Milano-Sanremo: Goss!

Ok, my podium prediction was completely wrong. Also my race prediction ('it will end up in a bunch sprint') was completely wrong. Oh dear, what happened to my prediction abilities?
Anyway. Yesterday Milan-Sanremo was even more thrilling than usual, thanks to some big crashes and to some great attacks. La Classicissima is one of my favourite races because of many reasons. Firstly, it's the first one-day classic of the year. Secondly, it marks the official beginning of the true season (next week there is Gend-Wevelgem, yay!). Thirdly, it's a 298 kms long race, but a rider can make the winning move even in the last meter of it (ask mr. Freire for further information). Moreover, la Classicissima has the Poggio and the Cipressa descents, two of the craziest downhills roads that the peloton must face every year. Last but not least, Milan-Sanremo = Primavera (Spring), just like Lombardia = Classica delle foglie morte ('Classic of the falling leaves', aka of the autumn).

Yesterday race began under the sign of Japan. Farnese-Vini's rider, Takashi Miyazawa, was very moved at the start of the Classicissima, when the riders had a moment of silence in order to think about the Japanese tragedy. In order to help his country, Takashi asked his colleagues for help and in fact every rider will sell the jersey that he wore yesterday. Moreover, a big Japanese flag was signed by the 198 riders that took part in the race and it will be sold as well in the next days.
Takashi was one of the early protagonists of the race, since he formed a breakaway after just 12 kms of race. When he got caught, he helped his teammate Visconti and he was one of the 156 riders who ended the race. Chapeau to him!
Yesterday race had its first coup de scene after 208 kms of race, at the start of le Mànie climb. Right before of it, Hushovd crashed together with other riders. On the climb descent, instead, it was Freire's turn to tumble. After these falls, the peloton was broken in two parts. In the first one there were guys like Cancellara, Bennati, Gerdemann, O'Grady, Gilbert, Greipel, Van Avermaet, Ballan, Pozzato, Paolini, Petacchi (only Lampre rider there), Boonen, Offredo, Chainel, Boasson Hagen, Nibali, Sagan, Ventoso, Marcato, Rojas, Rollin, Klier and Haussler. In the second group, instead, there were riders like Hushovd, Farrar, the whole Lampre team apart from Petacchi, Visconti, Cavendish, Renshaw, Bozic, Matthews (who had crashed earlier in the race), Freire, Cooke, Haedo and Arvesen.
BMC, Omega Pharma-Lotto and Katusha immediately started to pull hard at the front of the race, whereas the second group of riders couldn't get organised in a fast way. Amongst the most active teams in the chase there were Farnese-Vini and Euskaltel Euskadi (why?), whereas Columbia never chased in a decided way.
At the beginning of la Cipressa, the first group had about 1.50 minute advantage on the second one. Then, Scarponi attacked and he came back in the first group in a great way. That move made us understand that Petacchi wasn't at his best, while Michele right now has a great condition. Scarponi managed not to be followed by anyone in his chase and that was really a great numero.
In the meanwhile, the race got even more thrilling. Offredo and Ballan attacked, but the first one to arrive on the top of la Cipressa was Popovych. However, he was soon caught and Française des Jeux launched a great attack with Offredo and Chainel, who were soon joined by Van Avermaet and O'Grady. It was a very interesting move, since Van Avermaet and O'Grady are very fast, Chainel seemed in a great form and Offredo, in spite of the young age, is never afraid of attacking riders that are more famous than him. Moreover, Yoann seems to love Sanremo, since he attacked in the finale also a few years ago.
Greipel sacrificed himself for Gilbert during the quartet chase and in the end the 4 breakawayers were caught on the Poggio. Nibali attacked and during the descent he was joined by Cancellara, Gilbert, Ballan, Offredo, Pozzato, Goss and Scarponi.
In the last few kms, Cancellara tried to attack, but he was immediately chased by Goss. Therefore, he immediately interrupted his effort. The second one to attack was Gilbert, who was followed by-guess who?- Pozzato. In the end, the race was decided in a sprint. The one who launched it was Scarponi, but in the end the winner was Matthew Goss, the only sprinter that managed to stay glued to the wheel of the attackers. Second (for a few centimeters) was Cancellara, while 3rd was Gilbert.

I must say that I enjoyed this edition of la Classicissima, although I was sorry for the riders who crashed. Chronists kept on saying that it was the most exciting Sanremo of the last few years and that caused my father (who supported Matthews and Freire) to get very angry. 'If you consider exciting a race that is decided by crashes, well, this year Sanremo was the perfect race for you. On the other hand, if you like races where the strongest, and not the luckiest, wins, then you might have found it disappointing', he said at the end of it.
Luckily for me, although he wasn't in a very happy mood, watching the race with my father was very nice. For example, he was the one who said the quote of the day. During the podium ceremony, in fact, he looked at me and he said: 'Hey, but what colour are Cancellara's hair?'. I looked at him in a pretty surprised way before answering: 'Dark brown, I guess... Why did you ask me? Are you not feeling fine?'. His answer to my questions (be careful not to fall off your chair) was : 'Dark brown? Really? Are you sure? They actually look violet to me...' . I was almost falling off the couch when he told me that. After all, it had been a long (and disappointing) Sanremo also for him...
Talking about tiredness, also Rai's Alessandra De Stefano was exhausted at the end of the race. So exhausted that she said 'That's all from the Lungotevere of Sanremo, good evening everyone!' instead of 'That's all from the Lungomare of Sanremo!'. In fact, Lungotevere is a word that Italians use to indicate places in Rome that are near to the rider Tevere, while 'lungomare' is a word that is used to indicate the long roads near to the sea that you can find in many Italian villages. However, Alessandra was able to correct herself when she saw that her colleagues were grinning at her.
Back to the riders, however, I must say that I'm happy for Goss. I bet that, in the finale, he probably thought: 'The two most dangerous riders right now are Gilbert and Cancellara. Considering that Pozzato will surely follow Gilbert wherever he can, it's better if I glue myself to Cancellara's wheel!' . He did so (he was the only one who followed Fabian when he attacked, the other ones remained behind them) and in the end he got a stunning victory.
Also Cancellara was very good. He stopped his attack when he saw that Goss had followed him (why continuing the attack with Goss glued to your wheel when you know that he is going to beat you in a possible two-men sprint?) and in the end he came 2nd and he managed to outsprint a fast guy like Gilbert.
Also Stuart O'Grady was really good. I was actually happy to see Leopard behaving as a team. Fabian, Stuart, Bennati and Gerdemann were in the first group of riders and I was very glad about it.
Gilbert was 3rd and I'm sure he was pretty disappointed by that. However, he didn't look very brilliant on the Poggio, so I think he should be quite happy for his result.
Pozzato, as usual, seemed to race not in order to win, but in order to make other riders lose. In fact, he was the one who followed Gilbert and helped the other ones to catch him in the final 2 kms of the race. Philippe got pretty angry at that, especially because Pippo has been shadowing him since the Worlds in Australia. However, now that Philippe is not going to take part in Roubaix, Pippo will probably start to shadow another Belgian, Tom Boonen. Therefore, Tommeke, you'd better get ready for that.
On to another rider, I think that Scarponi raced very well. Petacchi didn't feel fine and Michele gave Lampre a good placement anyway. Moreover, he was the one who started the sprint: he knew he isn't very fast, but he gave it a try anyway.
Chainel and Offredo were really strong too. Pay attention to Yoann: this boy's got a lot of talent. It isn't easy to do certain things after 290 kms of race!
Haussler was disappointing, but it wasn't easy to follow guys like Gilbert and Nibali when they attacked. Saxo Bank was considered 'disappointing' too, but their leader was JJ Haedo and he had problems because of Hushovd's crashes. Therefore, Tosatto (the only one who remained in the first group of riders after le Manie) couldn't do much.
Greipel gave a big hand to Gilbert, perhaps because he wasn't in good form. Sagan disappeared in the finale, probably because 290 kms are too many for him. Petacchi instead was 12th although he didn't feel fine, while Bennati was 13th. Poor Marcato, who crashed on the Poggio, was 15th.
Boasson Hagen was 30th, but he doesn't seem in a good form right now. Therefore, no surprises from him. Rabobank was disappointing, but we must consider that its team leaders, Matthews and Freire, crashed, while Langeveld, Tjallingi and Boom had to work hard to help them.
Visconti was extremely disappointed by the race (it looked as if he was going to break into tears when he was interviewed by the Italian tv!) but he was very unlucky. Now Giovanni will have plenty of time to prepare the next races, where I'm sure that he'll get very good results.
So, that's all for now. Have a good Sunday and enjoy the sun (at least, here in Italy it is sunny, I don't know what the weather is like in the rest of the world...)! And don't forget to take a look at Bananas about Bikes: Mar has published a great post about la Vuelta in Assen!!

(Pic by Bettini)

Zoncolan and Plan de Corones: Ouch!!

Don't worry,the 'Ouch!' of the title doesn't refer to Floyd Landis' former team,but to how I felt watching the riders facing the Zoncolan and the Plan De Corones stages at the Giro.Crazy stages,to say the truth.Actually,me wonders how an organiser can put 2 climbs like that in a Grand Tour,after 3 weeks of pain,and then be angry if someone dopes.I'm not saying that they should ban hard climbs from Grand Tours (after all,the best stages always take place there) or that doping is understandable,but a last week of race with climbs like Zoncolan, Kronplatz, Mortirolo, Gavia, Aprica and Grappa is perhaps a bit too much for those guys,isn't it?
Anyway.The Zoncolan day was a really nice one,although I didn't enjoy the stage as I did back in 2007.This is probably due to the fact that in May 2007,during the Zoncolan stage,I had one of the first true 'Fangirl attacks' of my life.To cut a very long story short,I passed the whole afternoon on the sofa screaming "C'm on Andy,c'm on Andy,c'm on!!!" and feeling good because guys like Riccò and Di Luca had been dropped by my little hero in white.Some people could feel like making comparisons between Andy in 2007 and Richie Porte in 2010,but I assure you that Andy's exploit during the 2007 Giro was even bigger than the one that Richie is having now.Obviously you also have to consider that at the time Andy had been a pro for more than 2 years (Porte instead is a neo pro) and that the media interest around him (even if he never wore the Maglia Rosa) was far bigger than the one that there is now around Richie.
Anyway,back to the point: 2010 Zoncolan stage saw lots of tifosi (about 50 000 people) on the climb and many riders with very painful expressions.What impressed me most was that it was very hard for the riders to climb in big groups,so the majority of them climbed the mountain alone.It is more painful,but at least you don't have to wait your 'sufference companions' and you can hope to make your pain last less.
Basso was very strong and dropped Evans without even getting up on his pedals.I've never been a big fan of Ivan's riding style (I prefer guys who ride in a more spectacular way),but I have to admit that he was good on Sunday.Second was Evans and third an amazing Scarponi.I didn't believe he could race such a good Giro,so I have to apologize to him and to all the people (journalists in primis) who pointed him out as a Giro favourite already 2 months ago.
4th was a good Damiano Cunego,5th was Vinokourov and 6th was Sastre (Carlito,what hve you done?). 7th was Nibali (wait a few years and Italy will have a new good contender for Tour de France),8th was an exceptional, unbelievable, fantastic, amazing,wonderful,super Marco Pinotti from Osio. 9th was the very good Daniel Martin,while 10th was Gadret,who is racing a great Giro.He's a former mtb racer with a big love for Pantani,mountains are his terrain and so I think he'll be at the front also in the next stages.11th was a solid Arroyo,who kept his Maglia Rosa and showed that he'll be a strong contender for the overall victory.Wegelius was 15th and Richie Porte was 18th.Richie crossed the finish-line 4 seconds before of Chris Anker Sorensen, who probably helped him a lot during the whole stage.Italian chronists were pretty surprised by Chris' attitude over the last days.For example,they were surprised because after the Asolo stage Chris followed Porte also after the finish-line and complimented him a lot of times,although he had lost the Pink jersey.That's friendship,baby.
Chris,however,actually had his few seconds of glory on the morning of Sunday,when he rode to the start of the race with an Inter scarf in his hands.Unfortunately I missed the scene,but my father was very happy to see it and told me about it as soon as he saw me in the morning. Well,if Chris keeps on behaving this way,I think I'll manage to spread the Chris Anker's love all around the family in a very easy way.
Back to the Zoncolan stage,Garzelli lost about 9 minutes from Basso (the previous day he had lost 20 minutes from Nibali) and also Gerdemann suffered a lot on the climb.But after all,who didn't suffer on Sunday? Even I,as a supporter,almost felt the riders' pain.Actually,I think that it would be very nice to dedicate at least 2 lines to every rider who managed to end Sunday stage.Unfortunately,since it's studying,and not blogging,that makes me get good marks at school,I fear I have to avoid it.Anyway I let you know that I have more respect for guys like Cameron Meyer,Michael Morkov,Graeme Brown,Rick Flens,Gregory Henderson and so on than for the guys who got retired on the morning of the Zoncolan stage although they didn't have any physical problem.Therefore,a big Chapeau to everyone who made it to the Zoncolan top.

Another big chapeau obviously goes to all the riders who made their way up to Plan de Corones yesterday,Capelli included.Poor Ermanno Capelli in fact arrived out of time limit for just 19" and had to retire from the race.He had fallen two days before of Kronplatz and so he said he couldn't do any better yesterday because of the pain in his hip.I'm really sorry for him right now,since it's the second time he manages to run the Giro and it's the second time he has to retire because of a physical problem.Anyway don't worry Ermanno: you'll soon have other chances to show your skills.
Back to Kronplatz.The stage winner,as you may know,was Garzelli.I was really impressed by him,and Logic even has a few doubts about his result.A part of me says that Garzelli didn't ride as strong as Pellizotti did in 2008 (and that's good,if you consider that in 2008 it was even raining).And that same part of me adds that Garzelli never suffers the influence of rest days and that on the previous 2 stages he had rested.But still,I have some doubts.You're obviously free to disagree and say that I'm an hypocrite (I have doubts about Garzelli but I pretend everything's alright when Vinokourov wins Liége...): don't worry,I won't stop you (but then I'll ban you from here forever and ever...Perhaps ;) ).
Anyway,back to Plan de Corones.2nd was Evans,3rd was a very good Gadret.4th was a great Nibali,5th was Scarponi and 6th was Basso.7th was an exceptional Uran,8th was Vinokourov,9th and 10th were two surprising riders,Cataldo and Petrov.Also Samoilau raced a great TT.
The funny thing about Vinokourov is that he's even less smiley than Menchov.And then,he says 'Ivàn' and not 'Ivan' with the stress on the 'i' and this sounds verrry Russian.
15th was Szmyd (if he had raced for himself,I think he would have won),16th was Arroyo,17th Porte and 18th Sastre.Chris Sorensen 'took it easy' (even if I don't know if you can actually take it easy on a climb like that) and came 60th.
Even if everyone is focusing on the Basso-Evans duel,Arroyo is proving to be a very hard adversary for them.And then,riding a totally pink jersey,he also showed to be a very brave man.And also his mechanic,who ran for 200 meters with a bike on his shoulders during the last terrible km of yesterday's TT,must be a very brave man.Liquigas ds also had to run during the TT,but that was caused by the fact that the motorbike on which he was riding fell twice during the last part of the race.

And so here we arrive to today,a day on which we finally saw the riders riding in relaxed way.Or at least,some of them rode in a relaxed way.In fact some guys entered a breakaway and one of them,Monier,got his first victory after 6 years in professional Cycledom.Second was Hondo and third was a young Dutch,Kruijswijk.Also Nicki Sorensen was in the breakaway,but he didn't have a lot of luck.
The GC men arrived after 10 minutes,pulled by Liquigas guys.That was funny,since Liquigas so far has pulled everywhere but towards L'Aquila.

So,these were the last 3 days of race at the Giro.As you can see,no pics for this post and this is due to a little problem.In a few words,my new computer (the one on which I usually write my posts) has abandoned me on Monday and so I'm back to my old,big and sometimes slow pc. Therefore,if you notice more spelling mistakes than usual in this post,it's probably because I'm not used to typing on my old keyboard anymore.
Little ommunication to all readers out there: hopefully my new post will arrive after the Giro finish."Why?",I hear you ask.Well,simply,I've been awaiting this weekend since November because some of the stages are pretty near to my house,so I may (all this conditionals are due to scaramantic reasons) go to see them.If I do,be sure I'll write some 'Fangirl in action' posts.If you want to read my past posts connected to this topic,there should be some in October 2009,August 2009 and May 2009. Go there from the archive on the right of your screen,find the posts (A Fangirl in....),read them and,if you like them,click on the tag "Fangirl in action" to see the other ones (the one of October isn't actually that great,but those about the Tour de France really do rock!*).

http://blog.tv2.dk/chris.anker.ol/entry371759.html : usual link to Chris Sorensen's latest blog entry.

* yes,I'm a modest woman ;)

Richie Porte lost the jersey-Nibali won a great stage: Random post with a resume of the last Giro stages

An unusually brief post for me this evening.
First of all,today's Monte Grappa stage was unbelievable.Nibali won after an attack on a descent (Savoldelli said that Vincenzo is his heir) and after a 14 kms solo TT. 30 " behind him came Basso,Evans and a super strong Scarponi.Behind them,alone,there was Vinokourov.Then,about 2 minutes after Vino,a group including Pinotti,Sastre,Karpets,Arroyo and other riders crossed the finish-line.And then,more than 1'42 after this group of riders,there were Richie Porte and Kiserlovski's group.As you may have understood from the title,Richie therefore lost the pink jersey and left it to Arroyo.By the way Richie showed his great talent once again today and Chris Anker Sorensen was an exceptional helper for him.

I'm pretty happy for Nibali's victory,since he really deserved a stage win in a Grand Tour after all these good results.And then,Szmyd worked like a man possessed to help him and Basso to get a good result.

Yesterday's stage was as nice as this one,especially because the victory went to a very young and nice Italian boy,Belletti.He was really moved after the finish-line and he broke into tears many times.He comes from Cesenatico,the place where the stage ended (and where Pantani lived),so he was obviously overwhelmed by emotions.

A 'bravo' however must be said to Craig Lewis,who launched a very good attack with 2 kms to go.And a 'not so good' should go to Katiusha for what they did with Karpets: leaving him alone for all those kms wasn't actually that smart...

On Recanati's stage,as you know,the winner was Pozzato.And I have to admit that,after all those stages,an Italian victory was desperately needed,so I warmly welcomed Pippo's victory.

The GC favourites showed all their pride on a little climb near Recanati and that was really nice to see.A thing that was definitely less nice was the fight that Evans had with Righi.I can understand that you're nervous,Cadel,but remember that you're not taking part in a soccer match.

Luckily the stage was too exciting for everyone to start reading 'L'Infinito' during the comment of the race.In fact.considering that on Thursday poor miss Fede had to study Giacomo Leopardi for the whole afternoon,you can imagine how she could have reacted if someone had started reading L'Infinito during the Giro stage of Recanati.

RANDOM LINK:

Sorry for all the Schleck supporters out there,but as you can notice right now I'm completely ignoring the Tour of California.Anyway this is due to reasons not depending on my will.In fact I have to wake up every day at 6 am,so staying up every night until 1 or 2 am to watch a cycling race isn't actually a good idea.
Anyway I know that Andy's not doing that good in Cali,but I think he'll be ok for the Tour.Last year he had problems even in Tour de Suisse,but then he came second in the Grande Boucle.And about his famous Facebook status,I guess it's just a joke.You don't write things like that on FB,unless they have a special meaning for some of your closest friends and you want to have fun with them and make the others become curious about what you wrote.

Anyway,here's the random link of the title http://blog.tv2.dk/chris.anker.ol/entry371427.html .Unfortunately for you it doesn't regard the Schlecks,but Chris Anker Sorensen,aka Fangirl's hero of the month.Chris has a very interesting theory about L'Aquila stage,and here it is: in a few words, Chris believes that all the GC riders were too busy looking for their rain jackets,gloves and so on and therefore they didn't notice the 56 riders that were escaping from the main group and so they didn't begin to chase them immediately. "It is somehow a paradox that Evans,Basso,Scarponi,Vinokourov and Garzelli have probably lost the Giro because they were getting their rain jackets",Chris wrote yesterday.As well as that,Chris tells us that the other night he spend more time in the toilet than in bed because he had some health problems (if you want to know more details,check his blog...).Luckily,after watching his efforts today,I think we can say he's feeling better.
By the way now I'm off: Milito's just scored his second goal in Champions League's finale,and I don't want to lose any more time from the Inter-Bayern match.In fact,knowing Inter,it may take other 38 years before being another time on a Champions League's finale,so I don't want to lose the last part of this match at all.Bye.

Richie Porte gets the pink jersey!

Yes,dear Saxo Bank supporters,this is the news du jour: thanks to an incredible nap that the GC riders and some ds had this afternoon,Richie Porte is now in the Maglia Rosa. If you haven't seen today's stage,I resume it to you in just one adjective: CRAZY!!!!

As you may know, the stage ended in L'Aquila,where an earthquake killed 300 people last April. The stage was very hilly and yesterday Vinokourov compared it to a little Liége and said that he would have attacked.Therefore,every other Gc rider was awaiting for a move from the Kazakhistani during today's stage.But unfortunately for them,they were so focused on Vino that they let 56 (56!) riders escape the peloton and get to the finish-line with a 12 minutes advantage.Oops...

The creation of the breakaway,as always,wasn't a quiet moment.At first some riders escaped,then some other ones joined them,then other ones as well...And eventually there they were,56 Giro riders at the front.And no one between the GC riders moved a finger to avoid that dangerous breakaway.

Amadio,Liquigas ds,said he didn't order his men to pull because he didn't think it was fair."There are other teams who want to win this Giro,they must pull as well!",he said.

Astana never pulled,probably because Vino wasn't feeling well even this morning.In fact in the last part of the stage (the weather was freezing also today here in Italy) he often had a very suffering expression on his face.At a certain point,he was even shivering from the cold,and Savoldelli said that perhaps he could have come down with temperature just like his teammate Gasparotto (who got retired this morning).Temperature or not,Astana didn't pull at all.

BMC probably wanted to pull,but Evans' helpers aren't actually that strong.Acqua&Sapone ds said that he was the only one to order his men to pull and complained about the lack of information during the race."The jury told us the gap between our group and the breakaway after they had gained more than eight minutes on us!".Jury,temperature,unfairness or whatever else, the fact is that the breakaway went away and in it there were dangerous guys like Sastre,Porte,Wiggins,Arroyo and Tondo.SB was also represented by Didier and by an amazing Chris Anker Sorensen.

As mentioned,soon the breakaway had a 8 minutes advantage on the GC riders.On the last climb the gap was up to 13 minutes and in the GC group all the helpers had disappeared.So big guys like Basso,Nibali,Vino,Evans,Scarponi,Cunego and Garzelli had to spend their own energies to reduce the damages and they eventually lost 12 minutes from the breakaway riders.

The winner of the stage was a very happy Evgeny Petrov (his last success dated back to 2002).After the finish-line he dedicated his victory to his wife and screamed her something in Russian.As obvious,I didn't understand a word.Second was a disappointed (he comes from Abruzzo) Cataldo,third was Sastre. Little thing to notice about the winner: he rode to the finish-line with a t-shirt.No 'mantellina',no gloves,no scarves for Evgeny: just a t-shirt.After all,he comes from Siberia.

Richie Porte arrived 13th,more than 12 minutes before Vino and the other guys.Therefore,the young Tasmanian now has the Pink Jersey and has almost 2 minutes of advantage on Arroyo and Kiserlovski.

Imo,what happened this afternoon was ridicolous.In fact I think that you simply can't let 56 (56,not 3) riders get away from the peloton on a hilly stage and hope you'll get them all back before the finish.But,apparently,some people in the peloton had a different opinion this afternoon...Well,it doesn't matter.

Anyway,the Giro now is even more open than before.Porte has the pink jersey and behind him there are tough climbers like Tondo,Sastre and Arroyo,who I don't think will lose more than 13 minutes from guys like Vino or Basso in the hard mountain stages.Didier is 9th,while Vinokourov is 12th,with a 9 minutes delay.Porte also has the white jersey and his team has been the best one so far.

Some riders today even crossed the finish-line 45 minutes after the winner.Luckily for them,the time limit rule wasn't applied and so they'll be able to start tomorrow's stage. Apropos,tomorrow's stage will end up in Recanati and is supposed to be a calm (and hopefully sunny) one.Considering where the stage is ending,I suggest you getting ready to hear someone reading a Leopardi's poetry tomorrow afternoon as the peloton arrives in the city near 'l'ermo colle'.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/porte-in-pink-midway-through-giro :interview with Richie.
http://blog.tv2.dk/chris.anker.ol/entry370870.html : yes,Chris updated his blog and talked about his amazing win once again.As well as that,he says how it's like to get confused for Nicki very very often and he also tells a funny anedocte about Bobby Julich.Here it is.

We Italians often cheer on riders by screaming "Dài,dài",which is pronounced as the English 'Die'. Now,back in his first Giro Julich heard many people yelling at him: "Dài,dài!",and he spent a whole climb wondering himself why Italian people hated him so much and trying to answer them in a proper way (said proper way,obviously,was 'F*** you').Just then Bobby found out that 'dài',actually means "Allez",and not 'die'.Well,better late than never!!

E' un gran bel Giro:

As an old theme song of a past Giro would say,the one that is taking place right now is a 'gran bel Giro',aka 'a very beautiful Giro'.So far in fact the race has been really entertaining (at least for us supporters) and there have been lots of surprise-victories and surprise-results.
In my last post I wrote about Richie Porte's white jersey,and I'm happy to begin this post with the news that Richie got it again today (and now he has a gap of a minute and a half on Agnoli). Watching him arriving to the finish-line together with Gustav Larsson,and seeing Larsson turning his head towards his young teammate and encourage him,was a really nice moment,one of those that can make you understand that,after all,cycling is also a team sport.
Anyway,do you remember the earthquake I wrote about the other time? Well,it doesn't hate Vino,that's for sure.In fact the ground trembled again yesterday morning,and Vino yesterday didn't have the pink jersey,so I've started to think that perhaps the Bergamask ground is a Petacchi's supporter,since it trembled on the days of Weylandt and Pineau's victories.And,as you probably remember,on both those days Petacchi lost in spite of being the main favourite for the stage victory.

Anyway,trying being more serious (and trying to forget about earthquakes), here's my random resume of the last stages: enjoy!

SAVIGLIANO-CUNEO:
After the rest day the riders had to face this team a time trial from Savigliano to Cuneo (32 kms).The pink jersey was on Vino's shoulders,the Maglia Bianza on Porte's ones.The favourite teams for the stage victory were Garmin, Sky, Liquigas, Saxo Bank,Katusha and Astana.The GC was still very 'short', so David Millar,Richie Porte and Nibali all had good chances to steal the jersey from Vino.
At the beginning of the stage the weather was cloudy,but it wasn't raining.Then,while team Sky was on the parcours,things changed and it started to rain cats and dogs and to hail.
When I turned on the tv BMC had the fastest time. However Evans unfortunately doesn't have a very strong team, so it was very probable for him to lose time in this stage.

Soon Katusha's men (whose ds has stated that Karpets can arrive in the Top 5 in the GC) obtained a better result.
Immediately after Katusha,it was Sky's turn to begin their race and,as already said,while this team was on the parcours the weather got verrry bad.In spite of this,the men in black managed to get the fastest time,to the joy of the British chonists of Eurosport.
In the meanwhile Cervélo got a decent time thanks to their very good time trialist (and very kind boy) Ignatas Konovalovas (ok,there were also Gustov,Tondo,ecc,but Konovalovas is der Best).

Garmin was unlucky because of the weather condition,and Millar failed in his attempt to wear the Maglia Rosa.Then Liquigas squad (Bodnar, Szmyd, Nibali, Basso, Vanotti, Agnoli, Sabatini,the promising Kiserlovski, Dall'Antonia) began their stage and they really rode at full gas on the whole parcours,in spite of the bad weather.Everyone had a role in the team and their performance was really nice to see.The boys in green got the new best time,to the joy of the Italians,who started to dream Nibali (or Basso) wearing the Maglia Rosa.

The following team,HTC Columbia,was fast,but not fast enough to be the best. Saxo Bank's existence was forgotten by RAI's cameras for the whole race and this led to the disappointment of the British chronists.The Italians instead were so daydreaming about Nibali that they didn't even realise that SB was riding as well.

The performance of the Danish team was a bit disappointing,although I think that this was due to the unexperience of the youngest riders of the team.

The last team to begin the stage was Astana.All the cameras were for Vino who on Wednesday seemed even more charismatic than usual (at least,this was my impression). In the last km however the Kazakhistani lost his composure for a while.In fact at that point of the race Astana was formed just by 5 men and,as you know,the time in TTT is taken on the 5th man of each team. Well,on Wednesday Vino briefly seemed to have lost his temper because Stangelj,the 5th man of Astana,with 1 km to go couldn't follow his teammates anymore.At the beginning Vino tried to encourage him,but then he looked really pissed off.

If I had been Stangelj,after the finish-line I woul have probably run away from my captain as fast as possible,since I would have been afraid that Vino could have hit me in front of everyone.Luckily for Stangelj, Astanaman returned as calm and cold as usual immediately after crossing the finish-line.Perhaps he understood that,firstly,he shouldn't have got so angry at Stangelj,but at the guys who gave in in the first part of the race. And then,perhaps,he also realised that he shouldn't have ridden so fast,if he knew that he had already lost 4 teammates.

Anyway,after the TTT the result was: 1.Liquigas 2.Columbia 3.Sky. Translated in the GC language,this meant that Nibali (with the stress on the first 'i',not on the 'a' as British chronists want you to believe) got the pink jersey.You've probably read about his role of 'savior of the Italian cycling',right? Some journalists even thought that in the next days he and Basso would behave like Cunego and Simoni did back in 2004 (ah,good old times...).Anyway,I don't see Nibali getting bloody angry at Basso or viceversa: they're just too good guys.Oh,and did I ever mention that Nibali's voice sounds like the voice of someone who has a permanent cold?

Wegelius,who had to answer a question about who,in his opinion,was going to be Liquigas' captain,said: "I think that Liquigas' men perfectly know the answer to this question".A smile on Amadio's face (he's Liquigas' ds) secretly confirmed that he actually knows who his team captain is.Obviously also Fangirl knows (or pretends to know) who the Liquigas captain is.And the answer is: Sylwester Szmyd,the Polish unbelievable climber and best helper of the world.

Btw.As far as the white jersey is concerned,as mentioned,Porte lost it to Agnoli on Wednesday. Anyway fear not,Saxo Bank tifoso: he got it back this afternoon.

So,on Wednesday evening the situation was the following: Nibali in the pink jersey,Agnoli in the white one,an Italian team as stage winner,Italian journalists celebrating in all ways-and celebrating so much that,the following day,Gazzetta had a big pic of Nibali on the front page,next to a pic of a footballer.It had been a lot of time since a cyclist last got that privilege.

STAGE 5: NOVARA-NOVI LIGURE:

This stage ended in Viale delle Rimembranze,which means 'boulevard of the memories'.A perfect name for the stage that went through Castellanìa,where Italian hero Fausto Coppi was born,and ended in Novi Ligure,where Girardengo lived.

Coppi,a true hero for many Italian people,died of malaria on 2nd of January 1960,when he was just 40 years old.So it was a strange coincidence to see someone who was born exactly 20 years after his death being part of an early breakaway. That someone was Jerome Pineau,whose last success (before Thursday) dated back to 2004.His companions were Paul Voss (green jersey), Arashiro and Flouchard.

Arashiro's decision to enter a breakaway was due to a funny reason.The Japanese rides for team BB Bouygues Telecom and lives in France, near the 'quartiere generale' of the team.In Holland, one of Boygues' team car broke down.How did the ds get another team car for Thursday? Simple: on Tuesday he asked Arashiro to phone his girlfriend and ask her whether she could drive the team car to Italy.After a lot of hours and 1300 kms,the girlfriend finally arrived to Italy with the funztioning car and in order to thank her,Arashiro entered a breakaway.How sweet.

With about 40 kms to go Lampre began to chase the riders at the front and Davide Cassani said the famous last words: "They're going to catch the breakaway with about 15 kms to go".

On the last little climb of the race,Voss got dropped and this caused some jokes about how the German will deal with climbs like Zoncolan and Plan de Corones.

With 10 kms to go,the 3 riders who had remained at the head of the race had a 58' gap on the peloton,which was now pulled also by some Columbia and Garmin's riders.At a certain point it looked as if the adventure was over for Jerome,Julien and Yukiya,but then thanks to a narrow road and two tight turns they made the gap become bigger.Then,when the situation looked very desperate once again,Arashiro sacrificed himself for his companions.He launched an attack,which worked as a perfect pull for the Frenchmen.The sprint was won by Pineau in front of Flouchard, while 3rd was the generous Arashiro.I think that the images of the two Frenchmen,one celebrating his victory and the other getting desperate,were really nice and very meaningful. Mors tua vita mea,like the Romans used to say.After the stage,on the podium there were Faustino and Martina Coppi,Fausto's sons,and that was the chance to talk about Il Campionissimo once again.Anyway Italian journalists didn't forget Costante Girardengo,another great Italian champion,and so his nieces were invited to talk to La Gazzetta.

4th in the stage was Farrar,while Nibali mantained the GC lead.


6TH STAGE: FIDENZA-MARINA DI CARRARA:

A hilly stage was on the menu of the Giro riders on Friday.Encouraged by Pineau's success,many riders (among them there was also Nicki Sorensen) tried to enter a breakaway.In the end the lucky ones were Bertogliati and Matthew Lloyd,a very good Australian rider who is just 26 and took up cycling a few years ago.

Honestly,I believed that the breakaway didn't have any hope yesterday,since the sprinters were probably already angry at having lost a chance on the previous day.As well as that Petacchi lives near Carrara,so he was probably super motivated.

Before of the last (pretty hard) climb,Petacchi even broke away from the group and tried to anticipate everyone.His plan however didn't work and he arrived in Carrara 4 minutes after the winner.Also other sprinters,like Farrar and Greipel,got dropped on the climb.On it the riders that were between the head of the race and the peloton (between them there was also the promising Sarmiento) were caught and this,later,would have led to a funny moment starring Danilo Hondo.

In the meanwhile,Lloyd had dropped Bertogliati and he was riding towards victory all alone.His emotion on the finish-line was really moving,and he defined the Giro as a 'romantic and wonderful race'.This meant a lot to the Italian tifosi,who all believe that the hardest mountains are in Italy,and not in France (and they're absolutely right,of course).Bertogliati came second and then Hondo won the bunch sprint.The German believed that he had won,so he raised his arms. Watching his face going from happiness to the "Oh Gosh,I behaved like a fool!" expression was pretty funny (luckily he was able to see the hilarious side of that moment as well).

A very bad thing that happened during the stage was Bonnafond and Tiralongo's crash (both the riders got retired).Andrea Masciarelli fell as well and he suffered from a micro-fracture in his cheekbone.In spite of this,he was at the start of today's stage.

During the podium ceremony,British chronists laughed very very very much because the song that the organisers choose for it was 'Highway to Hell' by AC/DC. Ok,I know that on certain occasions 'We Are the Champions' by Queen is a boring cliché,but perhaps 'Highway to hell' isn't actually the perfect song to celebrate a victory.

After the stage,during the podium,there was also another great moment: the British chronists pronounced the name 'Nibali' in the right way.It was high time!

STAGE 7: CARRARA-MONTALCINO:

And so we come to today's stage,which was probably one of the most exciting I've ever seen.The gravel roads of the stage were in fact brown because of the rain and the mud,the riders' faces were unrecognisable (is this a word?),a Saxo Bank team car even ended up in a small ditch because of the mud, and Pinotti and the Saxo Bankers made a great race.

Obviously some riders and critics have said that a stage like that in a Grand Tour isn't actually a good thing for the riders,and I think they have a point.But man,I believe that today' stage is destined to enter the history of Cycledom because of his amazingness.In fact it was full of emotions: surprise,pain,disappointment,hate for the mud that entered the riders' eyes (ask Vinokourov for information),joy for the final victory of Evans,excitement for the tifosi.

The drama began with 30 kms to go,after that a breakaway formed by Nicki Sorensen (yay!) and Flens had been caught.At that point a crash (the first one to fall was Scarponi) involved Basso, Agnoli (white jersey), Sastre (who had just managed to catch the front group), Tondo and the Maglia Rosa Nibali.Horror and shock became common emotions among the Italian tifosi,as Nibali had problems with his bike,looked badly injured and the news came that,when Vincenzo crashed, Vinokourov had just attacked at the front.

Scarponi after the crash began his lonely chase towards the front of the race,while Sastre started to slip back in the race.Nibali,helped by his teammates,tried to reduce the 1'40" gap from Vino.

In the meanwhile the Kazakhistani had been joined at the head of the race by Cunego, Pinotti, Gadret (former mountain biker),Evans,Garzelli and other riders.

Gerdemann and Rohregger launched an attack,but they didn't have a lot of luck.Then,on a climb,Cunego attacked and he was soon joined by Didier (yayyyy!!!).Me was obviously really happy to see Laurent at the front of a big stage in a Grand Tour,together with big guys like Vino and Evans!

After a few seconds these last two riders abandoned their companions.With 9 kms to go anyway they were caught again by Cunego and Pinotti,while Didier and the good Arroyo got dropped.

In the meanwhile Nibali and Basso were both distant from the head of the race,Sastre was even behind them and Scarponi was making miracles and showing his exceptional form by recuperating seconds over seconds,all alone.

The quartetto of riders at the head of the race arrived in Montalcino in a compact way.There,on the last (but short) hard climb,Evans was the most powerful and got the stage in front of Cunego, who finally gave an answer to some critic comments that have been made about him in the last days.

3rd was Vino,who looked extremely tired after the finish-line.He kept on touching his eyes,probably because he had had more problems than others with the mud.4th was Professor Pinotti, who is in a great form.5th was Arroyo,6th Garzelli,7th a good Gadret,8th an unbelievable Scarponi, who arrived with a mud mask on his face.9th was Sarmiento,winner of 2009 Bio Giro,while Saxo Bankers Larsson and Porte were 15th and 16th.As said in the intro,Larsson often encouraged his younger (and far smaller) teammate and that was really nice to see.
Basso and Nibali were 17th and 18th and arrived 2 minutes after Evans.Sastre was 5 minutes down and crossed the finish-line with his teammate Tondo.Chris Sorensen was 24 minutes down and this result was a bit a surprise for me because I had believed Paolo Savoldelli when he had said that Sorensen was with Didier (although when I heard that and watched the tv screen I immediately thought:'Hey,since when is Chris that short?').
Anyway,before I close this post,here are 2 little things to notice:
First,in 1987 the Giro stage ending up in Montalcino was won by world champion Moreno Argentin.Today,another world Champion won in the same place.

Secondly,this Giro is talking English.Australian English,to be precise. Evans has won today (and wore the Maglia Rosa),Lloyd has the green jersey (and won yesterday),Porte has the white jersey.Chapeau to the Aussies!

Tomorrow's stage is the first mountain one and will have an uphill finish.Waiting for another exciting stage,I wish a good night to everyone.And please,dear ground,would you be so kind not to shake again tonight? We Bergamasks are pretty scared right now...

(Pic 1 and 3 by Sirotti,pic 2 by Riccardo Scanferla,last pic by Bettini)

Random Post about stage 2 and 3 of 2010 Giro d'Italia (including random randomnesses and personal opinions of mine):

In Italy we have a pretty famous way of saying that goes a bit like this: "You can see wheter a day it's going to be good for you since its beginning", aka from the early morning. Well, this morning many people I know (me included) were woken up at 4.15 am by a little (but frightening) earthquake. To show you the kind of ideas that my mind can produce after certain events,here I go with 3 reasons that, according to the dumb part of my brain, could have caused said earthquake:

Option 1: it was an unconventional way to say to all the Bergamo inhabitants "you're going to have a shit day" (losing the morning bus was too simple,eh?).

Option 2: it was a signal that the end of the World is really going to occur in 2012.

Option 3 (also known as 'the evil supporter's theory'): the Italian ground was protesting because Vinokourov got the pink jersey.

Although the earthquake was obviously caused by some tectonics movements, and not by Vino, I think that many people will probably decide to go for option n.3, especially if you consider that the ground trembled just a few hours after Vino's arrival in Italy. But since I'd like to treat Vino as a normal rider, I consider that theory just as something evil I (or at least the dumb part of my brain) came up with during a boring English lesson. In fact, I'm not that crazy to think things like "It's Vino's fault!" in the middle of an earthquake because, when you realise that your bed is trembling in the middle of the night, that isn't a very appropriate thing to think.Or, at least, it is not as appropriate as an unpolite (but meaningful) "What the fuck is happening?!?" followed by a "Oh Goooosh!" whispered in the dark and a "Did you hear it as well?!?" when you see someone switching on the light in the corridor. Actually,I was even a bit surprised by the fact that I managed to realise what was happening,since I usually sleep like a log at 4.15 am. And instead no, this morning I had to wake up and let my brain wander in a total random way before falling asleep again and having some nightmares (something related with Abruzzo). And to say that yesterday evening I even went to bed early.

Anyway,let's talk about cycling.As I already mentioned,right now Alexander Vinokourov is wearing the pink jersey and the Carovana Rosa has finally arrived in Italy after 3 amazing days in Holland. Yes, Holland. A nice country, that's for sure. Lots of green spaces, the sea, the typical cows, the black horses, the wonderful little houses, the windmills, the tulipans, bicycles everywhere, amazing supporters on the road... But,as well as that, very narrow and small streets which caused a lot of crashes during the first two stages of the Giro.

When you're going to race a Classic in Holland, you already know that you'll have to face said narrow roads. But when you're taking part in a Grand Tour, well, you'd probably expect the organisers to do their best to keep the riders out of danger at least until the true mountain stages begin, right? And instead no, Giro organisers are special. Not only are they planning to start the Giro from Washington in 2 years time (yes, that Washington, the one in the USA). Not only do they plan a Grand Tour with a rest day after just 3 stages (and risk to be blocked somewhere between Holland and Italy because of Arthur). Not only do they organise special dinners for the riders after their arrivals in Italy, with all the logistic problems connected to this (the riders landed very late yesterday evening). No, not only they do these things. In fact, they also organise incredible stages on very narrow roads full of traffic islands and tight turns.And then, unsatisfied, they also plan a stage finale with a tight turn with 250 meters to go and a long curve street in the last 250 meters. Yes, you've gotta love the Giro organisers.

As said, over the last stages there have been lots of crashes and here in Italy everyone pointed their fingers at the riders. And the funny thing was that also some riders pointed the fingers at their colleagues. "When I was a rider, the young guys had more respect for the older athletes!", some Italian former cyclist said."It's their fault if there are all those crashes!". Some chronists instead said that: "It's the first day of a GT,everyone wants to stay at the front,but at the front there isn't enough space for 200 riders,so the race is nervous and there are lots of crashes". Wiggins and Davide Cassani instead chose to support the "Those who fall are just distracted riders" philosophy. Pozzato, instead,opted for a usual commentary of his: "There are some people who can't ride at all, that's why there are so many crashes". Obviously, I think it's useless to underline that, between the guys who crashed during the second stage, there was also Filippo Pozzato. What a funny coincidence. Anyway,the point is: none of the Italian journalists/ chronists/ etc. pointed their fingers against the organisation of the race. On the other hand instead British chronists (yesterday I watched half of the stage in English) were all very angry at Zomegnan & Co., and even complained about the roads of some past Giri (I was really surprised by their ability in remembering all the stages with nasty asphalt that the riders had to face over the last years).

As you may have understood, me totally supports the theory of the British chronists; in fact, I think you simply can't plan a stage finish like Middleburg's one, because those strange creatures on bikes also have families and children. And then, I believe that a bunch sprint finish on a straight road is more exciting than a little sprint during a curve.

Anyway,back to the race.In spite of all the crashes I mentioned , just 2 riders got retired so far: BMC's Martin Kohler and Garmin's Vandevelde,who both broke a collarbone. They were very sad retires, since Vandevelde had crashed also during last year's Giro, while Kohler is a very young rider and so it must have been hard for him to end his Giro on an ambulance.Obviously I wish them both a good recover.

The second stage of the Giro,the one that ended in Utrecht,saw the first breakaway of the race, which was formed by Pirrazzi,Flens,Facci and Voss. The crashes were many, and also the Maglia Rosa Wiggins touched the ground in the last part of the race.With just 7 kms to go another big crash occurred and Wiggins, Sastre and Cunego lost 37" to guys like Basso, Nibali , Vinokourov and Evans.
In the meanwhile the battle for the victory was a sprinters' problem. In spite of a crash earlier in the stage, the fastest rider was Tyler Farrar, who outsprinted Goss (Greipel seemed very nervous during that sprint and he couldn't follow his teammate properly) and a very good Sabatini. Petacchi looked very disappointed after the stage (or is that his normal face?), while other Italian Sacha Modolo came 10th.Saxo Bankers Porte and Didier, in spite of being neo pros, both ended the race with the first group of riders.The only SB rider who crashed was Lund, who however was able to continue the race.
The Maglia Rosa went to Evans, who wore it for the second time in his career (the first time was in 2002).Just like the previous time, however, Evans had to give away the jersey after just one day.

The third stage of the Giro took place on the narrow roads between Amsterdam and Middleburg and the landscape in that part of Holland,with the sea and the green, was simply unbelievable. It had been said that this stage would have been dangerous because of the wind, and in fact many crashes occurred. Wiggins crashed twice, just like Pozzovivo, Modolo, Pinotti and Bruseghin (who left a big part of his shorts on the ground). Wiggo's last crash happened with 10 kms to go and created a fracture between the head of the race (which included Basso, Nibali and Vinokourov) and the rest of the peloton, which also included the Maglia Rosa Evans. Evans was as lonely as usual (his teammates were all behind) and so he really gave it all to try to come back on the lead of the race. He was helped in his effort by some Cervélo's riders (Sastre had been delayed as well), but unfortunately for Cadel his efforts were useless. The Aussie in fact crossed the finish-line 46" after the stage winner Weylandt. Wiggins, together with Cioni and other 3 Sky riders, crossed the finish-line 4' after the winner and 4' before Bruseghin and Pozzovivo, who's still having some problems because of his crash.
As mentioned, the winner of the stage was Wouter Weylandt, who was really brave in facing the tight turn before the finish-line at a great speed.Second was Brown and 3rd was Forster, followed by other German Hondo. Excellent 5th was the young Adam Blythe.

The Maglia Rosa fight was very thrilling, since Saxo Banker Porte had the same time as Vinokourov,who eventually got it for just 018'. Don't give up Richie: the team is good and tomorrow's TTT may allow you to take the Maglia.

Talking about Vino, well, you probably know what I think of his case. If you don't, here's a little resume of my opinion: he has made a big mistake.He has paid for that.Now he's back. Stop. It's not his fault if he's back, so I guess we just have to behave as if he was a normal rider (although it's pretty hard).

After the race I could hear Vinokourov talking dreadful English, and after hearing him speaking an apparently fluent French,me has taken an important decision: I'll study French as soon as possible. Still talking about Vinokourov: that man has a heart. Yes, I know it sounds strange, but just read (or translate) this article by Claudio Gregori and you'll understand what I mean: http://archiviostorico.gazzetta.it/2010/maggio/08/intera_nazione_per_Vinokourov_Anche_ga_10_100508014.shtml According to it, in Amsterdam Vino came out with this sentence: "Even the tsar Peter the Great came here in 1697 with the false name of Peter Mikailov in order to study how the Dutch built their ships". Then, he also stated that "Puskin is great for the poetry, Tolstoj for the life". And then: "Inter will win the football Champions League.If they don't make it this time, they'll never make it". After hearing that he follows football, well, I guess we can officially declare that, after all, Alexandr Vinokourov from Kazakhstan is quite a normal man (I wasn't that sure when I read his sentence about Russian history and literature).

Anyway, I realise I'm straying from the point.So: after the first rest day, Vino has the Maglia Rosa and the young Tasmanian Porte is 2nd for less than a second.Tomorrow there's a 32 kms long TTT and, in my opinion, Saxo Bank has a golden chance to grab that jersey.Let's hope so!

(Farrar's pic by Elmar Krings, the other two pics by Ispa)

Fleche Wallonne and Random Links:

In live broadcast from "The Student's hell week",or something similar,here comes your miss Fede with a post about Fleche Wallonne and some random links.So: yesterday afternoon I started to watch Fleche Wallonne with about 34 kms to go,aka when the riders were going to face the mur de Huy for the second time. After the climb,Frank Schleck got some meters of advantage on the other riders.The cunny Roman Kreuziger, whose ability in speaking Italian never fails to amaze me, managed to follow the skinny Franky together with Tankink and Loosli. These two riders (who had already been part of a breakaway before joining Roman and Frank) never helped their breakaway companions during their attack and so after race both Roman and Frank were a bit angry at them."I followed Frank because he made a good move and then he's not that fast in sprints, so I could have beaten him",Kreuziger told Italian tv. "We worked well together, the problem was that Loosli and Tankink never cooperated with us".

Although Andy Schleck and Vincenzo Nibali tried to create problems to the poursuivants, Frank,Roman and the wheelsuckers were caught with 5 kms to go,after great efforts from Iglinskiy,Trofimov,Kolobnev and Ivanov.
On the last passage of the Mur,the first attack was launched by Kloden,who probably wanted to help his teammate Horner.Anyway attacking too early on the Muur of Huy doesn't allow you to save energy,so Kloden was soon recaught by the strongest riders of the peloton. Igor Anton then got out from the bunch at a very high speed,followed by Contador.The two Spaniards created a gap of a few meters and Fangirl started to get desperate."Nooooo,not Contador! Pleeeaaase!!! He's already won 2 Tours,1 Giro and 1 Vuelta,pleeeaaase,don't let him take also Fleche! And where's Andy? Oh Gosh,I can't see Andy! Booooh,Contador will win Fleche and Andy will lose! Boooh!",she cried. Luckily for Fangirl,who was already on the verge of a nervous breakdown because she had to watch Fleche and study philosophy at the same time, Evans soon emerged from the peloton and joined the two riders at the head of the race.Behind him there was Joaquim Rodriguez, personal favourite of mine. Evans pushed hard on his pedals and, accompanied by a Fangirl's scream ("Uhhhh! He goooot itttt!! Evansssss!!"),he crossed the finish-line with his arms raised up to the sky.Second was Rodriguez while third was Contador,who didn't look very happy on the podium.

I've finished second, fifth, ninth-I've finished in every position but first in Flèche Wallonne,so to win is fantastic",Evans told Cyclingnews after the race."It's the first time I've come here while preparing for the Giro d'Italia and so my periodization and training is in a bit of a different order",Cadel told Cyclingnews."It seems I came here with good legs and it's certainly my best result.I was second a few years ago but I'm very, very happy to have won.It's a good morale booster for the team. We've been close to victory but this is a good way to do it.Better late than never ."

Here's the top 10 of the race:
1 Cadel Evans (Aus) BMC Racing Team 4:39:24
2 Joaquin Rodriguez Oliver (Spa) Team Katusha
3 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Astana
4 Igor Anton Hernandez (Spa) Euskaltel - Euskadi 0:00:06
5 Damiano Cunego (Ita) Lampre-Farnese Vini 0:00:09
6 Philippe Gilbert (Bel) Omega Pharma-Lotto 0:00:11
7 Christopher Horner (USA) Team Radioshack
8 Alejandro Valverde Belmonte (Spa) Caisse d'Epargne
9 Andy Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank
10 Ryder Hesjedal (Can) Garmin - Transitions

Frank Schleck was 42nd (he arrived 47" after the winner) while the surprising De Waele was 11th.
"It was a good situation,I gave it a go and it didn't work out-it happens" Andy Schleck (9th) told Cyclingnews immediately after crossing the finish line in Huy.In my opinion,he got a good result,although perhaps at the beginning of the climb he was a bit too behind in the peloton (or was it just an impression of mine?).
As far as Frank is concerned, he said:"I think again our team showed its strength.We showed that we were strong and that the bond between my brother and me is very strong.I think we made an amazing ride today. I'm not going to give away our secret or say anything about our tactics for Sunday, but it isn't any real secret that we'll work for one another again on at Liège".
Of course the fact they're working for one another in Liége will obviously cheer up Italian chronists, who yesterday spent the whole afternoon complaining about the fact that Andy always rides for Frank and that,in their opinions,Frank "brakes" Andy's talent.As you might have understood, this is one of the reasons for which I prefer watching Eurosport (and risking to come across naked Pozzato...) rather than watching Rai (which I follow just for hearing the riders' interviews, which are always very good).
Imo, to say the truth, I think that Saxo Bank's tactic didn't work out very well yesterday.In particular,I think that Frank's try wasn't that good,since I believe you can't win Fleche Wallonne by getting at the bottom of Mur de Huy with less than a one minute gap on the adversaries. Actually,if a rider starts his action from far, I think that also a minute of advantage wouldn't be enough to win on Mur de Huy. Anyway that's my opinion,aka the opinion of a girl who doesn't know a lot about tactics and whose brain right now is burning after a week spent studying some stupid philosophers of the 17th/18th century.Bleah.
Back to the Schleck brothers,they gave their post race impressions also to l'Equipe.Andy said: "As agreed,after Frank's attack I started to work for him.On the final climb,I was just too tired to win".
Frank, as well as thanking his brother, complained for Tankink's behaviour: "Andy did a great job for me, I felt strong but in the breakaway I didn't have great companions.Bram Tankink never helped Kreuziger and me at all and he used the presence of Robert Gesink in the peloton as an excuse .In those circumstances,it was impossible for me and Kreuziger to arrive at the end of the race alone,in front of the whole peloton".

FLECHE WALLONNE FOR WOMEN: Yes,from now on me will try to talk a bit about Women cycling on this blog (at least during and after the most important races of the year).Yesterday's Fleche Wallonne (which ended on the mur of Huy also for the girls) was won by Emma Pooley,English rider of Cervélo Test Team,with 8" of advantage on Nicole Cooke.
I've seen just a very short video of Pooley's victory and it was really impressing. She got away from the peloton on the mur,after a few hundreds meters,and soloed to victory.Second,as mentioned,was a happy Nicole Cooke,while 3rd was Emma Johansson. Marianne Vos was 6th and crossed the finish-line together with World Champion Tatiana Guderzo.15th was Noemi Cantele.Here's the top 10 of the race:
1 Emma Pooley (GBr) Cervelo Test Team
2 Nicole Cooke (GBr) Grande-Bretagne 0:00:08
3 Emma Johansson (Swe) Redsun Cycling Team
4 Grace Verbeke (Bel) Lotto Ladies Team 0:00:12
5 Evelyn Stevens (USA) HTC Columbia Women 0:00:17
6 Marianne Vos (Ned) Nederland Bloeit 0:00:22
7 Tatiana Guderzo (Ita) Team Valdarno
8 Elena Berlato (Ita) Top Girls Fassa Bortolo - Ghezzi 0:00:27
9 Judith Arndt (Ger) HTC Columbia Women 0:00:40
10 Eleonora Patuzzo (Ita) Safi-Pasta Zara Manhattan 0:00:42
15 Noemi Cantele (Ita) HTC Columbia Women 0:01:23

RANDOM SCHLECK LINKS:
ARTICLE ABOUT THE SCHLECK BROTHERS:

http://www.wort.lu/wort/web/sport/artikel/86233/fraenk-schleck-der-sieg-war-in-reichweite.php :Article (with interviews) of Wort.Lu about the Fleche Wallonne raced by Didier,Kirchen,Andy and Frank Schleck. No translation made by myself is available because I'm still busy with those stupid philosophers of the 17th/18th century.

INTERVIEW WITH ANDY: http://lequotidien.editpress.lu/index.php/les-sports/10772-CYCLISME-fait-quon-devait.html :Andy,interviewed by Denis Bastien,said that yesterday's Fleche in his opinion didn't look like a Tour's stage because,in the Tour,he will be with Contador, and not behind him, on every single climb.

SAXO BANK LINKS:
http://blog.tv2.dk/chris.anker.ol/entry367639.html :yes,Chris Anker Sorensen has updated his blog almost one month after the post in which he told the world "I've got a broken collarbone!". This time Chris talks about being isolated in Luxemboug with no airplanes flying to Denmark because of th Icelandic volcano we've all learned to love,ehm,hate over the last days. As well as that, he gives us an insight of how tough getting dressed with a broken collarbone and with no outside help is (however he also tells us that the other day he managed to wear his t-shirt without fighting too much with it). In addition,Chris also warns us about what can happen to you if you're a man, your right collarbone is broken and you have to face an antidoping test (yes,you're fearing the right thing). In addition he also tells us about his deep reflections made on the hometrainer. For example: why is a lizard called a lizard? Ok,I know that this question doesn't make sense in English,but in Danish 'lizard' is "firben", which in English would sound a bit like "4 legs". Therefore,Chris Anker wonders: "Why are lizards called '4 legs' when there are also other animals with 4 legs?"
Moreover,Chris also says that over the last weeks he's slept about 10 hours pro night (I envy him!), therefore he has about 50 "extra sleep" hours which he'll try to exploit during the Tour. "This fact could be an advantage for me when the Tour team selections will be made!",he's written.

INTERVIEW WITH BRESCHEL:
http://www.ciclismoweb.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2168:matti-breschel-il-pave-le-cadute-e-una-chitarra&catid=43:interviste&Itemid=61 :Just like the Schleck brothers bring along the fishing rod at every race they go to,Matti Breschel does the same with his guitar.Therefore, miss Fede can't do nothing but approve.

GIRO DEL TRENTINO AND RANDOM LINK:
GIRO DEL TRENTINO: Some Italian reporter has the courage to say "Trentino what a spectacle!" in spite of the fact that the podium of the second stage of this race was formed by Riccò (winner),Vinokourov and Basso.I feel neutral towards Basso,but my "emotion range detector" sees that anger is a feeling that both Vino and Riccò inspire in me every time I see them.

INTERVIEW WITH NIEMEC:
http://www.ciclismoweb.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2090:niemec-qmr-trentinoq-ci-riprova-sognando-in-rosa&catid=43:interviste&Itemid=61 :ok,you may not care at all about this Polish rider with a terrible name,but I've learned to appreciate him during Settimana Bergamasca (or how else it is called) and now I hope he can get a good result in Trentino,perhaps in front of Vino and Riccò.

(Pic by Waldbillig)

Gilbert wins Amstel Gold Race:

Well,at least my prediction about the race winner (Gilbert) was right.Of course Fangirl would have been much happier with a Schleck's victory, but the brothers have other 2 chances to grab a victory in a Spring Classic and so I think we shouldn't feel desperate about today's result.
Today's race was as nervous as always.Amstel has lots of curves and lots of riders want to win it every year,so it's always difficult to take part in it.Frank Schleck crashed in the first kilometers of the race (an evil member of my family couldn't hold back a laugh when they heard about it...), but managed to continue without problems.Andy had a mechanical problem while riding on the Cauberg at the beginning of the race,but then he quickly got back in the peloton.
As far as the volcano is concerned,some riders who yesterday were reported to be blocked in their countries luckily managed to get in Maastricht before the start of the race.For example, Chris Froome arrive in Team Sky's hotel this morning at 3 am (and he was at the start in Maastricht at 9 am...),while Iglinskiy luckily made it to the start as well.And some of these riders,this morning,even had to face a long anti-doping test.Unbelievable.
The longest breakaway of the 45th edition of Amstel Gold Race was formed by Wrolich (who had driven to Maasricht from Austria),Valls (who had got to Holland by car from Santander) Scheirlincx, Delfosse, Hupond, Van Vooren and Van Groen. They were caught with about 50 kms to go and at that point Saxo Bank started to set a high tempo at the head of the peloton.
On the Kuisberg Marco Marcato (Vacansoleil) attacked and a shiver went through my familiars' spines as they confused Marcato and Carrara (Carrara comes from Bergamo and we Bergamasks are always very supportive of our riders).
On Eyserbosweg (hope I spelled it correctly) Andy Schleck attacked (yay!) and rode past Marcato. He was followed by Gilbert,Cunego,Frank Schleck,Kreuziger,Nibali,Kolobnev and Hoogerland and at that point Fangirl was simply happy.Even the sight of Pozzato's commercial (yes,the one in which he's naked and oiled up) couldn't shock me that much,since I was too concentrated about the race.
On the Fromberg it was Frank Schleck's turn to attack and only Cunego,Gilbert and Kolobnev were able to follow him.Unfortunately they were recaught after the Fromberg and at that point Serguei Ivanov,last year winner,attacked.His attack was really impressive and in that moment I felt guilty for having undersetimated him. However Gilbert soon reached him together with Cunego,Kolobnev and Frank Schleck. "Where's Andy?!?",Fangirl cried."I don't know", Logic answered. Soon Kolobnev attacked and Frank's group was joined by "the mass",aka other 20 peloton riders determined to make their winning way towards Cauberg by pushing hard on their pedals.Fangirl let a bad word escape from her mouth and Logic scolded her off for that.
On the Cauberg Kolobnev was soon got caught.De Waele attacked,causing much surprise to Fangirl and much entusiasm to Logic ("I've told you that Bert is a good rider!!",she told Fangirl),but when Gilbert stood up on the pedals and went away,well,the fight for the second place began.This fight was a battle between Hesjedal and Gasparotto,which was won by the Ryder,ehm,rider from Canada (yes,I know that joking on people's name is childish,but this time I couldn't avoid it).De Waele was 4th,Kreuziger was 5th,Cunego was 6th and Marcato 8th.Frank Schleck ended the race 7th,while Andy was 18th.Nicki Sorensen,whose orange glasses are simply wonderful and demonstrate the great taste that los Sorensens of Team Saxo Bank have when looking glasses are concerned,was 62nd,while Fuglsang was 79th.All the other Saxo Bankers didn't end the race.
"Our team took control of the race with 130 kms to go",Frank Schleck told l'Equipe after the race."We tried to make the race as hard as possible,there was no other way to win .When I found myself in that little group of 4 men,I wasn't in an ideal situation.Gilbert and Cunego in fact were with me and also Kolobnev and Ivanov were really dangerous.Even if we had arrived on the Cauberg in 4,Gilbert would have won anyway".Actually,considering Gilbert's condition,I think that Frank is right: the Belgian (me wonders whether he's becoming a Boonen's rival as far as fame in Belgium is concerned) was simply the best today. Andy told l'Equipe that he was a bit disappointed after the race."I was strong,but I had some cramps right in the end,during the sprint.They were probably the consequences of my attack on the Eyserbos. Anyway I had to attack there,because we couldn't afford to wait until a bunch sprint. Anyway,I feel good for Fleche and Liege".
So,that's what the brothers said.In my opinion,it's understandable that they're disappointed: winning in order to dedicate the victory to Leea would have been simply wonderful,but I think they shouldn't have regrets because they did everything they could.The race was really chaotic and the team tried to control the race as long as possible but in the end the brothers didn't win. It happens.On Wednesday however there's another big Classic- and Huy's wall is far harder than the Cauberg,so I think Andy (who theorically won Fleche also in 2009) and Frank will be able to give battle to everyone there.
By the way,although this week is full of races and will probably be full of articles about the brothers, I apologise with you,dear reader (yes,me likes imagining that there's someone who reads my posts), but I won't probably publish everything I'll find for the simple reason that I've got 6 school tests (yes,6) in the next 6 days,so I'm snowed under with school work right now(yes,the English test will be about idiomatic expressions regarding weather).If you're asking why I'm writing these words if I'm really so snowed under with work,I just tell you that this morning I woke up pretty early (early for me,at least) in order to study the 50 pages about European problems in 1848.

Anyway,while waiting for a Schleck's victory in Fleche,I close this post with a little list of random things that have just come into my mind:

1: the Italian chronists pronounciated the name "Sastre" as "Sartre" (like the philosopher) for unknow reasons during today's broadcast of the race.

2: they didn't mention Arthur until the 45th minute of the live broadcast .

3: they said that Belgians are as disappointed as us Italians for the lack of victories over the last months.Me wonders,did they see the Tour of Lombardy or were they already on holiday?

4: this time I won't be boasting about my perfect winner prediction like I did last time with my Sanremo's prediction.

5: Nicki Sorensen's glasses are really nice,almost as nice as Chris Anker's violet ones (yes,I know I've already mentioned it,but I couldn't avoid repeating it).

6: how cute is the pic of Frank showing that pink bracelet (is it a bracelet?)?

(Pic 1 by Bettini,pic 2 by Waldbillig)

An alien takes Roubaix: the Swiss train makes the double with Flanders

The cobblestones. The little roads. The punctures. The crashes. The nervousness of the riders. Breschel getting dropped because of a pain in his knee. Cancellara's attack with 50 km to go. Tom Boonen on the verge of a nervous breakdown.Hoste and Hincapie fighting to win Roubaix once again.Knaven ending the "Hell of North" for the 16th time in his career. Uncle Bjarne smiling.Cancellara crying.The female members of my family falling in love with the Swiss rider.Me getting over the shock caused by a Sidi's commercial in which Pozzato appears naked. In a few words, the 2010 edition of Paris-Roubaix seen by me. As you can see, for the first time in my blogger's career I wrote an introduction to a post (yes I know it is ridiculous). I know that now you're curious about the part of the post about Pippo, but first of all I have to talk about Cancellara's deed/ masterpiece/ numero/ work of art/ exploit/ call it whatever you want (me hasn't found the right words to describe it yet).In fact Fabian Cancellara,the train/ the airplane/ the alien yesterday won Paris-Roubaix by attacking all alone with about 50 kms to go.

Before of that attack,Boonen had tried to impress his adversaries by setting a fast pace on the cobblestones sections. Between the other things that happened before of Cancellara's attack there were also Van Summeren's crash, Devolder's puncture (which followed the Belgian's crash) and Cancellara's bike change (that was the last occasion in which I saw Breschel during yesterday's race). Then,with 50 kms to go, when Boonen wasn't paying attention to him, Fab attacked on an asphalted road. By the time Boonen and the other riders who were with him looked at each other,wondering "Who can go and get him now?",the Swiss airplane had already created a gap of about 30".

A few seconds after Cancellara reached Hoste,Leukemans an Hinault,who were at the head of the race. He rode past them with ease and just Leukemans tried to follow him.Anyway after a few hundreds of meters Cancellara dropped him as well and "Leukie" (does anyone mind if I call him that way?) reacted with a very understandable (although slightly unpolite) gesture.

At that point,the race was over.Fabian was flying towards Roubaix with 2' of advantage, Boonen was on the verge of a nervous breakdown, Flecha was angry at Hushovd, Pozzato was wearing a pair of horrible glasses. The only thing that could stop Fabian at that point was the infamous train that stopped some riders back in the 2006 edition of the race. But the Swiss was on perfect time and therefore the train couldn't meet his dear relative at all.
During the last meters of the race Fab showed once again his golden angel and he started to cry after the finish-line.

About 2 minutes after the Swiss champion came Hushovd and Flecha.Hushovd won the sprint and Flecha clapped his hand- was it a gesture towards Thor or was it a way to compliment Fabian on his great victory?

4th was Hammond and 5th was Boonen (luckily he's going to have a nice holiday after this week!). 7th was Pozzato,who received a special prize dedicated to Ballerini's memory.8th was Hoste, who had a 5 minutes delay from Fabian and a 3 minutes of delay from the human beings.From my point of view,yesterday's Roubaix was really great (although I don't think Boonen's tifosi enjoyed it as much as I did...).I watched it during a family celebration, when my house was full of relatives -and the most of them,when I switched on the tv at 3 o'clock,had no intention of watching the race. But then,with 20 kms to go,the questions asked by the female members of the family began: "How long is the race?" About 250 kms. "And can they still walk after riding their bikes for 250 kms?" Yes, they can."But don't the cobblestones disturb them?" Yes, they do. "Don't the bikes get broken?" They have a special equipment for this race."But couldn't these guys become employers, lawyers or whatever else rather than doing this job? Who makes them do this?" Sorry but I don't have any answer to this question.
With 15 kms to go,the subject of the questions became Cancellara."Who is he? Is he Italian? Gosh,he's very strong!" And then,the fangirlistic questions arrived."Is he married? Has he got any son? How old is he? Oh,he's 29 and he's already married? He must be a very serious and good guy.But is he bald or has he got hair under the helmet (yes,this was the funniest question I heard...)?" By the time Fabian arrived,all the female members of the family were watching the race. And when Fabian hugged his family after the finish-line and cried, they all went "Oooooh! So cute!" before starting to talk about his nose.And when Boonen arrived,a familiar also started to show interest for him as well.

After the race then I managed to talk to another female member of the family who wasn't with us while we were watching the race.Guess what she said to me? "Have you seen how that rider won? He was so sweet! He even hugged his wife and his daughter!!" Well,after yesterday's race I can say that in my family there are 5 new Cancellara's tifose.And even my sister admitted that he was really impressive yesterday.

Anyway I know that you've been reading all this boring post just to know more about the Sidi's commercial I mentioned at the beginning.Sidi, which is an industry that produces cycling shoes, always has strange commercials: last year there was one with Samuel Sanchez, Contador and another rider I can't remember right now (Chavanel perhaps?) and they all seemed crazy while playing with a shoe.Then the commercial with Contador (the one in which he wears a white suit and looks like a patient of a psychiatric hospital) came.And now,this commercial in which Pippo appears naked,covered in oil,with just a pair of shoes placed in astrategic point. I understood what was happening in that commercial just after some seconds (my first reaction was "It can't be true!") and I was really shocked by that. Anyway,after the naked thigh of HGS was shown, I covered my burning eyes with my hands and started to scream "What the heek is happening? Change channel! Change channel! Now!!!" (this time I'm not exaggerating,I really behaved like that!). What a shock.

A funny thing is that, a few minutes ago, I came across Pozzato's blog and read the phrasal verb "oil up".Since I'm a curious girl,I opened the link and that's what I read:

I understand a few people had a shock when they watched the Tour of Flanders on Eurosport last week. My shoe sponsor Sidi were one of the advertisers during the race and I appeared on screen naked with just a pair of Sidi shoes carefully placed in front of me.
Andy Schleck called me a metrosexual and I suppose the commercial confirms that I am. But I'm not scared of getting oiled up and showing myself like that. I enjoyed it and I understand lots of my female fans did too….

Unfortunately,I was one of the fans who were shocked by the commercial and that didn't enjoy that much. Luckily Fabian's triumph made me forget the commercial and allowed me to spend a quiet night,without nightmares regarding shoes,oil and Hair Gel Abusers.

Hoping I'll be writing a post about a Schleck's victory next week,I close this post.And look out for Sidi's commercials!!

(Pic 1 had no credit,while pic 2 was taken by AFP)

Faboulous Fabian wins Tour of Flanders:

Yes,Fabian Cancellara proved to be the strongest man in today's Tour of Flanders.The Swiss rider attacked with about 42 kms to go,on the Molenberg,and Tom Boonen was the only one who could follow him.

Team Saxo Bank had previously made a great work (together with Team Sky) and Cancellara and Breschel seemed 2 of the strongest riders of the peloton.Of course their main adversary was going to be Tom Boonen,whereas Devolder didn't look as strong as last year.Breschel showed his really good condition by leading the group on the walls before of Molenberg and everything seemed perfect for Saxo Bank.On the Koppenberg Breschel tried a little attack and Boonen followed him,showing he was ready to give battle to Saxo Bank riders.On that climb lots of riders had problems and decided to walk up the wall.In the previous kms there had been some crashes, one of which involved Kuschinsky (he really looked in pain) and Knaven (he fell in a pretty goofy way when he had already stopped his bike,but he didn't have any serious consequence).

With about 55 kms to go Cancellara changed his bike.Saxo Bank car braked in front of him, rather than behind him,and me got pretty worried at that.Anyway the bike change was fast and Cancellara,with a little help from O'Grady,could make his way back to the peloton with ease.

A few minutes after Cancellara's bike change,Breschel went at the back of the main group and started to move his hand in order to call the team car."He looks very nervous",a chronist noticed.And,considering what would have happened a few seconds after,Matti Breschel had all the reasons of the world to be nervous.In fact Saxo Bank's ammiraglia stopped in front of him,a man (who wasn't a mechanic) got off the car,tried to take Breschel's new bike off the car roof but-big big problem-the bike didn't want to come down.After a few long tries the man tried to give Breschel another bike,but he failed again in his attempt to pull the bike from the car roof,causing Matti to take the decision of continuing the race with his original bike.By the time Breschel got on his saddle again,me was simply, completely, terribly horrified.Do you remember when I wrote about the "Ice Age 2 opposum" feeling? Well,I had the same feeling also during today's race (read the post about Gand-Wevegelm if you don't know what I mean when I talk about the Ice Age 2 opposum).I remained in a state of horror for some minutes,screaming lots of things about bad luck,bike changes and Matti Breschel's new contract.My screams obviously became even louder when I realised that, in spite of a teammate's help,Breschel wasn't going to join Cancellara and Boonen's group anymore and that he was therefore forced to say "Farewell" to his chances of winning the 2010 edition of Ronde van Vlaanderen.What an anger.

After a few minutes of screams,me could start to follow the race in a calmer way,although Matti Breschel was now dropped.On the Molenberg,with 42 kms to go,Cancellara attacked and Boonen followed him.At the end of the climb the two riders had 18 seconds of advantage on the other riders-to continue or to stop? That was the question at that point of the race. And the answer that Fabian and Tom gave to said question was a loud "Let's continue!" that made everyone who was expecting a great race happy.

Millar,Gilbert,Leukemans,Hoogerland and other riders tried to make the time gap between them and the two riders at the front become smaller,but they didn't succeed. The time gap in fact started to become bigger and bigger very soon and,with 20 kms to go,at the beginning of the Kappelmuur,the victory fight already regarded just Cancellara and Boonen.But then,my sister (who was following the race with me and who was surprisingly sorry for Matti Breschel's problem with the bike change) said a few magic words: "If you support Cancellara,well,then I'll support Boonen.Allez Tom!" A few seconds after these words were pronounced,Cancellara attacked and Boonen got dropped.That was a really great moment: Boonen knew he had to stick up to Cancellara's wheel,but the Swiss managed to drop him anyway.What a champion.

In a few meters Cancellara managed to get an advantage of a lot of seconds on Boonen and it seemed that nothing could take the victory away from him. Although she was still thinking about Breschel, Fangirl found the energy to support the Swiss rider and to express her delight with a lot of exclamations like "This is one of the greatest rider ever!" and so on.

Cancellara was actually so strong that he even had the time to make his own little show a few meters before of crossing the finish-line.In fact he showed a little golden angel,smiled to the cameras,called Uncle Bjarne and shook his hand and,in the end,he even grabbed a Swiss flag and started to move it over his head while crossing the finish-line.

Tom Boonen eventually came 2nd with a delay of 1'15".About one minute after him the two chasers (a great Bjorn Leukemans and Philippe Gilbert) crossed the finish-line and the last podium place went to Gilbert.Then a group of about 20 riders arrived-and between them there was also Breschel (15th).5th was a surprising Farrar,8th was Maxim Iglinskiy and 33rd was a Geraint Thomas,a very promising young rider.

And now,things aren't over yet.In fact,next week there's a race whose name is "Paris-Roubaix" and that Fabian Cancellara will try winning for the second time in his career although his adversaries (a certain Tom Boonen in primis) will give it all to prevent him from winning.While waiting for Roubaix to arrive,I can't do anything but repeat,once again,that Fabian Cancellara is a champion.Chapeau!

MATTI BRESCHEL'S MECHANICAL PROBLEM:

If you've been reading this blog for some time,you're probably aware of my great ability in starting a post with a happy amazing topic and ending it with a less pleasant theme.And,in today's post,I'll give you once again a demonstration of this skill of mine by talking about Matti Breschel's mechanical problem. In fact with the help of the information that I found on these 2 links (http://www.fyens.dk/article/1571695:Sport--Frustreret-Matti-Breschel-raser-over-cykel and http://sport.fok.nl/nieuws/378928/1/1/100/breschel-mecanicien-verknoeide-het-voor-me.html) and with the help of my Online Translater,I managed to understand what actually happened to Breschel during today's race.

With 45 kms to go,Matti decided to have a bike change because he had problems with his brake and his saddle.At that time Fabian had already had bike problems and the mechanic who had helped Cancellara wasn't in the team car that was following Breschel.Therefore,when the team car stopped to help him,the the man who got off the car to help Matti didn't even know where Breschel' spare bike was.After asking Breschel for information (the poor boy probably had some cold shivers running down his spine at that moment),the man tried to pull Matti's bike from the car roof.After a few long tries,he decided to give Breschel O'Grady' spare bike but he couldn't take it down the roof either.Watching what was happening,Matti decided to continue the race with his own bike,although he had already lost a lot of precious seconds."I've never experienced anything like this before",Breschel said immediately after crossing the finish-line. "They completely fucked my race up",he said."It can happen to have problems with your bike, but things like this shouldn't happen.Luckily Cancellara won,and this is good,because tonight I'm going to drink champagne and forget what happened".

Considering that Breschel is already thinking about a possible team change for next year,I believe that today's problem with his bike was a very serious accident.Luckily for the team Cancellara eventually won the race and Breschel's mechanical problem didn't get a lot of attention,but I'm sure that the Dane won't be in a very happy mood tonight.By the way,I'm confident that he will surely be in super form also during Paris-Roubaix and that therefore he'll be able to do something good also there.

So,that's all for now-Chapeau to Cancellara for his amazing victory and good luck to Matti for his next race (he really needs it!).Allez Saxo Bank!