Team Luxembourg's mistery, Saxo Bank's training camp in Didier and Sorensen's words:

Hear ye, hear ye- and be part of this blogger's joy: miss Fede has no homeworks for tomorrow (it's the first time since September that I can write this sentence!!) and so she's going to write a new random post. Happiness!
So, first of all, let's talk a bit about Team Luxembourg. Or whatever its name will be. In fact, yesterday the team's name mistery was apparently solved by our dear Jakob Fuglsang, who told Cyclingnews that the new squadra was going to be called 'Team Leopard'. Moreover, he added that the team kit should have a classical design and should also have a big leopard printed on it.
This news had actually got me in despair, since the idea of screaming 'Go go Leopards!' to my favourite riders for the next 4 years doesn't actually appeal that much to me. About the leopard on the kit, well, I would have bet they would have printed the Luxembourg lion on it, instead I was wrong. How strange.
Btw this morning Brian Nygaard denied the news that Jakob had given yesterday and he said that, to know the true name of the team, we'll have to wait until the 5th of January. Now, let's reflect a bit about this.

Some weeks ago, Nygaard had already said that the team wasn't going to be called 'Team Leopard'. Therefore, after reading Fuglsang's words, me was a bit sceptical about them and that's why I didn't publish the news immediately. In fact, Nygaard has denied it earlier today.

But still, me smells a rat about this story. I mean: Jakob seems an intelligent guy, so I don't think he said that name, 'Team Leopard', completely by chance. Moreover, me was a bit disturbed by Nygaard's reaction. In fact not only did he deny the news immediately, but he also seemed a bit angry on his Twitter. In fact there he said it was time people stopped all these speculation about the team's name and he added that we have to wait until the 5th of January if we want to know more about the team.

The little problem is that, unfortunately, the day of the team presentation I will be in Austria, with no Internet connection. Does this mean that I'll have to wait until the 10th of January just to know the name of m favourite riders' team and what their new kits will look like? Gosh, don't people at team Lux realise that we've been waiting for these details since August?

I had already got fed up by this 'secret-mania' in September, so you can imagine how I feel about it right now. And the funny thing is that Nygaard also got angry at those who speculate about the new name of the team. Ask yourself some questions, dear.

Still talking about the secret-mania: everyone talked about Crans Montana's training camp in a very happy and entusiasthic way, but no one mentioned that O'Grady crashed while skiing and broke two ribs (http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/ogrady-set-for-tour-down-under-in-spite-of-skiing-accident ). Now, if I'm on a training camp and one of the people who are there with me breaks 2 ribs while skiing, I wouldn't probably talk about said training camp in very euphoric terms. But still, guys at team Lux didn't mention O'Grady's injury until yesterday. And, still talking about that training camp, I haven't seen any 'official' picture from it yet.

Did I miss something or are the only pictures of the training camps the ones that the riders posted on Twitter? Is someone else fed up by this secret-mania, or is it just a product of my impatient imagination?
Anyway, back to the name's mistery, Frank Schleck has recently given an interview to Tageblatt (which appeared also on Cyclingnews) in which he said: ”I like 'Team Lëtzebuerg' (as a new name for the team)”. I have to admit I like it too, although almost everything is better than team Leopard. I mean, leopards are cute (see pic below), but I just can't imagine to see my favourite riders being called 'leopards' in every single race of next year. That would be a bit disturbing, imo.

On http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/frank-schleck-eager-for-2011-season-with-number-one-team , Frank also talked about the new team in a very entusiasthic way. He also said that Linus Gerdemann is a nice guy. This is funny, since Chris Anker Sorensen actually can't stand poor Linus and also said that, in the peloton, Gerdemann hasn't got so many friends.
In the interview Frank also said: “We can't wait until things finally start and we can finally do what which we do best – that is, ride races.” I can't wait either!

SAXO BANK NEWS...
Talking about the other team, Saxo Bank, on http://www.lessentiel.lu/fr/news/dossier/%20newsletter/story/28605173 there's a nice interview with Laurent Didier, one of the riders who didn't follow los Schlecks in their new team. This is actually a bit strange, since Laurent is Luxembourgian and Frank Schleck praised his skills last year.
Talking about the training camp in Fuerteventura, Laurent said that everything went well - in other words, no one broke anything. Didier also said that at first the Spaniards had remained a bit on their own, while in the following days he spent a lot of time with Navarro. The Luxembourgian also claimed that the training camp was also a good chance to practise English. Considering that I need to practise my spoken English too, can I join you in your next training camp too? I'm small and tidy! ;)
Talking about los Schleck brothers, Laurent said that they're good friends of his, but that he's paid by Saxo Bank and so he's riding for them also in 2011. He also adds that he had been in contact with Kim Andersen, but then Riis didn't want him to leave the team and so he decided to respect his contract. 'This is normal when you're a pro cyclist', said Laurent, who ended the interview by saying that he doesn't want to talk about a possible team change in 2012 yet.

Still talking about Saxo Bank's training camp, Chris Anker Sorensen wrote a very funny (as usual) post about it. Here's a little translation of it.
'Morkov and I chatted about the fact that we were happy that, during this camp, we did not have to sleep on some mountains with BS in a rainy weather. It goes without saying that this year's team building was very different from the survival camps with BS. I would say that both camps have their advantages and I can't actually decide what the best training camp method is (...)', Chris wrote about the survival camps.
Then he talked about the different things he did during this year camp. Talking about the strange human pyramids and things like that, he said: 'We may use some of the things we have learned in the training camp during the presentations of some of the 2011 races . For example, we could build a human pyramid, a thing on which we are quite keen now. One thing that none of us really liked instead was kitesurfing. We all went down like flies. I kept on checking whether my falling teammates were going to land on my head (ndt: there may be something wrong in this sentence, since Google Translater translates it in a very strange way :P). Surfing was much better, I really liked it and I think I could do it again. However I was a little annoyed by the fact that, between all the clips in which I was surfing perfectly, TV2 chose to broadcast one of the few ones in which I was having some troubles'.
Then Chris said something about being a 'culture bearer' of Cycling. Or, at least, that's what Google said that Chris wrote. Shall I trust the damn thing or not? Mistery.
Then Chris said: "Also this year we played some tennis (...). Our doubles matches Vandborg / Chris Anker vs. Morkov / Nicki always ended up with a victory for Vandborg and me, mainly because of Brian's skills. If a sport consisting of tennis, badminton, table tennis and cycling existed, Vandborg would be a champion in it".
The guys also had apnea lessons during the training camp and Chris wrote: "I started the training as the absolute worst hold breather, in fierce competition with our Pole Jaroslaw. In fact, we got an impressive result of 15 and 16 seconds in the first attempt we did of holding our breathes. After three days of training however I improved my performances and could hold my breath for 1:45. I could have probably reached the goal of the 2 min, if JJ and I hadn't swum into each other".
Surprisingly, Chris ends his post by wishing everyone a merry Santa Lucia. This is the proof that Chris knows what Santa Lucia is - and this makes me like him even more.
However, I've already talked too much for today. So here I close this random post too.

PS: I obviously offer my condolences to the family of Aldo Sassi. He was a great man, a 'living biologic passport', as Pastonesi called him on today's Gazzetta, and cycling has lost a great personality after his death. Rest in peace Aldo.

Picspam time 3: guys just wanna have fun :)

To everyone's joy, the picspam season here at My Blog isn't over yet.

The last 2 days have been a bit tense here in the Blogosphere, so I think it's better if we all relax ourselves and have a good laugh together. In order to do so, I suggest you taking a look at these pictures that Mar (thank you girl!) and I collected over the last days. Enjoy!

First of all, here you have Chris Anker Sorensen and Matti Breschel wearing funny viking helmets on the Champs Elysées. After 3 weeks of daily fatigue and stress, you're allowed to behave a bit in a strange way, aren't you? Here's another picture from Saxo Bank's celebrations on Champs Elysées. This time, the one behaving in a strange way is Stuart O'Grady :) Talking about funny guys, then, how can we forget about Fabian Cancellara? Here we can see him making horns to poor Andy. The skinny Luxembourgian (just notice how thin his arms are!) looks a bit annoyed, but Fabian doesn't seem to care about it :) This time instead the victim of Fabian's jokes was O'Grady, who probably ignored what Fabian was doing behind him. Luckily Tom Boonen knows how to take revenge on the Swiss rider :) Talking about other former Saxo Bankers, I think I'm almost obliged to put some pictures of Jens Voigt in a post like this. Here you can see him riding a very strange vehicle.Below instead you have Voigt-san having fun with a supporter in Japan. And here we have the FA Jens having a coffee-break at work.
Here instead we have Matti Breschel joking with a photographer. Let's now abandon our Sexy Bankers for a brief moment and let's watch 2 pics about the relationship between riders and animals. For example, take a look at this rider who wants to stay with his adorated penguin even while racing.
Here instead we have a guy showing us the perfect descent position for riders. I wonder what the bear thinks of it.
Back to the guys who raced for SB this season, here we have Chris Sorensen reading a foreign newspaper. Has he just read something about a defeat of his favourite football team, or is he just shocked by the language in which the newspaper is written?
To close this post, then, I couldn't avoid publishing 2 pics of the Schleck brothers. Andy, you cunny guy, what are you looking at?
And here's a classic picture of Frank and his concentration expression. Everything's ok dear?
So, that's all for now. Thank you again to Mar for the help and let's hope you enjoyed this picspam :)

'Andy, what have you done?': my personal opinion about the case du jour

Andy, what have you done? Did you really stay out until 5 am on the eve of a pretty hard Vuelta stage? Were you really drunk yesterday morning? Or did you just have a single drink after dinner?
These are some of the questions that Fangirl would like to ask Andy Schleck right now.
In fact, as everyone in Cycledom knows, yesterday Andy Schleck and Stuart O'Grady were kicked out from la Vuelta because they broke the internal rules of team Saxo Bank. In other words, they drank after dinner.
The problem is: Andy and Stuart said that they had just 1 drink after dinner, but they didn't mention at what time they came back to the hotel.
Bjarne Riis instead said that Andy and Stuey came back at the team's hotel at 5 am, after a night spent in a bar, but didn't say whether they were drunk or not. He simply said that he didn't care about how many beers Stuey and Andy had during the night, because '1 beer or 10 beers, it doesn't make any difference. It was 5 am'.
Then, obviously, there are the journalists. The journalists who, right now, are divided in two teams. Some wrote headlines like 'Andy Schleck ejected from la Vuelta just because he had a drink after dinner' and made the reader understand that, according to them, Riis was too harsh with the Luxembourgian. Others, instead, came up with sensational headlines like 'Schleck ejected from la Vuelta: he came back at his hotel, drunk, at 5am'. This, in particular, was the headline of La Gazzetta dello Sport.
I've already mentioned that, imo, someone who works for La Gazzetta doesn't like the Schlecks very much. Today, I think I had the official confirm of my suspect. "Andy Schleck, also known as 'the little brother', 'the angel-faced rider', the 'good' that was defeated by the 'bad' Contador during this year Tour... was ejected from la Vuelta after that he came back at his hotel, drunk, at 5 am yesterday morning (...) Together with him there was O'Grady, who already had an experience like that during the 2006 Vuelta, the night before of the last stage. On that occasion O'Grady spent the night in a disco, but then rode the day's stage in a spectacular way". At a certain point even Cancellara was mentioned in the article, since it seems that he had been out drinking with Schleck and O'Grady, too.

In this big information chaos, we obviously can't know who's telling the truth and who isn't.
Or, perhaps, both Andy and Riis are telling the truth. I mean, perhaps Andy really had just one drink after dinner and he really came back at 5 am in the morning. Who knows? Perhaps Andy went out and ordered a beer in a little bar. The beer eventually arrived, but it was very disgusting. Andy's a well-educated boy, so he probably thought it was unpolite to leave a full glass of beer on the bar table, without drinking it. So, he decided to finish that damned beer up. Too bad that, when he finally finished it, it was 5 am and his team ds was waiting for him and Stuey in the hall of the hotel. Perhaps, that's what happened.

Anyway. More seriously, I think that the other evening Andy made a mistake. In other words, he was imprudent and unwise.

I mean: you're a rider who's going to change team next year and you're 'stealing' many riders from your (almost) former team. Imo, in a situation like that, you should be prudent and know that your ds won't lose any occasion to create damages to your image. After all, that's part of the game too.

In such a delicate situation, me thinks that going out for a drink with just one teammate (who is also going to join you at your new team) on the eve of a pretty hard stage of a Grand Tour, without telling your ds about it, when you already have a heavy delay in the GC, well, me thinks that doing all these things in a certain situation isn't wise at all.

If then Andy really came back at 5 am, well, I think that then we can't say that he was just unwise and imprudent. If he really did so, he also lacked of professionality and of respect towards the team's sponsor, towards the race, towards his Spanish supporters and, more important, towards his teammates. That's my opinion.

As far as Riis is concerned, then, just try to put yourself in his shoes. You are a ds, your best riders are leaving your team and so are some of your 'historic' riders. The Vuelta is the last GT that you're facing with the boys that have been your best athletes for the last years. One of these boys, Andy, loses 37 minutes in one week time and this creates bad publicity to your sponsor. Then, on the eve of a pretty hard stage, Andy and another rider go out drinking after dinner, although they know it is prohibited.

Personally, I would have been a little fed up too, no matter when they actually came back to the hotel. The rules are rules. If then they came back at a decent time, I could have closed an eye. But if they really came back at 5 am, well, I think I would have sent them away from the race as well.

That was a very tricky move, I agree, but Riis had the right to do so. After all, if Andy hadn't broken that rule, Riis wouldn't have the chance of sending him out of the race. So, in the end, I think that the only ones to blame for what happened are Andy and Stuart.

But still, there is one thing I want to say: Andy is 25. Everyone makes mistakes, the problem is that when that 'everyone' is a famous person, well, the mistakes seem bigger and get a lot more of attention. So I think that Andy should reflect about what he's done, talk a lot with Frank ( he's the one who's going to suffer more for Andy's exclusion from the Vuelta) and try to focus on the last races of the season. Then, in less than two months, he'll be able to change team and forget about Riis and this story.

In the meanwhile, I hope he can have a bit of peace and relax in Luxembourg and support his brother Frank as much as he can- the boy needs all our support now.

Curaçao stuff + news about O'Grady and Bellis:

I know,the Curaçao Criterium was raced few days ago,but me was too busy (or lazy?) to write a post about it.Anyway,here are some pics (and a vid) from the Criterium (and from the riders' holidays) and 2 links about Saxo Bank riders O'Grady and Bellis.

So,let's start with the Curaçao topics,starting with the "serious thing" (the criterium results) and ending with the Fangirls-stuff (pics and a vid):
CURACAO CRITERIUM: Me would have loved Kenny Van Hummel to win the Amstel Curaçao Criterium,but unfortunately my hopes didn't come true.In fact the winner of the Criterium was Alberto Contador.Hushvod came in 2nd,while 3rd was Koos Moerenhout.4th was Mark Cavendish (if he had won,I think that some of the sprinters that were on the island would have drowned him in the Caribbean sea and blamed the dolphins for that...),while 5th was Kenny Van Hummel.6th was mr.Boasson Hagen.
I don't have any news about the Schleck brothers' placements,but I think they decided to take it easy and just enjoy the race.
CURACAO VID (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-OY2xvOsvU ):yes,in this interview with Lars Boom and Koos Moerenhout you can also see one of the Schleck brothers swimming with dolphins.
CURACAO PICS: Tim De Waele has uploaded his website with the Curaçao pictures and I've managed to find just one (one!) pic involving Jakob Fuglsang.Btw some pics involving 2 shirtless Luxembourgish brothers will probably make you forgive mr.De Waele for the lack of Jakob's pics.
RANDOM THOUGHT: I envy the "Telegraaf" special reporters in Curaçao.Really.Not just because of the cyclists,but also because Curaçao seems such a quiet and wonderful place to be.

NEWS ABOUT CONTADOR,O'GRADY AND BELLIS:

ASTANA-CONTADOR TELENOVELA: I refuse to write anything about it unless there are some certain news about which team mr.Contador will choose to ride for in 2010.
STUART O'GRADY: (http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/millar-describes-ogradys-seizure ) Saxo Bank rider Stuart O'Grady collapsed during a corporate event at the MotoGP circuit in Valencia on Sunday.The Australian rider was brought to a Spanish hospital but is now feeling better and will hopefully be able to come back to his home in Monaco tomorrow.
JONATHAN BELLIS (http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/bellis-back-in-london-and-recovering-well ): A very good news: Jonathan Bellis has arived in a London hospital and is said to be progressing.Hopefully he'll be able to come back to normal life soon.

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).