (he raised his arms right in front of me) and, strange enough, one of the things that I noticed about him in that moment was his golden earring. After all, I was tired too ;)
A few second afterwards also Scarponi arrived. Then Lastras arrived, followed by Fuglsang and Nibali. I could witness their sprint and, when Jakob went back to the team buses together with a masseur, I can tell you that he was trembling like a leaf. In that moment, Fangirl wanted me to jump over the barriers and hug Jakob. Too bad that Logic didn't allow me to follow Fangirl's suggestion.
6th was Sanchez (and not Uran, as someone said), 7th was Nieve. 8th was a great Santambrogio (who, let me say it, has very wonderful eyes). Evans had got retired with about 10 kms to go and we knew that because, when we arrived to the 250 meters sign, we saw him riding towards his bus on the other side of the road.

9th was a tired Barredo, 10th was Caruso and 11th was a very good Gusev. All these riders had very dirty faces and looked terribly cold. Then Uran arrived together with the lanky Mollema. 14th was a great Devenyns, 15th was Wegmann. 16th was Van Avermaet (I couldn't recognise him because he was wearing his rain jacket and I didn't see his face well), 17th was Miholjevic.

He arrived with Mazzanti, the young (and strong) Paterski, Monfort and Horner. 22nd was Bonnafond, 23rd Van Goolen, 24th Pauwels. 25th was Rubiera, 27th was Mori, 28th was Serpa (who still had the strength to make a sprint for getting the 28th position). 29th was Dumoulin, 30th was Bazayev, who looks much more Kazakhistani than Vinokourov and had a very nice season finale. Talking about Vino: at a certain point Fangirl believed she had seen him, but then Logic explained her that the boy she had seen riding towards the Astana bus was Gasparotto, and not Vino. 'But they have the same hair colour!', Fangirl cried. 'Yes, too bad that's the only thing they've got in common', Logic coldly replied.

31st was Peterson, the only Garmin rider who ended the race. 32nd was Froehlinger, who six minutes later was followed by a heroic Nordhaug and by Saramotins.

So these were the 34 heroes who ended the race. I use the word 'heroes' because, if me got a cold and a cough after yesterday, I don't want to imagine with what they've come down right now. Chapeau to every of these riders: the weather conditions yesterday were really bad and the descents extremely slippery.

Ater the last rider had crossed the finish-line, I went back to the bus zone. There was no one outside of SB bus but me spotted a Luxembourg car (a black Audi) a bit far from it. The windows were black, so I couldn't see who was driving it. But it was a car coming from Garage Losch, so Fangirl has a pretty precise idea of who its owner was.

While walking me saw some masseurs throwing some water bottles away. A familiar asked for one of them and so now I've got 2 Cervélo's water bottles, a Cofidis one and a Radioshack one. The Cofidis bottle wasn't empty and, guess what it contained? WATER!!! If Ettore Torri reads this fact, he'll probably be very surprised by it (although the water bottle had a light smell of raspberry, so I suppose that it probably contained also a bit of Gatorade at a certan point of the race).

In front of Saxo Bank's bus I came across Menchov again, and we looked at each other. Larsson was talking with someone outside of the bus, but I didn't want to bother him.So, my family and I decided to go back to our car.

On our way to it, we saw a Cervélo rider talking to another boy and touching his cheek to check how cold they were. Poor boy.

After bumping into Scarponi and Lastras on their way back from the anti-doping, and after 30 minutes of walk, we finally got into our car. I hadn't met Andy Schleck and Chris Sorensen, but still I was satisfied anyway. After all, you don't bump into guys like Menchov, Freire and Kreuziger every day, don't you?

PS: Pictures were taken by me. The quality, as usual, isn't that good. My picture with Kreuziger hasn't been published because my sister (who appeared in it too) didn't want to. I know that the pictures aren't that great (and nor is the post, which has been written in hurry), but I was too cold to take more/better pictures or videos of the riders. That's all folks!