'Oh la la Saxo Bank!' in the Flanders, random rumour about the Schleck brothers, Breschel undergoing another operation and more:

Ladies and gentleman, miss Fede is ready to write a little random post containing some little random news. And guess what? She's learned how to underline words so that you can click on them and end up on the webpage I suggest you watching! Isn't that cool? (ok, 2 years and a half to learn a things like that is a very long time, but who cares?)

So, let's talk cycling. First of all, today there was Dwars door Vlaanderen ('A traves de Flanders', 'Attraverso le Fiandre', 'Through the Flanders' or how else that race is called!), which I could see on real time for the first time ever. Yay!

Landbouwkrediet rider Frederic Amorison starred in a long breakaway of about 240 kms. With about 12 kms to go, Geraint Thomas and Nick Nuyens broke clear from the peloton and joined Frederic (see, his name is almost like mine!). They had an advantage of about 20 seconds on the peloton and, with 1 km to go, they just had a 4" advantage. Amorison got caught, while Nuyens hung on together with Thomas. In the last few meters of the race it was 'Oh la la Saxo Bank!', since Nuyens got the victory in front of Geraint, who started the sprint too early. Third, a few meters behind, was Tyler Farrar, while 4th was Matthew Hayman. 5th was another Saxo Banker, Baden Cooke, while the best Leopard Trek rider was Poosthuma, 31st (32nd was Marcel Sieberg, a rider that I really like).

After the arrival, they showed the top 3 riders in a gazebo and I got very worried when I started to hear female screams of joy while the cameras were filming the riders. Then I saw Nuyens' wife and everything became clear ;)

I'm happy for Nuyens, especially because good old Saxo Bank needed a good victory after a pretty disappointing Sanremo. I'm sorry, but I can't help supporting that team!

Talking about other races, the first stage of Volta a Catalunya was won by Smukulis, a 23 year old Latvian rider of Columbia. The second one was won by Petacchi (as a consequence, Italian newspapers have finally understood that Petacchi hasn't lost all his sprinting skills during the winter), while the third one, which ended uphill, was won by Contador. A great day for Saxo Bank, that's for sure, although I'd wait a few months before making the final classification of this stage become official.

Second was Scarponi, 3rd was Leipheimer. It's so good to see Levi racing for himself and not for Armstrong! He's a very strong athlete and I expect him and Kloden to be at the top at this year Tour.

4th was Daniel Martin, one of the best pure climbers, while 5th was Horner. A surprising Biel Kadri was 11th, while Chris Anker Sorensen was 21st. Best leopard Trek rider was Zaugg, 25th.
Denis Menchov was 71st (he arrived 9 minutes after Contador), but he's been having health problems in the last weeks, so I think we should forgive him for that.

Talking about another race, the 4th stage of Tour de Normandie was won by Fabien Bacquet (ok, I don't expect you to know who he is, but his father added me on Facebook for unknown reasons and now I'm a virtual friend of his too). Yay for Fabien!

Settimana Coppi&Bartali instead sees Emanuele Sella as race leader. 'That's a little step forward for cycling, but a big step forward for me'. I didn't know that cycling improves every time that a former doper (one of the worst ones of the last years, to be more precise) gets an important result! I thought that cycling improved when a young, clean rider won something, but apparently I was wrong.

On to other news, poor Matti Breschel had to undergo a minor operation on his knee yesterday. Now he'll be able to go back training in two weeks time.

Talking about another (luckier) Dane, Jakob Fuglsang had his 26th birthday yesterday (and not today, as someone said on Twitter). Birthday boy gets his toy, as they say... Or perhaps he'd prefer some candies and some pancakes. Anyway, happy birthday Jakob! (Hippi has explained me how to say it in Danish, but I can't write it :P)

On to the last Dane about which I'm going to tell you today, Chris Anker Sorensen has updated his blog twice in the last 3 days. And, after reading 'Liquegas' in one of these two entries, I've understood what Susanne means when she says that Chris often makes spelling mistakes.

However, the worst mistakes are the ones of Google Translater. At a certain point, it translated a sentence from Chris' blog in this way: 'A small eruption on 4 men rode away'. A man erupting, that sounds dirty. A part of another blog entry instead was translated as 'I figured I might as well try to erupt'. Please, don't!

On to the Schleck brothers, which I haven't mentioned for a few posts now, I have some rumours and of some complaints about them. First of all, the rumour: La Repubblica (a very important Italian newspaper) has claimed that, after the 'bikes with engine incorporated', there may be a new kind of technlogical doping in the peloton. According to the unknown Denis Mignani, some riders have been using a special kind of 'cuscinetti', which are the things that you put in the central part of the wheel, the one from where the spokes start. Those 'cuscinetti' seem to make the cyclist gain 2.5 seconds pro kilometre and, according to mr. Mignani, they were used by Andy Schleck (and by Fabian Cancellara) during the mountain stage of last year Tour. Now, here are some opinions of mine about this thing:
1) Using that kind of equipment is legal. So, it isn't technological doping. And then, every rider (even amateur ones) can get it, they just need to call an engineer and get it fixed on their wheels.
2) Do you really want me to believe that Andy Schleck was the only one who used those things in last year Tour? Come on!
3) Better using strange cuscinetti than clenbuterol! At least, you don't end up in a doping trial for that (and you don't have to accuse Spanish breeders in order to get away with it!)

On to another news regarding Andy, Vincenzo Nibali has recently said that he doesn't like riders like Andy, 'who ride fast in just two races pro year'. The same was said by Claudio Chiappucci. Ok, I can understand that some people may not enjoy the fact that Andy always focuses just on a few races and doesn't even try to win the other ones, but at least I like the fact that, every time he focuses on an important goal, he achieves it. Moreover, it's not easy to have a good condition during the whole season, is it?

To close this pretty bitter post, on pressphoto.lu you have some pics from a party at the Schleck fanclub in Luxembourg. The brothers's grandmother seems such a really nice person ;) And just look at how big Leea has become! The baby is growing, Frank and Martine must be very proud parents! :D

Random post about Sorensen, Dominic (yay!), Voigt and more:

To everyone's joy, a week after her last post, miss Fede has finally come back writing again (*sounds of people singing happily while jumping joyfully around their computers*) :D

It's been another busy week me here in Italy and now I'm finally enjoying some moments of peace after an afternoon spent writing the so called 'tesina' ('little thesis') that I'll have to present at that cursed final high school exam. Actually, I think it will be the first thesis in the scholastic history to mention Leopard Trek (written in caps, the examiner might be an Italian relative of Nygaard!), Contador, Menchov, Vinokourov, Katiusha and Proudhomme in its introduction. Of course, this has been done in order to ensure that none of the examiners will realise what I'm talking about (come on, have you ever heard of an examiner who knows who the Schlecks are?).

Anyway. As well as being very busy, over the last days I've been also trapped by the atmosphere of sadness that is surrounding Bergamo in these days (if you're Italian, you'll understand what I mean). Moreover, this morning another teacher of mine spent some long minutes telling me strange things that have no connections with truth. According to said teacher, in fact, if I study languages at university, in 5 years time I'll end up being an unemployed person. And, still according to her, in 15 years time from now I'll become either a frustrated housewife with a child that weeps all day long, or a frustrated teacher who'll let it out on her students-if I'm lucky, of course. Perhaps I won't even be able to find a husband and I won't even manage to become a teacher, imagine what a crap. So, what does my teacher suggest to avoid those future possible problems of mine? Simple: abandon Bergamo, go to Trieste, try entering the only 'Translater School' of Italy and, after 5 years of hard sudies, pack your things and g working at the European Parliament. Simple, isn't it?

Anyway. Forget about that. Let's talk cycling and, most important, let's party all together because this afternoon our super-hero Dominic Klemme took the first Leopard Trek victory of the year! YAY FOR OUR BANANA-MAN!!! YEAAAH! (Girls, all together: *Yay!*)
"I'm super happy," our red haired boy told Cyclingnews after winning GP Le Samyn."I had cramps in the final kilometres, but I knew I had to hang in there because everyone was half dead back in the chase.I wasn't sure my attack was going to last until the finish line, but the top of the climb was visible, so I could see the finish all the time. I was super motivated to win this one for us". Well done boy!

Still talking about Leopard Trek team (sorry, I can't write it correctly three times in the same post!), it now has a new sponsor, Enovos. On http://www.tageblatt.lu/sport/story/%20Selbs%20tvertrauen-pur-12652985 you have some pictures of the new jersey (it's the same as before, don't worry) with the Enovos sponsor on and you also have some pictures of the brothers.

Talking about LT riders, here's an interview with Jens Voigt: http://velonews.competitor.com/%202011/02/news/jens-voigt-concedes-slim-shot-at-criterium-international-record-holds-off-on-retirement-announcement_161966 . Talking about his retirement, the Fucking Amazing Jens said: "I take it day by day, year after year. We’ll see. At the moment, maybe I am good enough to go one more year, but maybe my wife gets pregnant with baby number seven and I have no time to train at all anymore.I don’t know yet. I cannot really tell you.”

On to another Leopard news, here are two interviews with the Schleck brothers: http://www.lequotidien.lu/les-sports/20709.html and http://www.lequotidien.lu/les-sports/20708.html . Unfortunately, I don't have time to translate it now (they're in French), so you'll have to use our terrible Google Translater.

About Google Translater: Chris Aker Sorensen has made his seasonal debut (yay!) in Tour du Haut Var and has written two posts on his blog (geez, this year he writes almost as often as me!). The last one is a good entry and it talks about radio bans (http://blog.tv2.dk/chris.anker.ol/entry397658.html ): "In my last post I wrote about the Tour de Haut Var", Chris wrote, "but in it I completely forgot to comment on my first experience of racing without radios. The change wasn't actually that big. However, I still support the radios and I'd like to be able to put them back in my ears again during races. In fact, competitions go in the same way, with or without radios: at Tour du Haut Var, the morning breakawayers were caught as usual and the race finale was run as usual. The only changes I saw regarded security. Sometimes a team car had to enter the peloton to talk with its riders and this always created stress and anxiety, because it's never comfortable to ride in front of a car. Moreover, the always stressful "feed zone" was even more stressful than usual. With the radios, we are told where our soigneurs are standing with our feed bags and what team they are next to. Without radios, nobody really knows where their soigneurs are, so everyone moves to the right side of the road simultaneously to take their food bag. The intelligent reader now will probably think: 'Hey, why can't they tell you where your soigneurs are going to stay BEFORE of the race?' It could be a great idea, but if all teams say that their soigneur must be the last one, we'd be back at starting point. (...) Actually, I'm going to propose a system that will make us different from any other team: I will suggest our soigneurs to buy some blue little flares (ndr; the translater suggested using 'rockets', but I don't trust it). When we approach the feeding zone, the soigneurs light up the flares, so we can immediately know where they're standing. The problem with this idea is that of course every other team would adopt it as soon as possible too. Therefore we'd see the sky become purple, gray and blue and the effect would be the same that you get when you mix the 9 tempera colours of your palette during your art lesson at school'.
So, this was a part of Chris' latest entry. Fangirl compliments him on the clever idea and wonders herself how someone can avoid to like this boy.

Changing subject, let's now talk about Matteo Pelucchi's victory in Clasica de Almeria, which was the first victory for Geox-TMC. Matteo, being the boyfriend of Marina Romoli, dedicated the victory to his girlfriend. A good way to remind everyone about the fight that this girl is still carrying on. Well done Matteo- and hold on Marina!

Last topic of a day, a not very pleasing one. In fact, Matti Breschel is unlikely to race the Classics this year because of his annoying knee injury. Actually, even his Tour de France participation seems to be in danger right now. About his schedule for this season, poor Matti said: 'I think the positive thing is that now I will have the energy and mental strength for late in the season. It might be hard to get up there after a long, grueling season. Now I’m doing everything I can to build my way up to the world championships in September.” (news from: http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/breschel-set-to-miss-classics ).

Let's wish Matti a lot of luck and let's now close this post with a 'good night everyone'. And remember: don't study languages at school if you don't want to end up unemployed! -.-"

Picspam time 3: guys just wanna have fun :)

To everyone's joy, the picspam season here at My Blog isn't over yet.

The last 2 days have been a bit tense here in the Blogosphere, so I think it's better if we all relax ourselves and have a good laugh together. In order to do so, I suggest you taking a look at these pictures that Mar (thank you girl!) and I collected over the last days. Enjoy!

First of all, here you have Chris Anker Sorensen and Matti Breschel wearing funny viking helmets on the Champs Elysées. After 3 weeks of daily fatigue and stress, you're allowed to behave a bit in a strange way, aren't you? Here's another picture from Saxo Bank's celebrations on Champs Elysées. This time, the one behaving in a strange way is Stuart O'Grady :) Talking about funny guys, then, how can we forget about Fabian Cancellara? Here we can see him making horns to poor Andy. The skinny Luxembourgian (just notice how thin his arms are!) looks a bit annoyed, but Fabian doesn't seem to care about it :) This time instead the victim of Fabian's jokes was O'Grady, who probably ignored what Fabian was doing behind him. Luckily Tom Boonen knows how to take revenge on the Swiss rider :) Talking about other former Saxo Bankers, I think I'm almost obliged to put some pictures of Jens Voigt in a post like this. Here you can see him riding a very strange vehicle.Below instead you have Voigt-san having fun with a supporter in Japan. And here we have the FA Jens having a coffee-break at work.
Here instead we have Matti Breschel joking with a photographer. Let's now abandon our Sexy Bankers for a brief moment and let's watch 2 pics about the relationship between riders and animals. For example, take a look at this rider who wants to stay with his adorated penguin even while racing.
Here instead we have a guy showing us the perfect descent position for riders. I wonder what the bear thinks of it.
Back to the guys who raced for SB this season, here we have Chris Sorensen reading a foreign newspaper. Has he just read something about a defeat of his favourite football team, or is he just shocked by the language in which the newspaper is written?
To close this post, then, I couldn't avoid publishing 2 pics of the Schleck brothers. Andy, you cunny guy, what are you looking at?
And here's a classic picture of Frank and his concentration expression. Everything's ok dear?
So, that's all for now. Thank you again to Mar for the help and let's hope you enjoyed this picspam :)

Picspam time 2: pictures of Matti Breschel + some fangirlistic stuff about C.Sorensen and los Schlecks:

After receiving a request of creating a picspam about Matti Breschel, miss Fede has found some pictures of him and in this post you can see the results of her work.
You must know that, once upon a time, miss Fede had hundreds of pictures of her favourite cyclists saved on her computer's hard disk, but then said hard disk blew up and all the photos got lost. So don't get angry if the result of my work doesn't appeal to you.

First of all, you probably know that, before of becoming a cyclist, Matti used to work as a model. In the pic below you can see the cover of Euroman, a Danish fashion magazine, featuring our boy (Pic by Lukas Renlund). Below you can see another Model-style picture, always taken by Lukas Renlund.

Here instead we have Matti getting kissed by the misses of Tour de Suisse (if my memory doesn't fail me).Pic by All Over.

Below you have an evergreen picture of Matti taken by Klaus Bannerup. I love the old-style kit-and the boy who appears in the picture, obviously.
Are you bored Matti? ;)
The boy has a very impressive thighs, no doubts about that. And then, he's also got the usual cyclist tan.

As you can see, in this post there are just 5 pics of Matti. However, don't start insulting me, you Matti's lovers. In fact here you (just like the supporters of other Team Luxembourg/SB's riders) can find some links that you'll surely going to enjoy:
http://wandan.pixnet.net/album/set/296784 (via: http://sansenmag.livejournal.com/ ): on this page you can find some nice pictures of Matti that go back to the time when he still was a model.

http://www.sportsagency.dk/ : on this page there are many pictures of Matti Breschel and of the riders who've raced for Saxo Bank until this year.

http://gaffa.dk/artikel/40670 : interview with Matti about his love for music.

http://www.sporten.dk/cykling/her-er-de-smukke-tour-kaerester : on this link (that I already published some months ago) there are some pictures of the Saxo Bank's riders (los Sorensens, los Schlecks, Fuglsang and Voigt included) at the Paris' party at the end of the 2010 Tour. Moreover, this link can offer to some of us fangirls the chance of expressing our ideas about someone else's fashion sense (beware: it features cyclists + girlfriends).

Anyway, talking about another Danish rider of SB, Chris Anker Sorensen has recently updated his blog with a post called 'Ferie' (http://blog.tv2.dk/chris.anker.ol/entry388307.html ) . In it he wrote that he had a good holiday in he USA, visiting museums and eating at Starbucks, and that now he's going to move from Luxembourg to Italy. 'In Italy the weather is better (...) and there are greater climbs than in Luxembourg (...). Moreover, Italian cuisine, coffee and cappuccino are second to none'. Well, what can I add more, if not that I totally agree with Chris and that I welcome him here in Italy?

And before of closing this post here you have a Serge Waldbillig's pictures of the Schleck brothers. After all, you can't write a fangirlistic post without including any picture of them in it, can you?

(Credits to the pictures are included in the post)

Amstel Curaçao cancelled because of bad weather conditions + Tim de Waele's pictures!

Amstel Curaçao's race, which had to take place yesterdat, has been postponed to today afternoon because of the bad weather conditions in Curaçao (http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/amstel-curacao-race-cancelled-due-to-severe-road-flooding ).

In the picture below you can see how the roads' condition are in Curaçao. Luckily Andy's mood doesn't seem to be affected by the weather ;) Frank instead looks more serious. After all, no one enjoys bad weather when they're on holiday, especially if they know that, after that holiday, they'll have to go back to the cold Luxembourg and start training for the next cycling season.
On TDW's website (http://www.tdwsport.com ) however we can see that, luckily for the boys, the weather in Curaçao wasn't that bad on the previous days. On the website there are some nice pictures of the Schleck brothers (is it just my impression, or do Andy's legs actually get skinnier everyday?!?), some pictures of Toni Martin + girlfriend, some of Koos Moerenhout + family and a lot of Van Den Broeck + girlfriend.

To the disappointment of many fangirls, it seems that the photographers in Curaçao haven't decided to take any picture of Jakob Fuglsang yet.

(pictures by Cor Vos)

First pictures from Curaçao are here!

To the joy of us Fangirls, the first pictures from Curaçao have finally appeared on the Net. They were made by CorVos and they show us the Schleck brothers talking quietly around a table. And I must say that, although in these pictures they're not swimming with dolphins and they're not half-naked, the brothers offer us a very good show anyway ;)

Pictures from http://www.corvospro.com/arimages.aspx .

On Corvos' website there are also some pictures featuring Koos Moerenhout, who will retire from professional cycling right after Curaçao.
More pictures (Jakob and Andy included) can be seen at http://www.wielerland.nl/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=13736&Itemid=36 (Jakob's lovers, it worths watching!) ;)

Random Schleckly picture du midweek:

Frank, everything's ok?
(the picture above comes from the photographic album of a very amusing Facebook group called 'Spingere il 53x11'; unfortunately the name of the photographer who took it wasn't indicated anywhere so,if one you readers knows it, I'd be really thankful to you if you could write it in the comment area, so that I can indicate it in this post =).

RANDOM FANGIRLISTIC NEWS DU MIDWEEK:
http://blog.tv2.dk/chris.anker.ol/entry383516.html : According to Chris Anker Sorensen's latest blog entry, Jens Voigt is becoming father for the 6th time. Wow.

New Saxo Bank "profile pics" plus few random links:

That time of the year has come,when the new "profile pics" of the Saxo Bank riders finally appear on the team website.I don't know what the riders think of this thing,but in her twisted little mind Fangirl imagines them hearing the news of the pics publication,checking the team website in a very nervous way and having 2 different kind of reactions:
1."This is my photo!?! What? Are you kidding me? I don't look this bad live!! And since when are my ears so big?"
2."Man,it could have gone much worse! Just look at the photo of the rider next to me...He looks like a monster!"

Luckily for everyone,Logic is always ready to interrupt Fangirl's crazy thoughts by remembering her that there is just one rider who could react to such a unimportant news in this way,and that one rider is Pozzatolocks who,luckily,isn't a Saxo Bank rider.In fact,Logic deeply believes that Saxo Bank guys don't care at all about their "profile pics on the team website",because they have other bigger worries.
Anyway,although Logic doesn't want me to write these useless things on my blog,here's my opinion about this year's pics.First of all,I must say that some guys' pics have got better (just think at Klostergaard and Klemme's ones),few ones have got worse (Chris Anker and Breschel's ones) and some others haven't changed at all (Nicki Sorensen,for example,had that very same haircut also in last year's pic).Then of course there are the pictures of the new riders,who have got over the "profile pic" proof pretty well.And then,last but not least,there are the pictures of the Schleck brothers which,IMO,are better than last year's one (after all,it's hard to take horrible pics of handsome guys...) :P. RANDOM LINKS:
After talking about "useless things" (Logic,who doesn't understand Fangirl's feelings,defines everything that has to do with riders' pictures in this way),here are (few) more serious things.
First of all,"the case du week-end": http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/riccos-partner-positive-for-cera .Yesterday evening this news left me completely astonished and made me think some evil things about Riccò and his girlfriend.Anyway,now miss Rossi says that there must have been something wrong in the doping test,because she would be a criminal if she doped and fed her baby at the same time (http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/riccos-partner-denies-taking-epo-cera ).Call me naiv but,since I can't believe that someone can be sooo stupid to use doping and be caught positive after their husband,for the moment I prefer to wait until the B-sample tests before of writing my opinions about this doping case.
http://blog.tv2.dk/chris.anker.ol/ :yes,Chris Anker Sorensen has updated his blog with a post in which he talks about hummingbirds (I am not joking),jet-lag and training.He also says that this year his preparation was as good as never before,and that therefore he believes he'll get some good results earlier than usual in the season.Logic was very happy to hear about this,since last year she had to bear Fangirl's complaints about the lack of Chris' victories for 10 months, and she's not going to to put up with something similar also this year.
Randomness du jour: Happy birthday Richie Porte!

PS: Post's pics by Tim De Waele. If you want to see more photos of the Saxo Bank riders,I suggest you going on http://www.tdwsport.com/ .Some pics are really nice!

TDW's pics from Saxo Bank training camp and Link about Steensen:

Yes,Tim De Waele was with the Saxo Bank riders in Fuerteventura and took some nice pics of Andy during the training camp.Here are 3 of them (you can find more pics of Andy and few ones with Breschel on Tim De Waele's website):

RANDOM LINK:
http://www.riis-cycling.com/ny_news.asp?n_id=2626 :Since for "job" (is school a job?) reasons I really do like people who love studying languages,I couldn't avoid to publish this article about the 7 language speaker André Steensen (he can speak Danish,English,German,some Italian and French,can understand Spanish and has started to learn Portuguese).Me also takes the chance to compliment André on his great laguage abilities.

PS: All photos,of course,were taken by Tim De Waele.Me hopes he also took some pics of the other SB riders and will publish them later on his website.Anyway,for the moment Fangirls can enjoy Andy's pics :)

Luxembourgish Sportsman of the Year Award + few new pics from the training camp:

Just like Logic predicted the other day,Andy Schleck won the Luxembourgish "Sportman of the Year" Award,while Frank Schleck came in 2nd.Of course Fangirl is incredibly happy right now and can't wait for the new season to begin because she's already impatient and wants top see the Saxo Bank riders racing again soon.Btw,talking about the awards ceremony of the other day,here's a pic from the event.As you can see Andy was wearing (again) very formal clothes and me thinks that the combination "Andy + suit + tie" is a very good one.And then,he showed fangirls that he owns more than one shirt ;)Other little news: on http://www.wort.lu/wort/web/sport/artikel/61834/so-quaelen-sich-unsere-radprofis-auf-fuerte.php there are 3 new pics from the training camp,here are 2 of them (Cancellara is featured in one of the pics).Enjoy!

First pics from Saxo Bank boot camp:

First of all I must say a big "THANK YOU" to Anne (http://outandaboutcycling.blogspot.%20com/ ),since it's her who found these pics.The link to see all the pics is http://sport.rtl.lu/news/fotoen/3131/overview/1 and I really suggest fangirls taking a look since I haven't posted all the pics.Anyway,here are few of them:
Andy and His Amazingness Jens Voigt in a very "boot camp" mood.
Me likes those socks...
Andy (again) riding his bike (where was Frank while the most of these photos were taken,fangirl wonders?).

More pics on http://sport.rtl.lu/news/fotoen/3131/overview/1 .The photographs were taken by Erny Klein.

Presentation of the "Velomania" book and Sastre's reply to Andy:

NB: I already wrote a post about Sastre's reply to Andy and about the Velomania book,but then I decided to modify it because I managed to find more info about the Velomania presentation.Of course there is also another reason for which I modified this post,which isn't the fact that I'm listening to David Bowie's "Changes" in this exact moment,but the fact that I wrote the original post yesterday evening at 10.30 pm, fter a long day spent studying and cursing René Descartes,so me wasn't totally ok at the moment of writing and therefore lots of the things I wrote didnt' make a lot of sense.Anyway,here's the modified version of yesterday's post:

PART ONE:SASTRE'S REPLY TO ANDY:
Do you remember what Andy Schleck said about Carlos Sastre in an interview with El Paìs few weeks ago ("I never understood what Carlos' problem was.He won the Tour in 2008 and everyone who saw the race on the television and knows a bit about cycling understood how we sacrificed ourselves for him.Then he went to talk to the press and said things that didn't make sense,for example he said that we weren't working for him...We were working at 100% for him,we were completely there for him! He's got a problem with his head!")? Well,Carlos has recently replied to the young Luxembourgish rider by saying: "A los niños hay que educarlos, pero que me eduque un niño a mí no es lógico.Lo que digan me da igual (source: http://www.elmundo.es/elmundodeporte/2009/11/13/ciclismo/1258141881.html ).Translation: "People have to educate the children,but it's not logical that a child (ndr;Andy) tries to educate me.Btw,I don't care about what people say".

The problems between the Schlecks and Carlos officially began after the Alpe d'Huez stage at the Tour de France 2008.Sastre won that stage and managed to get the yellow jersey by attacking at the beginning of the Alpe d'Huez.He took the jersey from Frank Schleck,who had got it in the Prato Nevoso stage and that didn't try to keep the jersey in any way (the same worths for Andy,who finally came in 3rd in that stage).
The disagreements between Carlos and the Schleck brothers began after the Tour,when Carlos told the Spanish press about "problems" between him and the Csc Team.Some people,hearing about that,started to think that the real problem that Carlos had wasn't with Csc Team,but with Bjarne Riis and with the Schleck brothers too much,and someone thinks that this is the main reason for which Sastre said "Goodbye Csc" at the end of 2008.
Anyway,let's hope that this "words battle" between Andy and Carlos won't continue in the next days,since I think it's useless to talk about these things more than a year after the 2008 Tour.

PRESENTATION OF THE VELOMANIA BOOK:

Reading the headline of this post,you may have asked: what is "Velomania"? And has it anything to do with the Schleck brothers?
The answer is: yes,"Velomania" has a lot to do with the Schleck brothers.In fact it is a book (written by Lucien Gretsch and containing lots of Serge Waldbillig's pics) that talks about the Luxembourgish cyclistic year 2009.That's why yesterday afternoon the 2 brothers were at the book's presentation in Bereldingen.Together with Andy and Frank there was also Kimmy Kirchen,since he is the other main protagonist of the book.Yesterday's event had a big success and lots of people went to meet the 3 Luxembourgish cyclists.
"It's unbelievable to think about the cycling hysteria that has recently developed here in Luxembourg.It is quite hard to describe the feeling you get when you see Luxembourgish supporters at the side of the roads,ready to support you,during the whole year and in almost every country we've raced in.These people are part of our motivation and they often sacrifice a lot of their free time to support us.Therefore it's normal that we want to take part in this kind of events,it's a way to thank the fans for their support" said Frank.
Talking about the book,the elder of the brothers said:"The book is really well done.If you look at the photos,you start to remember things about the races and about the emotions you had during them.That's fun".
Of course the book talks also about other Luxembourgian riders and isn't totally focused on the Schleck brothers and on Kim Kirchen.

PS: The money that the riders will earn from the book will be destined to a charity organization. If you want to see some pics from yesterday's event, here's the link: http://www.wort.lu/%20wort/web/sport/artikel/56703/drei-stars-ohne-allueren.php .
On http://www.editions.lu/. instead you can get information about the book.

(Pic 1 by Getty Images;pics 2 and 3 by Marc Wilmert-the 2 people that you probably don't know and that appear in the 2nd pic are Lucien Gretsch and Serge Waldbillig)

Curaçao stuff + news about O'Grady and Bellis:

I know,the Curaçao Criterium was raced few days ago,but me was too busy (or lazy?) to write a post about it.Anyway,here are some pics (and a vid) from the Criterium (and from the riders' holidays) and 2 links about Saxo Bank riders O'Grady and Bellis.

So,let's start with the Curaçao topics,starting with the "serious thing" (the criterium results) and ending with the Fangirls-stuff (pics and a vid):
CURACAO CRITERIUM: Me would have loved Kenny Van Hummel to win the Amstel Curaçao Criterium,but unfortunately my hopes didn't come true.In fact the winner of the Criterium was Alberto Contador.Hushvod came in 2nd,while 3rd was Koos Moerenhout.4th was Mark Cavendish (if he had won,I think that some of the sprinters that were on the island would have drowned him in the Caribbean sea and blamed the dolphins for that...),while 5th was Kenny Van Hummel.6th was mr.Boasson Hagen.
I don't have any news about the Schleck brothers' placements,but I think they decided to take it easy and just enjoy the race.
CURACAO VID (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-OY2xvOsvU ):yes,in this interview with Lars Boom and Koos Moerenhout you can also see one of the Schleck brothers swimming with dolphins.
CURACAO PICS: Tim De Waele has uploaded his website with the Curaçao pictures and I've managed to find just one (one!) pic involving Jakob Fuglsang.Btw some pics involving 2 shirtless Luxembourgish brothers will probably make you forgive mr.De Waele for the lack of Jakob's pics.
RANDOM THOUGHT: I envy the "Telegraaf" special reporters in Curaçao.Really.Not just because of the cyclists,but also because Curaçao seems such a quiet and wonderful place to be.

NEWS ABOUT CONTADOR,O'GRADY AND BELLIS:

ASTANA-CONTADOR TELENOVELA: I refuse to write anything about it unless there are some certain news about which team mr.Contador will choose to ride for in 2010.
STUART O'GRADY: (http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/millar-describes-ogradys-seizure ) Saxo Bank rider Stuart O'Grady collapsed during a corporate event at the MotoGP circuit in Valencia on Sunday.The Australian rider was brought to a Spanish hospital but is now feeling better and will hopefully be able to come back to his home in Monaco tomorrow.
JONATHAN BELLIS (http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/bellis-back-in-london-and-recovering-well ): A very good news: Jonathan Bellis has arived in a London hospital and is said to be progressing.Hopefully he'll be able to come back to normal life soon.

Links to some Curaçao pics plus article about Chris Anker Sorensen:

Yes,I've already seen the pics featuring the Schleck brothers swimming with some dolphins and that appeared on Cyclingnews and on Corvos yesterday.And as a consequence of those pics, Fangirl has spent the last 24 hours envying the Curaçao dolphins and wishing she were one of them.Anyway,leaving Fangirl's envy issues behind,here's a link that may interest you: http://www.nieuwsblad.be/sportwereld/article/detail.aspx?articleid=DMF05112009_058 .On it you can find some nice pics of the Schleck brothers that haven't appeared yet on the traditional "Curaçao pics website" (Corvos,Bettini,Tim De Waele and so on) and that I found pretty nice.Of course on that link there also pics involving Contador,Boom,Boasson Hagen and the other riders that are in Curaçao in these days.

Btw,even if the Curaçao pics have been the main object of my posts in the last 2-3 days,I haven't forgotten that the riders are in the Netherlands Antilles also because of the Amstel Curaçao criterium.
The Amstel Jan Thiel Criterium (which is a "warm-up" for tomorrow's race) saw the victory of Kenny Van Hummel (yay!), a hero for lots of supporters (me included).Second was Hoogerland, while third was Brice Feillu.

According to http://www.dailypeloton.com/displayarticle.asp?pk=15948 (click on this link if you want to know more about how the Criterium went), the Schleck brothers didn't take part in the race and this explains why I can't find any news about their placements in the race.

Anyay,let's now change topic.In fact I haven't forgotten Chris Anker Sørensen's existence even if he's not in Curaçao swimming with dolphins.Therefore,I'd like to publish an article about him that I found on http://www.riis-cycling.com/ny_news.asp?n_id=2560 .In this article Chris talks about the Japan Cup,the chopsticks,his fat percentage (if he gets worried about it, what should I do?), the off-season, his book about the Tour (I hope it will it be released also in English or in German!), the future and other things.And if I've managed to make you like Chris Anker so much that you even want to see some vids with him (perhaps in the English language,since Danish is so terribly complicated to understand),on this link (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7oOZ7Bb9xw ) there's a nice interview with him.
Btw,back to the interview,here it is:

He was saved by the bell. The goal for the 2009 season was the same as for many others in the field - a win. And Danish Chris Anker Sørensen took it by himself. On the last passing of the steepest hill on the circuit in Japan Cup he dropped his companion, Pablo Lastras (Caisse d'Epargne) after having taken the initiative to slip away from the peloton.
"It was great to win in Japan. The season has, however been great and full of amazing experiences where I have helped teammates to great achievements. But there was still a large and gaping "0" next to “number of victories” this season before the trip went to Asia and it was such a satisfying moment crossing the finish line in solitude”.
In several aspects, there is a long way from Japan to Hammel, Denmark where he was born and raised and visiting his parents.Chris Anker Sørensen has just returned from a run in a meteorologically bad temper which primarily consisted of sleety gales before he picked up the phone to speak with me about the 2009 season. But apart from the geographical gap there are some cultural differences between Japan and Denmark which put his precision skills to the test.
"Michael Mørkøv and I had agreed that everything we ate in Japan had to be consumed only by the use of chopsticks and naturally it turned into a competition of ability which I clearly won.I wonder now whether the chopsticks may be a great tool of helping me keep my weight down over Christmas since gravy and pudding seem rather difficult to consume with a pair of pointy pieces of wood”,says the skinny climber with a wink in the eye and continues:"I am training very hard to the upcoming Christmas holiday so I don't have to restrain myself completely during Christmas dinner."
The fat percentage is being kept to a minimum and does not cross the six percent boundary at any time of the year. Chris Anker is still on his bike several times a week in the early off-season and he even tops his training off with a couple of jogging sessions every week when we hit late autumn.But otherwise,the 25-year-old Dane enjoys a welcome opportunity to meet with his friends and talk about things other than cycling.In addition, there will be a golden chance to be spending time with his girlfriend, Michelle-a Danish soccer player from Copenhagen.
Reaching December, the mountain bike finds its way in the cold and rainy Luxembourg where he resides on a daily basis.To achieve a spot in the line-up for the biggest cycling event in the world requires an endless number of training hours in vast examples of weather conditions. "There have been several great moments this season. Tour of Luxembourg was special because it took place in my second home and because we won the race in superb style with three stage wins, the point classification and the overall victory.But Tour de France was a childhood dream came true for me and it was much bigger than I ever dreamed of. The number of spectators and especially the number of Danes, journalists and the fact that just a few weeks on the bike making me world famous was a slightly surreal but also a truly fantastic experience. In fact,it was so personally rewarding that I along with sports journalist,Dennis Ritter has written a book about my thoughts and conversations during the race. In addition, the book contains race reports of the stages from my and from Dennis' point of view”.
It is no secret that Team Saxo Bank says goodbye to eight riders at the end of this season. But it is not necessarily all negative according to Chris Anker Sørensen:
"Personally,I will without a doubt miss being around several of the riders who are leaving the team. On the other hand, they are leaving a few empty spots in the upper part of the hierarchy and other young riders now have the opportunity to take responsibility and thus get to develop on a higher level and every team needs progression like that.From a Danish point of view,to become successful national representatives in the biggest events like the World Cup or the Olympics,we need an expanded approach to gain the necessary experience which can only be achieved through participation in major races.I am looking forward to welcoming four new riders on the team when we all are going to take part of the survival camp with B. S. Christiansen in the beginning of December."
Thus, the young Dane gets a month off work before he embarks on another season. A new year from which he expects quite a lot:
"My main objective is the Tour de France as I hope to get another chance in the line-up.I expect to become even stronger so I can be an even greater help for Andy.Besides the Tour, I hope to receive a chance in the overall classification in the Vuelta in the autumn where I aspire to take another win in the Japan Cup.All in all,I would like to take another step up the rankings and that is now possible on Team Saxo Bank”, concludes Chris Anker Sørensen.
NB: The Dane's book release, "Debutantens dagbog" (Diary of a Debutant) is being published Monday 23rd November.
(Pics by Amstel Curaçao Race 2009 and by Cycletime website).

Curaçao Pics:

Yes,the first pics from Curaçao have started to appear in Internet and make Fangirls happy.
Here are few of them (thanks Corvos!):
Andy and Frank,ready to go snorkling:Andy and Koos Moerenhout: Frank and Leo Van Vliet:
On http://www.corvospro.com/arimages.aspx you can also find pics of Lars Boom,Koos Moerenhout,Thor Hushovd (will I ever learn to write his name correctly without looking it up somewhere?),Brice Feillu and Alberto Contador.

On this link (http://www.telegraaf.nl/telesport/wielersport/5247219/__Operatie_Schleck_geslaagd__.html) instead you can find a nice pic of Frank and Martine and a little interesting article.Here's a really short (and hopefully correct) translation:
Talking about his proposal,Frank said:"You suddenly feel that it is the right moment and you do it.It really couldn't go better,with this fantastic setting and almost the whole family around us."
About the operation:"Although my knee is still vulnerable,it seems that the operation has been successful.I haven't had any intensive training session yet,so we have to wait and see how the knee will react when I take up training intensively again".
About the Amstel Gold Race crash:"It was the scariest moment of my life.I opened my eyes and suddenly I found myself in an ambulance,without knowing what had happened.Anyway the pain in my knee didn't come from that crash,since I already felt it during the Tour of the Basque Country. The cause is something else."

(Pic by Wessel Van Kreuk/Corvos Pro website).

Schleck pics + Article about Jens Voigt:

As I wrote in the last post,some days ago there was the celebration of the results achieved by the Schleck brothers in the Tour.

On this link http://www.wort.lu/wort/web/letzebuerg/artikel/38498/sympathisch-bodenstaendig-erfolgreich.php there's an article and some photos from the celebration.Hope you like them!

(Pic by Anouk Anthony)

Here instead http://www2.team-saxobank.com/ny_news.asp?n_id=2469 there's another link about Jens Voigt.Here are some things he recently said (and that you can read also in that article):

"I remember absolutely nothing from the crash.The last thing I remember is that we just made it over the climb and Bjarne (Riis) asked me to drop back in the group and let the others pull in the chase before the final. I was then planning on retrieving bottles for my teammates. The next thing I remember I was awake in an ambulance where my very first thoughts were: Why am I here? I want to go back to the race. I want to go to Paris with the team. But soon the pain told me that there was a reason why I was on my way to the hospital (...) Only after the helicopter ride to the University Hospital in Grenoble and numerous studies and stitches I was able to get to a phone at ten o'clock at night to tell my wife that I was pretty much ok and that I would not get chronic injuries from the accident. The doctors took so many x-ray images of me that I still fluorescent in the dark. My youngest daughter of four years watched the crash while she was alone in front of the TV, and it obviously did a great impression on her. My older boys seemed mainly obtained with the fact that I was the coolest dad since the crash was the second most downloaded video on youtube in the days after the accident", says Jens Voigt, who in his own warm-hearted fashion because of the crash has gained an even greater perspective on life: "At the rehabilitation center I was in good hands. My brain was tested in so many ways and my body was re-generated by doing water gymnastics. But at the center I was forced to turn the focus away from myself as I witnessed the fates many times worse than my own that I felt guilty about having escaped so easily from the crash. After doing 80 km/h hitting the asphalt head first I got away without permanent injuries. And here I was walking around watching a father motionless sitting in a wheelchair, from which he was fed by his wife after a fatal fall from the chair he was standing on while changing a light bulb. It certainly provides food for thought". But that doesn't mean that Jens Voigt is now questioning his own career: "I am not a quitter and never was. I'm not the kind of guy to give up because of external circumstances. After having watched the crash several times it is clear that there was nothing I could have done to prevent the fall. The crash was accidental and accidental incidents should not determine whether I should put an end to my career.I will stop my career when the time is ripe, and I am not done competing for the best cycling team in the world.Team Saxo Bank means a lot to me.I feel extremely well in the company of all the riders, staff and all the people around the team.To trust and to be able to get along with all employees is a priceless gift and I enjoy spending time with the guys in a way that I simply can not live without”. And if Jens is to decide it will not be long before we will be able to watch the indomitable rider back in the peloton:"I was eager to participate in the Tour of Denmark but the doctors and Bjarne wisely asked me not to go. However,I will hopefully get the green light next week by the doctors to train at full speed again, and I hope to do the Tour of Missouri from September 7th.First of all in order to convince myself that I am still able to compete.But not least because I want to get out there and show the world and my fans that I am ok and I appreciate the support I have received during my absence”.

Videos and Pics with the Schlecks!

Blogmates Emma and Marleen have found some very nice things about the Schleck brothers,so here they are.
Firstly,Emma gave me this link http://img207.imageshack.us/gal.php?g=92619366.jpg on which you can find great photos of the Schleck brothers.The pics were taken by Emma and by her family,since they went to see the Gala of the Tour de France in Luxembourg city and ended up being extras in a commercial with los Schlecks and KK.

I must say that I really do like Andy's leather jacket,it's very nice and it suits him very well.

But also Frank looks good in these pics...

Here are the brothers and Kim Kirchen pedalling through Luxembourg city while wearing these unusual (for bike riding,at least) clothes.The commercial was made for ASO Sport,a Luxembourgish Sports and Fashion Shop.
If you want to see other pics,click on the link above.

Marleen instead gave me 2 video links:
In the first one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2NMwdcJDOE&feature=related you can see Andy talking briefly about himself on Denmark's tv.I love it when they show his eyes in black and white!

In the second video ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNT9VfQjBGg&feature=related ) instead Andy talks after having taken part in the tv show called "De Zjonnies" (see video here if you want to see the whole interview that they made with the 2 brothers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yz3sKyP2WgQ&feature=fvw ).I don't know if it has something to do with my computer,but I can't hear Andy talking in the first part of the vid.Anyway,I love it when he plays with the sticker and I really do like his green shoes :)

Last but not least,on this link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hx1fhyJFXKM&feature=related there is a vid (in Luxembourgish) in which Frank was 18 year-old and Andy was just 13.Probably you've already seen it,but did you understand it? If you're interested,on this link there is not just the interview-there are also the subtitles.Subtitles are absolutely important for people like me that usually don't understand a word of Luxembourgish.In fact while reading them I feel as if I understand everything,words deriving from French included.Perhaps Fangirlism is starting to give super-powers (or,more probably,I'm getting mad ;)).

NB: La Clasica de San Sebastian was won by Carlos Barredo (you'll probably remember the Tour de France stage in which he tried everything to drop Burghardt without suceeding) who crossed the finish-line before of Roman Kreuziger (who was so tired that he couldn't even sprint).Third came Delage,who was the first rider of the main group to cross the finish-line.Saxo Bank captain,Kolobnev,came in 16th,one position ahead of Valverde.
I didn't see the whole race,but I read on SportItalia that Andy fell and decided to retire from the race.I don't think he got injured (italian journalists would have write that,I hope!!!),but he probably didn't want to risk too much and got retired. In fact during the race the weather was awful and there were lots of crash (Lampre's Spilak had serious problems in riding his bike during one descent).
Saxo Bank tried to get a good result with Chris-Anker Sorensen,who entered a breakaway and then worked a lot for Kolobnev.The Dane rider eventually came in 27th.
10th was the Professor Pinotti,while 6th was HGS who,to my amazement,in the last few kms managed to recuperate some seconds on Barrredo's group riding all alone (!).Of course this fact was welcomed with a lot of entusiasm by Italian chronists who,once again,reminded the viewers that Chris-Anker Sorensen isn't the Sorensen who won a stage at the Tour,is another Sorensen,and the said Sorensen isn't a relative of the other Sorensen.Clear?

Post Update: more pics of the Asport commercial with Frank and Andy can be found on this link:http://sport.rtl.lu/news/fotoen/2806/overview/ (thanks Anne for the link!)