Vuelta, Padania and the Leopard Trek / Radioshack affaire:

Ladies and gentlemen, miss Fede is happy to announce you that she's finally come back from her great holiday in Senigallia, a seaside town located in 'shitty Italy' - as someone called it a few days ago.

My holiday was excellent, although reading the newspapers everyday caused me to get very angry almost daily - and not just because of political / economical reasons. Anyway, let's go in order and talk about cycling.

First of all I must say that, as predictable, I won the virtual bet that I had made with my father: in fact, the tv in our little flat in Senigallia didn't broadcast the Vuelta. As a consequence, no cycling races for me in the last two weeks. However, I did manage to keep myself in touch with the cycling world thanks to 'la Gazzetta dello Sport' and, in this way, I soon realised that my Vuelta predictions were terribly wrong. In fact Antòn was dropped during the first mountain stage, whereas Rodriguez and Menchov couldn't get any good result. Nibali was the most active rider in the first 10 days of race, but then he couldn't keep the pace of Wiggins on the hardest Spanish climbs. Nevertheless, I really loved his racng style in that first week of competition. Vincenzo in fact always manages to make races become exciting and he attacks whenever he has the chance. He probably isn't the best climber out there (nor is he the best time trialist), but the boy has passion and determination. Moreover, when I watch him racing I have the feeling that he wants the race to be exciting and entertaining for the supporters - a thing that I completely approve. So, Vincenzo: don't get angry because of your final GC result because you've made us dream sweet dreams anyway ;)

Unfortunately for us Italians, Nibali wasn't the only 'azzurro' who had problems during the Spanish race: Scarponi in fact abandoned the race after a few stages ('I don't know what's going on, I feel tired', he told la Gazzetta) and Petacchi and Bennati still haven't won anything. The young Gavazzi, on the other hand, shone two days ago, when he won the Nojas stage ahead of Vandewalle.

So far, however, the riders who have had the best results in this Vuelta are Chris Froome and Juan José Cobo: in fact the Kenyan rider won a mountain stage and is now second in the GC, whereas JJ 'Buffalo' Cobo is the race leader with just two stages to go. Wiggins, instead, is 3rd: hadn't he broken his collarbone in July, I believe he would have been on the TdF podium.

Talking about other races: the Tour of Colorado saw some good victories by Viviani and Oss and an interesting breakaway by Schleck the Younger, whereas Gilbert has recently won GP Quebec. That man is a monster, no doubts about that!

Another competition who's receiving a lot of attention in these days is the so-called 'Giro di Padania', which is a stage race organised by the Northern League, an Italian right-winged party which would like to cut Italy in two parts: Padania and the South. The people who are part of this party are a bit, well, odd and they show their peculiarities even during this race: after every stage in fact the daily winner gets a 'golem' which represents a cyclist riding in front of the Cervino, whereas the second rider to cross the finish-line receives a shield which, if necessary, can become a spade (everyone would love to own one, right?); the third rider instead receives a M-shaped pyramid (no, I'm not drunk, it's written on the website of the race) with some runes on. As if this wasn't enough, the race started from the Monviso, where the son of the leader of the party, Renzo 'The Trout' Bossi, took some water from the 'Holy River Po' and put it in a little bottle. Some of you may think that the Northern League is just a little party formed by strange people who read too many medieval books, but unfortunately some Italian ministers belong to it and even make some laws. One of the most important members of the party, the above-mentioned 'Trout' (son of the party lader Umberto), had to take the Matura exam three times before being able to pass it. Nevertheless, he earns 12.000 euros pro month because he's a politician. And guess what? The money of his wage obviously derive from the taxes that we poor stupid people pay. Yes, sometimes I need to quote our beloved first Minister: Italy is a really shitty country. 

Anyway, after explaining what the Northern League is, let's go back to the Giro di Padania: given its political origin, this race has recently been sharply criticised. The Italian Cycling Federation couldn't change its name and many riders decided to take part in it because, all in all, this race offers an interesting parcours and takes place right before the Worlds. Unfortunately for these riders, in the last days they had to bear lots of insults ('Sons of b****es', 'Betrayers' and 'Bastards' were the most popular ones), they had to be careful not to ride over people laid down in the middle of the roads and  a neo pro, Sonny Colbrelli, was even punched on the eye by a 'supporter'. Unfortunately, as usual the ones who take the worst consequences of others' actions are the riders, whereas the politicians simply hide themselves in their big cars with a private chauffeur. Oh, and by the way: so far the race has seen victories by Modolo, Viviani and Basso.

Anyway. After talking about Giro di Padania and Vuelta, let's face a news that really shocked me when I first read it on la Gazzetta. Said news regards the merge between Leopard Trek and Radioshack.

Now, the few people who have been reading this blog since it was created on a cold afternoon back in 2008 may have noticed that, year after year, my attitude towards the Schleck brothers has changed. At first I was the usual Fangirl who just cares about her heroes, but then (luckily!!!) I slowly became a true cycling supporter and I soon learned to criticise even my favourite riders. As I faced these changes, my favourite cyclists grew older and, last year, they changed team. And, as some of you might have noticed it, I never really accepted this change. At first in fact I thought that everything was too secret, then the team PRs started to blow their own trumpets and in the end the ds often seemed unable to make the riders work as a team. Apparently I wasn't the only one who noticed these things, so that the owner of the team, mr. Flavio Becca, recently chose to change things in order to make things better. So, what did our man do? Simple: he had Leopard Trek merged with Team Radioshack.

Now, first question raised by this move: if Becca wanted to improve his team, why merging Leopard with Radioshack when he could have merged it with HTC Columbia? Wait a moment and you'll have a possible answer to this question.

According to la Gazzetta (also known as 'The queen of the rumours which later turn out to be oh so true'), Becca wanted the Shack and Leopard to merge because he was disappointed by the lack of good results that his team had during this season. In particular, at the end of theTdF the disappointed Becca referred to his team by saying: 'I feel like the owner of an excellent airplane with a great crew but without a commander'. Moreover, mr. B was reported to believe that Andy Schleck can't win a Grand Tour without a great ds on his team car. Therefore our man started to look for a great ds who could create a good race strategy for his little Luxembourgian jewel. And whom did he find? Johan Bruyneel, who has always liked Andy and who probably promoted 'Merge-Gate'. In fact, by merging RS and LT los Schlecks got a great ds (a cunning man like Bruyneel) and Becca got the chance of improving his team and sharing the team's costs with an important sponsor.

Unfortunately, there's a little problem in this great economical move: LT in fact has about 25 riders, whereas RS has about 9 riders. And, according to UCI, one single team can have just 28 riders plus 2 neopros pro year. This means that, halfway through September, about 6 former riders from Leopard Trek or Radioshack will find themselves without a contract - and I don't even want to talk about all the bus drivers, soigneurs and so on that will lose their jobs because of this merge (amongst the guys who were fired by LT there is also Brian Nygaard).

Talking about the riders, it is already known that nor Leipheimer nor O'Grady will join this new team (which is called 'Radioshack Nissan Trek' or something like that) because they are heading towards other teams. Apparently, the former Radioshack guys who will be racing for this new team in 2012 may be: the evergreen Chris Horner; ol' Armstrong's helper Kloeden; Janez Brajkovic; Matt Bussche; Markel Irizar; Ben King; Nelson Oliveira; Jesse Sergent; Haimar Zubeldia.

Personally, I would have avoided keeping Horner, Kloden and Brajkovic: can you imagine next year TdF team? Schleck, Schleck, Kloden, Horner, Brajkovic, Kloden, Cancellara, Zubeldia and Voigt. On paper it looks great, but who will sacrifice himself for the others?

Anyway, back to the riders' contracts. The part related to Leopard Trek former athletes looks really tragic: in fact Bruno Pires, Thomas Rohregger and Martin Pedersen are likely to be fired because they all signed a one-year contract. Other riders, instead, found out about the merge just thanks to the media. Amongst those guys there are strong riders like Brice Feillu, Tom Stamsnijder, Joost Posthuma and Jakob Fuglsang. In particular, la Gazzetta claims that the Danish rider may leave Leopard next year. In my opinion, if this happened, it would be a shame: Jakob in fact is one of the best young riders out there, so I think that giving a contract to Horner and not to him would be a very stupid move.

Still talking about Leopard former riders, it is said that even Cancellara might leave los Schlecks. In this way, the Leopards who would end up racing for RNT would be: Daniele Bennati, William Clarke, Stefan Denifl, Linus Gerdemann, Dominik Klemme, Anders Lund, Maxime Monfort, Giacomo Nizzolo, Andy Schleck, Frank Schleck, Davide Viganò, Robert Wagner, Fabian Wegmann, Oliver Zaugg and Jens Voigt. That would leave 3 free spots for some new riders. Given that this summer RS already signed Galoppin, Kruopis and Meersman, and that LT signed Rast and Hermans, now I really wonder who amongst these 5 riders will see his new contract disappear all of a sudden.

As you can understand, this new super team already seems to have lots of problems. Moreover, as if this wasn't enough, I'll add another problem myself. And that problem is: all the team's sponsors are American. Therefore, I think I can already say 'farewell' to the chance of seeing the Schleck brothers racing the Giro or la Vuelta next year. And talking about the Schleck brothers: they often talk about values like friendship and loyalty, but the way they're abandoning the people who last year believed in their new team project (and risked their career because of that) really lets me down. Kim Andersen, Nygaard, Fuglsang, the soigneurs, even the bus driver... They all abandoned their safe jobs in order to start a new adventure, but now they've been let down. I don't know if the brothers are actually involved in this merge but, to be honest, this whole story leaves me angry. Cycling isn't about love, friendship and loyalty, it's about money and success. Too bad that people often pretend to ignore this fact and even manage to take in other people by doing so.

Luckily, there is at least one happy news to cheer us up in this strange month of September: a few days ago in fact An-Sophie De Graeve, girlfriend of the unforgettable Wouter Weylandt, gave birth to the couple's first child. The baby girl was named Alizée, measures 51 centimetres and weighs 3.6 kg . I really wish a lot of strength to her mum and I wish Alizée a long, happy and serene life: little one, your father (and every single cycling supporter on Earh) will always be with you  <3

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.

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)

Norway takes possession of the cycling world as the Schlecks defend themselves:

Finally, a good day for the Schleck brothers. I had said that Italy brings good luck to them!

Today's stage had a very fast start, given that many riders wanted to go on a breakaway. In fact this afternoon the riders had to face climbs like Sestriere, Monginevro and Pramartino, but between the last two climbs there were 40 kms of descent. Therefore, many people decided to look for glory on this afternoon's parcours. One of the riders who, unfortunately, couldn't take part in this quest was Paolo Tiralongo who, after suffering from gastritis for a whole week, abandoned the Tour after 70 kms of race.

The final breakaway was formed after  60 kms and it included 14 riders: Amador (the last rider in the GC), Casar, Mollema, Boasson Hagen, Hivert, El Fares, Chavanel, Fofonov, Murayev, Perez Moreno, Paterski, Bozic, Leukemans and Tjallingi. Moreno attacked on the Sestriere and got a minute of advantage on his former companions. On that very same climb, Roche, De Weert and Hoogerland escaped from the peloton and tried to bridge up to the breakaway.

At the beginning of the last climb du jour, Moreno was caught by Hivert, Mollema, Casar and Boasson Hagen. Then Edvald attacked and his former companions could see him again just after the finish-line. This afternoon in fact Edvald manage to win his second stage of this Tour, thus making the Norwegian chronists dance in their studios. He crossed the finish-line 40" before a climber like Mollema and 50" earlier than Casar.

On the final descent, supporters risked 3 heart attacks because of Hivert. The French rider (9th on the stage) firstly risked to end up in a woods, then he did end up in a woods because of a crash and he eventually ended up in the private parking lot of a house. Luckily he didn't hurt himself and, also because of this fact, people could immediately start joking about his riding skills.

'Hivert would like to go looking for mushrooms in the woods rather than ending this Tour de France!', an Italian journalist said at first. Then, when Hivert crashed, the joke was simple: 'He's seen a mushroom!' In the end, when the Saur-Sojasun rider ended up in the parking lot, the journalist thanked the owners of the house for leaving the gate to their parking lot open.

As Hivert was rolling to the finish-line, the GC riders faced the last climb. Contador attacked twice but, luckily, this time the Schleck brothers (and Andy in particular) could follow him in an apparent easy way. When the descent began, I was very worried about the downhill skills of los Schlecks, especially because Voeckler immediately attacked. Unfortunately, the Frenchman had some problems while riding downhill and he ended up in the same parking lot as Hivert. A child dressed up like a savage could have closed the gate of that parking lot and could have started to scream: 'I've imprisoned one!' right after Voeckler found himself in his house, but luckily this didn't happen and Thomas could launch himself in the tricky descent again.

Voeckler's attack however had a big consequence: in fact, Contador and Samu Sanchez (who were following him) found themselves in front of everyone else and, given that they have a similar goal and that they're good friends, the Spaniards immediately started riding 'à bloc' towards the finish-line. Behind them, los Schlecks were doing their best and, with 150 meters to go, they finally annihilated the gap that separated them from the two Spanish riders. Finally, a stage ends well for the brothers. Poor Voeckler and Basso, instead, both lost 27" from their GC adversaries. Thomas wasn't really happy with his result especially because, if he hadn't attacked, he wouldn't have lost time from guys like Evans and Contador. Moreover, this afternoon we had the first hot day of Tour de France. Voeckler, who doesn't like the heat, suffered from that, as we could see by looking at his face during the podium ceremony. It was sunburnt!

After the stage, Contador was really happy and he told Italian tv that he attacked 'because of the Italian supporters. They deserve to see the Contador of the Giro on these roads, so I did my best'. Once again, Alberto, thank you for brightening up this race.

The Schleck brothers were really good at chasing Alberto and Samuel and, once in a while, LT website is right in celebrating the deeds of the two brothers. However, I'd like to point out two little things about los Schlecks:

1. After Contador's attack, Andy turned his head 5 times in 200 meters.

2. The brothers this afternoon were perfect, no doubts about that. But still, I've seen an interview with Frank that was made by Italian tv yesterday evening. And it left me a bit shocked. In it, in fact, Frankie said: 'We did our best on the Pyrenées. If someone doesn't agree, they can tell what else we could have done'. Cyclists often use this kind of sentences, but I've always found them hateful. In a certain way, it corresponds to saying: 'Ok guys, you're incompetent and you don't really know what you're talking about, so shut the hell up'. Unfortunately, since I do know what I'm talking about, I can just say that, imo, the brothers should have attacked on the stage towards Plateau de Beille, even if one of them didn't feel fine. As I already said, if you always want to be together during races, buy yourself a tandem. One can't say that the attacks of the brothers in that stage were serious, because it was clearly evident that they weren't. In fact, on that day Andy would attack and then he would turn his head after less than 3 seconds. Contador, when he attacks, doesn't turn his head for about 5" - and this happens when he's not feeling fine. So, dear boys, today you've been perfect: but please, abandon the 'We are right, the rest of the world is wrong and incompetent' attitude. It's hateful and it won't bring you any good.

On to tomorrow, Colle dell'Agnello, Izoard, Lautaret and Holy Galibier may save the Tour of Contador and, hopefully, of the Schleck brothers. Voeckler is likely to lose the jersey, a thing that will really sadden me. In fact I've learned to like T Blanc in the last days and it will be hard to see him losing the maillot jaune. Although, actually, Thomas may find an ally in the snow. In fact it has been said that, if tomorrow on the Galibier there will be too much snow and too cold, the stage may end on Lautaret. And, of course, that would be perfect for the Europcar rider.

Hard times in Gap (post updated and improved at 9 pm):

Ok girls: let's take a big breathe and let's start discussing today's stage . It will be hard, but we can make it. Fot those of you who didn't watch it, below there's a little resume of it.
RESUME:

First of all it must be said that, according to many people, this afternoon a breakaway would have succeded. Therefore the riders faced the first two hours of race at a very fast pace. In fact there were so many people who wanted to go on a breakaway that, with 80 kms to go, the complex procedure of creating a breakaway appreciated by every team hadn't ended yet. At that moment the guys on a breakaway were 12 and amongst them there were Hoogerland, Roche, Hesjedal and Kreuziger. Unfortunately for them, in the breakway there was no one from Team Sky, so that the British team decided to pull as hard as possible in order to annihilate that action.

A few kms later, the final breakaway was finally formed. Amongst the lucky breakawayers du jour there were Hushovd, Boasson Hagen, Hesjedal, Roy, Ignatiev, Martin, Devenyns, Grivko, Perez Lezaun and Marcato.

With 20 kms to go, the riders had to face a 9 kms long climb, which was 5% steep. Then they would have been able to reach Gap after riding in front of the famous 'Passage Armstrong'. In 2003 in fact a Tour stage ending in Gap saw Armstrong riding through a field in order not to crash. Since then, that field has been known as 'Passage Armstrong'.

Hesjedal attacked on the last climb and Boasson Hagen tried to follow him. Poor Edvald soon found himself in a Garmin sandwich, since Hushovd soon got glued to his wheel and wheelsucked him during the whole climb. In fact, Hesjedal and Hushovd are teammates and, once again, their team showed that they're masters at sandwiching other riders.

Boasson Hagen reached Hesjedal with 2 kms to go, at the end of the final descent (which was very slippery and dangerous because of the awful weather). Ryder immediately started to work for his captain, who talked briefly with Edvald. When the sprint began, the World champion had no problems in taking the victory ahead of the Norwegian rider of team Sky. Once again, a Tour de France stage ended up with looking like the Nowegian National Championships. And, once again, the Norwegian chronists have had the chance of screaming that they own the cycling world.

As the battle for the stage victory became an all-Norwegian fight, the battle for the GC exploded on the last climb. And guess who started it? Mister Alberto Contador.

The Spaniard attacked three times and the first time Andy Schleck (with a big help from Cancellara) was the one who closed the gap to him. Then the Spaniard's second attack was neutralised by a super Voeckler, whereas the only ones who could resist Conti's last attack were Evans and Samu Sanchez. The trio worked in order to get a decent advantage on the other GC riders, which didn't look that brilliant.

At the beginning of the final descent, los Schlecks and Basso weren't in the first positions of the group and, as a consequence, they lost a lot of time from Evans, Sanchez and Contador. Andy Schleck seemed very uncomfortable on his bike and he had many problems while facing the descent. Frank, on the other hand, was in the same group as Voeckler and Cunego and crossed the finish-line before his brother.

While Monfort was desperately trying to help Andy, Evans crossed the finish-line with an advantage of 21" on Voeckler and Frank Schleck. Contador and Sanchez instead lost 3" from the Aussie. Basso crossed the finish-line 54" after Evans, whereas Andy Schleck crossed it with 1'09" of delay.

DISCUSSION TIME (aka the updated - and improved - part of this post):
So, that was a short resume of what happened this afternoon at the Tour. Now it's discussion. But first, let me explain you the reason behind the title of this post. I wrote a version of this post right after the stage, when I was very angry and, in a certain way, even happy for the outcome of the race. But then I watched the stage again  because, after dinner, I still couldn't realise what had happened on that last stupid climb. Therefore I watched the last 20 kms of the stage once again, trying to let Logic rule over Fangirl. After all, when I saw the stage live I was blinded also by Fangirlism, which wanted Andy to attack and drop everyone else... Luckily, watching the stage once again was the right thing to do. After doing that, in fact, I realised that some of the critics that I had made to the brothers were unfair and that they were just the products of a particularly bitchy moment of mine. However, I'm not going to deny that I loved Contador's attacks on that climb :P
In that first post of mine, I wrote: 'I'm having a tough time writing this post. On the one hand, I'm very disappointed by the result of the Schleck brothers (and of Andy in particular), but I'd like to defend them anyway. After all, they don't like the rain, the final descent was slippery, yesterday there was the rest day, today's stage was very particular because it was short and because there was this climb on which, according to many people, nothing would have happened. These could be some excuses - but still, let's remind ourselves that the rain, the slippery descent, the final climb and the rest day were the same for everyone.

Really, my mind is overwhelmed with feelings right now. If, on the one hand, I don't want to be too harsh with the brothers because they're human beings too, on the other hand it's true that I'm very angry and that, actually, I'm almost happy to see how things have gone. In fact, as a cycling supporter, I'm really happy for having finally seen a true champion like Contador attacking, an intelligent guy like Evans following him, a rider full of grit like Voeckler doing his best, and a cunning boy like Sanchez trying to take advantage from the fact that he's been very underestimated so far. Finally, some thrills coming from the race, and not from crashes and things like that.

As well as that, I'm 'happy' also because this afternoon I understood that, after all, I wasn't wrong when I criticised the Schleck brothers for not attacking. 'One should attack Contador as long as he isn't in good shape', I have often said in the last days. But still, LT guys kept on saying that there was still a lot of time to attack in this Tour. Now, as a reward for their strategy, they had the following thing: Contador is back in shape and in the next days he'll create problems to everyone'.
I'm not going to change or exclude that part of my post because, after all, it is true that I felt that way right after the end of the stage. I felt as I had taken my revenge on those people who hadn't listened to all the critics of the last days but, at the same time, I felt sorry for the brothers. Actually, I had forgotten to mention that at the time I was also relieved because, luckily, on Tuesdays my uncle and my father work until 7 pm, so they didn't have the chance of shouting at me right after the stage.
As far as my post-stage critics to the brothers are concerned, in the first version of this post I had written: 'First thing to say, Baby Schleck could have taken turns at the front with Contador, when he found himself at the head of the peloton, alone with him. In that moment, in fact, the two riders had a little gap on Voeckler and Evans and, by helping Conti, Andy could have managed to gain more time on his adversaries and to bluff in a great way, pretending to be in a better shape than he actually was. But, unfortunately, our boy decided to stay glued to Contador's wheel without helping him - and, right now, I'd like to know why he behaved in that way. Did he do it because Frank was behind him? Well, let me say one thing: if you always want to stay with your brother, buy yourself a tandem. Instead, if our boy was already 'a bloc' there, I think we should seriously start worrying'.
Actually, after watching the stage again I've realised that Andy didn't help Contador because, after all, their gap on their adversaries wasn't that big. Moreover, I realised a very weird thing: Andy looked ok until, with some kms to the top of the climb, he suddenly stopped pulling at the head of the peloton in order to ride to the opposite side of the road while looking backwards. That's when Contador attacked, that's when the final gap was created. A few seconds later, Andy went at the bottom of the yellow jersey group, but then he went back at the front of it, pulling in order to join Evans, Samu Sanchez and Conti. As long as Andy pulled, the trio had a little delay (20") from the trio. But then, when Andy stopped pulling and he left that task to Frank, things got worse. And, at the top of the climb, the brothers' delay from the magic trio at the front was 30". Now the questions are: what happened when Andy turned his head? And why did he suddenly slow down in such an evident way?
Well, unfortunately I don't have any answer to these questions. Did OGL have a bonk? Right now, that seems the only possible explanation to me. Especially because, after all, we saw a guy like Taaramae almost bridging up to the trio at the front with just one strong attack. Rein is a good rider, that's for sure, but the brothers should be better than him... Or, perhaps, Andy stopped riding full gas because he saw that Frank wasn't with him. If things really went that way, well, I can't help but repeating the 'tandem' bit of my original post :P
Another critic that I originally made to the brother is the following: 'I didn't like the fact that Andy (once again) asked the other riders to help him in his Contador chase. This afternoon, the one who was interested in not being delayed by Conti was Andy, and not Cunego or Danielson or Jeanesson!' I watched the stage again and I think that, if Andy really was on the verge of a bonk, his move is perfectly justifiable.
Another critic of mine instead regarded LT's team, 'which this afternoon didn't look that strong'. Even now that I've calmed down, I agree with what I had written. LT's lack of strength was also a consequence of Fuglsang's health problems but, imo, a Tour team shouldn't rely just on one helper.
I've also informed myself about the moment when LT guys eventually decided to talk to the press. Although Italian tv didn't manage to talk with anyone from the team until 6 pm, Danish guys were much luckier and they could talk to Andy immediately after the finish-line. Therefore, forget that original bit of mine about LT not talking to the press.
So far, perhaps this renewed post doesn't sound harsh at all on the brothers. But still, I have some critics about what they said after the stage.
First of all, I suggest you paying attention at the following sentence by Andy: 'Plateau de Beille didn't allow me to make any difference because it isn't a difficult climb'. OGL said this on Saturday, after facing a 15 kms long climb which is 8% steep. Considering that this afternoon he lost 30" from Contador on a 9 kms long climb, which is 5% steep, I can state that that sentence has just managed to make Andy look like a complete idiot.
Talking about the team website, instead, at first I had written: 'Once again, LT website did his best to justify los Schlecks. “We were a bit surprised that Contador went on the climb. We didn’t count out the possibility, of course. We know that he is a rider that attacks when he has good legs, but we had anticipated he would wait for the Alps". Surprised or, better, completely shocked: that's how the brothers looked like after Conti's attack. Luckily for cycling lovers, Alberto does attack when he feels good, and not just when a stage looks hard on paper. And then, if the brothers had't ruled out this possibility, how come that they weren't in the first positions of the peloton when Conti attacked?'
After looking back at the stage, I agree with the bit about Contador's skill of attacking whenever he has the chance. After all, I think we must be grateful to Contador for brightening up this Tour - after 14 stages, it was high time!
As far as the positions in the peloton is concerned, I think that the brothers should learn to race right behind their helpers. This afternoon instead O'Grady, Monfort, Cancellara and Posthuma (where were the other guys?) were behind BMC's riders, whereas the brothers were all alone, on the opposite side of the group.
As far as the brothers' shock in front of Conti's attack is concerned, I must admit that the most shocked one seemed Frank. Andy, instead, reacted very well. Or, at least, tht's what he did at first.
Another thing that I had previously written was: 'By reading LT's website, one gets the feeling that the brothers didn't do well because of the rain and of the final descent. Now, don't the LT guys look at the weather forecasts before the beginning of a stage? Didn't they know that there was a difficult descent at the end of today's stage and that, considering the weaknesses of the brothers, it would have been good to gave a guy like Cancellara (or Voigt or whoever else) in a breakaway? And didn't they know that the brothers had to do everything they could to tackle the descent in the first positions of the peloton?'
In this case I still agree with what I've said, since I haven't found any reference to LT riders trying to make it into the early breakaway du jour. And as far as my last question is concerned, I still agree with it. But still, I can't understand why Andy rode so badly downhill. Frank, who is usually worse than him, rode much better this afternoon!
Here's another one of my previous critics: ' "Contador knows all too well that the Schlecks don’t perform at their best in the cold and rainy conditions.It’s all part of the game - knowing your opponents and knowing their weaknesses. He knows the conditions today, coupled with the dangerous descent, were not our strong point”, Frank continued in the LT article. Since this is part of the game, and since everyone could have guessed that Conti wasn't at his best at the beginning of the Tour, why didn't YOU take advantage of his weaknesses? Seriously, this is getting ridicolous. If someone like me (who is not a cycling expert) had understood that Contador would have been in a good shape this week, that the brothers had lost too many chances in the last days and that today's stage could have been a threat to the GC, I wonder why LT's ds (who get paid for analysing races and predicting the eventual outcome of a race) didn't'. Well, sorry but here I still agree with myself (yes, I know, while reading this post you're thinking that I have a double personality ;)
Anyway, although this renewed post looks much more cold-blooded than my last one, I must say that I have a last critic to make to the Schleck brothers - a critic which didn't appear in the original post. In it in fact I had written: 'I realise I've been very harsh (and chaotic) in this post but, to use Natasha's words, 'emotions are high right now'. However, I'm not the only one who's being harsh on the Schlecks right now. In fact, I've taken a look at Cyclingnews' forum and I've read some disrespectful things about los Schlecks. In particular, it seems that Andy has recently talked to Danish tv and said: "Is this what people want to see, a Tour being decided by a descent and not by a climb? The riders have families at home!' According to another poster on that same forum, shortly afterwards Rolf Sorensen (who was standing in the rain, holding an umbrella) commented: 'Right now, I feel just like Andy Schleck: I don't want to do this anymore when it rains!' - So brilliant!'
Well, I can understand that Andy was probably annoyed, cold, scared and whatever else after the stage, but one should be careful with words even in such delicate moments. Especially because some could say that supporters prefer watching riders losing time on descents than losing time because of crashes. Moreover, if we have to be honest, Andy lost 30" on the climb, and other 39" in the descent. So, he didn't lose time just because of the downhill road. However, I know that 'the words lesson' is very difficul learn - actually, I've had a proof of that this afternoon, when I wrote the original version of this post. Andy, that's something we can learn together ;)

So, this were my two takes on today's stage. Sorry if this post looks very confused, but I'm a honest girl and, when I'm too harsh on someone, I can recognise it. To read the original post, read the parts written with a different colour. To read the revisited one, read the white parts. Sorry for the mess, once again.

Luckily, tomorrow is another day and, hopefully, the brothers will feel better. Btw, look out for the last descent: it is really, really tricky.
I should have visited the Tour tomorrow, but unfortunately some health problems of a familiar will prevent me from visiting the race.

Anyway. Schleck supporters of the whole world, let's rememember something positive: when the Tour hit Italy in 2008, Frankie got the yellow jersey ahead of Evans. And when it hit Italy in 2009, on the following day Frankie won a stage. Seriously, that boy should come racing in Italy much more often.
That's all from me for the moment - once again, please forgive me for the chaos I've made with this post. Simply, when I'm angry I just turn off my brain and open up my mouth. Not a good combination :P

 

PS: A very kind reader, Kat, has left some very interesting comments and links in the comment area of the following post of mine: http://fede-myblog92.blogspot.com/2010/11/picspam-time-wonderful-pictures-of.html . Check them out!

Fireworks towards Luz-Ardiden:

Ok, I admit it: I didn't watch yesterday's stage of the Tour because I preferred watching Harry Potter 7 in 3D. And, apparently, I made the right choice.

However, dear readers, the important stage was today's one: in fact this afternoon the Tour officially started also for the serious GC contenders - or, at least, it started for the GC contenders who are still up and running (and they aren't a lot).

So: 12th stage of the Tour de France 2011, from Cugnaux to Luz-Ardiden, on the 14th of July. A big day for Thomas Voeckler, a French rider who rides for a French team and who could wear the yellow jersey on one of the most important days for the French people. And, to my surprise, Thomas managed to keep the leader jersey without problems, so that he'll be able to wear it also tomorrow.

Actually, Logic thought that Voeckler could have been able to keep the leadership in the race, but she would have never imagined that he could have made it in such a brilliant way. In fact, the Frenchman managed to remain with the best climbers of the world for the whole day, showing his determination and his love for the French race to the whole world. Therefore, miss Fede takes the chance to send a big chapeau to monsieur Thomas Voeckler, also known as 'Give me a yellow t-shirt and I'll smash the world'.

Anyway, let's go back to the start of the stage. This morning the riders had three difficult climbs on their menu: Hourquette d'Ancizan, Tourmalet (aaah, sweet memories!) and Luz Ardiden, where Ullrich once waited for Armstrong, who had crashed because of a young supporter who had accidentally hit him with his rucksack. Since Lance was wearing the yellow jersey, the German rider decided to wait for him, thus becoming the protagonist of a good action that is still remembered nowadays.

Apparently, the stages to Luz Ardiden never bring good luck to the riders who wear the yellow jersey during them. This afternoon in fact also Voeckler crashed at the beginning of the descent towards Tourmalet. However, the Frenchman could immediately hop back on his bike and get back in the peloton, which waited for him. 'When the yellow jersey crashes, the peloton must wait for it', the Italian chronist said. Apparently, last year no one had informed Contador about that (or, perhaps, that rule doesn't apply if the yellow jersey has a mechanical).

Unfortunately, Voeckler wasn't the only one who crashed. In fact the athletes who were involved in his crash were a few and amongst them there were also important guys like Peter Velits and Andreas Kloeden. Luckily for Radioshack, tomorrow's stage ends in Lourdes, so that they'll be able to make a pilgrimage there in order to ask Virgin Mary for some good luck.

Also Geraint Thomas, who was one of the breakawayers du jour, had previously crashed in the very same point as Voeckler. The Welsh rider this afternoon showed us that his biking skills aren't actually that good, since in the descent towards Tourmalet he lost 40" from his companions of adventure (Kadri, Roy, Gutierrez, Mangel and Ruben Perez). However, the Sky rider could use his good uphill skills to catch his companions on Tourmalet and he was one of the last riders to get caught by the best climbers.

Talking about breakaways, this afternoon there were many guys who tried their luck. Amongst them there were also Chavanel and Kreuziger, who escaped from the peloton at the beginning of the first climb. I think that Chavanel attacked especially because he wanted to show off his jersey of National French Champion on the Bastille Day, whereas Roman probably hoped to win the stage. Kreuziger gave it all, but he never managed to reach the other breakawayers (the ones who had abandoned the company of the group after a few kms of race), so that his attack was in vain.

Johnny Hoogerland tried to break free from the peloton too this afternoon, probably because in that way he thought he had more chances to finish the stage within the time cut . Considering that our boy ended the stage 21 minutes after the winner and 12 minutes before the gruppetto, I think he can say 'Mission accomplished!' as he goes to bed tonight.

Talking about time cut and gruppetto: poor Denis Galimzyanov won't start tomorrow's stage because he didn't make it to the finish-line within the time cut. The gruppetto itself ended the stage 33' after the winner, which means that today's stage was really hard. Still talking about the gruppetto, this afternoon it was formed by a great amount of riders: 79 riders out of 175 ended the race all together, a few minutes before Galimzyanov. The other riders instead crossed the finish-line slowly, one after the other.

The toughness of the race was also a consequence of Leopard Trek's great efforts at the front. In fact, at the beginning of Tourmalet the whole Luxembourgian team got ready to set the pace at the head of the peloton. Unfortunately, I think that things didn't actually go as planned. Let me explain you why.

The first one to set a high pace at the front was Cancellara, whose efforts were followed by those of O'Grady and Voigt. The German engine made an amazing job and he managed to pull until the end of Tourmalet (and he even remained with the brothers until the beginning of the last climb). 'What's the problem then?', I hear some of you ask. Well, the problem is that, if Jens hadn't felt as good as he actually felt this afternoon, the brothers would have remained without helpers even before the end of the Tourmalet. In fact halfway through the climb guys like Gerdemann, Monfort and Fuglsang had already got dropped. So, what if one of the brothers had had a serious mechanical? Would have they remained all alone because they had run out of teammates?  I can understand that some riders can have a day off, but apparently this afternoon half of the Luxembourgian team didn't feel well. And, considering that this should be the strongest team of the world, I don't think they can be satisfied with that - or, at least, I think they can't be satisfied.

Anyway. End of the first bitchy moment du jour. Let's go on.

On the Tourmalet some important riders (Toni Martin, Robert Gesink, Ryder Hesjedal, Peter Velits, Andreas Kloeden and Christian Vandevelde) were dropped, whereas an amazing Gilbert kept the wheels of the best riders until the end of the climb. Then the wonderful Belgian champion attacked. His move was a bit suicidal, since it didn't bring him any benefit - but still, it was nice to see a Classic rider giving it all in one of the hardest mountain stages of the Tour.

Shortly after the beginning of the ascent towards Luz Ardiden, Kreuziger was caught by the group of the yellow jersey, whereas Roy and Thomas still had a little gap on the best climbers.

With 8 kms to go, Jelle Vanendert and Samuel Sanchez attacked. They found a good pace and they kept on riding together until the finish-line, when Samu managed to get the victory ahead of the 26 year old Belgian. Samu was really happy to win in front of his people (Pyrenées = Basque Country) and to be back in the top spots of the GC, whereas Jelle confirmed his great talent once again. Finally, after getting over some injuries of the past, this young man is ready to give his best - not only in the Classics but, as he showed us this afternoon, also in the GTs.

While Sanchez and Vanendert were riding happily to the finish-line, thus overtaking all the guys who had gone on a breakaway earlier, the battle between the giants of the Tour began. Andy and Frank Schleck, Contador and Evans were all there, but the one who started the duel was Basso, who ordered to his teammate Szmyd to start riding full gas. Sylwester is an excellent and loyal helper, who couldn't do well in the Giro because of a bad bronchitis. But now he's recovered and everyone could see that this afternoon.

While Szmyd was pulling, some talks were going on in the group of the best climbers. Frank and Andy talked to each other, whereas Contador talked to his teammates. Unfortunately, the magic trio of Saxo Bankers formed by Jesus Hernandez, Richie Porte and Chris Sorensen (it was strange to see him riding against my favourite brothers!) soon got dropped together with Nicolas 'Finding Nemo' Roche. The Irish rider soon started to suffer because of Szmyd's hellish pace (the poor thing has a sore knee right now) and it was touching to see him being helped by some teammates who, if only had they been allowed to, would have immediately hopped off their bikes in order to push Nicolas.

When Szmyd ended his turn at the front, just a few riders remained in the group of the yellow jersey, so that the Schleck brothers thought it was time to do something. The first one to attack was Frank, followed by Andy. Then the older brother attacked again until he finally managed to disappear from the sight of the other riders. Frank's attack was really impressive and, in about 3 kms, he almost managed to get back on Sanchez and Vanendert, who crossed the finish-line a few seconds ahead of the Luxembourgian.

In the meanwhile, Ivan Basso tried to attack twice, whereas Andy kept on paying attention to Contador. 'Attack!', I screamed. 'Attack!', I screamed again. 'ATTACK!!!', I shouted. And instead no, the one who attacked was Evans. Our Glorious Leader followed him together with Basso and the magic trio managed to cross the finish-line 13" ahead of Contador (and 20" after Frank Schleck). Cunego lost 5" to these three riders, whereas Voeckler arrived 7" after the Giro winner and thanked his teammate Rolland as they crossed the finish-line. Andy Schleck looked extremely tired as he crossed the finish-line, whereas Basso used some of his energy to turn his head and watch where Contador was.

So, this was today's stage. What can we say about the big GC contenders?

First of all I think that, although this afternoon Contador got dropped, no one should underestimate him. As Basso keeps on saying, 'one can win a Tour with just one attack'. And Alberto, if he's on a good day, can gain lots of seconds with just one attack made at the right moment.

Talking about the other riders, I must say that I loved Frank's attitude during today's race. But still, I think Andy should have tried to attack Evans. Cadel in fact is a very strong rider and, if bad luck doesn't hit him, he can make it to the top spot of Paris podium without many problems. He has the final TT on his side and, considering that he seems very solid also in the mountains, I think that Andy (and all those who want to win this Tour) should try to attack him as much as they can. In about 10 days the race will be over and, until there, the tough stages aren't that many. We're not in the Giro, where everyday there's at least one tough climb. We're at the Tour, a race in which a historical climb like Aubisque will be faced more than 40 kms far from the finish-line. Perhaps Andy had a bad day this afternoon or he was afraid to be worse than Contador, but I hope that in the next days he'll try to get some seconds of advantage on the Aussie. Because, unless he has some serious problems, it seems that this year it'll be hard to take the victory away from Evans.

Anyway, here's the GC after today's stage:

1	Thomas Voeckler (Fra)	51:54:44
2	Fränk Schleck (Lux)	0:01:49
3	Cadel Evans (Aus)	0:02:06
4	Andy Schleck (Lux)	0:02:17
5	Ivan Basso (Ita)	0:03:16
6	Damiano Cunego (Ita)	0:03:22
7	Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa)	0:04:00
8	Samuel Sanchez Gonzalez (Spa)	0:04:11
9	Thomas Danielson (USA)	0:04:35
10	Nicolas Roche (Irl)	0:04:57

I'm very happy about Cunego and Roche's placements and I hope that they'll keep the good stuff coming also in the next days. In the meanwhile, let's enjoy Frank and Andy's placements and let's hope they'll improve again in the next days.

As far as tomorrow is concerned, I'm going to bet 5 euros on Hushovd and 5 on Gilbert. Although, to say the truth, I think we shouldn't rule Cavendish and Farrar out of the 'possible winners list' either.

(Pic 1 by Sirotti, pic 2 by Bettini)

King Philippe gets his 4th consecutive victory:

Amazing, wonderful, great, epic, destined to enter cycling history.
These are just some of the words/sentences that people could use to define Philippe Gilbert's victory in today Liége - Bastogne - Liége. The Belgian was the strongest rider of the field once again and on the podium he was sandwiched between the Schleck brothers. In fact, for the first time since 2009, this afternoon a Schleck (actually two) came back on the podium of a Classic. But still, the brothers seemed unable to do anything to beat Gilbert, who brought his little son Alan on the top spot of the podium once again. And so, after less than one year of life, Gilbert jr. can already say that he's been on the top spot of both AGR and LBL's podiums. I'm sure there would be lots of older people who'd pay very big sums in order to have those experiences too.

Today race was really exciting, at least if seen from the (impartial) point of view of a Schleck supporter. For the first time I could see Leopard Trek working as a team at the front of a Classic, although the pulling style of one of the riders made me ask some questions about the team preparation. That rider (who I didn't recognise) was pulling with about 30 kms to go and looked simply desperate: open mouth, grimacing face, up on his pedals... Unfortunately, in spite of his efforts, the breakaway guys weren't losing any second of advantage. Actually, their gap on the peloton was increasing. Ops...
Talking about the breakaway, it was formed by very good riders and that's why it lasted a lot. Said riders were Vorganov, De Gendt, Gallopin, Frank, Sivtsov, Garate, Ten Dam, Van Avermaet, Kadri, Cataldo, Pineau, Caruso and Gasparotto. After the Redoute, some of these guys were still at the front of the race, whereas Van Avermaet got dropped by the 3 strongest riders with just 6 kms to go, on the Cote de Saint Nicolas (which is located in the 'Little Italy' of Liége and is also called 'the cote of the Italians').
With about 20 kms to go, on the Roche aux Fauçons, the race seriously started getting exciting. In fact on that climb there was an attack by Andy Schleck, who could be followed just by his brother Frank and by Gilbert.
In the meanwhile, poor Vinokourov had a mechanical problem and also had a misunderstanding with Iglinskiy ('Give me your front wheel, Maxim!! Now! Be fast!' 'Ok Vino, give me a second and I'll give you my wheel' 'Oh no, it's taking you too much to take that damn wheel off your bike, give me your bike!' 'What? My bike? But the wheel has almost come off! And you had said you wanted just my front wheel!' 'Ok, I'v changed my mind, now just give me the BIKE!!!'). By the time Iglinskiy and Vino ended the mute, imaginary discussion that you've just read here, poor Alexandre had already lost all his victory chances. What a bad way to end his love-story with LBL... :(
While Vino was facing this little drama, los Schlecks were riding up the Roche aux Fauçons with Gilbert and Van Avermaet, whereas Gasparotto had already got dropped.
As you may know, Roche aux Fauçons is a climb formed by two parts. I expected an attack by one of the brothers in the second part of the climb and instead I got nothing. 'Well, perhaps they'll attack on the flat terrain between this climb and the next one', I thought. I expected an attack there, and I got nothing. Before the Cote de Saint Nicolas, I thought: 'Well, it looks like Frank is going to attack here!' and instead I got nothing. On the Cote de Saint Nicolas, I thought: 'Well, one of the brothers should really do something now, apart from turning his head backwards'. This time, I eventually got something. In fact the brothers (Andy in particular) tried to increase the pace, but then they and the supporters were surprised by an attack. A strong attack. Too bad that the rider who did it was Gilbert, and not one of my beloved brothers.
Frankie had to struggle to follow Phil, while Andy had some problems and Van Avermaet was dropped for good. Luckily Andy soon reached Frank and Phil again and he started pulling hard. In fact, behind the first three riders there was now a group of chasers formed by strong guys like Kreuziger, Sorensen (YAY!), Anton and Uran.
With 4 kms to go, I still thought that a victory was possible for the Schleck brothers. I thought Andy could have attacked, leaving Gilbert with the hard task of chasing him at the end of a 250 kms long race. 'If Phil reached Andy, then Frank could attack and try to win the race!', I thought optimistically. But apparently the brothers were too tired / too impressed by Gilbert's strength to try doing something. In the last km I still hoped that one of them would have done something, but eventually Frank tried to attack Gilbert just in the final 200 meters. And so Phil Gil could cross the finish-line in a calm way, after an easy sprint, with two Schlecks as side dishes.
4th was Roman Kreuziger (this made me ask what results Scarponi could have got if he had raced this afternoon), while 5th was Uran and 6th was a great Sorensen (YAY!). 7th was an exceptional Van Avermaet, while 8th was Nibali, 9th Leukemans and 10th Samu Sanchez.

The podium was the best looking one of the year so far, no doubts about that. Ok, Phil Gil isn't the most good-looking guy of the peloton (although he isn't bad-looking either), but Alan, Frank and Andy contributed to making the podium look great. I was hoping to get a glimpse of little Leea on the podium, but Frank and Martine decided to avoid that. Good choice, if I can say it.
Both Frank and Andy were really nice towards Gilbert. Frank bowed in front of him, while Andy shook hands with the Belgian right after the finish-line. This fact (and the brothers' declarations after the race) made me think about one thing. After last year Chaingate, in fact, some people complained about the fact that Andy hadn't got angry at Contador in the last Tour stages. At the time, some people said: 'It's Riis who made Andy behave in this way, he had no choice'. Well, I actually think that this afternoon we could finally understand that that behaviour wasn't imposed by Riis. Simply, Andy is a nice, classy guy who plays it fair. And the same goes for Frankie.

Talking about the teams, from my race report you might have understood that I wasn't completely satisfied with the eventual outcome of the race. In fact, I had the feeling that the brothers, especially after the Cote du Saint Nicolas, were racing for the second and for the third place, rather than for the victory. According to Andy, he did try to increase the pace on the penultimate climb, but I thought that then Frankie could have tried something too. Or perhaps, the brothers could have tried attacking already in the second part of the Roche aux Fauçons, so that they would have forced Gilbert to get a bit tired while chasing at least one of them.
However, I understand that talking from a couch is always simple and that there's a reason why I'm not a ds. Liége is a 250 kms long race and Gilbert's attack on Cote du Saint Nicolas was terrific, but I still have a bittersweet taste in my mouth. In some ways, I think the brothers could have raced better. At least, they could have been a bit more brave.
Talking about the rest of Leopard Trek, Jakob Fuglsang was simply amazing. Also Stefan Denifl worked very well, just like Monfort, Wegmann and Voigt.
Omega - Pharma Lotto, on the other hand, didn't look that great today, especially because for the first time Phil Gil found himself alone with 20 kms to go. However I'd like you to notice that a great Jelle Vanendert was 17th also today. The boy has talent, believe me.
A team who raced very well, although it didn't have good luck, was Astana. Gasparotto was simply amazing and I really liked his post - race comments ('I wanted to ride on the top of the Redoute first at least once in my life'). He joined the breakaway, was first on the Redoute and he even helped his teammates in the final kms. Simply great.
Kreuziger was really good too, while Vinokourov and Iglinskiy were both victims of the bad luck. I'm sorry for Vino, especially because this was his last Liége and he managed to come in 33rd anyway.
Another team who raced well this afternoon was BMC. I had scolded this team off in my last post, saying that they had been invisible in Fleche. Today instead they rode much better, since Frank joined a breakaway and Van Avermaet was a super 7th.

As far as the other teams are concerned, Rabobank sometimes pulled at the head of the race, but eventually the best rider was Martens, 13th (hey, Paul has been riding very fast lately!). Freire instead was 15th (Oscarito, are you sure you want to retire this year?!?).
Also Katiusha and Euskaltel pulled at the front of the race for some kms. The team from the Paìs Vasco got a good 10th with S. Sanchez and a good 14th with Igor Anton, whereas Katiusha had Kolobnev as its best rider (11th). A good result, although Joaquim Rodriguez was a bit disappointing.

Other riders instead managed to do well although they didn't have a good team. Sky was very good, since Uran got 5th and Gerrans 12th. Still, the team riders never pulled in the last kms.
Saxo Bank instead had the two Sorensens as its best riders. Nicki tried to break away, while Chris was a super 6th. This boy will entertain us in July, that's for sure.
Liquigas best rider was Nibali, 8th, who is in a very good shape ahead of Giro. Basso instead was disappointing, but he's not going to take part in the Corsa Rosa.
Leukemans (9th) was excellent once again, while Van Garderen (18th) was a good surprise.

So, this was 2011 Liége and this was 2011 Campaign of the Classics. Now the hills and the cobblestones of Belgium, France and Holland are ready to leave the stage to the Italian roads, that will soon be the theatre of the Giro d'Italia.
But still, we have to wait some weeks before of that ;) In the meanwhile, let's enjoy the last days of Easter holidays and let's talk LBL all together ;)
(Pic by Bettini)

A super Gilbert wins Amstel Gold Race:

A week after my last post, here I am, ready to write a post about Gilbert's victory in Amstel Gold Race. To give you an idea of why I haven't written anything in the last days, I just tell you that, when Andy Schleck attacked during today race, I was repeating the definition of 'asinctote'. Of course, as soon as Baby Schleck launched his attack, I threw the Maths book off of the couch and I interrupted myself in the middle of the definition. Maths can't wait, a Schleck attacking in AGR can't.
Talking about the race, it was a very exciting one, although Leopard Trek didn't have a lot of luck in it. The line-up was much better than the one for the North Classics, since it was formed by experienced guys like los Schlecks, Cancellara, Voigt, Fuglsang, Wegmann, Monfort and Lund. Useless to say that, if they rode in different teams, guys like Voigt, Cancellara, Frank, Andy and Fuglsang would all be team captains in a race like Amstel. Unfortunately, none of them could get on the podium today, especially because key riders like F. Schleck and Cancellara were both hit by bad luck with about 23 kms to go, when they crashed right before of the Kruisberg. This fact unfortunately forced them to say 'adieu!' to their dreams of glory and postpone them to the next race.
But let's now review some key moments of the race thanks a brief resume of mine.

Things started to become interesting with about 100 kms to go, when De Gand, De Negri, Timmer and Ponzi created a good breakaway. 40 kms later, Ponzi and Timmer had been dropped, but their place had been taken by Jan Ghyselinck and Carlos Barredo.
Unfortunately for these 4 riders, their adventure at the front wasn't destined to last long and they were soon caught by the peloton guys.
With about 24 kms to go, Fabian Cancellara crashed in the middle of the peloton (yes, I'm as surprised as you by this fact). His crash unfortunately forced also Frank Schleck to stop and, when Frankie arrived at the bottom of the following climb (the Kruisberg), bad luck hit him again by making his bike chain pop (aaaaargh! Memories of the past, leave me aloneee!). By the time he stopped and changed his bike, his chances of winning the race had vanished.
In the meanwhile, an attack by Joaquim Rodriguez made the difference on the climb and created a big selection inside the peloton. Just 20 riders (more or less) could follow the Spaniard and, with 13 kms to go, it was Andy Schleck's turn to attack.
Andy's attack was very strong and it lasted a lot, although his maximum advantage consisted in just 10 seconds. Unfortunately for Leopard Trek and for its supporters, Gilbert (the main favourite of the race) pulled the group of chasers together with Van Den Broeck and a great Vanendert and Schleck was caught on the Cauberg, with just 500 meters to go (sigh!). Rodriguez accelerated as soon as he saw Andy, but Gilbert's kick was much more devastating than the one of the Katiusha rider.
The Belgian passed JR in a very easy way and he crossed the finish-line in triumph. Second in the race was Rodriguez, while third was Gerrans. Fourth instead was a very good Fuglsang.

After the finish-line, Phil Gil (can I call him this way?) gave us a great moment of tenderness by bringing his little child on the podium. Rodriguez played a bit with the baby, who started to cry when Joaquim and Gerrans joined Philippe on the top spot of the podium. In that moment, I could clearly read Gilbert's lips (he went: 'Noooo!'), whereas Rodriguez and the short Gerrans smiled. What a cute image! After mentioning this little moment of tenderness, it's now time to analyse the race.
First of all, big congratulations to Omega-Pharma Lotto. Gilbert was the strongest and he showed the world that, on this kind of climbs, he has no rivals. Moreover, he also booked himself as a main favourite for the Worlds 2012, which take place in Valkenburg.
Gilbert's great form was highlighted also by the fact that he helped Vanendert when he was chasing Schleck. Phil gave a single turn at the front, but it allowed his teammate to take a little break and it showed everyone that he was ready to win this Classic for the second year in a row.
Talking about Jelle Vanendert, I must say I was very impressed by his performance. He pulled for a lot of time and when one of the Italian chronists said that the Belgian was still pulling at the head of the race, Fangirl actually went bananas. 'For what stupid reason is he still there pulling?', she asked. Luckily Logic was ready to remind her that poor Jelle was just 'doing his job. And his job makes him pull at the front when someone has escaped the group in which his captain is. Apologise to him now, or I'll never talk to you again', Logic told Fangirl in a very annoyed way. Of course, Fangirl apologised for what happened and is still deeply sorry for what she said in that moment of anger.
Also Jurgen Van Den Broeck rode really well and he was a very important rider for Phil Gil.
Another team who rode very well this afternoon, imo, was Leopard Trek. Unfortunately this strong team has had a lot of bad luck today, since Cancellara and Frank Schleck both crashed at a key point of the race. Btw, was I the only one who thought that Frankie was going to throw his bike away when his chain popped?
Talking about the other Schleck, I must say that I really liked Andy's attack (well, who didn't? ;). He had no chance of winning against a guy like Gilbert and, rather than ending up 5th, our Glorious Leader fought to get a great victory with a great assolo. His action didn't end up with a victory, but I was very happy to see him attacking anyway.
On to another cyclist, a great Jakob Fuglsang was 4th in the race and this is a very positive sign for the future. In fact this boy was 4th in Lombardy 2010 and today he's got a 4th place in Amstel. Something suggests me that we may soon be able to witness his first important victory in a road race, how exciting!
Second in the race was Joaquim Rodriguez,Katiusha's rider. Unfortunately Cauberg is too easy for a guy like 'Purito', who needs climbs like the Mur de Huy to shine properly. Btw, he 'tried his leg' for Wednesday race this afternoon and I must say that the results were really good. Also Ivanov rode well, just like Kolobnev (5th).
Third was a great Simon Gerrans, 'the climbing sprinter', as I used to call him when people used to say that he was a sprinter. His podium placement finally signs a good result for team Sky (it was high time!), how nice.
Btw, where has Thomas Lovkvist disappeared? A race like Amstel could suit him, but he wasn't even selected in the team-line up. Why?
Talking about another team, Vacansoleil had a good result with Leukemans (7th), whereas Hoogerland was 12th (Andy Schleck was 11th, while Frank was 22th). Johnny tried to break away in the last part of the race, whereas Bjorn got another good placement.
Talking about J.H., I was shocked when I discovered that he's already 27. How can it be? :(

Talking about the disappointing teams du jour, Astana didn't particularly shine, although Iglinskiy tried a little attack and Gasparotto and Vinokourov could have done well in a race like this (Enrico was 2nd last year, Vino won it some years ago).
Also Lampre was disappointing, probably because its leader, Cunego, is suffering because of the doping rumours coming from Italy. Although he pretends the opposite, in fact, I've always had the feeling that Damiano isn't a Mster in handling pressure and so imo the news coming from Mantova may have played a role in his odiern poor performance.
Saxo Bank didn't get any striking result either, just like Garmin and HTC Columbia. Actually, Garmin's leader, Ryder Hesjedal, was stopped by stomach problems that forced him to get off his bike and ring a house on the parcours to beg the house owners to let him use their toilet for a few minutes. Then, he hopped back on his bike and finished the race 14 minutes after Gilbert. Amazing, isn't it?
Talking about Columbia, it showed us a very funny guy , the 24 year-old Jan Ghyselinck . After joining the original breakaway, this rider clearly made the usual 'I can't go on anymore!' gesture to the other breakaway guys. Of course, the other cyclists got pretty angry at him (especially De Negri did) and poor Jan had to take his turns at the front anyway. Poor thing!
However, we must say that Columbia has never shone in the Ardennes Classics and that this year team was formed by really young riders.
Another disappointing team was Euskaltel Euskadi (Samuel Sanchez didn't look in a very good form), whereas the only Liquigas rider that I could see during the race was the poor Dominique Nerz, who crashed with about 30 kms to go.
Farnese Vini didn't get any stunning result either, but at least one of the team riders was in a breakaway and poor Visconti has a good excuse for his disappointing result (he didn't feel well during the week).
However, the most disappointing team imo was Rabobank . At the beginning of the last climb in fact Freire, Martens, Gesink and Tankink were all part of the main group. In the end, the best team result was Freire's 6th placement. A bit disappointing, isn't it?
Perhaps one of the team guys could have tried to break away with Andy Schleck or they could have tried to anticipate Gilbert, instead they didn't do anything. And if you arrive at the foot of the Cauberg without a strategy, things can be very hard even if you have 3 teammates next to you.

So, this is all from me for this evening. Let's get ready to enjoy another great race on Wednesday!! Who will win on the mur de Huy? That is the question! Have a good evening all!
(Pic by Sirotti)