Pronounciation post!

Finally, miss Fede has managed to publish her famous 'pronounciation post' here on her blog. You're happy, aren't you? ;) Unfortunately I couldn't publish it before of today because I've been very busy with school over the last days, so I couldn't write this post any earlier.
Before starting our pronounciation class, however, I'd like to say some brief things about TDU, which ended on Sunday. The stages of this race were won by Goss (24 year old), Swift (he's just 23 and got two victories), Michael Matthews (born in 1990), Cameron Meyer (22, he won a stage and the GC) and Ventoso (29). As you can see, all those guys (with the little exception of Ventoso) are really young and they all showed their great talent in the Australian race. Matthews, in particular, was born two years before of me and he has already proved to cycling lovers that people born in the 1990s are the best ones in the world ;)
Talking about young guys, a special mention must go also to Andrea Guardini, Italian rider of Farnese-Vini. He's 21 and this is his first year as a pro. He had his first race on Monday and he won it; he had his second pro race yesterday afternoon and he won it too. I think it's still too early to start screaming 'We have a new cycling star!' all over the blogosphere, especially because there are some little differences between Tour de Langwaki and Tour de France, but however I think that starting your professional career with 2 victories in 2 races is simply great. So, chapeau to Andrea.

Together with this explosion of young talents, however, we must remember that TDU also saw the second (and last) cycling retire of Lance Armstrong. I've never liked Armstrong as a rider (although I must admit that I don't remember much from his 7 Tour de France victories), but I've always admired him because he managed to defeat cancer and is now a symbol of the world fight against this horrible disease.

Anyway, either you like him or hate him as a rider, you can't deny that Armstrong marked cycling history for the last 19 years, from his first Tour de France stage victory in 1993 to his retire, a few days ago. So, it's with a strange mix of relief (I hated the Armstrong fever!) and respect that I say 'bye bye' to this Texan rider.

However. After being so nice to read the usual random reflections of mine, I think you completely deserve to read the 'pronounciation post' that I've just finished to write. Before of beginning, anyway, let me say three things:

Firstly, I can't guarantee you that this post is mistake-free. I tried my best to avoid mistakes, but I might have made some of them anyway. After all, no one is perfect. In case you notice a pronounciation mistake, I'd really appreciate it if you could kindly let me know about it. The goal of this post in fact is to improve our pronounciation of difficult riders' names and everyone who can help us to reach this goal with advices, corrections or so will be warmly welcomed.

Second thing I wanted to say, in this post I've talked about some of the names that I don't find easy to pronounce. If you would like to know the correct pronounciation of names that I didn't include in this post, don't be shy and feel free to ask for the correct pronounciation in the comment area. You may not be the only one who has problems with a certain name, so your request could be useful for everyone.

Third and last thing, I looked for some names but couldn't find any video with their pronounciation. If someone can help me, they're welcome.

After these boring advices, let's enjoy the class now!

CANADA:
We never mentioned Canadian riders in the comment area, but I must admit that, imo, two of the most difficult names to pronounce correctly in the peloton are 'Ryder Hesjedal' and 'Svein Tuft'.

To know the correct pronounciation of Hesjedal, click on: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18mR3JypOdU . They say Ryder's name already at the beginning, so you don't have to watch the whole video.
As far as Svein Tuft is concerned, you can find the pronounciation of his surname here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOto7BxfHns (0:14).

UNITED STATES:
Remaining in America, the only American name about which I have horrible doubts is 'Levi Leipheimer'. I've already mentioned that the pronounciation of Levi's name changed completely over the last 2 years here in Italy, but now we're finally going to discover what the correct pronounciation of said name is. Fasten your seatbelts, ladies and gentlemen, because we Italians are finally going to discover the truth about this name! Aaaand the correct pronounciation of this name is...Livai Laipaimar!!!! (or something similar ;)

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8-o8HwhNgU&feature=related , 0:06).

SPAIN AND SOUTH AMERICA:
I've decided to dedicate just one chapter to names of Spanish origins because I actually don't have problems with them. If someone would like to know the correct pronounciation of some Spanish names, let me know: I speak Spanish, so I might be able to help you.

GERMANY:
The only tricky German name I can think of right now is 'Jens Voigt'. This rider's surname in fact seems to be very difficult for everyone, journalists and supporters included. If you've always pronounced it as 'Voyt', I'll tell you that you're wrong. The correct pronounciation of Jens' name in fact is 'Fokt'. To listen to the correct pronounciation, read the 'Holland' part of this post ;)

POLAND:
Ah, Polish names! Who doesn't love them? Some months ago, our dear blogmate Ania was so kind to write me the correct pronounciation of the Polish name 'Przemysław' in the phonetic alphabet. If you can read it, here it is: pʃemɪswʌv . Nice, isn't it? I know that you're now going to name 'Przemyslaw' your gold-fish, your son, your dog, whatever else, but do you actually know who Przemysław ('Przemek' for friends) is? If you don't, write the name 'Przemysław Niemiec' somewhere. According to my predictions, you're going to hear about him pretty often this year.
Other tricky Polish names are Sylwester Szmyd and Jaroslaw Marycz. To hear the correct pronounciation of those names (and also the correct pronounciation of 'Przemyslaw Niemiec'), go on http://translate.google.it/#plen and have fun with the 'Listen' button.

DENMARK:
As far as Danish names are concerned, I think that the most of us know how to pronounce 'Sorensen' and are therefore able to indicate the surname of half of the Danish population in a correct way. The problems begin when poor fangirls come across Danish names like Jakob Fuglsang or Matti Breschel. As far as the first name is concerned, I admit that I've always pronounced it as 'Foogle-sang', before that Susanne enlightened me by saying that the correct pronounciation of the name of the hero of many fangirls is 'Ya'cobb Fool-sang'.
As far as Matti Breschel is concerned, Susanne kindly gave me the link to this vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CypDAWtD_Vc (Matti's name is said at the beginning of it and after 38"). It is a very nice vid and I'm sure that some of us will really appreciate it (nice blue eyes on the horizon, girls, nice blue eyes!)
PS: I know that it has nothing to do with cycling, but on Thursday I have a philosophy test about Kierkegaard. How do you pronounce that?

OCEANIA:
My doubts about Oceanian names were kindly resolved by Cougar Girl. Here you have her answers to my doubts:
Cameron Wurf = Kammer-on Wuhrr-f. Travis Meyer = Tra-viss My-ehrr (not May-ehrr). Hayden Roulston = Hay-D'n Rahl-st'n. Richie Porte = Ree-chee Por-turr.

HOLLAND and BELGIUM:
Ah, Dutch names! Apparently, names like 'Boom', 'Mollema' and 'Gesink' seem very easy to pronounce, don't they? Unfortunately for us, not every Dutch name is that simple. For example, amongst Dutch riders we can find Tom Stamsnijder and Steven Kruijswijk. 'How do you pronounce that?', I hear you wonder in despair. Well, the answer is simple and it comes from an amazing vid that our blogmate Mar (http://whatmarlikes.tumblr.com/) prepared for us last week. Here you have it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lx6q3DiUCzk . In it, Mar says the following names: Steven Kruijswijk (I'l never be able to say it correctly!), Robert Gesink, Bauke Mollema, Tom Stamsnijder, Lars Boom, Koos Moerenhout.
Moreover, Mar also gave us the pronounciation of two Belgian names, Wouter Weylandts and Jurgen Van Den Broeck. Dulcis in fundo, she also pronounces 'Jens Voigt' in a perfect way towards the very end of the video (1:36). Once again, great work Mar!

SWEDEN:
No one ever mentions them, but Swedish names can be tricky too. Just think about the name 'Thomas Lovkvist'. Luckily, you can hear Tom's name pronounced by himself on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MW82TsrGyAg .

RUSSIA:
Russian names can be difficult too, especially because accents rule the Russian world and accents are never written on the names of Russian riders. Anyway. I did try to look for Russian videos of YouTube, but my quest wasn't actually that successful.

As far as Denis Menchov is concerned, I found a nice video on http://diaadiano.blogspot.com/2010/10/blog-post_18.html . It is in Russian and the only things I could understand from it were: 'skandali', 'Tour de France', 'na ulitza' and 'Alberta Contadora' (yes, AlbertA ContadorA). Btw, when I was already losing hope, I finally heard it: 'Denis Menchov', at 2:28. The journalist actually seems to say 'Menchova' and it does so in a very unusual (for me at least) way.
Unfortunately trying to understand Russian in that vid was a hard task for me, and it was even harder to find Russian videos with the correct pronounciation of 'Kolobnev' and 'Ignatiev'. So, I'm waiting for a volunteer to help me in my research.

LITUANIA, BELARUS AND UKRAINE:
Unfortunately this evening I didn't have time to look for the correct pronounciation of 'Grivko' and 'Konovalovas'. If there is someone from Lithuania and Ukraine reading this blog, I'd really appreciate it if they could help us all with the pronounciation of these names.
To make you forgive me for this lack of information about Ukrainian and Lituanian name, however, I'll tell you what the correct pronounciation of 'Siutsou' is (*drums rolling*). It is 'Sizzov' and not 'Siutsu' (Italian chronists used to say 'Siutsu' some years ago, then they corrected themselves on time).

ITALY:
Dulcis in fundo, here we arrive at pronounciation of Italian names. As I already said, accent is important in Italian names. It is Nìbali and Cùnego, not Cunégo and Nibàli. It is Viganò and it is Ballàn, it is Bàsso and it is Riccò.

To hear some of these names, go on http://translate.google.it/#ititchicchi%0D%0A and write Chicchi, Riccò, Visconti, Viganò, Petacchi, Basso, Cheula and Agnoli . If you want to have a little clue about how to pronounce Italian names, remember those things:
1) double letters and accents, when present, aren't there just for beauty.
2) 'Che' and 'Chi' are pronounced as if they were German: 'ke' and 'ki'. In English, the 'chi' sounds like the 'ki' in 'kickey' (listen to 'Chicchi' and Cheula' to get a pratice example).
3) To listen to the correct pronounciation of the 'GN' sound, go on Google Translate and write 'Agnoli'.
4) Italian double 'z' is pretty difficult to pronounce. To listen to its correct pronounciation, you can hear the name 'Pellizotti' being pronounced in this video, right after the commercial: http://video.gazzetta.it/ciclismo-franco-pellizotti/4e99e29a-786f-11de-a581-00144f02aabc . Instead, to hear Pozzato's correct pronounciation (which I dedicate to miss Sansen), go on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-bKX0YNhb4 and wait 14 seconds.

Unfortunately it's already very late for me, so I'm forced to close this post here. I hope you enjoyed it. If you did, I might make a new pronounciation post in the next weeks/months/ years ;)

EDIT: For those of you who are too lazy to read the comment section, here I'm going to list the videos/ voice posts/ suggestions/ whatever else that some dear blogmates have wrote me in their comments over the last days (unfortuntely I couldn't do it before because I was too busy).

First of all, let's talk about RUSSLAND AND LITUANIA:

Our kind blogmate Ania sent us a video with the correct pronounciation of Konovalovas (0: 10) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjFWDqOT7Hw . She also sent me another vid about Menchov (0:07) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ee-idgG32IY , one about Kolobnev (0: 57 and also earlier) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x04vp805Xd4 and one about Ignatiev (4:02) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MA_97E_MUGA . Nice work, isn't it? Now, all together: 'Thank you miss Ania!!'

NORWEGY AND SWEDEN:

Another dear blogmate, Susanne, sent me two very good videos in which you can hear the names 'Hushovd' and 'Ljungqvist' being pronounced correctly. The Hushovd one is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbYgmBonYaE (go at its beginning), the other one is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXmFsijkCVg (0:14). If you want to have fun, look for the other Hushovd video that she posted in one of her comments. In it, you can hear the Norwegian chronists clearly going bananas because of a Norwegian victory at the Tour!

Back to the pronounciation issue, dear Ingrid kindly told us that Hushovd should be pronounced as 'Hus-hovd', and not as 'Hush-vod' like I've been saying it for the last 5 years or so. Instead, Ljungvist should be pronounced as 'Jongkvist'. Thank you for your help, Susanne and Ingrid!

Last but not least, OCEANIA, SOUTH AFRICA AND WALES:

Leela kindly recorded a voice post on her tumblr in order to make us listen the correct pronounciation of some English sounding names. In it she shows us how to pronounce Cameron Wurf, Travis and Cameron Meyer, Hayden Roulston, Richie Porte, Chris Froome, Daril Impey and Geraint Thomas' names in the correct way. Here is the link to her great voice post: http://spokesandracquets.tumblr.com/post/2983428167/voice-post-for-the-lovely-miss-fede-and-co . Thank you a lot for it, Leela!

So, this seems to be the real end of this post. Thank you to all those who heped me writing it and let's hope that you all had fun while reading it and that you found it useful!

The start of the season, interview with Frank Schleck, Sorensen's blog and more:

After a busy week in which we reflected more than usual about the pronounciation of the riders' names, miss Fede is back with another super-random post and is glad to announce that, finally, the 2011 cycling season has officially begun! Yayyyyy!
The first race of the year (apart from the Australian Championships) was Cancer Council Helpline Classic in Adelaide. The race ended in a sprint, which was won by the Tasmanian Matthew Goss for HTC Columbia.

2010 is over, but HTC Columbia keeps on getting great results in the sprints! Cavendish didn't have a good day, he eventually came 108th, but his teammates managed to get the Top 2 of the race anyway. Impressive, isn't it?
Talking about Cavendish, however, it must be said that Henderson crashed at the end of the race and his crash probably caused some problems also to other riders.
3rd in the sprint was Robbie McEwen (hope he'll win some races this year!), while 4th was a great Elia Viviani. 5th was Chris Sutton, while 6th was a very good Davide Viganò. Imo that was the best reply he could give to a Gazzetta journalist, who some days ago wrote: 'It's amazing how Viganò can manage to ride for such good teams although he has never got good results'.

Unfortunately I can't add anything new to what has already been said about the race, since I couldn't see it because of the time zone. Anyway, here you have some random randomness collected by me this afternoon.

INTERVIEW WITH FRANK SCHLECK:
http://www.tageblatt.lu/sport/radsport/story/21130532 : First of all, as you probably know, team Leopard Trek is having a training camp in Mallorca in these days. Photos are available almost everywhere and on the link above you can find some nice ones.

A Luxembourgian newspaper, Tageblatt (check link above again), is giving a lot of attention to Leopard Trek's training camp and is reporting the activities of every single day of training on its website.

On http://www.tageblatt.lu/sport/story/30253999 you can also find a great interview with Frank Schleck that was done by Tageblatt's Cristophe Junker. I found it very nice, so here you have a translation of some of its parts (I had to translate it from German, so I already apology for the eventual mistakes):
'Andy and I came here in Mallorca two, three days before of the other riders and I'm very happy about this. In this way we could ride our bikes for three days. You just need to look at the weather in Luxembourg to understand that it's very complicated to train outside in this period. Moreover, in December it snowed a lot in Luxembourg, so we had to catch up a bit with training before of the training camp (...). So far the time here at the camp has passed really fast. Our days are full of training, massages, interviews, photos...'
Journalist: the team has received a lot of attention from the press. Is it because it is the n.1 team of the world? Or is it a normal thing for a new team?
Frank: I think it's a combination of these 2 factors (...). Of course the 'new team' factor has been important. Moreover, in these team there are many strong riders and this creates a lot of interest in the team. We try to present us as very open people, we also try to be always very puntual at the interviews, not like I've done with you today (grins and looks at his wristwatch, ndr)'
(...)
Journalist: In March 2010 the Italian newspaper 'Gazzetta dello Sport' reported the first rumours about the creation of a Luxembourgian team.
'I will not deny that at the time we had heard something about the possible creation of a Luxembourgian team. People talked a lot about it, but these talks weren't interesting for us.
J: Why?
'Because there was nothing of concrete behind them'.
J: When did they become concrete?
'We had lots of talks and contacts going on with other teams, because many people were interested in making us sign a contract with them. What is happening right now, at the time it was just a dream, a dream that now has come true. After the Tour of Luxembourg we received a concrete offer. We were more than happy when we accepted it. 4 days later, we went to a training camp in Switzerland and we informed Bjarne about the offer we had received. We were 100% sincere with him and we informed him as soon as we could. Bjarne couldn't make us any offer, because at the time he didn't have any sponsor for 2011.
J: When did you hear the first rumours about Alberto Contador joining Riis?
'During the Tour de France, like everyone else. However, in the small article that appeared on la Gazzetta in March 2010, not only did they report many things about Luxembourg; they also wrote that Contador would have gone to Riis' team.
J: How is the relationship between you and Bjarne nowadays?
'There isn't any problem between us. Of course Andy and I were disappointed when Riis said that we had lied to him. In the meanwhile, however, we've got over it. (...)

'I still firmly believe that Andy and I are a bit late on our preparation. We miss kilometers. In the team, I actually feel like a captain. If there is a problem, the young guys come to talk to me. People respect me and I feel very well in this situation. This also derives from the fact that I feel very well in this team. I was surprised after today's test, it was very good. Andy and I were a bit afraid of it. However, during the winter I didn't put on weight, although I didn't pay attention to it'. (not: I'm not very sure about the translation of this part, if it's wrong please let me know)
J: What are the team's goals for the first weeks of the season?
A team is already 'down under'. Will Clark, who is a neo pro, won 5 races in 6weeks last year. And to win those races, you really need to be a good rider. I've seen him riding and I'm sure he has a bright future in front of himself. At Paris-Nice, Jakob Fuglsang and I will try to have good results, but we don't want to have pressure on us. If I get a good result there, good. If I don't, it won't be a problem.
J: What about Flavio Becca?
'My father has known him for a lot of time. He had the idea of creating this team. We owe him a lot.
J: How did you come to the team's creation? Did he phone you all of a sudden to tell you that he wanted to create a team?
'Yes, it was something like that. Like his father Aldo, he had always been a great cycling fan. His passion has become bigger and bigger over the years, and now it has brought him at this point. One day he gave us his word and, since he's a 'homme de parole', he respected it. This season we want to pay him back for what he did for us by creating this team'.
(Interview by Cristophe Junker)

NEWS FROM LEOPARD TREK TEAM:
Still talking about team Leopard Trek, the other day our blogmate Leela pointed out on her blog(http://justfuglen.tumblr.com/ ) a letter that Leopard Trek has apparently sent to the people who work in the cycling media. In said letter (read it on:
http://www.cyclesportmag.com/news-and-comment/cs-blog-an-open-letter-to-leopard-trek/ ) Leopard Trek guys pointed out that:
- you should never write Team Leopard Trek, but 'Leopard Trek team';
- you should pronounce 'Leopard' as LAY-oh-pard;
- you should never write Leopard-Trek.
- you should always write Leopard Trek in caps (LEOPARD TREK).
After noticing that I've made every single possible mistake while writing the name of this team, me thinks that I won't be following any of these rules on this blog. After all, I didn't receive any mail from LeOpArD TREK, did I? ;)

CHRIS SORENSEN'S BLOG:
Let's now talk about another team, Saxo Bank Sungard. Or, better, let's talk about one of its riders, Chris Anker Sorensen. Since the beginning of the new year, in fact, Chris updated his blog twice and his first 2011 post was really good. In it Chris talked about his 2010 achievements and here you have a partial translation of of it:
(achievements of the 2010 year):
'Won a stage in the Giro (...). Helped Matti B. to get a silver medal. Rode the Tour for the second year, this time without writing a book. I had 89 days of race and rode 33000 kms. I stayed in 80 different hotels during the year and had 193 travel days'.
'Changed Luxembourg with Lucca and Moyenne with Ciao' (...)
'Speaking of Bangkok, during the year I've often been told this joke by Richie Porte. "What is the capital of Thailand?", he asks. Then he yells "Bang Kok" and hits a certain part of his body (only Richie, who is a gentleman, actually does so)'.
'I broke a collarbone in Barcelona and slid into a wall on a descent towards Como'.
'I was in New York shouting "Deefence" in Madison Square Garden. It was during a basketball match and together with thousands other people, so I didn't do it because I'm mad (...)'
'I became really good at making risotto and got a good knowledge of Italian wine. Found out that I am completely hopeless to make cappuccino after visiting the real king of cappuccinos in Monsummano Terme'.

2011 KITS:
Last link for today, here's an artice by Cyclingnews about the teams' new kits: http://www.cyclingnews.com/features/the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly-2011-team-kits . I don't agree with saying that Radioshack's kit is the best one of 2011. Actually, I find it pretty unoriginal. Talking about other teams, I really like Quick Step kit and I'm pretty keen on Katusha's new one too. On the other hand, I think Lampre's jerseys are too flashy and I don't really like Liquigas' new ones. Btw, remember one thing: the day we're all awaiting, aka the presentation of Geox (former Fuji-Servetto), is the 31st of January. Will Geox guys shock the world with their kits for the second year in a row or will they improve? Me (together with Denis Menchov and Carlos Sastre) can't wait to know the answer.

PRONOUNCIATION ISSUE:
As I could see from the waterfall of comments that followed my last post, the pronounciation issue is a topic that interest everyone of us. Perhaps we could really have pronounciation classes, and now I'll explain you how.
Mar has said that she'll kindly do voice posts about the names of Dutch riders on her blog. If you want to ask her what the correct pronounciation of some names is, write her on her Tumblr (see 'my favourite blog' list at your right) and she'll surely help you.
As far as non-Dutch names are concerned, I think we could make a list of the most complicated names to pronounce (in our opinion) and divide those names in categories, according to their nationality. Then it would be great if a person from every country could tell us if the pronounciation of those names on Google Translater is right or not. If it isn't, those people could make us a big favour by posting a YouTube video in which the name of the rider is correctly pronounced. Anyone agrees?

(Pic 1 by AFP, Pic 2 by Jeff Lahr)