La Vuelta: parcours and start list (plus other randomness)

Lots of things going on in Cycledom in the last few days, my dear readers.

First of all, Rebellin won the Tre Valli Varesine at the tender age of 40. This makes me wonder: if he goes so fast now that he's 40 and that he's not doping, how come that he didn't win the 2008 Olympics? Secondly, one recent news says that just four Swiss and Norwegian riders will have the chance of taking part in the Worlds this year. In my opinion this is absurd, especially if you consider that Iran and Morocco will have the chance of bringing 6 riders each to Copenhagen. Now, does anyone know at least one rider from Iran or Morocco? Personally, I don't. On the other hand, instead, I do know more than 4 riders from Switzerland (or from Norwegy). Cancellara, Bertogliati, Albasini, Frank, Morabito, Schaer, Tschopp Zaugg... It will be hard to pick just 3 of them, won't it?

Another hot topic in these days is cycling market. Talking about that: Langeveld has recently announced he'll join GreenEdge next year, whereas Degenkolb has officially said that he's joining Skil. The Pozzato-saga, on the other hand, has a new coup-de-scene, since Pippo has recently stated that Katiusha is trying to prolong his contract. Was Tchmil brainwashed, me wonders?

Fourth (and penultimate) interesting thing to say, in the last few days some interesting facts took place in the Blogosphere. First of all, our blogmate and Banana-reporter Susanne has recently decided to open her own tumblr. What are you waiting for? Check it out at http://themagicalpen.tumblr.com/ ! For other blog-related fun, take a look also at the last two posts on 'Bananas About Bikes' ( http://bananasaboutbikes.blogspot.com/ ): our banana-reporters Lee and Mar have been to Eneco Tour and to Post Denmark Rundt, so you now have the chance of enjoying their hilarious tales!

Fifth topic du jour (and main topic of this post) is la Vuelta. Oh yes. The last GT of the season starts on Saturday and it features a very nice parcours and a wonderful start list. Let's now take a look at the parcours and at the start - list - and let's also make some random predictions.

PARCOURS:

The 2011 Vuelta takes off with a 16 kms long TTT in Benidorm. The following stage is likely to suit sprinters, who may battle for victory after racing along the Spanish coast for a lot of kms. The second stage features a little climb with 10 kms to go, whereas the third one ends on the top of Sierra Nevada. This will be a pretty important stage, because some riders may have problems due to the fact that the first uphill finish arrives after just 4 days of race. Moreover, the Sierra Nevada isn't an easy climb: in fact it is 23 kms long and has an average of 5.7 %. In addition, at the top of the climb the riders will find themselves at an altitude of 2000 meters. Tough stage, isn't it?

On the following day, the wind may play tricks on the riders. However, the main obstacle du jour arrives in the last 3 kms of race, when the cyclists will have to face the Valdepeñas de Jaén wall, whose ramps' average is (fasten your seatbelt) up to 23%. Joaquim Rodriguez, Igor Anton, get ready for that - Nibali, Menchov, do whatever you can to stay glued to the wheels of the Spaniards.

After these two hellish days, the riders will face a stage ending in the astonishing city of Còrdoba, where the sprinters are likely to fight for the stage victory. That area of Spain is usually very hot and some riders may have problems because of that. The following stage will suit sprinters as well, although the fastest rider will have to sweat a lot in order to resist on the hilly terrain and in the windy and hot heart of Spain.

Next Saturday the riders will face a hilly terrain and one of the steepest walls of the world. The final 3 kms of the San Lorenzo de El Escorial stage in fact have ramps of up to 28 % - guys, be careful not to fall backwards while riding up that wall!

On the following day, some other pain is on the riders' menu: in fact they'll have to face another uphill finish. The last climb, La Covatilla, is 10 kms long and its average is 7.4%. Ouch, my legs are hurting - and I'm not even a rider!

On Monday, the GC riders will have another tough day ahead: a 40 kms long TT in the heart of Salamanca, a wonderful city. Nibali and Menchov will have the chance of gaining some time on their adversaries here, and they should really give their best in this stage: in fact, it is the only TT featured in this year race.

After a well-deserved rest day on Tuesday, the peloton (which, by now, might have lost many riders because of the upcoming Worlds) will head towards Galicia, where the cyclists will face another uphill finish. El Alto de la Manzaneda is 19 kms long and has an average of 6%. The GC riders who don't use their rest day properly will risk to blow up on this climb, so this stage may give us some surprises.

On the following day, the sprinters who have survived the first week of race will be able to show their skills in the stage to Pontevedra. 24 hours later, they'll have to face the Spanish version of Galibier, which is called Puerto de Ancares. Unfortunatey on this occasion the organisers have decided to create a stage 'a la Tour': the toughest climb du jour in fact is placed with more than 60 kms to go.

On the following afternoon, however, the supporters will be able to enjoy the show of the Lagos de Somiedo stage, which features lots of climbs and an uphill finish.

24 hours later, the riders are likely to see mirages as they face one of the toughest climb of Europe: the Angliru. The last 6.5 kms of this climb have an average of 13% and this should be enough to make you understand the difficulties that the riders will face on that day. Luckily the boys will have the chance of resting on the following day. The GC riders will start battling again after two days, when (after the flat stage to Haro) they'll have to face a 212 kms long stage to Pena Cabarga. The boys will have to use everything that's left in their tank in order to survive this long stage, which ends on a climb that isn't particularly steep but that, at this point of the race, may offer us a very interesting show.

The three following stages are likely to award the brave riders who'll choose to go on a breakaway. In particular, the Bilbao and Vitoria stages will be a Basque delirium, since thanks to them la Vuelta comes back in the Basque Country for the first time since 1978.

On the 11th September, in the end, the Spanish GT will be over with the usual parade in Madrid. Bennati won there in 2008 and, if he doesn't abandon the race because of the Worlds, he may win there also this year. Finally, after 3 weeks of pain the riders will be able to get off their bikes. Some will be rejoicing, other ones will be disappointed, but everyone will be happy to have concluded one of the most brutal GTs of the year. And then, the attention of the cycling world will immediately move to Copenhagen.

START LIST:

This year the battle for the overall victory in the Vuelta will be very tough and some of the best riders of the world will all be at the start of the race on Saturday. Here are the line-ups of the teams with some little remarks about them:

AG2R: Roche, Bonnafond, Champion, Dessel, Houanard, Le Lay, Mondory, Montaguti, Perget.

The hilarious Irishman Nicolas Roche is back racing after his knee problems in the Tour. Will he manage to race better than his cousin Daniel Martin? Time will tell. His team is formed by attackers like Dessel and nice guys like Houanard, who'll go looking for stage victories even in the TTT.

Andalucia Caja Granada: Bernabeu, Benitez, Cabello, Lobato, Palomares, Piedra, Ramirez, Roldan, Rosendo.

The Frenchmen offer their wild cards to the French teams, the Italians offer them to the Italian teams, the Spaniards give them to the Spanish equipos. The question is: what team does Bernabeu support?

BMC: Burghardt, Frank, Kohler, Phinney, Quinziato, Santambrogio, Santaromita, Tschopp, Van Avermaet.

A very good team for BMC: attention to them for the TTT! Phinney will be under special observation in the first days of race, whereas the other guys will battle for a stage victory.

Cofidis: Bagot, Edet, Mate, Moncoutie, Monier, Saramotins, Sijmens, Taaramae, Vogondy.

The French team has a good line-up: Moncoutié is a good climber who doesn't fear tough climbs, Taaramae has a very impulsive racing style, Vogondy was born to attack. Monier, on the other hand, is still astonished by his victory in the 2009 Giro ;)

Euskaltel:  Anton, Isasi, Martinez, Oroz, Perez Lezaun, Txurruka, Velasco, Verdugo, Nieve.

This will be a very important edition of the Vuelta for the Basque team. Anton wants to win the race after he had to abandon it because of a crash last year, whereas Nieve has showed us his skills during the Giro. The rest of the team will help the team leaders and will attack a lot in the Bilbao and Vitoria stages.

Geox-TMC: Cobo, Blanco, De La Fuente, Duarte, Duran, Florencio, Menchov, Sastre, Valls.

A good team of climbers for Geox. Cobo, De La Fuente, Duarte, the promising Valls... And I still haven't mentioned Carlos 'Carlito' Sastre and Denis 'Smiley' Menchov. Of course I'll be supporting the Russian in the next three weeks and I'm sure he'll do his best to win his third Vuelta. Allez Denis!

HTC - Highroad: Albasini, Cavendish, Degenkolb, Goss, Grabsch, Howard, Martin, Sivstov, M. Velits.

Ok readers: read these names carefully and read the name of the team with respect. This is the last GT for HTC Highroad and this is extremely sad for every cycling lover. Let's enjoy every single action made by the boys in yellow and let's enjoy the stage wins that they're really likely to get. Cavendish, Degenkolb and Goss will use the Vuelta as a preparation for the Worlds, whereas Martin will pay attention to the GC. Look out for this team during the TTT, they're dangerous!

Katiusha: Rodriguez, Horrach, Kuchynski, Losada, Moreno, Paolini, Pliuschin, Trofimov, Vorganov.

A very good line-up for the Russian team. Joaquin Rodriguez is already looking forward to the toughest stages, whereas Pliuschin will surely show us his talent in some breakaways. Moreno is a talented climber too and I'm sure he'll do his best to help his captain. Paolini is extremely likely to take part in the Worlds and in the 2012 Olympics and he'll do his best in this race in order to show that he deserves his place in the sun in the Italian team.

Lampre: Scarponi, Kvachuk, Marzano, Mori, Niemiec, Arrieta, Petacchi, Righi, Spezialetti.

A very good team that can win stages and that can also go for the overall victory with Scarponi. Michele is determined to win this race and to defeat his eternal rival Nibali, whereas Petacchi, if he's had his motivation back, may win some flat stages. Niemiec will surely rock the climbs, the other ones will help him in supporting Scarponi as well as they can.

Leopard Trek: Bennati, Cancellara, Fuglsang, Monfort, O'Grady, Pires, Viganò, Wagner, Zaugg.

The hottest team of the Vuelta is ready to rock the stages and the overall. Fuglsang really shone in his first Vuelta and this year he'd like to repeat himself. The magic couple Viganò / Bennati will rock the sprints (in Daniele we trust!), whereas all the other guys have the skills to go for a stage win. This is the last LT GT for Big Old Stuey and hopefully he'll say 'adieu!' to his teammates with a victory - what about the TTT?

Liquigas: Nibali, Capecchi, Caruso, Da Dalto, Dall'Antonia, Marangoni, Nerz, Sagan, Wurf.

Great, great team. Vincenzo won this race last year, but everything will be tougher this time. I'll obviously support him during the next 3 weeks (the Worlds are approaching, so my sportif patriotism has started to show itself off :P), just like I will support the young and brave Marangoni, the nice Wurf and all the other promising guys on this team. I like Capecchi because I was there when he first won a GT stage at the Giro and I have great expectations for Peter Sagan. Moreover, Fangirl will be watching Dominique Nerz in a very careful way - the boy broke his collarbone earlier in the season and I hope that by now he has fully recovered.

Movistar: Erviti, Vicente, Intxausti, Konovalovas, Lastras, Lopez, Pardilla, Plaza Molina, Samoilau.

While reading the line-up of this team, I couldn't help but think of Xavier Tondo - Vuelta was his home- race and Intxausti was with him on that cursed morning of May. The boys will surely do their best also for him, just like the LT guys will be racing also for WW Special in the next three weeks. Movistar has a good-line up, with a good climber (Pardilla), some good all rounders (Samoilau), a strong sprinter (Lastras) and a great time trialist (Konovalovas).

Omega: Bakelandts, De Greef, De Haes, Dockx, Hansen, Pujol, Reynes, Van De Walle, Van Den Broeck.

When I read that Bakelandts was taking part in this race, I had a sigh of relief. In fact, I was worried by Hoogerland and Roy's absences and I was already wondering who would have taken their place as 'most attacking rider du Grand Tour' during the Vuelta. Well, now the answer is simple: Jan is going to do it. The boy's got a lot of strength, too bad that he's never that lucky with breakaways. Together with him, Omega offer us a good line-up formed by a sprinter like Hansen, an old crush of mine  like De Greef and one of the comeback boys du GT: Jurgen Van Den Broeck (right now I'm wondering why I've just typed his name as 'Van Den Brown' :P).

Astana: Kessiakoff, Gasparotto, Kangert, Kashechkin, Kiserlovski, Mizurov, Petrov, Renev.

For the first time, Astana will face a GT while knowing that his founder, Vinokourov, won't race anymore (*girls of the AAVL mourn*). However, Vino leaves behind him a strong team. Petrov knows how to win GT stages, Kessiakoff is a great climber, Kashechkin was Vino's faithful helper back in 2007, Gasparotto is one of my favourite riders and Kiserlovski is the team's hope for the GC. Allez Robert!

Quickstep: Bandiera, Boonen, Cataldo, Chavanel, De Maar, De Weert, Maes, Malacarne, Seeldrayers.

Seeldrayers is back in action after the Giro and is ready to show off his talent. Boonen will use la Vuelta as a preparation for the Worlds, whereas Chavanel will fight with Bakelandts for the 'most combative rider' award.

Rabobank: Barredo, Breschel, Freire, Garate, Kruijswijk, Martens, Mollema, LL Sanchez, Slagter.

A very good line-up for Rabo. Breschel and Freire will rock the sprints, Mollema and Kruijswijk will help each other in the GC (go go guys!), Barredo and Garate are great attackers, LL Sanchez is a victory-addicted in the Tour and Slagter is back in a GT after scaring us all during the Giro 'strade bianche' stage.

Saxo Bank: CA Sorensen, Christensen, Gustov, Haedo, Jorgensen, Majka, Marycz, Nuyens, N.Sorensen.

You've gotta love this team when it features two Sorensens in its line up!! Good old Bjarne offer us an interesting team for this Vuelta. Chris Anker is ready for his first GT as a daddy and he'll surely try to get a prestigious victory in order to dedicate it to Laerke and Michelle. Nicki will help him, Haedo will sprint, Jorgensen will show us his talent (and his cuteness), Nuyens is back from his post-Flanders holiday, Marycz will enter every single breakaway of the race. I really like Jaroslaw and I really hope that he and Chris will manage to win a stage each. Will it be possible?

Skil: Geniez, Doi, Frohlinger, Geschke, Hupond, Kittel, Sprick, Timmer, Veelers.

Will Kittel rule the sprints as he did in Poland? That is the question that everyone wants to answer.

Sky: Arvesen, Cioni, Froome, Lovkvist, Possoni, Stannard, Sutton, Wiggins, Zandio.

Wiggo is another rider who comes back racing after breaking a bone in the Tour. His team is really good: Cioni and Possoni are good climbers, Froome is an all-rounder, Arvesen is one of my favourite riders - too bad that he's ending his career at the end of the season. Lovely Lovkist is back in a GT for the joy of every woman in the world, whereas Sutton and Stannard will try to find a place in the sun during the Spanish sprints.

Garmin: Farrar, Fischer, Haussler, Hushovd, Klier, Le Mevel, Martin, Talansky, Van Summeren. Cyclingnews says that Hushovd will race la Vuelta, but I don't know if they're right. Thor, Haussler, Fischer and Farrar will prepare the Worlds in Spain and it'll be hard to name a captain amongst them. Le Mevel is a strong climber, just like Daniel Martin, who is riding really well in these days. Van Summeren is the boy we've all learned to love in Paris - Roubaix, whereas Talansky is a promising time trialist. Look out for this team in the TTT!

Radioshack: Brajkovic, Busche, Irizar, Kloeden, Lequatre, Machado, Oliveira, Paulinho, Zubeldia. Kloeden and Brajkovic are back after their terrible Tour and, hopefully, after a little pilgrimage to Lourdes (or to Santiago de Compostela). Machado will hopefully race better than he did during the Giro and Oliveira (a promising neo pro) may show us something interesting.

Vacansoleil: Carrara, Devolder, Golas, Keizer, Lagutin, Lighthart, Mosquera, Poels, Van Leiken.

Once again, Cyclingnews tells me that Mosquera will be racing - too bad that I remember reading an article in which Vacansoleil said that Ezequiel wouldn't have taken part in the Spanish race. Mystery! Apart from Mosquera, Vacansoleil has a good line-up: Poels is a strong rider, just like Lagutin. Carrara is fast, Devolder is an all rounder, Lighthart is the Dutch national champion. I'm looking forward to seeing him racing!

So, this was my little intro to Vuelta a Espana. My pick for the final podium is: Antòn, Nibali, Menchov - I'm sure that also Scarponi and Rodriguez will do a great job, too bad that a podium has just 3 spots...

Decision time, cycling market and shaving legs:

Almost one week after her last post, miss Fede is back blogging (*chorus of: 'It was high time' coming from all over the world*). There have been some important transfer news in the last few days, and I would have liked to write something about them, but unfortunately I was too busy with university papers and important decisions to spend my time writing about O'Grady leaving Leopard or Renshaw leaving Cavendish. On Thursday in fact, after some moments of indecision, I eventually took a big breathe before enroling in the 'Foreign Languages and Literatures' faculty of the Bergamo university.

I was 12 when I first said that I wanted to study foreign languages at uni, so I didn't actually have any doubt about which faculty to choose. Unfortunately, I did have lots of problems when I had to choose which languages (and related literatures) to study in the next two years. In fact, me couldn't decide whether I should have studied German and English, English and Russian or German and Russian.

The first option would have had lots of advantages for me because high school gave me a very good grounding as far as English and German are concerned. Therefore, choosing this language combo at would have surely spared me a lot of hard work at least in the first year of uni.

Unfortunately in my area there are many people who can speak English and German without difficulties, so I decided not to choose this option because, in a certain way, I felt it was too 'obvious' from the 'future employment' perspective. In order to choose something that would have given me the chance of getting a good job without many problems, I eventually decided to study a pretty uncommon language: Russian. This decision wasn't actually that difficult to take and it was the consequence of three facts. First: the university of Bergamo is considered the best one for the Italian students who want to take up Russian. Second: I can already read cyrillic (understanding the meaning of the words is another issue). Third: Denis Menchov is Russian. Really, it was as simple as that.

After deciding to study Russian, it was time of taking another decision: studying German  or English together with it? English has always been my favourite language and I've always found it very easy, whereas I've always found German much more difficult (although I've always been good at it too). But still, there is no comparison between my English and my German skills: whereas I can communicate in English without too many problems, I still have problems in speaking German fluently. And, in the end, that's the reason why I've decided to keep on studying German and to abandon English.

I'm satisfied with my languages-choice, but I understood the importance of this fact just when a fellow rookie (who, unlike me, is going to study English and German) told me about what she'll study in her literature courses. Whereas she'll spend her days reviewing our high school notes about Blake, Hamlet and Joyce, I'll have to study Gogol, Dostoevskij and Pushkin. At least, the professor who runs the 'German literature' course seems a big fan of Kafka :P

Anyway. Enough ranting about myself for today. It's cycling time now!

The last few days have been full of decisions not just for me, but also for many cyclists who are changing teams. In particular, HTC Highroad hasn't managed to find a new sponsor for next year and this means that the everyone on the team (ds, riders, soigneurs, bus drivers, etc.) now need to find a new equipe.

Mark Cavendish, the most appealing jewel in the HTC crown, is heading towards Sky, just like Siutsou and Bernie Eisel. Mark Renshaw, on the other hand, has decided to go looking for adventure in Holland. In fact the fast Aussie has decided to join Rabobank and to try to become the main sprinter of the Dutch team.

As far as Cavendish moving to Sky is concerned, people talked about this transfer already last year. After all, it was just a matter of time before the British king of the sprints ended up in the only British team of the ProTour... But still, right now I'm wondering how the ds of that team will manage to create a GT line-up which will be able to support Cav in the sprints and Wiggo in the mountains.

Still talking about fast riders, Thor Hushovd has announced that he's going to race for BMC in 2012. In my opinion this is a wise move because, by leaving Garmin, Thor will finally find a team that will support him completely both during the Classics and during the toughest sprints of the season. At Garmin instead the Norwegian rider had to deal with Van Summeren during the Classics and with Farrar and Haussler during the sprints. Unfortunately, Garmin hasn't appreciated this move and in fact it has decided not to bring Hushovd to la Vuelta. Thor has been shocked by the news because the Spanish GT is the best way to prepare the Worlds, which Hushovd could win also this year. By not racing it, Thor will take part in the Danish race with a big handicap.

Still talking about Garmin, the team is going to lose other riders in the next season. In fact, Jack Bobridge and the Meyer brothers have all decided to join the GreenEdge team, which is a very interesting Australian project. Amongst the guys who have signed a contract with this new team there are also Stuart O'Grady and Pieter Weening, two exceptional riders. O'Grady said that leaving Leopard was 'the most difficult decision of his career', but I think no one can criticise him for his will of joining such an ambitious project. Good luck Stuey!

Talking about national projects: Astana has employed Kashechkin, whereas Katiusha has offered a contract to Angel Vicioso.

As far as French teams are concerned, Di Gregorio is joining Cofidis, whereas AG2R has employed Casper. Tony Gallopin, instead, is joining RadioShack.

A team that has been very active so far in the cycling market is Skil Shimano, who has great expectations for next year. In fact the Professional team has already employed Patrick Gretsch and has offered a contract to Degenkolb who, according to Gazzetta, has received an offer also fromLleopard Trek. The German sprinter is behaving in a mysterious way and has said that he'll reveal his new team during the Vuelta. Given the misteryous behaviour, one could assume that he's joining the Leopards.

Talking about LT, the team has recently employed Ben Hermans, who is a solid helper. Quick Step instead has signed the Velits twins, one of which (I never remember who...) is a very strong GT contender.

Whereas Movistar has wisely employed the Italian hope Visconti, Vacansoleil is likely to become the team with the most loved line-up ever, since it has offered a contract to everyone's hero Kenny Van Hummel. He and Hoogerland together at the Tour, wow!

Talking about the Italian market, one of the big names looking for a contract is Pippo Pozzato. I've already said that LT should employ him, but it actually seems that Poz may end up riding for Farnese Vini. In fact Lampre apparently refused to give Filippo a contract after he said that he wanted the team to employ also his soigneur and his friend Paolini. I think Lampre was right in taking this decision, because Pozzato hasn't had any great result in the last two years and, imo, he should have a more humble attitude towatds those who want to give him a contract.

As far as the retiring riders are concerned, it seems that the cyclists who'll abandon the peloton after October are Arvesen (can anyone tell me more about this?), Cuesta, Noé and Loosli. On the other hand, some fresh air is arriving in Cycledom thanks to the neo pros: Keldermann is joining Rabobank, whereas Stefano Locatelli and Enrico Battaglin are joining Colnago. The promising Trentin instead has signed a contract with Omega, whereas Moreno Moser has become a Liquigas rider. Good luck to these boys!

After talking about serious issues like team transfers and universities, now it's time we relaxed a bit with something funny. And that is: 'Why do pros shave legs?', by fitness expert Scott Saifer. This man writes a fitness column for Cyclingnews and he has recently answered an e-mail about the riders' habit of shaving legs. Talking about that topic, Chris Anker Sorensen once said that pros shave because: 1. it's a tradition. 2. it helps the soigneurs during the massages. 3. 'Teams spend thousand euros every year in order to give us the most aerodynamic bikes. Ruining all these efforts because of a pair of hairy legs would be a bit silly, wouldn't it?'

So, what did mr. Saifer answer to the reader who asked him why riders shave their legs? Enjoy!

Okay, I have to tell you the real reason pros shave their legs. It's because pros shave their legs. There are lots of reasons to do it, but ultimately they do it because all the other riders do it. I've heard that pros shave so that it they crash and have to have bandages, the bandages won't stick to the hair, but I don't believe that most pros plan to crash so while that is a reason to shave, I don't believe that's why they do it. I've heard that hair sticks to asphalt and makes road rash worse as bigger chunks of skin get pulled off, but again, I don't think that's why they shave (...)

It's been said that smooth legs might decrease aerodynamic drag and improve competitiveness. It's also been said that a bit of hair could act like the turbulators on airplane wings, actually deceasing wind resistance by disrupting laminar flow and easing the separation of the air from the leg. Since smooth legs being faster makes intuitive sense, aerodynamics could explain shaving. Some pros do shave their arms as well.

Some riders say they shave because "chicks dig it". Many riders say that the first few days after shaving for the first time sliding between clean sheets is an awesome experience. Maybe some pros are closet sensualists.

Bottom line though is that riders shave because pros shave, and pros shave because pros shave. There are lots of arguable reasons but I don't think individual riders necessarily have reasons in that way. On the other hand, show up at a racing club ride in a new town with hairy legs and see how you are received. You'll be accepted much more readily if your legs are smooth.

After this masterpiece of writing, and while trying not to imagine some riders (Pozzato! D:)sliding between clean sheets while looking entusiasthic, I wish you all a good evening.

Some random cycling links (updated with some other Schleck videos):

Right after the end of the Tour, people often find themselves with nothing to do during the afternoons. Therefore, miss Fede decided to collect a few random links related to cycling (which she collected especially thanks to her kind readers) in order to amuse herself and her readers. Have fun!

VIDEOS:

- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kin72YxiDsg : Kat, a kind Danish reader, has recently updated on YouTube a video in which mr. Jakob Fuglsang gets his daily massage during the Tour. She uploaded it just for us, so let's thank her before starting to drool over the Leopard Trek rider (it's advisable to watch this video when you're alone).

- http://youtu.be/VrNv89dqMP0 : Marleen from 'Ride On!' has kindly pointed out this other video, featuring the Schleck brothers, de Zjonnies and an old car. In it Andy and Frank show their driving skills and, as they drive, they also find the time to damage the vehicle in many different ways.

- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ovgs9CFoFCk : They're everyone's favourite cycling chronists: Christian Paasche and Johan Kaggestad. In this video you'll see them go bananas as Edvald Boasson Hagen wins his second TdF stage of the year. From 0:24, things get really ridicolous and at 0:58 you can see an unknown chronist that sneaks into the Norwegian room and puts his headphones next to Christian's mouth, so that his viewers can realise how hard it is to work next to the Norwegian chronists.

- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3wHT5OJRWg (via miss Sansen): Carlos Sastre and Denis Menchov, together, in just one video: in it they speak English, they talk about their wives and they almost forget for how long they have been married. Moreover, they laugh . In particular, Menchov has a great time while talking about how he met his wife. And the worst thing is that there's nothing hilarious in that.

OTHER RANDOM LINKS:

After watching some videos, here are three other random links:

- http://womanmanfishbicyclemag.tumblr.com/ : the above-mentioned miss Sansen has recently surrendered to Tumblr. Visit her blog in order to read an exclusive 'from Fablish (or Fabianese) to English' vocabulary.

- http://www.sporten.dk/cykling/klar-parat-tour-fest: our special detective Susanne has recently provided us with some good pictures from the post-Tour parties in Paris. Enjoy!

- http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/the-cyclingnews-guide-to-rider-transfers-2011-2012 : the cycling market has already started and, so far, the interesting moves have been two: Van Hummel goes to Vacansoleil, Pozzato exits Katiusha (although his final destination is still unknown). What if he really joins Leopard Trek?

UPDATED PART:
Some kind readers have decided to add other amusing videos to this post. Lt's enjoy them!!
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFIKnK7GpeQ : Cancellara and Frank Schleck kidding with the cameras during the Tour. Lovely!
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbdFQ5rwEZs : What did the Schleck brothers and Fabian Cancellara do the day after Andy's victory in Liège 2009? In this video you have the answer! (this video, just like the previous one, has been found by our dear Cristin)
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0tVAQech7g&feature=related : Also our friend Figbash decided to point out a link: it is an old classic which every Schleck fan should watch at least once pro day. Enjoy the jokes and the relaxing view!
- http://bananasaboutbikes.blogspot.com/ : After a period of break, 'Bananas about Bikes' is back with a new, exciting post by Marleen! If you haven't done it yet, I suggest you reading it. Moreover, I suggest you paying some attention to that blog in the next days: we have lots of tales coming up! If you're a supporter and you've had a great time while visiting a bike race, send us a description of your day at bananasaboutbikes@gmail.com . We accept stories related also to women cycling, cyclo-cross, track cycling, criteriums, whatever! Moreover, they don't have to be very recent. We can publish also posts that date back to some months or years ago, we're not strict at all!
(ok, end of the shameless self promotion part ;)

Enjoy the videos and the links!

Thor the king:

Eventually, getting up at 6 am on a Sunday morning to watch a cycling race was a good decision. In fact, this year race was very exciting and kept everyone glued to the tv screen until the very last meter of race.
Personally, I spent the whole race asking myself: 'Will the parcours actually suit sprinters? Or will an attacker win?'

I supported the 'attackers' party, especially because Italy's team was mainlyformed by attackers. I usually become very patriotic during the Worlds, so this morning I was hoping for an Italian victory. In fact I didn't believe that my favourites riders (Chris Sorensen and Frank Schleck) had a lot of chances of winning in Geelong, so this morning I was in a very 'Vai Italia!' mood.

When I turned on the tv, the leader of the race was the Ukrainian Kvachuk. He had gone on a breakaway with other 4 heroes earlier in the morning, but unfortunately for him his fate was already decided in the same moment he left the peloton (the other breakawayers du jour were
Diego Alejandro Tamayo Martinez , Jackson Rodriguez, Mohammed Said Elammoury, Oleksandr and Matthew Brammeier). After reaching a maximum advantage of 23 minutes, in fact, the 5 men were caught one after the other.
With 50 kms to go the situation became very interesting, since 2 groups of riders were created. In the first one there were 4 Italians (Pozzato, Nibali, Visconti and Tosatto), some Germans (Greipel included), Gilbert with some teammates, Chris Anker Sorensen (yay!), Serpa Perez, Offredo and other 20 riders. In the second one instead there were big guns like Freire, Kolobnev, Breschel, Cancellara and Thor Hushovd. Farrar, Cavendish and Sagan instead had already got retired.
Tosatto and a Belgian (was it Van Avermaet?) did their best in order to help their teammates, then the fireworks began. Nibali attacked and was followed by Gilbert, Pozzato, Visconti, Evans, Perez and Sorensen. Chris Anker made a great work and showed he's in a very good form. Imo he was simply great today, since he worked a lot for himself and then even had the strength of helping Matti in the very lat meters of the race.
Unfortunately with a few laps to go the breakawayers were caught. In the meanwhile Cancellara had lost contact from Freire's group and the fact that now Freire and Hushovd were in the same group as the Italian leaders frustrated a lot of supporters here in Italy.
In the last kms, Philippe Gilbert showed a lot of courage by launching a solo attack. I think Gilbert was incredible today, he didn't win but he showed to everyone that, if the parcours had been a little harder, he would have been a very hard opponent for everyone. His attack unfortunately didn't have luck and he was caught again with about 3 kms to go.
When Gilbert attacked, Pozzato (the Italian rider who had the task of following Philippe) disappeared. If he had followed him, I'm sure things would have gone differently and we would may have had another World Champion right now.

After Gilbert's attack a group of riders including Frank Schleck, Evans, Kolobnev,Martens and Moerenhout got clear of the peloton. At that point I got a bit angry since I had the impression that everyone was waiting for Evans to close the gap between them and Gilbert. The problem was that Evans had already spent a lot of energy previously, so I thought it was up to the other riders to organise Gilbert's chase. After all, I think that these guys couldn't have a better chance of winning (or, at least, of ending up on the podium) so I think that, if they still had some energy left, they should have used it in that moment. Instead they didn't, and they were caught by the 'sprinters' group', which was pulled by a Slovenian rider, with about 4 kms to go.

A few seconds later also poor Gilbert was caught and Brajkovic and Terpstra attacked. Their action was hopeless, since now everyone who had a fast rider in the main group was trying to make the sprint happen. Chris Sorensen, for example, sacrificed himself for Breschel in spite of his tiredness.

And so, the race eventually ended in a sprint. It wasn't a massive sprint, but still,between the riders who took part in it,there were super fast guys like Freire, Hushovd and Breschel.

Breschel started the sprint first and, for a long moment, I had the feeling he was going to win. Then, Hushovd passed him on the left and won, raising his arms in triumph. Honestly, I have to admit that at that point I let a bad word escape from my mouth.

Matti was 2nd, a surprising Davis was 3rd, while Pozzato was 4th for few centimeters. Without giving supporters the time of realising what had happened, Italian journalists immediately started the dance of the 'Oh, but if they had done so...' 'Oh, but if they hadn't done so...' and so on. Somehow, I have the feeling that this time however they will be softer than they were last year with poor Cunego.

Personally I think that Italy was the strongest team today. They dominated the race and they showed they know how to attack even if they're racing without their radios. Unfortunately for the team, in the decisive moment Pozzato, the team's leader, slept a bit and didn't follow Gilbert. Otherwise, I'm sure things would have gone in a different way.

Imo, Pozzato's problem has always been the following: in the decisive moments, he often takes little naps. He's a good rider, no doubts about it, but he often has defaillances in the decisive moments of the races. And then, he almost always gives the fault of this to something/someone who isn't him.

'I had the cramps in the last lap of the race', he said after crossing the finish-line. Well, personally I think that also Freire and the other riders had cramps (otherwise I think Oscarito would have got a better result), but they didn't blame their placement on them. Well, however, that's how things went and complaining about them now is simply useless,also because I'm sure Pozzato is very angry at how things went, too. Just put yourself in his shoes: 5 months (or whatever else) of sexual abstinence to get a 4th placement in the Worlds.Poor Pippo.

As far as the other teams are concerned, Spain didn't do nothing (as usual). If their 'we don't do anything!' tactic had paid off today, I think I'd have been very angry right now. Fortunately it didn't and Oscarito just got a 6th placement.

Australia was exceptional, since a surprising Davis got a wonderful bronze medal and Cadel Evans was one of the best riders of the competition. Although the parcours didn't suit him,Cadel gave his best to win anyway. And to think that until last year he was known as the 'wheelsucker man'...Amazing.

Denmark rode in a very aggressive style too, especially thanks to Chris Sorensen. You know I really like this rider, but this time I think I won't exaggerate in saying that he was one of the best riders of the race. Also Breschel was very good, but unfortunately he missed the gold medal once again. Btw I think he'll be able to get a good result also at next year's Worlds in Copenhagen too, so he doesn't have to get desperate about this year at all.

Belgium was wonderful too, since Van Avermaet, Leukemans and Gilbert rode in a perfect way during the whole race. I just loved Gilbert's attack and felt very sorry when he was caught with 3 kms to go.

Holland was very good too. Moerenhout and Terpstra showed their class, while Boom was present in one of the most dangerous breakaways of the day.

Slovenia and Russia were very active, but their efforts didn' bring any good result. Kolobnev had his golden chance when he found himself in a breakaway with Evans and Schleck, but didn't grab it because he didn't help Evans in Gilbert's chase. Slovenia pulled the 'Freire's group all day long, but their best rider was eventually 11th. Btw this was a great result for the Slovenian, who were counting on Sagan but then quickly changed their tactics and started to work for Bole and Brajkovic.

France was good too, especially because Feillu got a very good Top 10 placement.The same worths for the incredible Arashiro, who surprised me a lot today.Also Cardoso and Fofonov (Kazakhstan had to deal with the absence of Vinokourov) got a surprising result, while Wegmann showed he's a very strong and complete rider.

Luxembourg didn't have a lot of victory chances today, but Frank Schleck showed his jersey in the last kms of the race. He probably didn't believe a lot in his breakaway and imo that was a mistake. But still, he got a very good placement anyway.

Switzerland instead totally depended on Fabian Cancellara and,when Fabian got dropped, the Swiss had to say 'Auf Wiedersehen!' to their victory dreams.

USA's Van Garderen was very good in entering an important breakaway at the half of the race, but the Americans didn't seem very active in the race anyway.

As far as Cavendish is concerned, I think he didn't believe in his chances of winning this race and that the parcours was probably too tough for him. And then, he definitely needs more than two teammates to win such a long and a hard race.

Talking about teammates, Hushovd's victory was great also because Thor didn't have a lot of teammates around him. I'm happy for his victory because Thor is a very good rider who deserved such an important triumph to enter the Olympus of the great champions of Cycledom. And now that he's got the ranbow jersey, I think he can find even more motivation in himself and therefore I believe we'd better include him in the 'list of favourites for the 2011 Paris-Roubaix' already now, more than 6 months before of that race.

So, this was the first 'Down Under' worlds. The time zone actually made it hard for me to watch the race, but the riders didn't have a lot of problems because of this. Geelong's worlds are over, see you in Copenhagen next year.

(pictures by Mark Gunter)

Back to blogging (aka,new random post!)

To your joy,I'm back to blogging after a week of total break from writing useless things about cycling in an imperfect English on an Internet page lost in the obscure paths of the Blogosphere. The reasons of this break have been many.First of all,last week I spent a lot of time studying and giving philosophy lessons to a classmate.As a consequence of my great lessons,my classmate managed to get 6 (the lowest sufficient mark here in Italy) in her test,although me is convincted that,if she studied a bit more,she would be able to get better results.Then it was my turn to face 2 (2!!) philosophy tests in 7 days,a thing that made me go crazy and made me plan different ways of escaping from school together with my classmates in order to skip that damned test about Locke and Hobbes.Unfortunately at the end we didn't follow any of our plans and had to study a lot for the tests.Third reason of my break,the cycling news of the last week weren't too interesting and the fact that I can't follow the races on tv has a big influence on my will of blogging in those days.

Anyway,after boring you with this list of reasons that kept me away from blogging in the last 8 days,here's a little random post.Enjoy!

RACES RESUME:

Here's a little resume of what happened in the Cycledom races during the last 8 days.

Vuelta a Mallorca: The 3rd stage of the Vuelta a Mallorca was won by Linus Gerdemann,the 4th one was won by Rui Costa and the final one by André Greipel ("I had predicted that!", Logic screams).

Anyway,in these lines I'd like to highlight the performances that some of the Saxo Bank riders showed us during these stages.First of all,during the Trofeo Inca (race finally won by Gerdemann) André Steensen got an excellent 12th placement.On that day,more than 50 riders finished out of limit and lots of other athletes didn't even finish the race.Therefore,I think Saxo Bank supporters can only be happy with André's result.Also Laurent Didier impressed me on that day,since he finally came in 25th.Anders Lund was 55th with 17 minutes of delay from the stage winner and was the last SB rider to make it to the finish line in the right time.In fact Nicki Sorensen,Kasper Klostergaard and Chris Anker Sorensen crossed the finish line one after the other,out of time limit,with 33 minutes of delay from Gerdemann.Fuglsang,Porte,Jorgensen and Marycz didn't finish the race and I believe that this is understandable,if you consider that the weather on that day was really bad and that some of these riders had just had their debut in Cycledom at the time of the race.
The following day the Trofeo Deià was won by Rui Costa,who outsprinted his breakaway companion Joan Horrach.Frank Schleck was 22nd,whereas His Amazingness Jens Voigt came in 25th.Chris Sorensen was 68th,whereas Didier,Lund,Fuglsang,N.Sorensen and Marycz crossed the finish-line out of time limit.Jens Voigt won the sprinter competition.
The last Trofeo of the race,the Magaluf-Palmanova one,was won by Greipel,who outsprinted Koldo Fernandez and Cardoso.Excellent 7th was Jonas Aaen Jorgensen,whereas Voigt was 12th.Didier came in 16th,whereas Frank Schleck was the 37th rider to cross the finish-line,right in front of Steensen.53th was Chris Sorensen,whereas Klostergaard was 56th.Fuglsang was 96th.His Amazingness Jens Voigt won the Mountain and the Combination Competitions.
I must say that I've been positively impressed by the way some Saxo Bank riders raced in the Vuelta a Mallorca.To be more precise,the guys who impressed me the most were Steensen (didn't expect him to ride so strong so early in the season),Jorgensen and Didier.Voigt impressed me as well,but this isn't a big news.Porte and Marycz had some problems in the hardest stages,but I believe that this is due to the fact that they're both neo pro riders and that therefore they can just get better during the season.

Tour of Qatar: The final GC of the race was won by Wouter Mol.The third stage was won by Chicchi,who dedicated his victory to Ballerini.Chicchi also won the last stage of the race and I was very surprised by this since I knew that Chicchi was a good rider,but I didn't expect him to win stages in front of guys like Haussler,Farrar or JJ Haedo (3rd in the last stage).The 5th stage of the race was won by Boonen (someone's surprised?),who outsprinted Danilo Napolitano.

Tour of Oman: the first stage of the race was won by Jimmy Casper in front of Boasson Hagen.Pinotti made an attack,but couldn't resist at the front of the race for a lot of time.The second stage saw a good victory for Daniele Bennati (welcome back to victory!),a sprinter that I really like and that didn't win anything for almost one year.Boasson Hagen,3rd in the stage (4th was Breschel) got the leader jersey (Fangirl had a random thought about how the first 4 guys to cross the finish-line in this stage look like,and I think you can easily guess it...).
The 3rd stage was won by Boasson Hagen in front of Napolitano and Farrar (how many times has Farrar already arrived 2nd or 3rd in this season?).Excellent 5th was Stuart O'Grady.
Today's stage saw 2 surprises.First of all,the winner of the race was Leigh Howard,who got his first pro victory today and managed to outsprint guys like Bennati,Boonen and Farrar.Not bad,as a first victory,The second surprise was the fact that Boasson Hagen lost the leader jersey to Daniele Bennati,who now leads with 6 seconds of advantdge on Farrar.The big change in the GC was caused by wind splits.Anyway,according to Bennati,the riders who attacked Team Sky weren't very nice towards Edvald. “Racing is racing but perhaps it wasn't fair they attacked when Boasson Hagen stopped for a leak",he told Cyclingnews.

WTF? DU JOUR:
http://www.cyclingnews.com/ :the Gazzetta dello Sport already tries making my eyes burn by publishing pics of shirtless Pozzatolocks sunbathing in Qatar without putting any warning about it.Today,I go on Cyclingnews website and what do I see before my eyes start burning and itching? Shirtless Pozzatolocks! And his blog! Me wonders what I have done to deserve this series of surprises...