Vuelta, Hamburg, Cycling Market, Worlds and more:

Ok dear readers, it's finally time we started talking about la Vuelta and other random randomness. Unfortunately I couldn't write anything earlier because of some little problems connected to university - and, unfortunately, I won't be able to write anything in the next two weeks, because my parents have decided that our family holiday will start on Saturday. And guess what? I still don't know whether during that holiday I'll be able to watch la Vuelta. I mean, Smiley Menchov is climbing the Angliru in a few days time, and I probably won't be able to witness that event. Isn't that annoying?

Anyway, let's start talking cycling before I get too angry. First thing to mention, the Italian races of the last few days, which saw a great Rebellin get a stunning victory in Trofeo Melinda. The other day I read on la Gazzetta that his team doesn't have the biological passport, so I now have an explanation for his last efforts. I usually don't have doubts about riders who ride really well (I never doubted guys like Gilbert, Cancellara, Evans, etc. ), but imo Rebellin's latest results are too good to be true. Riders usually struggle with finding the race rythm again when they come back racing after a 2 years ban, but right now everything looks terribly easy for Davide - just like, in 2009, everything seemed easy for Riccò.

Anyway, let's leave my suspicious thoughts aside. Italian summer races are always nice because they allow supporters (and the head of the Italian team) to uderstand who the best national riders are. And Trofeo Melinda gave us very good news the other day: in fact Moreno Moser, who is a stagiare, went on a breakaway with 30 kms to go and he was caught just 25 kms later. Moreover, another stagiaire (Moreno Battaglin) was 7th, whereas the young Ratto was 4th. It's great to see the Italian young guns riding so well!

Talking about another topic, Gibert has officially signed for BMC which, next year, will have a very competitive team formed by Hushovd, Evans and PhilGil. Although Phil and Thor may have little contrasts during Sanremo and Tour of Flanders, I believe BMC will be the strongest team of the world in 2012. In fact, no one else has 3 champions who can win every Classic and GT stage they want and who can be competitive from February to October.

Still talking about cycling transfers, Leopard Trek has recently given a contract to Gregory Rast, a solid helper. GreenEdge instead has signed the 'climbing sprinter' Simon Gerrans.

A breakout news of the other day instead says that Vinokourov is already planning to come back racing at the Tour of Lombardy. If he really makes it, I may go watching that race with a Vino 4 ever t-shirt on (ok, just kidding).

After mentioning Leopard Trek, let's talk a bit about los Schlecks: after taking part in different criteriums, the brothers are going to race in the Tour of Colorado, which starts this evening. I would have preferred them to race la Vuelta, but los Schlecks seem to prefer the new American races to the traditional European ones: not only did they race the Tour of California in May (when they could have taken part in the Giro), but now they've preferred the Tour of Colorado to la Vuelta. Less pressure, I suppose.

Talking about the good old European races, yesterday the Hamburg Cycleclassics was won by an amazing Boasson Hagen. I think it's strange for him not to race la Vuelta (after all, he's one of the main contenders for the Worlds victory), but the guy surely knows what's best for him. Second in the race was Gerald Ciolek, whereas third was Borut Bozic. Fourth was a great Simone Ponzi, a young Italian who would deserve taking part in the Worlds. Talking about La Squadra, Bettini will have a tough time in deciding the names of the Italian riders who will take part in the Worlds. In fact Paolo would like to create a team formed by guys like Ulissi, Ponzi, Malori and Modolo - but will these young guns be able to resist in a race as long as the Worlds? That is the question.

After talking about the Hamburg Classic, let's talk about la Vuelta, which took off with a TTT in Benidorm. Unfortunately I couldn't see that stage, but of course I do know the result: an amazing Leopard Trek won in front of Liquigas and HTC. There were many crashes on the first stage and amongst the crashers du jour there were also Davide Viganò, David Blanco and Nick Nuyens. Brajkovic, on the other hand, had a mechanical right after the start. Cavendish instead didn't have any crash / mechanical, but he crossed the finish-line 2' 40" after his teammmates. Strange, isn't it?

The first rider to wear the red jersey was a happy Jakob Fuglsang, whereas a disappointed Carlos Sastre created a little polemic inside his team (source: Gazzetta dello Sport). In a few words, Carlos said that the team (ds, managers, so on) doesn't give enough support to their riders. According to some rumours, Smiley Menchov was even less smiley than usual after the TTT (after which he lost 39" from Nibali) and apparently he complained about his team as well. Geox guys must have done something very bad if they really managed to annoy Menchov: he never looks pissed off and he didn't even insult me when I stalked him heavily in San Pellegrino Terme!

Anyway, back to the TTT: another team who lost a lot of time was Sky (37"), who had some problems with riders losing contact from their teammates. Euskaltel did better than usual, whereas Astana was a good 4th (5" of delay from Nibali).

Yesterday the riders faced a 174 kms long stage from la Nucia to Playa de Orihuela. 4 brave riders went on a hopeless breakaway and the bravest amongst them was Adam Hansen, who probably wanted to put a remedy to his poor TTT (he lost contact from his teammates halfway through the stage). Everyone expected the sprinters to battle in the last meters of race, but no one (not even the race chronists and the journalists) had considered a little climb (about 300 meters with an average of 5%) that the rider had to face with about 800 meters to go. Also many riders looked shocked by that little climb and this makes me wonder why they didn't know about it.

HTC started pulling with 10 kms to go and that was a suicide-move. In fact Cav soon found himself with just 4 helpers, whereas other teams still had lots of riders ready to help their sprinters. With about 3 kms to go, Leopard Trek took the lead. Cancellara, O'Grady, Viganò, Bennati: everything was perfect. Unfortunately in the last curve of the race no one could keep Viganò's wheel, therefore Davide found himself at the head of the race, without knowing that his teammates weren't following him (at least, that's what Bennati said). However, Viganò wisely decided to try his luck, but he was swallowed by the peloton on the little climb before the finish-line. At that point HTC and LT's leadout trains broke down and Boonen tried to attack. Unfortunately for the Belgian, it was still too early and he was soon outsprinted by other guys. Sky's Christopher Sutton followed Omega's Reynes as the Spaniard attacked and he outsprinted the Vicente in the last meters of race. Third was Marcel Kittel, whereas 4th was Farrar, 5th Breschel and 6th Bennati.

"I knew it was a hard uphill finish", a happy Sutton told Cyclingnews. "Someone from Lotto accelerated and I jumped on his wheel. I thought, 'This is a long way to go.' But I looked back and no one was there. I thought, 'Alright, I've got this one.' To win today is a dream come true. I can't believe it". Reynes instead almost broke into tears after the finish-line, whereas a happy Bennati received the fourth red jersey of his career.

Today the Vuelta riders will face another flat stage which features a little climb with 13 kms to go. The victory will probably be decided by a sprint, in which Matthew Goss surely won't take part. In fact the HTC rider abandoned the race yesterday because of some physical problems.

Decision time, cycling market and shaving legs:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2011 Tour de France: one week later

Last Saturday at 4.45 pm a tired, nervous, frustrated and sunburnt miss Fede was in her hotel room in a Spanish village, desperately looking for the local sportschannel on tv. Tiredness was a consequence of the long travel of the day before and of the noise made during the night by the Spanish seagulls (they are the worst creatures on Earth after Italian pigeons) and by the boys who went partying at 3 am and who thought it would have been nice to scream in the hotel's corridors at that time of the night, thus causing me to wake up many, many times. Frustration instead was caused by the fact that I was in a foreign country (which wasn't France) when the Tour was still up and running. Moreover, the weather sucked. As far as the 'sunburnt' bit is concerned, then, I have to admit that on our first day of holiday my friends and I were so shocked by the cloudy and windy weather that we decided not to bring our sunshades to the beach. As a consequence, on that afternoon I was looking like a giant lobster waiting to be served on a restaurant table together with some salad or soup. Nervousness instead derived from another fact: the Tour de France's time trial in Grenoble, which had already started and which was going to decide the eventual outcome of the 2011 Grande Boucle.

The day of my departure, I spent the whole afternoon screaming at my tv screen. After his deed on Galibier, I thought that Andy Schleck had a big chance of winning the Tour, but at the same time I feared that the efforts that led him to his historical victory on Galibiér would have made him more vulnerable during the Alpe d'Huez stage. Ah, Alpe d'Huez! The Queen of the Tour was waiting for the riders, with its amount of colours, cycling lovers and people who go there just because they want to be insulted by the true cycling followers (seriously, I believe that at least half of the people who go up to Alpe d'Huez are more interested in showing themselves off than in watching the race!!). Before meeting Her Majesty, however, the riders had to face Telegraphé and Galibier (for the second time in two days, poor things!) and, given the toughness of the parcours, every rider knew that this stage was going to shatter someone's dreams of victory and to reward someone else.

A group of breakawayers tried to look for glory (and for safety from the time cut) since the beginning of the day but, with 90 kms to go, everyone understood that the big names of the peloton wanted to smash the race. 'It's now or never', Contador probably thought as he attacked with 90 kms to go, after just 14 kms of race. The Spaniard was followed by Voeckler, Evans and Andy Schleck and they soon rode past the breakaway rider. Then, all of a sudden, Thomas got dropped (*chorus of 'Noooooooo!' coming from France*) and Evans had a mechanical problem. Once again, Andy the Luxembourgian and Alberto the Spaniard found themselves alone, at the head of the Tour.

As my respect for Contador grew bigger and bigger after his attack, my hope for a Luxembourgian victory in Paris became stronger and stronger. As soon as Evans and Voeckler got dropped, my brain stopped reasoning in a rational way and I let the Fangirl in me completely free. I was shouting at the tv, supporting Voeckler, screaming 'Drop him, drop him, YOU MUST DROP HIM TO WIN THIS F****** BIKE RACE!!!' as Evans (with a little help from Casar and Danielson) joined Contador and Schleck after the Galibier descent, and I was rejoicing when I saw Pierre Rolland winning the stage. Shortly afterwards I was overwhelmed with feelings when I saw Voeckler wearing his green Europcar jersey again and I was proud of Andy Schleck's yellow jersey - although, unfortunately, I had to skip the podium ceremony because I had to go the airport. Talking about airports: I landed in Girona which, by chance, is the city where a Russian cyclist that I stalked during the Giro lives. Luckily I didn't meet him, otherwise I'm afraid he would have had me arrested for stalking.

Anyway, back to the TT in Grenoble and to my hot hotel room in Spain. As my friends went out of the room in order to enjoy another hour of fun (and wind and cold) on the beach, I started suffering in front of that little television. I managed to find the right channel after two tries and, surprisingly, I could understand everything the chronists said. Moreover, I could also understand what Samu Sanchez and Contador (whose interviews with Spanish tv were really long) said. Unfortunately I was too nervous to rejoice for my achievements in the knowledge of the Spanish language because I knew that, in a few minutes time, the 2011 TdF winner would have been chosen.

As Cadel and Andy started their TT, I began to pray for a Luxembourgian victory. Unfortunately my prayers didn't work, since after a few kms it became clear that Evans was going to win the first Tour of his career by doing what he hadn't managed to do in 2007 and 2008: the time trial of his life.

As I saw Andy's jersey become less and less yellow, I susprisingly didn't feel anything. It was a surreal situation and (also because of the tiredness), I felt as if I couldn't realise what was happening. I thought (and hoped) I was dreaming. On the previous day I didn't have the time to reflect seriously on Andy's chances of keeping the yellow jersey and, as Evans took the overall victory, Schleck's yellow jersey soon started to look like a mirage to me. Did he really get it after Alpe d'Huez? Are we sure? Seriously, I was in a kind of trance. A trance that ended as soon as Andy crossed the finish-line, thus releasing his feelings.

I was overwhelmed with emotions too as I watched the lanky Luxembourgian sending the tv cameras away from him and hiding his head on his brother' shouder. In that moment, to me Andy stopped being a cyclist and he went back to being just a boy. And, in that moment, I understood what the Tour is for those guys. Evans the Aussie (aporpos, why does he remind me of a crocodile?) was rejoicing because, after all those years, he finally managed to take that cursed Tour victory; Andy Schleck looked very down because, after grazing the Tour victory for the third time in a row, he lost the race once again, thus becoming the first rider ever to nail three second placements in a row on the Champs Elysées podium; Frank Schleck, on the other hand, was sad because his brother had lost but, at the same time, he was happy for his 3rd place; Thomas Voeckler, instead, was probably cursing himself for the seconds he lost in the descent towards Pinerolo and for having gone à bloc too early in the Alpe d'Huez stage.

As the Spanish chronists started to remember what happened in the different stages of this year Tour, I switched off the tv. I didn't want to hear useless talks about the eventual outcome of the race because, after all, those talks couldn't change anything.

After the stage, my father phoned me to know how I was doing (he probably expected me to jump off the window for the disappointment :P). And, together, we talked about who really deserved to win this Tour. On the one hand, we agreed that Evans was great in the first week of race and on the Galibier; on the other hand, however, we said that Andy was superb in the Alps and that he was the strongest climber of the race, the one who made the race exciting in the last days.

In the end, dad and I agreed that Andy was probably stronger than Cadel in the climbs, but we also agreed that the Aussie didn't deserve to lose another Tour. Andy is younger than Cadel and he still has a lot of time to win this race. Whereas Evans is already 34, in fact, Schleck is just 26 - he's not the young puppy who was 2nd in the Giro 2007 anymore, ok, but let's remember that a guy like Basso won his first GT at 29 and that OGL has already won Liége and has the most impressive collections of second placements of Cycledom. He still has a lot to learn and a lot of time to race, so he must take things day by day.

Talking about the Tour raced by And, some may not be satisfied by his second placement. But still, I think there are two ways to look at this year TdF podium: the 'romantic' way and the cold-minded way.

Those who like a bit of romanticism will be happy with this year's podium. First Cadel Evans, who last year lost the chance of winning the Tour and the Vuelta because of facts not depending on his will. Second and third, two brothers, Andy and Frank. Andy, the rough diamond of cycling, still has to shine on the top spot of a GT podium, but I'm sure that one day he will. As far as Frank is concerned, I think that last Sunday he had one of the best days of his whole life. Standing on the podium with his brother and his super-cute daughter must have been amazing for him and now this podium will surely make him aim higher as far as the next GTs are concerned. The boy is shadowed by Andy's talent, but he's one of the best riders of the world too.

If, instead, you decide to watch this year's podium from a technical, cold-minded point of view, well, perhaps you'll think that Andy Schleck can't be satisfied with his second place, because this year he was the strongest climber and he made a mistake when he didn't attack in the Pyrenées. But still, being angry at And now really makes no sense: the boy has showed us once again that he has everything it takes to become a champion and, sooner or later, his day will come. He has the personality and the braveness of a champion, he just needs to improve from the tactical point of view, to learn to calm down before speaking to the press and to race more in order to be more loved not just by the supporters, but also by the press  (apropos, French journalists  call him 'Andyfferent' -.-"). Hopefully already in the next weeks we'll see him getting good results together with Frank, who yesterday got a very good 6th place in San Sebastian.

Oh, a last thing to say about Andy and the cycling press/supporters: some may now start to call him a loser, but don't forget that Evans had that very same nickname until 2009. Then, he won the Worlds Championships and he won the Tour. Wow!
As far as the podium scenes are concerned, I've recently seen them on YouTube (I decided not to watch the last stage) and I think that the cutest moment was when Frank brought his daughter Leea on the podium. Seriouly, the girl is as classy as Alan Gilbert!

Moreover, I'm glad to see that the awful prizes that were given every year to the 2nd and to the 3rd riders of the GC have finally changed. In fact, the two plates of glass have been replaced by two little bicycles, which look a bit better and which definitely look like trophies.

Unfortunately I haven't seen any pics from the post-Tour parties yet (actually, I didn't even look for them), so I can't say anything frivolous about fashion and things like that.

So. This year Tour has been stressful, long and full of emotions (from desperation and shock to admiration and joy, passing through fear, hope and disappointment), but I really enjoyed it. I often got angry at Andy Schleck but, in the end, I was super proud of him and I also changed some of my harsh opinions about him. However, Andy, would you be so kind to take part in more races next year? People love you, they can't wait until the Ardennes Classics to see you racing so well once again!!

(pic by Bettini)

Allez Schlecks!!!

Ok girls, the two decisive moments are finally approaching: the moment in which the Tour will finally be decided by the last climbs (holy Galibier save us all once again!) and by the TT in Grenoble and the moment when I'll abandon Italy for a few days.

This Tour has been like a rollercoaster so far: there were some epic deeds (Hushovd winning in Lourdes, Voeckler keeping the jersey yesterday, Andy Schleck's winning attack 24 hours ago, Boasson Hagen winning two stages, Gilbert giving it all whenever he could, Hoogerland keeping on racing), but there were also some negative moments (Vinokourov ending his career, a car knocking down Flecha and Hoogerland when they were on a breakaway, the boredom on the Pyrenées, the descents of the last two days, all the retires of the first week of race, the polemics between Cavendish and Rojas...). But still, after more than 25000 kms of race and many hours of sufference (both for the riders and for the supporters), the fight for yellow is still open. Voeckler, the tenacious French rider, has the chance of winning his home-race 26 years after Hinault; Andy Schleck, the Luxembourgian graceful flamingo, has the opportunity of winning his first Tour de France; Frank Schleck, brother of Andy (in 2007 people would have said: 'Andy, brother of Frank'), wants to join his brother on the final podium; Cadel Evans, who has often been rejected by the Grande Boucle, wants to overtake the Luxembourgian duo and the surprising Voeckler in the final time trial, thus reaching the Tour triumph that has slipped out of his hands on many occasions. With 2 days of race and a triumphal parade to go, these riders are divided (or, perhaps, united) by 72 seconds.  Now they have to give it all, once again, for the last time, today and tomorrow. Then, the Tour de France will give the crown of king to one of them.

As many of you already know, I won't be at home during the epilogue of this exciting and beautiful fight for yellow. In fact this evening I'm leaving Italy to enjoy a one-week holiday on the coast of Spain. Luckily the hotel has a tv in every room, so that I'll hopefully be able to enjoy the Tour even while I'm on holiday. Actually, I can already imagine myself upsetting my friends by leaving the beach at 4.30 pm in order to go watching the last two stages. There's no way I'm missing the TT (if I can't find a tv broadcast, I'll call my parents and spend a thousand euros on phone calls in order to know how the race is going second by second) and I'd love to see also the final parade to Paris. When one follows the Tour from its beginning, it's hard to be excluded from the final party on the Champs. But still, in order to do that, I'll have to find the Spanish channel that broadcasts the Tour. And, given my love for tvs, it'll be hard.

Talking about scenes starring myself and my passion for cycling, I bet that tomorrow morning at 7 am I'll be walking around the streets like a fool, looking for a newsagent's selling 'La Gazzetta dello Sport'. Seriously, I can't resist without my two daily pink pages about the Tour!!

Anyway. Time to go packing the last things. Of course, even when I'm away, the comment area is here for you, dear readers, to use. You can express ideas, have discussions, share links, do whatever you want - I'm sure you don't need me to create interesting, funny, moved and joyful (hopefully...) discussions.

Hopefully, when I'm back we'll have a Luxembourgian Tour de France champion. If so, I could go so crazy that, before leaving Spain, I may run down a street with a yellow tow in my hands, singing 'Eisen Andy' (no, I won't record that moment on my camera).

With the song 'Allez Andy' playing in my mind, I say 'good bye' to you all. I hope you had fun on this blog in the last two weeks (the number of new readers that have come across this page in the last few days is SCARY!!) and, if so, I recommend you staying tuned - the season, after all, isn't over yet.
So, this time this is really all from me for the moment - and for the Tour. Have a good weekend and get ready to support los Schlecks as loudly as you can.

Hasta pronto mujeres!

PS: I take this chance to wish a nice travel and a great holiday to the girls who are travelling to France in these days: Figbash, Mar, Marleen, Eva, Lee (who's been in France for a while now), Kara and all the other ones that I've surely forgotten. Rock Paris, girls!!! And stalk a Schleck (or two) also for me ;)

(Pic by Bettini)

Thor de France: random observations of mine about today's TTT

The second stage of the Tour has come and gone and it has had some important effects on the GC. We all know that the Tour is a 3 weeks long race, but there are guys who have already lost a meaningful amount of time after just two days of race. In particular, Samuel Sanchez is already 2' 36" down in the GC and, considering he's not the best climber out there, he might have already lost all his chances to get on the podium in Paris.

Also Contador has already got a meaningful delay from the yellow jersey (1'36") but, in spite of that, I think we shouldn't cut him out of the list of GC contenders yet. In fact, Alberto is a rider who can gain up to 40" in just one mountain stage, so I won't consider him out of the 'battle for yellow' until I see the final podium in Paris.

Another rider who's got a meaningful delay after just two stages is Ivan Basso, whose team had a disappointing result this afternoon. Right now in fact Ivan has a delay of 57" from the yellow jersey - and a delay of 53" from Andy Schleck. Basso probably knew that his team wouldn't have been the best one this afternoon, but perhaps he didn't expect such a big delay.

However, imo, right now the only one who should start to worry about his final GC is Samuel Sanchez. This year in fact TTs aren't on his side and I think that, in the mountains, the Spaniard isn't as strong as Schleck, Contador, Van Den Broeck or Gesink. Therefore, I think it's very negative for him to have already lost a minute from his main adversaries.

Talking about los Schlecks, Leopard Trek was really good this afternoon. Cancellara did a tremendous amount of work and caused Joost Posthuma to get dropped after a few kms. Also Jens Voigt soon blew up and LT concluded its TTT with just 5 riders. This happened also because the Schleck brothers didn't actually work that much this afternoon. Frank in fact remained at the back of the team' single-file for the whole day, whereas Andy rode right in front of Frank. I never saw Frank taking turns at the front and, honestly, I saw Andy taking just two turns. Of course this is the strategy chosen by the team - a strategy with which I completely agree. By riding this way, Frank and Andy in fact could save up energy and they didn't even risk to slow down the team. And, by riding this way, LT got a wonderful 5th placement. Well done guys!

Actually, other two teams ended the TTT with the same time as Leopard Trek: Sky and BMC. BMC was really impressive this afternoon and Evans really did an awesome work for his team ('and for himself', I'd add). Also the riders from Sky did a great work, of course. Boasson Hagen for example (who's just recovered from herpes zoster, a very painful disease) was very good, just like Thomas and Wiggins. Talking about Sky: have I already mentioned I like their new jerseys? And still talking about jerseys: I screamed of joy when I discovered that Garmin was going to wear a white kit during the Tour. In this way, at least, we supporters can recognise those who ride for Garmin, those who ride for Sky and those who ride for Leopard.

As well as changing kit, however, during this year Tour Garmin has already done other important things like winning a stage (today's TTT) and getting the yellow jersey, which ended up on Hushovd's shoulders a few hours ago. Garmin won this team time trial in a great way, although I actually think HTC would have won if Bernie Eisel hadn't crashed in the first curve after the start.

Talking about other teams, 6th in the stage classification was Radioshack. Talking about this team, did you know that the only 'under 30' rider in its line-up is Braijkovic (who is 27)? Amazing.

Anyway. Back to today. 7th in the TTT was Rabobank, whereas 8th was Saxo-Bank, which ended itsperformance 28" down on Garmin. Saxo Bank was the first team to start the TTT and finished the stage with just 5 men. To my happiness, Chris Sorensen was amongst them.

Talking about Saxo Bank, did you read Richie Porte's last twit about Frank? If not, here's what happened.

Apparently, Frank and Richie shared a trip in a lift yesterday evening (they were in the same hotel) and, while walking out of the elevator, Frank gave a little 'gift' to Richie - who, in a very kind and friendly way, thought it would have been nice to tell the world about it.

This little anedocte pretty shocked me, because I really can't imagine the comments that Saxo Bankers made after Porte told them about that. Actually, I believe I don't even want to think about those comments :P At the same time, however, I can't help but imagining Frank walking proudly in his hotel room in order to tell his teammates about his heroic fart action against the enemy. Apparently, the fight between LT and SB will be very tough in the next weeks - and it will see the riders battling even in the hotels' elevators.

Anyway. Back to the TTT, 8th in the stage was Astana, who wore terrible kits that should be banished from Cycledom right here, right now. Luckily I discovered that those kits (who made the guys look like enormous jelly beans) were just a temporary thing, since experts think that the stuff they're made of could have helped Vino and his friends during their battle against the clock. Experts actually weren't that right, since Astana's time wasn't that good. But still, right now the most important thing is that we won't see those kits for a long time.

Oh, and talking about things that make the riders go faster during TTs: this afternoon I discovered that helmets allow the riders to gain 1" pro km when they battle against the clock. Moreover, I discovered that some of the pro's handlebars can cost up to 14.000 euros. Amazing, isn't it?

Anyway, let's go back to the race. 10th in today's stage was Omega-Pharma Lotto.

Gilbert looked great in his all-yellow look, but tomorrow he'll be forced to abandon it, because he lost the jersey to Thor Hushovd. Talking about Thor, does anyone know how the Norwegian chronists reacted when he got the yellow jersey? Seriously, I love those two men. And talking about jerseys: Gilbert thinks that Lotto's jersey is the worst one in the Pro-Tour. Nice, isn't it?

Anyway. Back to the race (once again). Another team (as well as Liquigas, Euskaltel and Astana) that didn't do that well in today's stage was Lampre, whose rider Adriano Malori could show off his brand new jersey of Italian TT champion for the first time this afternoon. Adriano is a very talented rider, but his efforts didn't prevent Lampre from finishing the stage 1 minute down on Garmin.

19th in the stage then was Movistar. Was I the only one who had very sad thoughts as she saw the riders facing the parcours?

21st instead was Cofidis, who had to wait for poor Toni Gallopin during the first kms of the race. Poor Toni, in fact, kept on having problems with his chain. However, the last team to end the TTT was Euskaltel Euskadi. Poor, poor Samu Sanchez.

So, this is all for the second stage of the Tour: while waiting for tomorrow's flat stage, I wish you a goodnight - and remember, always pay attention to the people who share an elevator with you!!

The Exam Chronicles:

Ok girls, just a 'little' post to tell you that I'm done with high school. Considering that you've been so patient to bear my Maturità talks during the last few weeks, here's a little report of how things went in the last two days. Enjoy!

1ST JULY 2011, AFTERNOON: Ok. Tomorrow's the day and I'm almost ready. I still have to review a big part of the Maths programme and other little things, but I'm relaxed. Or, better, I'm relaxed until 3 pm. At that point, I finally realise that tomorrow is really my last days of high school. And I also realise that, to get the maximum mark, I need to be flawless. Oh. My. God.

1ST JULY 2011, EVENING: My evening before the Maturità exam (the famous 'Notte prima degli Esami') is pretty chaotic. Familiars are calling me on the phone to wish me good luck, the neighbour's kids are playing (and screaming) in the garden, my bedroom is full of mosquitos. The 'sudate carte' ('sweated papers') are scattered all over my table, some copybooks are on my bed, other books are already in my rucksack. I repeat my 'tesina' (little thesis) while hoping I'll be able to say it all in 20 minutes. The chronometer says that it actually takes me 17 minutes to repeat it, let's hope that tomorrow it won't take me any longer.

It's 9 pm, I've just finished reviewing Dante and, to my surprise, I've just realised that I still remember Heidegger very well. I don't have the time to review everything, so I go for the most important things. At 10 pm I finally stop reviewing the Second World War. Stupid Italy, why do you always have to change allies in the middle of the World Wars? Really, that is annoying to study.

At 10.30 I finally put on my nail polish, watch the clothes I've chosen for tomorrow (a blue shirt with jeans) and go to bed. Now, all I hope is to be able to sleep.

2ND JULY 2011: After a good night sleep, I get up at 7 am. My parents look more nervous than me.

I get in the car and think about those Tour riders who say that pressure makes them feel better. Well, apparently it is the same for me. I feel ready to face the test and in my mind I keep on repeating: 'Let's go and kick some asses'. A part of my brain, however, keeps on thinking about the things I don't know: Calvino, the political situation in Italy after WW 2, the most difficult parts of Maths programme, half of the Latin programme. The other half of my brain, however, has the following thought: 'It's impossible to know everything, but it's also impossible not to know anything'. Btw, one thing is sure: I'll play my cards well.

7.50: my best friends are with me, ready to witness my examination. The Italian teacher stops to talk with us and asks us whether we're doing fine. 'Hell yeah!', I'd like to answer, but I can't.

8.04: I walk inside the classroom for the last time in my life. The exam starts. I introduce my tesina and I say 'justifiable' rather than 'right'. This means I'll be surely asked about Hegel, a thing that I wanted to avoid. In spite of that, I keep on talking about the editions of the Olympics that were characterised by boycotts. Most of the teachers remember the facts I'm talking about and this doesn't make things any easier. But still, when I finish to talk about my tesina I'm very satisfied with myself. Let the questions begin!

The first question comes from the philosophy teacher. Hegel, I would have bet on that. I defend myself in a decent way, then he shows me what I've written in the philosophy test. 2 questions out of 3 look perfect, but the third one is a mess. 'I was surprised when I read your answer, I didn't expect you not to understand the question. You always reflect a lot before answering!'. Actually, I'm much more surprised than him when I see that that answer isn't correct. Now I understand why I got a 41 out of 45: at least 1.5 points in my partial result were taken away because of that question. Anyway, enough philosophy for the moment: it's history time now!

'Tell me what happened in Russia during the 20th century', the teacher asks. I start talking about the 1905 Revolution and I try to gain time while talking about the terrible conditions of farmers in Russia at the beginning of the last century. The teacher then asks me two questions and seems satisfied with my answers. Then he looks at me and asks me: 'Listen, I know this isn't in the programme, but...Do you know when serfdom became illegal in Russia?' Dates are a weak point of mine, so I take a big breathe before saying: '1861'. 'Exactly!', the teacher says with a smile. I expect a standing ovation from my friends, but it doesn't happen.  I would have deserved it!

Then it's time to talk about Italian literature. First I talk about futurism, then about Pirandello and Leopardi. Another question has me talking about Verga and Svevo. The teacher looks satisfied and tells me I'm doing a great job. Too bad that there are still 4 teachers who have to ask me something.

The German teacher wants me to talk about Buechner, a writer that my classmates and I had to study on our own. In spite of that, I manage to answer his questions and to pretend I'm much more confident than I actually am. As someone once said: 'Everyone can act, except a few actors'.

Then it's Maths time. Oh man, I'm scared. Luckily I have the answers to my teacher's question, so I can pass to English. The teacher asks me about Miller's 'Death of a Salesman' and about my plans for the future.

The Spanish teacher is the last one to ask me something. She makes me talk about the Spanish futurism and about Lorca's 'Poet in New York'. Then she and her colleagues begin to explain me which results I got in the written part of the exam. I see that one of the two answers of Spanish is good, while the other one isn't. On the other hand, the English essay is nearly flawless, whereas the Italian essay is good. One of the Maths questions, instead, is a complete mess.

At 8.52 the teachers stop showing me the written tests. One of them asks me what I'm going to do next year. I say that I'd love to become a sportjournalist and that causes a lot of comments. 'So you'll be able to go to the Olympics!', a teacher says, smiling. 'Let's hope to see your name on a pink newspaper then', another one adds. Everyone wishes me good luck for my future. The atmosphere is now really relaxed, although someone hasn't run out of tricky questions yet. In fact, all of a sudden my philosophy teacher asks me why Zio Crocifisso ('Uncle Crucifix') is so unpolite with the Malavoglia family. 'After all, they're relatives!', he says. He says it with a very light-hearted tone, as if he was joking, and I reply by smiling and saying: 'Well, apparently there were familiar arguments already at the time!' 

Then, all of a sudden I realise that the other teachers are looking at me and at their colleague. The atmosphere has become slightly more serious, so I understand that my teacher is trying to make me slip on his tricky remark. I realise I must say something to get out of his trap. Before he can open his mouth again, I say: "And then, Crucifix is called 'uncle' just because that is his nickname; in reality, he's not a relative of the Malavoglia at all!". After my answer, everyone in the classroom smiles at me and laughs, my philosophy teacher included. However, I soon discovery that he's kept a special question for the end of my exam.

 'Listen', he asks me with another smile as I collect my things before leaving the classroom, 'who wins the Tour this time?'. 'Andy Schleck', I reply in a very confident way. My teacher pulls a strange face and says: 'But he isn't good in time trials'. 'Well, then I just hope Contador doesn't win', I say with a serious expression. My teacher looks at me, smiles and says: 'Contador will win'. All of his colleagues smile (although I don't think they understood what we were talking about) and shake hands with me.

At 8.56 I'm finally out of the classroom, out of the exam, out of everything. As I walk out of the school, I think about all the things that I didn't know and that the teachers didn't ask me. 'They didn't ask me anything about Latin!', I tell my friends. "Well, do you want to go back in that classroom and say: 'Sorry, but you forgot to ask me Latin?' ", my best friend replies me. We all start to laugh and we start talking about the holidays. My high school career is finally over and, for the first time in 5 years, I'll face a summer without homeworks and without worries. And then, it'll be time for new challenges. But before of that, let me relax a while ;)

Andy Schleck: is he bluffing or not?

Good evening, dear readers! For your joy, miss Fede has decided to allow herself an evening of blogging, so tonight she's going to delight you with some random thoughts of hers. 

First of all, an update on my exam preparations. I've studied the whole Italian programme, I'm halfway through the Latin programme and, most important, in the last two days I haven't studied anything because I didn't feel fine. However, not feeling fine didn't prevent me from finishing my 'tesina' ('little thesis'), which I had to give to my teacher this morning, after facing a lot of incredible adventures starring me, a printer and my computer.

Everything began exactly one week ago, when I sent an e-mail containing my 'tesina' ('little thesis') to my teacher. Two days ago he told me he would have taken a look at it in the afternoon, but in the evening I hadn't received the corrected copy yet. Yesterday morning therefore I was very nervous, both because I didn't feel fine and because I was worried by my teacher's delay. In fact I would have had to bring 3 copies of my tesina to school on the following morning (aka this morning) and I was worried by the fact that I had less than 24 hours of time to correct the eventual mistakes in it. My preoccupation became even stronger when, after talking to a friend of mine, she told me that that teacher had been terrible with her, since he corrected everything she had written.

As a consequence, yesterday I spent the whole day between the couch and the computer, with my eyes sore for watching the screen and a splitting headache tormenting me. Eventually, I received the long awaited e-mail at 8.30 pm.

After receiving the copy of my tesina and sending another urgent e-mail to my teacher in order to sort out the last details, I spent a hour (a hour!!) inserting the numbers at the end of each page of my research. It's sad to think that I threw away 60 minutes of my existence in that way, isn't it?

At about 10 o'clock, however, my tesina was ready to be printed. And, as predictable, that's where the drama began.

My work is 27 pages long and, after just 14 pages, my printer finished the ink. I immediately panicked, especially because I had to print 3 (3!) copies of my research and it was too late to find an open place where I could buy a new toner.

This morning therefore I woke up at 7.30, saved my tesina on a computer key and brought it to a place where they usually print documents and things like that. The owner was very kind, but he couldn't manage to print the damned thing. 'Problems with the format', he told me. Therefore I came back home and tried to write my tesina with a different format. Too bad that, after 30 minutes, I had managed to write in a decent way just 6 pages of it. I was a woman on the verge on a nervous breakdown when I eventually remembered that a shop in my town sells printer toners.

After other adventures and many nervous moments, at 10 o'clock I finally had three copies of my tesina in my hands. It was hard, but in the end I made it.

Anyway. Enough 'exam talks' for today, right? So, let's now talk serious things. Serious things like, for example, Tour de Suisse.

Sagan is incredible, isn't he? He won even today! And Kruijswijk got his first pro victory, isn't that sweet? What? Sorry, I didn't understand what you said. Could you repeat? Oh! You don't want to talk about Peter and Steven? Why? Oh, I see! Ok, then let's follow your advice and let's talk about the mistery of the month: Andy Schleck's behaviour in Tour de Suisse.

As you probably already know, OGL has been in the center of harsh critics in the last days, because many people rate his performances in the Swiss race as 'disappointing'. In fact our boy lost a lot of time already in the prologue (but on that occasion it wasn't entirely his fault), failed in his attempt to win yesterday's stage (he was second after an amazing De Gendt) and, most worrying, the other day he arrived 15 minutes after the stage winner, Kruijswijk. I know that he might have got dropped intentionally on that occasion, but this thing worries me a bit anyway. In fact, why should a rider like Andy decide to lose so much time in a race that, on paper, should suit him?

The lively debate that is going around the Luxembourger in these days has seen people adopting two main different attitudes. Here they are:

Attitude 1 (typical of the faithful, entusiasthic supporters of OGL): 'There's nothing to worry about, men! Andy didn't do that well in last year's TdS either, but in the end he was second in the Tour anyway, wasn't he? And yesterday he almost won a stage, didn't you see it on tv? He's still training, that's why he doesn't look very brilliant on the climbs. Moreover, he doesn't want to show his true shape to the adversaries, so he's bluffing in order to confuse them! That's why he got dropped the other day! And then, our boy needs the Tour de France pressure to give his best, so I bet that at the end of July he'll be on the first spot of that famous podium in Paris!'

Attitude 2 (typical of the skeptical supporters who don't like Andy): 'Schleck the Younger has made a big mistake with his Tour preparation this year, even a guy like De Gendt could drop him! Contador will ride much faster than him in July. I mean, Schleck lost 15 minutes from Kruijswijk the other day, if he goes on this way, he won't even be able to end up on the Tour podium in Paris! However, I must admit I'm glad to see that things are going this way. In fact, if he really fails to get on the Tour podium, next year Andy Schleck may decide to focus on more than just one race pro year and that would be great because, right now, he can't be considered a real champion. In fact, real champions are those who always race for winning, not those who bluff in races or race just to train'. 

 

As everyone can see, both the attitudes mentioned above have some weak points. For example, saying that a rider needs 'the Tour pressure' to do well, imo, is non-sense. Especially because, if you're talking about Andy, you must remember that he won Liége in 2009 - and in Liége there isn't the same pressure as in the Tour...

On the other hand, I think it's wrong to say that OGL focuses just on one race pro year. In fact, this year he tried his luck also in Liége and Amstel. Moreover, De Gendt is very talented and not being able to annihilate the gap from him on a climb it's not something to be ashamed of.

In spite of this, however, the thing that annoys me the most is that I think that both these attitudes could be correct. 'Is Andy Schleck bluffing / still training or not?' :That is the question that rings in the mind of every single cycling supporter of the world in these days. And, probably, the only one who owns the answer to this question is Andy Schleck himself.

Personally, I think OGL will be in a perfect shape in the Tour. Anyway, this doesn't prevent me from feeling confused when I look at his TdS's performances. 

The other day on Grosse Scheidegge, for example, Andy showed a really good form and it looked as if he was almost training. But then, as soon as the race for the stage victory began, he decided to disappear. Intentional decision ('I'm bluffing/ I don't want to lose too much energy/ I don't want to feel too strong already in this part of the year') or not? That is the question.

As far as yesterday is concerned, then, OGL entered a breakway, but failed to get the stage victory. 'Things that happen', you may think. Too bad that, imo, if someone wants to bluff, he doesn't enter a breakaway in order to win a stage...

Actually, I must admit that imo the whole 'Andy is bluffing/is just training' theory (which I support) has a worrying side and also a weak point.

First of all: we all know that Andy's been often criticised because he doesn't always race at a very high level during the year. In the past I've often defended this attitude of his ('He can't be in a super shape 12 months of the year! And then, in the last 3 seasons he always had problems that prevented him from keeping regular performances throughout the year') but, if he's really taking part in TdS just in order to bluff / train, well, that would be very disappointing for me. In fact TdS is the most important race in stages after the 3 GTs and, imo, it should be respected. In fact, Andy is just 26 and I don't want him to focus just on the Tour already at this age. Also because, if he starts using races in order to bluff / train at this age, I think many supporters could turn their backs at him very soon.

Back to the 'bluff' theory, then, there's a little doubt that is worrying me in these days. Here it is: if Andy's already in a good shape, why hiding it? I mean: if Andy is in a good condition, wouldn't it be better if he showed it? In that way he'd silence all the critics, he'd respect a race like TdS (making all the supporters happier) and, by getting a good placement in the final GC, he'd probably make his adversaries feel less confident at the start of the Tour. That's the weak point of the 'bluff / training theory' and that is a thing that worries me a lot.

As you can see, the debate around Andy's behaviour in the Swiss race is not just lively - it is also very complex. I think Andy's bluffing / still training, but I don't like this fact. And, at the same time, I have some doubts about why Andy should bluff in such an important race, with 2 weeks to the start of the Tour.

So, here you could read my random, chaotic, confused ideas. And you, what do you think of Andy's behaviour? Is he bluffing / training or is he really having preparation problems?

While waiting to know the answer to all our doubts, I wish you once again a good night.

Little random post about Suisse, France and exams:

Temporarily back from the land of the Hard Studying, miss Fede has finally found the time to leave her 'studi leggiadri' and her 'sudate carte' apart in order to update her blog.

'What? Update your blog? Are you crazy? You have an exam coming up, you should be studying like hell, girl!!'. That's what I hear you, dear readers, scream as you read the first lines of this post. But still, you shouldn't get so nervous about my exam. In fact, today I've done a really good job, since I woke up pretty early (well, early for my standards) and I've spent the last 12 hours of my life studying.

Although it actually took me a lifetime to review Leopardi and Manzoni (damned Promessi Sposi, how can those critics have so many things to say about it?), I'm pretty happy with what I've done so far. And what I've done so far is: the whole Romantic period in Italy, life/death/miracles of the depressing duo Leo & Manzo (those guys couldn't stand each other, isn't that hilarious?) and life/death (especially death) and miracles of Petronius, Seneca and Lucanus. Considering that I wrote a super-detailled scheme of every author I've mentioned above (scheme including all the possible matchings between the different subjects), I think I can be satisfied with what I've done so far.

Talking about the matchings between the different subject: I've recently discovered that I have an amazing ability to match Martin Heidegger to everyone/everything I've studied this year. Isn't that amazing?

Anyway. Let's finally talk cycling. Here you have a little dialogue between me and my sister, which took place at half past six as we watched the final sprint of today's stage of TdS.
Sister: 'The rider who won has lots of muscles'.
Me: 'Yes, I know'.
Sister: 'I don't like men with too many muscles'.
Me: 'Well, sprinters have muscles...'
Sister: 'Yeah, but I prefer climbers. Also Sagan has too many muscles for me. Uhm...Do you know one thing?'
Me: 'What?'
Sister: 'The rider who's won... I've seen his face before. He reminds me a lot of Thor Hushovd. They look a lot to each other, don't they?'
Me: 'Really?'
Sister: 'Yeah, he really looks like Hushovd imo'.
Me: 'Well, perhaps he looks like Hushovd because he actually is Thor Hushovd...'

From this special dialogue you can understand that, even after 8 hours of studying, my brain can still manage to work better than my sister's one. Amazing, isn't it?

Anyway. Tour de Suisse. Andy Schleck lost a big amount of time in the prologue, but he had problems with his bike, so he's justified for that (poor boy, he has a mechanical every time he hops on a bike!). Yesterday however Our Glorious Leader entered a breakaway and worked hard on the final climb, which was very steep (and long). He eventually got dropped, but he did a good training while pulling at the head of the race.

On to another LT rider, Jakob Fuglsang seems in a great shape right now. Yesterday in fact  he was in the breakaway together with Andy and today he's showed us his pretty face at the front of the race once again. Not that I complain, of course.

Jens Voigt looked very good too this afternoon, as he attacked with 4 kms to go. Also O'Grady showed his form in the finale and this is simply great.

Talking about Frank Schleck, instead, he did a great job on the second day of race, but yesterday he didn't attack. Btw, I'm positively impressed by the fact that he hasn't crashed yet in the race.

On to the other riders who are taking part in Tour de Suisse, some of them are already in a super condition. Cunego simply flew over the mountains yesterday, whereas Soler is finally back in shape. Hopefully he won't crash in the next stages.

Young guns like Van Garderen and Mollema are doing well too, whereas Di Luca seems to have gone back to the good old times when he was known as 'the killer'.

De Greef yesterday impressed everyone with his riding style ('He looks like a camel', the Italian chronist kindly said), whereas Leipheimer is always a dangerous threat for the GC. Bakelandts keeps on attacking every day (I wonder, has anyone ever told him that he's not forced to enter a breakaway once every 24 hour?), whereas Sagan has been showing his amazing talent once again.

On to the fast wheels, Zdenek Stybar (if he can be considered a fast wheel...) had a good 8th placement this afternoon, whereas Cavendish got dropped on the last little climb. He doesn't look very thin or is it just my imagination?

Talking about another sprinter, Matti Breschel has finally made it back to the peloton. Welcome back, Matti! We missed you terribly in the last few months!

Talking about another race, you all probably know that a race called Dauphine Libére took place somewhere in France last week. It is always a very good race, always very exciting and full of surprises. This time Contador didn't take part in it, but the Spaniard is going to take part in the Tour anyway. Oh happiness.

The winner of the 2011 edition of Dauphine Libére was Wiggins who, imo, can make it to the Tour's Top 5. I like Bradley, since he's always very ironical and since he's never afraid to speak his mind.

Second in the race was Cadel Evans. Will he finally make it back to his usual GC levels this year?

Third was Vinokourov (*cheerful screams from the members of AAVL*), who would like to win the Tour next month. Imo he can't make it unless Contador, Andy Schleck and other 10 guys all crash out of the race, but I think Vino has great chances of winning at least a stage. Apropos, did you know that he won the Champs Elysées stage a few years ago?

On to another rider, Van Den Broeck showed he's in a great shape and that he can make it to the Tour Top 5. A great surprise in the French race has been Cristophe Kern, winner of a stage and 6th in the final GC. Europcar will have a strong team at the Grande Boucle, since Kern is a teammate of Voeckler.

Talking about other French teams, next month you'd better look out for Coppel and Moncoutie. Moreover, pay attention to AG2R. This team is really growing on me and it has some very interesting young riders. Poor Nicholas Roche, however, was forced to leave Dauphine after a bad crash. Cyclingnews said he might have broken his elbow, but that his Tour partecipation wasn't at risk. Let's hope so!

Another interesting French rider who showed himself to the world last week is Thibaut Pinot. This boy (born in 1990, just like Sagan) won't take part in the Tour, but showed great things in the French race.

Also Bruno Pires from Leopard Trek was very good in Dauphine Libére (19th in the GC), since he rode better than guys like Gesink and Basso. Right now everyone in Italy is very worried for Basso, but you mustn't forget that the poor boy had a bad crash on Etna at the end of May. Also Samu Sanchez and Brajkovic were a bit disappointing, whereas Rodriguez won two great stages.

Talking about Saxo Bank, Chris Anker Sorensen was 11th in the final GC and 2nd on a stage. I'm very proud of him and I'm actually a bit sorry because, now that Contador is taking part in the Tour, Chris will have to work as a helper. 'It's logical!', Logic says, but the heart of a Fangirl is often immune to tactics and team gerarchies.

So, this is all from miss Fede for the moment. Have a good evening, as I go back to my 'mad and desperate studies' (ok, I'm joking: it's bed time also for me). Good night!

Happy Birthday to you, happy birthday to you...

...happy birthday to Andy, happy birthday to you!!! Let's all raise a (virtual) glass of champagne for Our Glorious Leader and let's hope we'll be able to see him smiling and wearing a yellow jersey (just like in this picture) at the end of July, in Paris!!!

PS: I know I haven't written anything for quite a lot of time, but my 'Maturità' exam starts on the 21st of June and school isn't over yet, so I have a lot of things to do in these days. Moreover, I have to deal with the strange feelings connected to the fact that I finally have to say goodbye to the people I've lived with in the last 5 years.

On the one hand, I'm happy everything is (almost) over, because some of my teachers have the rare quality of upsetting me every time I see them. For example, this morning my classmates and I had prepared a little party for celebrating the last hour of philosophy of our lives: we had brought something to drink, we had prepared cakes and biscuits, we had downloaded lots of songs and we had even downloaded a 'tango' (our teacher loves it and we absolutely wanted to see him dancing). In that hour we should have also talked about the exams and taken pictures with our German mother tongue teacher (which we adore). Unfortunately everything was ruined by our PE teacher, who destroyed all our plans by making us taking part in a stupid theatre play created by ourselves not in the 5th hour (as we had originally planned), but in the 6th one.

Eventually, we finished our show (which was the worst thing we've ever done in all our lives) just 5 minutes before the end of the school day, so that in the following minutes we were too busy tidying the gym and changing our clothes to start eating the cakes and putting on some music. Someone proposed to stay and have the party after the last hour of school, but the janitors didn't agree and the teachers (just like my classmates who had to take the bus) were in a hurry. Therefore our party was actually transformed in a meeting of a few depressed students, terribly angry at their PE teacher and terribly sorry for not having the chance to say 'adieu' properly to their teachers (they all had to abandon the school as soon as the last hour of lesson ended because they had an important meeting right after the last hour of lesson).

On the other hand, however, I feel a bit sorry about the end of high school. Some of my teachers have always been nice to my class and watching our German teacher bursting into tears at the end of her last lesson with us was very moving. Moreover, having to say goodbye to my friends (who are not going to study the same thing as me at university) will be pretty hard too. In addition, I have the feeling that some of my teachers would have liked to teach us more things than they actually did. For example, we started Kafka yesterday and our last German lesson was today, so our teacher was obviously sad about that.

Oh, and talking about my mixed feelings about the end of high school, how can I avoid to mention the fear of the exam? Our Maths teacher abandoned us 3 weeks ago and Maths is featured in the exam; our philosophy teacher will ask us history questions and our Italian teacher will ask us Latin questions. Too bad that our situation in History and Latin is dramatic (for my classmates and I, the cold war never started and Apuleio didn't write anything about Love) :P In addition, the fact of having to talk in Spanish in front of someone that doesn't know me (and whose name is not Denis Menchov :P) really makes me feel uncomfortable. Especially because, knowing myself, I'll end up mixing German and Spanish as I usually do during texts.
But hey, everyone has got over this exam without big shocks and, after it, I'll finally have some time to relax (and to watch the Tour ;) In the meantime, I wish a happy birthday to Andy Schleck once again and I cheer for Sorensen's second place in Dauphine Libére ;)

Italian polemics at the Giro, random news and more:

Two days after her last post, miss Fede is ready to write a new one. She couldn't watch yesterday's ITT, but she knows who won and she knows that there weren't many surprises. On the other hand, she did manage to watch today's stage, which saw a rider making one of the most dangerous things she's ever seen. Anyway, let's start from the beginning.
Today the riders had to face Passo Tonale and Passo Aprica. The descent from this last climb ended with 7 kms to go and people thought that Nibali might have tried something there. Moreover, every expert said that today's stage was perfect for those who wanted to go on a breakaway in order to get a victory. That's why, after just 55 kms, a very large group of riders had already broken clear of the peloton. These athletes were the Italian champion Giovanni Visconti (who's had serious knee problems in the last two weeks), his teammate Leonardo Giordani (who worked a lot at the front of the breakaway), Christophe Le Mevel, Hubert Dupont, Jan Bakelants (a hero!), Robert Kiserlovski, Kanstanstin Sivtsov (who wanted to improve his GC)), Jesus Hernandez, Ben Gastauer, Pablo Lastras, Diego Ulissi, Eduard Vorganov, Alberto Losada, Mathias Frank, Fabio Taborre and Addy Engels.
These riders had a maximum advantage of about 8 minutes and arrived on the top of Aprica with more than 3 minutes of advantage on the rest of the peloton. Liquigas, Lampre and Geox worked hard to gain time on the 16 men, but they didn't succeed.
On the Aprica descent both Kiserlovski and Frank looked very uncomfortable, whereas Lastras showed that, as well as being a very good sprinter, a very good climber and a very good Classic rider, he's also a very good downhill rider.
As said, people expected an attack by Nibali, but Popovych went at the head of the peloton during the Aprica downhill and nothing happened. Therefore the main part of peloton quietly rolled towards the finish-line, arriving 3 minutes after the winner.
With 3 kms to go, Bakelandts, Visconti, Lastras and Ulissi got a small gap on their adversaries. In the final 2 kms Visconti looked really nervous (he kept on turning his head backwards), whereas Ulissi and Bakelandts both tried to attack in the last 1500 meters of race. But still, they didn't have a lot of luck and they had to face Lastras and the Italian national champion in a sprint.
Poor Bakelandts had to start the final 'volata' and sat up as soon as Ulissi started the 'serious' sprint. At that point Visconti, who was on the right side of the road, suddenly moved to left, trying to follow the Lampre rider and to hide from the wind. On the other hand, Lastras was behind the two Italians, ready to outsprint them. However, soon it became clear that Visconti would have never been able to outsprint Ulissi: in fact there wasn't a lot of space between him and the barriers and Visconti, who isn't a pure sprinter, felt as if he was in a trap, although he was riding much faster than his companions. What did Giovanni do, then? Well, simple: he screamed at Ulissi twice, then he tried to push him to the left of the road. Considering that Ulissi didn't change his riding direction, Visconti pushed him again, this time with more anger. Ulissi was forced to go to the left, trying to recuperate his balance, whereas Visconti crossed the finish-line in first. Poor Lastras avoided hitting Ulissi from behind at the last moment and, in this all-Italian mess, he was the one who had the worst consequences. In fact, poor Pablo found himself third, after that he had to change his direction all of a sudden in order to avoid a serious crash. Right after the finish-line, no one looked happy. Visconti started talking with Lastras, whereas Ulissi, interviewed by Italian tv, said he didn't think he had done something wrong. Visconti, on the other hand, was really angry at Diego. “Sometimes the ones who decide to risk their own lives are the riders themselves, it's incredible! I shouted at Ulissi ten times to let me pass because I was going at twice the speed, but he closed me in against the barriers and, if I hadn’t raised my arm to push him far from me, I would have fallen. He's behaved in a very bad way during the whole day, he's been rude and it's not nice to see a young rider behaving like he did during the breakaway. Now I may be relegated to the last place, just because he wanted me to crash against the barriers. It's not fair!”, Giovanni said after the finish-line. He was very angry and probably still scared because he had risked to crash and hurt himself badly during the sprint.
In his defense, however, it must be said that there's a lot of pressure on him right now, that he's had big health problems in the first two weeks of Giro, that for his team this is the most important goal of the year and that he really wanted to win a stage in the Italian national jersey. Moreover, it must be said that he was interviewed right after the finish-line, when riders don't have the time to think about what they're saying.
After Visconti was relegated to third place (did Bulbarelli understand what the jury told him in French? That is question... :P), his ds decided to take part in 'Il Processo alla Tappa'. Farnese's ds, Luca Scinto, is a very peculiar person, since he always puts a lot of passion in whatever he does. Today he admitted that his rider had done something wrong, but he also said that Ulissi did change his direction during the sprint. "Therefore", Scinto said, "the jury should have given the victory to Lastras, and not to Diego".
A few minutes later, it was Ulissi's turn to arrive on the stage of 'Il Processo'. With his very nice accent, Diego explained how things went from his own point of view. “I tried to surprise the other riders by going early and I was always on the left hand side of the road, and I don’t think I really veered that much towards the barriers”, he said. Then, when asked about his behaviour in the breakaway, he was really honest. "I behaved in a cunning way, I admit it. My ds had told me not to take turns at the front, that's why I didn't work as much as the other riders. Btw, I wasn't the only one: also other 8 riders didn't pull very much. The Saxo Bank rider, for example (ndr; Hernandez), he didn't pull at all, perhaps because he had Contador in the oink jersey. However, I paid for my behaviour. In the first kms of breakaway in fact I argued with Vorganov, he said some bad things to me".
Then also Visconti went to 'Il Processo' and he said that he got angry too because of Ulissi's behaviour in the breakaway and that he thought that Diego was a bit too arrogant. "At a certain point", said Visconti, "I told him: 'If you keep on behaving like this, many riders won't consider a very nice guy anymore', and he thanked me for the advice". Luckily, in the end the two Italian riders made peace and Visconti said some very nice things. In fact right now there is a jersey worn by him during Etna stage on sale on EBay. "The money that people will spend to buy it", said Visconti, "will go to the family of a child who has a very bad disease. Thinking about all the parents that have children who suffer, and thinking about all the tragedies that occurred in cycling in the last weeks, well, it makes you understand that arguing for a victory really doesn't make sense at all. Things have gone this way, it's useless to talk about them now". Very wise words, said by a very young boy.

Talking about the poor Lastras, instead, I must say that I found it absolutely nice when Italian tv interviewed him. In fact they asked him what he thought about the sprint, whether he thought Ulissi should have been punished, whether he thought he should have deserved to win the stage and whether Movistar was going to protest against the jury's decision. In spite of all these question, Pablo always answered with the same: 'Non lo so' ('I don't know'), said with a big, shy smile and an embarassed face. Thinking about Movistar's problems and watching Pablo behaving in that way really made me want to go to Tirano and give a hug to him and to his teammates.

Back to Diego Ulissi, I think he didn't make any mistake in today's sprint and I agree with the jury's decision.
Personally, I like Diego because of different reasons. In fact he's strong, he's not afraid of anything (his arrogance towards the older riders show it), he's just 21, he's pretty and he also has a great accent. I could spend a whole day listening to him saying 'Horsa' rather than 'Corsa', and I think I'd pay a few euros to make him say 'una Coca Cola con la cannuccia' (I always melt when I hear people from Tuscany saying this sentence...).

Still talking about today's stage, here are two random things to point out: first of all, Matthew Wilson, my personal hero of the race, didn't finish today's stage.
'Who is Wilson?', some of you may ask. Well, Matthew is that great rider who was last in the general classification for a lot of stages. Now hat he's retired, I'm a very sad supporter.
Another (very fangirlistic) thing to point out, then, it's a recent discovery of mine (male readers can skip this part of the post, I don't have problems with it): Hubert Dupont is veeeery good-looking. Really, AG2R guys must do everything they can to bring both him and Nicolas Roche to the Tour de France. In that way, they could become Fangirl's second favourite team.
Ok, end of the fangirlistic part of the post. Now it's time for some random link and for a 'communication service':

RANDOM NEWS:
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/contadors-mechanic-expelled-from-the-giro : A SB mechanic got expelled from the Giro after that, during yesterday's ITT, he opened the door of the team car in order to 'punish' a tifoso who, according to him, had tried to punch Contador. However, Alberto says that the tifosi are always very nice with him and that he loves us all (ok, I'm exaggerating). The mechanic instead said that yesterday Joaquim Rodriguez received a punch from a supporter and that on the Zoncolan the tifosi threw eggs at the SB riders/team cars (I've read two versions of the story). Now, this seems a little strange to me. I mean, the guys would have complained about an episode like that, wouldn't they? And then: isn't it a bit difficult to center a rider with an egg while he's riding? And about the team cars: they couldn't drive up Zoncolan behind the riders and I don't think someone followed SB car in order to throw eggs at it... :P

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/giro-ditalia-forced-to-change-milan-time-trial-course : The Milan elections, as well as causing an earthquake in Italian politics, have also forced the Giro organisers to change the route of the last stage of race. Now I'm seriously considering the chance of going to Milan to support both the riders and Pisapia.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/golas-withdraws-from-giro-ditalia-to-get-married : I wish all the best to Michal Golas and his fiancé Agata, who are getting married this weekend!

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/tondos-funeral-to-be-held-today : DEP, Xavier :'(

COMMUNICATION SERVICE:
Dear readers, you all know that tomorrow's stage of the Giro arrives in San Pellegrino Terme.
Considering that the Giro is riding also through Bergamo, tomorrow many roads in the center of the city will be closed. 'A good chance to stay home from school', I thought. And instead no, because we Bergamasks love killing ourselves with work (everyone describes us as 'loyal people who work hard without complaining', whereas I describe ourselves as 'a bunch of crazy people who can't understand what the priorities in life are'), so tomorrow students will have to stay in the schools at least until 12.30 . Then, at that hour, all the students of the city will finally be free.
Now, just imagine this: all the people going to pick up their little children by car, all the students who get the bus to go home, all the teachers/people older than 18 who drive their cars outside town, all the workers who try coming back from work before the roads get closed. All together, at the same time of the day, in the center of the town. I predict problems. And I predict that it will be impossible to get out of the city before half past one.
'What about miss Fede then? Will she go to school or not?', I hear some of you ask. Well, to everyone's joy, miss Fede decided in November 2010 that she wouldn't have gone to school on the 26th and on the 27th of May 2011, so this afternoon she said 'See ya on Sunday!' to all her schoolmates, wished them good luck for tomorrow, predicted that they'll be struck in the biggest traffic jam every for a lot of time and then promised she would bring them some nice photos of the hottest cyclists. Oh yeah, because miss Fede tomorrow will be in San Pellegrino, rooting for every single cyclist who's still racing (Contador included), trying to take good pictures (it won't be easy) and forgetting about all her duties. Because, as Queen sang, 'Bicycles races are coming your way, so forget all your duties oh yeah'.

PS: No, I won't be posting anything tomorrow :P

Some reflections of mine about Contador's stunning victory on Etna (plus a few random remarks):

Seven days after the disappearance of Wouter Weylandt, the Giro riders are ready to start the second week of race.

Although I'm not a rider, I really needed a rest day from the Giro - and not only because this afternoon I had to study for some bloody tests. I needed a rest day because I'm still shocked by what Contador did yesterday on Etna.
In the comment area of my last post I wrote that the way Contador rode yesterday was 'too good to be true'. 24 hours after writing that, my opinion hasn't changed.
'Innocent until proven guilty: four words to live by', this is the motto of the main character of a BBC series about barristers. Actually, that motto doesn't apply just to barristers - unfortunately, it worths also for cycling supporters.
As I wrote in one of my last comments, I think that people who believe that no one in cycling is clean should stop following this sport. It'd cause them just pain and sickness and they could avoid wasting their time in such an improductive way. Being naive is an important condition for being a cycling supporter, especially after all the scandals of the last years. But still, even naiveness has a limit.
Watching Contador dropping everyone else on a climb like Etna was too much for me to take. I know that the Spaniard is the best climber of the world, but it should be impossible to drop other riders in a way like that. Especially if you consider that amongst the cyclists he dropped there were some very strong grimpeurs like Kreuziger, Nibali and Scarponi.
'Innocent until proven guilty: four words to live by'. Better write it on a sheet of paper and hang it on the wall in front of my bed. Perhaps it will make those doping ghosts go away from my head.
I'm really trying to believe that Contador is clean, but I'm finding it very hard. And I find it even harder when I think that, actually, 'the innocent until proven guilty' thing doesn't apply to the Spaniard. In fact, last year (no matter what the Spanish justice thinks) there was some clenbuterol in his blood. So, he was already proven guilty once.
To say it all, right now I'm torn between two parts of my ego: the pessimistic one and the optimistic one. Pessimism makes me think that it's useless to watch the rest of the Giro, because Contador will surely win it and because he's a doper. On the other hand, optimism tells me:
1. that is not the first time that Contador drops everyone else on the first climb of a Grand Tour.
2. that Contador's power datas weren't that impressive.
3. that Contador wouldn't risk another positivity just because he wanted to win on Etna.

I'm really confused right now, since I would love to be able to believe that Contador's victory was a clean one but, at the same time, I'm finding it very tough.
'Innocent until proven guilty'. Again, those words ring inside my head. Shall I apply them to Contador's case? Or not?
Well, perhaps it would be better if I believed that Contador is clean. In that way, I would be able to read the newspaper without laughing sarcastically every time I read headlines like: 'Contador is as strong as Pantani', 'A spectacular Contador wins on Etna' or 'Contador is as strong as Coppi'. And perhaps I would even be able to enjoy the next Giro stages without thinking about doping.
However, I really do hope that Contador will give his adversaries the chance to do something against him. Many people said that Alberto's action on Etna was 'superb, spectacular, a joy for every cycling lover', but personally I found it boring and I didn't really like it. In fact, I want to see riders battling on a climb, not a single athlete attacking and dropping everyone else in 2 seconds time.
But hey, perhaps there's something wrong with me. And to say that I pretty like Contador as a person. I mean, I hated him after Chaingate, but last week I watched an interview with him and he came across as a very nice and modest boy.

Anyway, considering that right now I seem unable to put an end to the debate going on my mind between Pessimism and Optimism, perhaps it's time to think about the next stages of the Giro.
In the last hours I've heard many people saying that Contador has already won the Giro and that his adversaries should race for the second place. Most of the GC contenders have said that: 'Contador is strong, but the Giro is long', and this may sound like the usual cliché that people say when things go bad. However, I don't think we should despair in front of Alberto's strength. The Giro is a complicated race and it takes very few to lose it: a night without sleep, a virus, a sudden cold, an allergy problem, a crash, a chain popping at the wrong moment... Therefore I think we should all watch the next Giro stages and see what happens. Doping or not, Contador is strong, but the Giro is a three weeks long race. Moreover, now that he has the pink jersey, Saxo Bank will have to control the race in the next days. And, as we know, controlling a race takes a lot of effort.

Talking about other things connected to yesterday's Giro stage, I'd like to point out that Pieter Weening lost the jersey. However, I'm glad that I've discovered this rider: he seems a very nice guy and some of his facial expressions are just great.
Another thing to notice about yesterday is that Visconti went on a breakaway. Although he isn't in his best condition, in fact, the Italian champion absolutely wanted to honour the only Sicilian stage of the Corsa Rosa. He and Nibali were welcomed by a great support in their home region and Nibali even sang a Sicilian song at the start of the stage (although he did look embarassed, he made the tifosi happy). After the stage instead he was welcomed by a plate full of cannoli siciliani (which he couldn't eat). Yum!!
Other thing to notice, Niemiec's great work. The boy is strong, I had told you that!!
Amongst the riders that disappointed me a bit yesterday there were Pinotti, Menchov, Rodriguez and Lovkvist. On the other hand, I was happy to see Rujano, Siutsou and Bakelandts doing well.
A thing that I didn't understand was Garzelli's sprint in order to take the third place on the stage ahead of Nibali. Those 8 bonus seconds are surely going to change his GC eventual classification... :P
Last but not least, two riders finished out of time limit yesterday. They are Robbie McEwen (Richie Porte said he's worried because now the gruppetto has lost its leader) and Graeme Brown. Cavendish instead entered the time limit for just 30" - and, according to Gazzetta, he also received some help from the supporters.

So, these are my few, confused opinions about yesterday stage. In case you're wondering how the debate between Optimism and Pessimism ended up, well, let's say that the temporary score is 1-1 (yesterday evening instead Pessimism was leading with the score of 1-0). Hopefully tomorrow my opinions will be a bit clearer.
That's all from me for the moment - sorry for the confusing post, but my cyclistic mind right now is a true mess! :S