Some cycling news plus Royal Wedding Fever (yes, I've come down with it too)

Almost one week after my last post, here I am writing a few things about cycling and about (guess what?) the Royal Wedding. Oh yes. You thought you could break free from the 'event of the year' by ending up on this blog, didn't you? Well, sorry to disappoint you, but I've come down with 'the Royal Wedding Fever' too. If you feel you can't stand another long comment of someone about the 'marriage of the century', go to the second part of my post: I won't be offended by your decision.
Actually, in the last months I did try to ignore the royal marriage as long as I could. After all, I don't know Kate and William, so I thought that I shouldn't have cared so much about their wedding. 'Just leave them a bit of privacy, poor things!', I thought every time I heard news about their marriage.
Just this morning I abandoned my indifferent attitude and I started feeling pretty excited about the wedding. So excited (and curious) that, as soon as I came home, I abandoned my dignity in the garden, entered the house and immediately asked: 'What was Kate wearing this morning?!?' to the first person I saw (who was my dad, aka the only creature in the house who hadn't watched the wedding). Ok, perhaps I've exaggerated this part. Actually, I must confess that the first thing I asked as soon as I entered the house was: 'How many seconds of advantage does Sorensen have on the peloton?'. Then, I asked about the wedding :P

In the last days I've tried to give a reason for all the big interest around weddings and , in particular, I've thought a bit about why women love marriages so much.
In my opinion, there are at least three elements that make most of us women go crazy about weddings. First of all, there's a 'historical' reason, if we can call it this way. In fact, girls start hearing stories like 'Snow White' and 'Cinerella' when they're 3/4 year old and they don't forget about them until they eventually come down with Alzheimer. These fairy tales enter our girly genes as soon as we start understanding things, just like they entered our mothers and our grandmothers' genes in the past. And how do these fairy tales always end? Well, simple: there's a commoner who marries a gorgeous prince and has an amazing wedding. An amazing wedding with 4 WHITE horses pulling a carriage, the prince wearing his best uniform, the bride wearing the most beautiful dress ever and the church bells ringing happily as soon as the married couple leaves the church. Now, compare this typical 'happy ending' of a fable to the story (and the marriage) of Kate Middleton: there isn't any difference,is there? (No, the fact that William is becoming bald can't be considered a difference). Imo, that's what we girls love so much about important weddings: every time, it's like watching a fairy tale that comes true.
Another important 'marriage love' factor, imo, is that there's a truly important wedding just once (or twice) every 30 year. Watching it (even if on your own little telly) makes you feel like you're part of the history of the world, it makes you able to say 'I was there!' when people in the future will talk about the wedding of William of England and his wife. After all, who doesn't love being part of the world history?
As we girls grow up, actually, another 'wedding love' factor makes its appearance on the stage: the love for dresses. And where can you see more dresses than at a wedding? And where can you see more dresses than at a royal wedding?
I think it's because of these three reasons that many people (especially women) couldn't help watching the wedding this morning (or catching up with it this afternoon). Apropos, thank you BBC News for the super long coverage!!!

Anyway, I realise I'm digressing. Talking about the Royal Wedding, I must say that I really liked it. Kate looked very nice and natural and with William she forms a very nice couple. Talking about the Prince, my mother's best comment about the ceremony was: 'Poor guy! And to say he had so much hair when he was a kid!' Btw fear not, William: you can ask Berlusconi what treatment he used to make his hair reappear on his head again. If it succeeded with him, it will surely succeed also with you.
Talking about fashion, I really liked the dresses worn by Kate (of course), by her sister, her mother and by Victoria Beckham. As far as the Queen is concerned, my sister said 'she looks like a banana'. I actually found her very sweet, in her yellow dress, looking like a normal granny who goes to her nephew's wedding. Actually, this morning the most discussed issue at school was: how does William address to her grandmother? I mean, does she call her 'Dear Grandmother'? Or does he refer to her as to 'Her Majesty'? Or do Harry and Will simply call her 'Betty the Granny'? (It's a fascinating topic of discussion, isn't it?)
Still talking about today's topics of discussion at school, one of the most 'successful' ones was the following: 'which prince am I going to marry?' Here you have some pictures of the Princes that haven't got married yet. Most of my friends went for Harry, but I'm afraid that they're not the only ones who had this idea today, while watching the marriage...
Talking about the nobles who took part in the ceremony, it was nice to see the faces of some people whose existence I had ignored until this morning. I was really curious to see the Grand Duke of Luxembourg (of course) and I was shocked when I saw the dresses of two of the members of the Royal Family (the Duchesses of York, perhaps?). However, I was very relieved that no one from Italian government attended the ceremony. Otherwise, we would have distinguished ourselves in a negative way even today. Moreover, I was very happy to see that no one from Casa Savoia went at the wedding either. I wouldn't have beared it if Emanuele Filiberto had started singing and dancing at the post-ceremony party. In fact, whereas Holland has a guy like Boogerd taking part in 'Dancing with the Stars', the Italian edition of the programme has had the Prince Emanuele Filiberto amongst its most famours performers. Thanks God Italy's no longer a monarchy.

CYCLING NEWS:
After expressing my few trivial thoughts about THE wedding, let's finally talk about cycling. Today was a joyful day for the whole AAVL, who could cheer for Vinokourov's victory in Neuchatel stage of Tour de Romandie. Vino followed Toni Martin (who had attacked with 2 kms to go) together with Cherel and he eventually won the eventual 3 men sprint. Cherel complained about Vino's way of sprinting, but imo the Kazakhistan rode in a correct way. The Frenchman tried to pass where there was no space, it's not Vino's fault if he made that mistake!
Still talking about Tour de Romandie, yesterday stage was won by Damiano Cunego and everyone was very happy about it (at least here in Italy). Moreover, CA Sorensen tried to escape from the peloton yesterday and he tried again this afternoon. Today he's even remained alone at the front o the race for some time, before being eventually caught with just 10 kms to go. Chris looks very good in these days and this makes me ask why he's not taking part in the Giro (and the same goes for Vinokourov and Cunego).
A rider who certainly won't take part in the Corsa Rosa is poor Daniele Bennati, who crashed two days ago in Romandie and broke his right collarbone and 4 ribs. I wish him a fast recovery and I hope he'll be able to race problems-free in the second part of the season.
Also Kiserlovski has had some physical problems lately. The Croatian rider in fact has just discovered that he has a cracked vertebrae, which is a consequence of his Paris-Nice crash (the one in which he ended up under a truck parked at the side of the road). Hopefully he'll be able to take part in the Giro, since I have high expectations on him.
Talking about another race that is going on right now, Tour of Turkey is a goldmine for sprinters. In fact, every stage of the race so far has been won by a sprinter. Today it was the turn of Andre Greipel, whereas Saxo Banker Jaroslaw Marycz, who attacked in the last km of race, couldn't get to the top 3. However, chapeau for trying.
So, these are some of the cycling news of the last days. As you can see, it isn't much. In the next days I'll probably post something about the Giro, so stay tuned!

Random Post with Random Links:

The Giro d'Italia begins next week and obviously Fangirl is really looking forward to it because, as a famous Italian journalist once said,during the Giro 'everyday is a holiday' (in Italian the sentence sounds a bit different,but that's the meaning).
Hoping that this year Giro won't end up like last year (read: 'hoping there won't be any doping cases'), here I go with some random links about Team Saxo Bank's riders that are racing in the Giro and also with some little useless comments of mine about Tour of Romandie.Enjoy!

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/saxo-bank-cofidis-for-the-giro-ditalia : first of all,the Saxo Bank line up for the Giro.Lots of people have been very surprised by Riis' Giro team ("Where are the Schlecks? Where is Cancellara? Where are Fuglsang and Breschel?!? And Voigt and O'Grady?") and I can understand them completely. The trouble is that,as Frank Schleck once admitted in an interview, the team sponsor (Saxo Bank now,but also Csc in the past) doesn't care at all about the Giro, so Italian tifosi can't do nothing but complain about the lack of big stars in Saxo Bank's Giro line-up. As well as that, the Giro isn't as famous as the Tour (although the hardest mountains are here in Italy) and this year Riis desperately needs his team to get good results during the Tour, and not during the Giro, if he wants to continue his adventure in Cycledom for some other years.

When the Giro parcours was first announced in November (was it November? Oh,who cares!), both Fangirl and Logic had one big hope: seeing one of the Schleck brothers, possibly Frank, in Italy in May. "Why Frank and not Andy?",someone asks. The answer is simple: this year the Giro features lots of hard climbs and a few time trials so,in my opinion, it could have been possibe for Frank to win.As well as that, Italian journalists never pay a lot of attention to him,so he could have ridden without a big pressure. Then, after getting a good result in the Giro, Frank could have gone to the Tour as a 'super helper' for Andy and he could have tried to get a good GC result also there. Obviously I know that this is just imaginary cycling and that there are lots of factors that influenced the season schedule of the brothers, but me would have loved to see one of the Schleck brothers come back to the Giro this year. Well,it will be for another time.
Anyway,back to SB line up for the 2010 Giro, here it is: Larsson, Cooke, Lucas Haedo, Chris Anker Sorensen, Nicki Sorensen, Michael Morkov, Laurent Didier, Richie Porte, Anders Lund. When I told some people I know that the Saxo Bank's captain for 2010 Giro would have been Chris Anker Sorensen, they looked at me in a very surprised way. "Who?",they asked. "Chris Sorensen",I answered. "The one that won a stage during last year Tour?","No,that was Nicki Sorensen". "And who's this Chris Anker,then?" . Anyway the most irritating fact featuring me talking about SB's Giro line-up with other people involved a little boy that goes to my school. When I told him that Saxo Bank wasn't going to bring the Schleck brothers and Cancellara to the Giro, he started to make fun of Saxo Bank. And until that point I managed to stay calm. Everyone's free to make fun of everything/everyone,right? And then I couldn't be rude to him because his mother was there as well while we were talking. But then,at a certain point,the little boy dared to say that "Saxo Bank totally sucks.They have Cancellara and they never manage to win team time trials during Grand Tours. Well, that's obvious when you have a team in which together with Cancellara you have guys like the Schlecks or Larsson, which can't ride time trials at all". Now, I think that the stupidity of this sentence doesn't even need any comment because by commenting it I would just waste my time. Simply, I remember you that Larsson was second in the TT at the Olympic Games in Beijing and at the 2009 Mendrisio Worlds.

Anyway,back to the line-up. As said, the team captain should be Chris Sorensen. I say 'should' because you all know that he broke his collarbone in March and he hasn't ridden any race since then,so I don't know how his condition is right now. Anyway also Gustav Larsson could get some interesting results, especially during the time trials. Nicki Sorensen is a very strong rider as well and he isn't that bad as a climber. Cooke and Lucas Haedo (who has never ridden a Grand Tour so far) are both good sprinters, but in Italy they'll have to compete against guys like Greipel, Petacchi and Freire. Anyway they can always enter a breakaway and get a good result,right? Morkov is a rider who comes from the track (where he got excellent results together with Alex Rasmussen), whereas Lund is an all-rounder. Porte and Didier are two neo-pros that will surely show something good. Porte got a great victory the other day in Tour of Romandie, while Didier was really good during the Ardenne's classics and has showed that he can climb very well. Therefore,although the team hasn't got any famous name in its line-up, I believe that they will ride a good Giro.Actually,the fact that some riders are completely unexperienced could be good, since they will surely have the will to demonstrate their skills. Anyway don't worry, I'll probably come back talking about the team's line-up for the Giro in the next days (if my maths teacher allows it...).

http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/64th-tour-de-romandie-upt/stage-3-itt/results : this is a link about Richie Porte's incredible first win,which Richie got in front of guys like Valverde, Menchov and Rogers.If you want to know more about Richie,here's the link to one of my uforgettable posts about Saxo Bank's neo pros: http://fede-myblog92.blogspot.com/2010/02/random-post-about-richie-porte.html

Tour of Romandie: I know I haven't talked at all about Tour of Romandie over the last days and I apologise for that. Actually, I have to admit that I missed almost all the stages of that race because I didn't know it was broadcasted (anyway I fear that I would have been too busy to watch it even if I had known that it was broadcasted). That was obviously a big shame, since the race saw guys that I really do like (Pinotti, Sagan, Porte and Spilak) get some good victories. In addition, Jaroslaw Marycz attacked in the last kms of the stage eventually won by Cavendish and showed once again that he's a really talented rider.As well as that, Menchov showed he's in a good form and this made Logic really happy. Yes,Logic and not Fangirl. In fact Logic surprisingly approves me supporting Menchov because he seems a very clever man and also because he suffers from spring allergies just like moi
By the way,talking more seriously about the race,I have some small things to point out.
1. Richie Porte rode incredibly well this afternoon.
2.Professor Pinotti is in great form.
3.Sagan and Spilak are both very impressive riders.
4.If Basso rides this way also at the Giro (today he crossed the finish-line 9 minutes after Valverde), Liquigas would better give the captain title to Pellizotti or to Sylvester Szmyd.
5. yes, Menchov's smile in the photo below is worrying.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/bellis-to-return-to-racing-at-uk-nationals :a very nice news for cycling supporters: Bellis may come back racing this summer at the UK National Championships. Obviously me wishes him all the best for his comeback.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/features/cyclings-best-worst-and-strangest-victory-salutes : this is a funny Cyclingnews feature regarding the 'worst,best and strangest victory salutes'. Cyclingnews did a very good work, but me is able to add one more strange salute to that list. In fact,how could someone forget Chris Sorensen's 'fisherman' salute? (vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrjO0CPNhJM ).

http://eavis.jp.dk/index.php?alias=DK-JPTO&s=8434&p=217601 :still talking about Chris Anker: here's a great interview that A Beautiful Freak (http://mahoela.blogspot.com/ ) pointed out to me the other day (thank you once again!) .In it Chris talks about his interests aside cycling. And,between those interests,there are also reading historical books,watching football matches and cooking (this last interest particularly shocked me especially because he knows how to prepare a risotto while me can't hardly prepare a coffee).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_t1rvhspX7E : if you're a Schleck supporter and you've been so kind to read all this post,here's a little link that you might like since it features Andy before and after Liége (attention: for a brief moment, also Vinokourov appears in this vid).

(pic by AFP)