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.

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)

Random randomness, Fiuggi Terme and Tropea's stages of the Giro, Agnoli proposes to his girlfriend and Leopard Trek remembers WW Special:

Given the horrible weather, I'm not going out this evening, so I have some time to rewrite that post of mine that Blogger deleted two days ago and to talk a bit also about today's stage. However, feel free to leave comments also in the comment areas of my previous entries: I'll take a look at my old posts regularly during this month!

SAPRI-TROPEA:
NB: Today's stage of the Giro was dedicated to the memory of 8 amateur cyclist who were killed by a car last December. The car's driver was on drugs and he ran over this group of men as they rode outside Lamezia Terme. 7 riders immediately died, whereas the 8th one perished in hospital a few weeks after the accident.

Sapri - Tropea offered us another exciting final sprint and some jawdropping sea landscapes.
The two breakawayers du jour were Leonardo Giordani (U23 world champion in 1999) and Mirko Selvaggi, who were caught by the peloton with 9.5 kms to go. Those two athletes train together whenever they can and that's why, at the end of their adventure, they embraced each other in a very friendly way.
Today's stage had a very particular finale. In fact, the last kms of race were full of curves and presented a very peculiar climb. Said climb in fact was short and easy, but it presented two hairpin turns which forced many riders to slow down and brake, causing them to lose some seconds from the riders who were at the front of the peloton. Saxo Bank guys knew this and that's why they worked hard at the front of the group in the last kms of race.
With about 2 kms to go, when the riders still hadn't got over the last climb, Farnese's Oscar Gatto launched an attack. Right after Gatto attacked, another rider escaped from the peloton and started to chase him. Said rider was Alberto Contador and I had to check his face twice before I could finally believe what I was seeing.
No one else managed to follow the Spaniard, who was reducing his gap from Gatto in a very fast way.
Eventually, luckily for him, Gatto managed to get the stage victory, while Contador (second in the stage) received a time bonus of 12". Add these 12" to the 5" he gained on the rest of the peloton and you'll discover that, on a simple stage like this one, Contador managed to steal 17" from his main contenders. A bad morale blow for the other Gc contenders, isn't it?
Third in the stage was Petacchi, whereas Kristoff was a surprising 4th.
As a consequence of his great team work, Richie Porte lost 1'43" from Gatto in today's stage, whereas Fabio Duarte got retired during the stage (does anyone know why?).

I must say that I was very happy for Oscar Gatto's victory. In fact you must know that he was considered a great cycling promise as he turned pro, but then he seemed to have lost his sprinting abilities. This year, finally, Oscar has finally returned back to his good old level and he's already got many good victories. As they say, today's victory in the Giro can be considered 'the icing on the cake' - now, what about adding a participation in the Copenhagen's Worlds to that delicious cake? ;)

This afternoon I was also very surprised by Contador's attack, which I didn't expect at all. But still, I think he wanted to send a psychological message to Scarponi (who attacked and almost dropped the Spaniard yesterday) and to Nibali.
Actually, my surprise for Contador's attack made me behave in a very bitter way. In fact, when he escaped from the peloton, my dad said: 'Contador?!? Why is he attacking? I mean, this climb doesn't suit him!!'. Insensitive to my father's excitement, I went: 'Well, it's actually very simple, dad: everyone else's chain must have popped, otherwise Contador would have never attacked. D'you remember le Tour?' Sorry, but at times I really can't handle my bitterness.
Talking about something different, after the stage poor Fabrizio Piacente (RAI's unexperienced journalist) didn't manage to interview Contador for the second time in a week. Dear Fabrizio, I just want you to know that you have all my support.
Moreover, after the stage I was reminded that Kreuziger isn't Italian (he speaks better than me, but this afternoon he failed to understand a question during an interview) and I discovered that Andrea De Luca and Paolo Savoldelli (RAI's journalists) are very good friends. In fact, they watched a post-stage vid together with other journalists and, in the end, they both started to laugh. Asked about this fact, De Luca said that he was laughing because of the vid, whereas Savoldelli said that 'watching De Luca makes me laugh'. What a couple of hilarious boys.

RANDOM LINK TO JOUR:
On http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/schleck-hopes-for-a-strong-performance-at-the-amgen-tour-of-california there's an interview with Andy schleck about Tour of California. I won't be covering this race in the next days (I prefer the Giro to ToC), but I'm sure you'll find regular updates on other blogs ('Eisen Andy', for example). However, if you have tales coming up from ToC, I remind you to send them to Bananas About Bikes: you'll see them published in no time :D

FIUGGI TERME STAGE:
Let's now go back in time talk a bit about Fiuggi Terme's stage, which was won by Ventoso. That was the first 'normal' stage that the riders faced since Special WW's disappearance and I welcomed it with pleasure. Actually, the atmosphere on that day was still pretty tense because of the polemics caused by Orvieto's gravel roads. In particular, after ending that stage Contador declared that the cyclists had to ride on 'roads for goats' (I wonder, why didn't he say the same about Tour's cobblestones?), whereas Ongarato asked: 'Who else has died?' as soon as he crossed the finish-line. That was a terrible comment, to which Zomegnan answered by saying that he doesn't even know who Ongarato is.
However, it was Contador himself who put a stop to all the polemics ('The past has gone, now let's focus on the present), whereas Nibali told the viewers that: 'I'm a Sicilian and I know Etna: everything will be perfect on Sunday because Etna usually stops erupting after 48 hours'.

Fiuggi's stage saw Jussi Veikkanen (first virtual Maglia Rosa of the Giro 2011), Kristof Vandewalle, Yaroslav Popovych, Sacha Modolo and Frederik Veuchelen attacking after a few kms after the beginning. The last breakawayer, Vandewalle, was caught with about 4 kms to go.
Amongst the other attackers du jour there were Kiserlovski (yay!) and Pirazzi, who attacked twice.
The riders had to face a little climb in the last kms of race and the finish itself was slightly uphill. The peloton faced the final climb with a very high pace and many sprinters got dropped.
With 1.5 km to go, Di Luca attacked. He was chased by Petacchi, who then had to start another sprint in order to win the stage. However, Alessandro was so tired that he suddenly stopped pedalling with 5 meters to go, leaving the stage victory to an astonished Ventoso. After crossing the finish-line, Petacchi sat down and said that he had 'just lost 10 years of life'.
In the meanwhile, Garzelli was arguing with Marzoli, who hadn't helped him in the sprint. 'I'm the captain, did you get it?', he told his teammate.

After the finish-line, there were some very nice scenes at 'Il Processo alla Tappa', a very popular Italian transmission related to the Giro. Valerio Agnoli was amongst the 'guests of the day', together with Ongarato and Contador.
While answering the question of a journalist, Agnoli said that right now he's in a very particular moment of his life. Then he looked his girlfriend Giovanna (who was on the stage of the transmission too), took a ring out of his pocket, and asked her to marry him. The girl was really embarassed, but she obviously said 'yes' and she sat down next to her future husband. The couple whispered for some minutes, before we eventually discovered a few things about the proposal. First, Valerio had kept that ring in his suitcase, waiting for the perfect moment, for 6 days. Secondly, Giovanna was very surprised because she 'didn't think that Valerio was in favour of marriages'. Thirdly, she herself had chosen the ring, thinking that it was a present for the mum of Nibali's girlfriend, who is a great friend of hers. And instead she was taken in, since the ring didn't go to mrs. Nibali, but to the future mrs. Agnoli. How nice! (this makes me ask to my readers: which 'cyclistic' proposals did you prefer so far? Frank Schleck, Van Summeren or Agnoli's one?)

As said, one of the other guests of 'Il Processo alla Tappa' on that day was Alberto Contador, who surprised me by saying that Saxo Bank produces everything the riders eat, 'bread included', in order to avoi problems with clenbuterol. Shocking, isn't it?

REMEMBERING WW SPECIAL...
As you all already know, Wouter Weylandt's funeral (I can't believe I'm typing these words...) will take place in Gand on Wednesday morning.
Leopard Trek riders are remembering WW Special with some messages written on their website (link: http://www.leopardtrek.lu/remembering-wouter ) in their own mother tongues. Here's the translation of what Davide Viganò and Luca Guercilena wrote:
Davide Viganò: 'In this moment I’d like to say you a thousand things and, at the same time, I would like to remain silent. I would like to share with you other serene moments, with the smile on our faces, together with the team, in the peloton.
I would like to relive the successes of the past in an even better way, because in this moment I feel as if I haven’t lived them intensely enough.
Ciao WW Special, I’ll miss you…'
Luca Guercilena: "'What do you think man?' That's how you started our conversations every time you wanted some advice, an idea or even just an opinion about your life as a rider.
"I'll miss being able to give you an answer, I'll miss your serene smile every time we found a solution, I'll miss the times when you said 'Grinta' in Italian to make me understand that everything was clear.
"Now nothing is clear anymore. I say goodbye to you and I'm sure that you'll give us the Grinta and a smile to make us go straight towards the finish-line".

Still talking about Wouter, a little anedocte regarding the stage that his colleagues dedicated to him. While riding, Gorazd Stangelj saw a child who had written 'Wouter froever in our hearts' on a cartel. Moved, he tried to give the kid his water bottle, but the kid didn't see it on time and failed to grab it. Therefore Peter Stetina, who saw the scene, solved the problem by giving his own water bottle to the child. Cyclists can be such nice people...

The show must go on:

Yesterday was a very hard day for the whole cycling family. In fact the Giro riders didn't cope with the traditionally busy flat stage they had on schedule, but they had to face a long, tiring march in order to say goodbye to one of their friends, Wouter Weylandt, who abandoned the peloton on Monday afternoon.

Surprisingly, yesterday I managed to keep the tears in check until the riders reached the last km of the stage. I had resisted the terrible image of mrs. Weylandt kneeling down where her son died, I had resisted the sight of Ann-Sophie putting a red heart where her boyfriend abandoned this life, but that last km was too much for me to take. At that point, all of a sudden, I found myself crying like a baby together with Tyler Farrar, with Fabian Wegmann, with Davide Viganò, with the whole Leopard Trek and with the whole cycling family. Wouter's teammates looked so down that I would have liked to take a car and drive to Livorno just to give them a big hug. Farrar was a destroyed man, whereas the support of the tifosi really did move me.
My father decided not to watch yesterday race. He's as sensitive as me and at funerals we're always the first ones to burst into tears. I knew that watching yesterday stage would have caused me to cry, but I felt like I had to watch it. You can't watch cycling just when things are going well: you must watch it also on sad days like yesterday. It's on these occasions that cycling needs its big family to stay close and, being unable to watch the stage in person, all I could do was watching it on my telly. It was like watching a colourful, long funeral. 4 hours of procession, no coffins and the feeling that Wouter was there, together with the Leopard riders and with his friend Tyler. '108 presente', as thousands of people said during the parcours.
'Those who really die are those who remain in this life', Marco Pastonesi wrote on today Gazzetta. In my opinion, this is one of the big truths of human life. After all, what comes after death? Perhaps there's another life as a different human being; perhaps there's a Paradise where, I'm sure, Wouter has met his old friend Frederiek Nolf; or perhaps, and this is the most dreadful idea, after death there is nothing. Anyway I'm sure that, after a person dies, the people who suffer more are those who remain in this life. Those who'll have to go on without a son, a husband, a brother, a father or a friend.
'Those who die are those who remain'. Those who remain in this life and also those who remain still, blocked by shock and horror. It may sound insensitive but, in moments like this, the best thing to do would be to take the time to mourn the loss and then try to go back to normality as soon as you can. It's impossible to make it in a few months / years time, but it's the only way to keep on living.

This morning, Leopard Trek decided to leave the Giro. In this case there isn't a wrong decision: everything the riders would have chosen, it would have been right. Hopefully the boys will manage to find a bit of peace in their houses, with their loved ones near.
Also Sporza's commentator has decided to abandon the race, just like Tyler Farrar. Moreover, this was the last Giro for the race number '108'. In fact, the Giro organisers have decided to retire it as a sign of respect for WW Special.
If you want to do something concrete to help Wouter's family, on http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/leopard-trek-create-donation-account-to-help-weylandts-family there are some info about how you can make donations to Ann-Sophie and to the whole family of outer. They will have the toughest task in the future, especially because the surreal atmosphere of these days will soon be gone and they will finally be able to realise the gravity of their loss. May they have all the stength of this world, because they're really gonna need it.

As I said previously, the best thing to do in these cases is to try going back to normal life. Although I didn't know Wouter, the last two days have been pretty hard for me and, honestly, today I didn't feel like watching the Giro. But then I saw that the riders, although they were probably feeling much worse than me, were doing their best to honour the race, so I watched the last part of the stage. Here I'm writing some observations of mine about it.
First of all, it must be said that today stage was pretty dangerous. In fact the cyclists had to face some gravel roads and, as you all know, gravel can be very tricky (when I was little, I had some very epic crashes on the gravel road outside my house... ). Obviously safety is a very hot topic right now and some riders have complained for the difficulty of the parcours. However, I think it's too late to complain about the parcourses now: if the riders really didn't want to face the gravel roads, they should have said it before, when the Giro route was announced.
Anyway, I agree with Di Luca about the fact that road cyclists should race on roads, because they're not cyclocross riders and they're not mountain bike riders. If a rider wants to ride on gravel roads, he can go to Eroica. And the same goes for the Tour: if someone wants to race on cobblestones, he can go go to Roubaix. It should be up to the riders to decide whether they want to ride on gravel roads or cobblestones, it shouldn't be the GT organisers that force the guys to face such particular terrains!
Said that, we can go on.
On the gravel descents Nibali showed a lot of braveness, whereas Tankink clearly looked in troubles. Many riders crashed and the most unlucky guy was poor Tom Slagter. Surprisingly, his crash didn't occur on a gravel descent, but in an asphalt part of the stage.
As soon as I saw the Rabobank rider lying on the asphalt, I froze. 'Here we go again!', I thought. Saxo Bank and Euskaltel's mechanics were screaming and Tom wasn't moving and looked unconscious. Then, luckily, he started moving his legs and he started talking. He was immediately taken to the hospital, where he discovered he has broken his eye orbit bone and that he's suffered a concussion. Hopefully he'll feel better soon.
Some of the other riders who crashed were Cataldo, Kiryenka (he fell in a really stupid way), Millar and Vicioso. These last two riders touched wheels with one another and fell together. Not a very lucky Giro for them, since Millar has worn the Maglia Rosa on two of the saddest days in cycling history, whereas Vicioso has won the saddest stage ever. I don't want to imagine how he felt right after he had won, when his ds told him through the radio: 'I'm really sorry, Angel, but something very bad has happened...', making his joy disappear all of a sudden. The poor boy burst into tears as soon as he got to know about Wouter and no one will remember his stage win as a happy one.
However, the riders weren't the only ones who had problems on the gravel roads: Savoldelli's motorbike in fact got blocked in the middle of a gravel climb and he had to push it for a lot of meters. Before he had that problem, Paolo had mentioned a Vacansoleil rider who was 'cursing while riding' and another cyclist (Reda) who stopped at the side of the road in order to let the white dust provoked by the cars disappear. Reda didn't hop back on his bike as long as the white dust disappeared and I think this is a very funny anedocte.
Talking about the race, Martin Kohler broke clear of the peloton after 12 kms and he was caught with 11 kms to go: chapeau to him!
Niemiec was very good, Nibali was extremely brave, Tankink was very unlucky, Stetina showed he's a true cycling promise, Lovkvist said 'I'm here too!', Di Luca rode without saddle and John Gadret attacked very often. But in the end, the winner du jour was the skinny Pieter Weening from Rabobank, who won the stage and got the Maglia Rosa from Millar. He looked very enthusiastic after the finish-line and I'm very happy for him and for Tien & Marleen from Ride On! ;) Before closing this post, I have some quick communications for you all:
First of all, the girls at 'Bananas about Bikes' would like to create a little tribute post for Wouter Weylandt. Therefore, if you have pictures / supporter's stories regarding him, we'd be very happy to receive them and publish them in the next days. As you know, our e-mail address is bananasaboutbikes@gmail.com . Every contribution would be very much welcomed.
Still talking about the poor Wouter, I didn't answer the comments that some of you wrote about my last post because I think there's nothing to add to what we all have already said.
Third thing to say, in the next days I'll probably try to bring back some cheerfulness on this webpage: anyway, I want you to know that I'll always remember WW Special.

Pic 1 by Riccardo Scanferla; pic 2 by Bettini (Rabobank Orange + Giro Pink = No, not again!!!)

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! -.-"

Giro di Sardegna, Rohregger and more:

23rd February 2011, 20.05. An Italian family is watching a cycling race on tv.

'Hey dad, did you hear what has recently happened to Tondo (ndr; whose name means 'circle' in Italian)?', one of the daughters asks the father. 'No, I don't', answers the father. The daughter is going to tell him the news of Tondo's tip to the Spanish police, when her young sister suddenly begins to speak: 'I know what happened to Tondo! He became Square!!'.

After reading these first lines of this post, I think you've finally understood why my mental condition is so bad: simply, it is in the family genes. However, that was just one of the little dialogues that I had with my familiars a hour ago, while we were watching Giro of Sardegna' second stage (one of said dialogues also included my sister screaming: 'Where the hell have the breakaway riders gone?' while Cunego was crossing the finish-line; in fact, in that moment she hadn't realised yet that the breakaway riders had ended their lonely adventure about 6 kms before of the finish-line).

Anyway, the most important thing about this post's beginning is that not only miss Fede's sense of humour could be even worse than it is, but the real great news is that she's finally managed to watch a cycling race on tv at a decent time of the day (allelujah!). Before of tonight in fact I had managed to watch just the first stage of TDU and a stage of Tour of Oman but unfortunately, in order to do so, I had to stay awake until 11.30 pm- not a very clever idea, if the following day you have to get up at 6.25 in order to go to the bus stop, where you'll find that disturbing, logorroic boy who stares at you during your whole journey to school.

By the way. I'm digressing again.

Talking about Giro di Sardegna, yesterday stage was won by Peter Sagan. Today stage, instead, was won by Damiano Cunego, who exulted in a great way after the finish-line. In fact, not only did he raise his arms: he even went towards a tv camera, shouted 'Evvai!' and started to shake it.
I was very happy for Damiano, because during last year Tour de France some people (*cough* journalists *cough*) were really terrible with him. Moreover, journalists had tried to eat him alive after Mendrisio Worlds. So, considering all the critics and pressure that Cunego has had to carry on his shoulder since May 2004 (and that have become even bigger over the last years), I always feel incredibly happy when he wins. When he wins, in fact, I always feel as if it's a deserved victory. I like Damiano, I can't help it.

Second in today's stage (which was very hilly and whose 7 final kms were completely uphill) was Serpa 'Zorro' Perez, whose moustache are much more stylish than Pozzato's ones. If you don't believe me, look at the pic above (by Sirotti). Third in the stage was the little Sella, José's teammate, while 4th was Peter Sagan. Unfortunately for him, Peter couldn't keep the leader jersey, which is now on Cunego's shoulders.

Amongst the riders who did a very good job today there are Hermans (the Radioshack rider was 4th), Capecchi (5th), Scarponi (who did an outstanding job for Cunego), Kiserlovski and Stortoni (Colnago riders are really brave, they always attack as soon as they can). Ballan was 15th (he was second in yesterday stage) and hopefully this means that he's back at the level that he had when he won the Varese Worlds. 25th was 40 year-old Noé, while a special mention must go to the breakaway riders du jour: Mikhail Ignatiev (who kept his knees in a very strange way while riding uphill), David Boily, Alessandro De Marchi, Elia Favilli and Alessandro Malaguti. De Marchi was the best breakawayer (?) du jour, since he abandoned the peloton after just 8 kms (18 if you consider the 10 kms between the start village and the true start of the race) and he was caught with just 6 kms to go. Therefore, chapeau to Alessandro!

RANDOM NEWS:
Talking about breakaways, you'll be happy to know that Andy Schleck was part of a breakaway during today's Ruta del Sol stage, wich was eventually won by Freire. Good to see our boy riding at the front of a race! :D
Still talking about Andy, he now has a new teammate: Thomas Rohregger, born on the 23rd December 1982, former Milram (and Pegasus) rider, winner of 2009 Tour of Austria. A good climber and another German speaker for Leopard Trek. All together now: *Herzlich Willkommen, Thomas*!!

On to another news, Jens Voigt has recently said that the riders should do something 'big', like boycotting this year Worlds, to show their disapproval of UCI's radio ban. Aren't we exaggerating a bit? (http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/voigt-calls-for-worlds-boycott-over-radio-ban ).

Still facing the news du jour, I've just read on Cyclingnews that Amstel Gold Race organisers have given their race's wild cards to the following teams: Topsport Vlaanderen (yay!), Landbouwkrediet (double yay!), Skill Shimano (we want Kenny Van Hummel!) and Verandas Willems.

I also wanted to put the link to a little Cyclingnews article in which Romain Feillu said that, perhaps, Vacansoleil shouldn't have given Riccò a contract, but unfortunately I couldn't find it anywhere. Well, it seems like someone was brave enough to say these things publicly.

Anyway, it is pretty late right now, so here I close this post (which isn't actually that great, but that was written in a big hurry). Have a good evening and a good night sleep!
(pic by Sirotti)

Random Post about Giacomo Nizzolo plus interview with Frank Schleck and Brice Feillu:

Surprisingly, miss Fede is already here, just 3 days after her last post, to write another entry on her blog. What a joy!
In this post I'm going to try talking about Giacomo Nizzolo, a neo pro of Team Leopard Trek.
Before of that, however, I'd like to congratulate Andrea Guardini for his Tour of Qatar victory. When he won all those stages at Tour of Malaysia, many people commented by saying 'Well, it's Tour of Malaysia, it isn't the Tour de France!'. Ok, Tour of Qatar isn't the Tour de France either, but the adversaries beaten by Andrea this afternoon were tough guys like Renshaw (GC winner), Haussler, Bennati (a good race for him), Boonen and so on. Therefore, chapeau to Andrea.
I must admit that I didn't follow the race live, I just saw the results on the Internet. However don't worry: March is finally approaching and in that month miss Fede will watch lots of cycling races live and will give you her boring opinions about them. I bet you're looking forward to that, aren't you? ;)
Before I start talking seriously about Giacomo Nizzolo, who was 5th in yesterday race at Mallorca Challenge (race that was won by Fischer), let me tell you a funny thing about this blog: the other day, someone came across it by typing 'Denis and Carlos naked' in Google. I'm shocked. Someone else instead has recently bumped into this webpage lost in the Blogosphere by looking for 'Stefan Denifl operation'. You're curious about that operation, eh? Well, I once read an interview in which Stefan mentioned it, but I'm not going to tell you where he needed to be operated...Mwhahahaha!

Anyway. Giacomo Nizzolo. Italian, born in Milan on the 30th January 1989, 184 cms of height for 72 kgs of weight.
This young rider is considered a good sprinter who can do well in long races. He got his first important results as a track rider. In 2007 in fact he was 2nd in the Italian National Championship of Keirin. In the very same year he was 3rd in the Team Pursuit at the Track World Championships for young riders. On that occasion Giacomo rode with Paolo Locatelli, Luca Pirini and the promising sprinter Elia Viviani. For your curiosity, the team who won the team pursuit at that edition of the Wolds was formed by Jack Bobridge, Leigh Howard, Glenn O'Shea and Travis Meyer.
The following year Nizzolo kept on racing on the track and he was 3rd in the Tre Giorni di Pordenone. He also won Trofeo Sc Marcallo, Memorial Crescenzo and a race in Magnago (race roads). As you can see, our boy got 3 good victories in his first year as a U23 rider and he did so in spite of a serious injury he got at the beginning of the 2008 season (I looked for more information about it, but I couldn't find any*).
In 2009 Giacomo got 9 victories (all together: 'Woooow!'). In fact that year he won Trofeo Papà Cervi, Gp dell'Industria, Coppa san Bernardino, Coppa Città di Melzo, Coppa Caduti Buscatesi, Circuito de Termen, Gp San Virgilio, Medaglia d'Oro Nino Ronco and Targa Libero Ferrario. Moreover, he was 4th in the Mediterranean Games, where he was beaten, amongst others, also by the above-mentioned Andrea Guardini.
The following year Giacomo got even better results. For example,he was 2nd in the Popolarissima di Treviso (beaten by Viviani), 9th in the GP Liberazione for U23 (one of the most important Italian races for young riders, which last year was won by the Slovenian rider Jan Tratnik), was 2nd in a stage of Giro Baby (beaten- again- by Guardini) and 5th in the European U23 Championship. Moreover, he won Coppa del Mobilio, Circuito San Donà di Piave, Coppa Quagliotti, Gp Ceda, Il Gandolfi, Circuito S.Urbano, Gp Fiera dell Possenta, Premio Rinascita, Trofeo Artigianato e Commercio Piombino Dese, Medaglia d'Oro Nino Ronco, Circuito dell'Assunta and Medaglia d'Oro Città Villanova (12 victories).
Last year Giacomo rode for Trevigiani Dynamon Bottoli together with Manuele Boaro, who became a pro with Saxo Bank this year. In 2009 instead he rode for Bottoli Nordelettrica Ramondi, while the previous year his team was Filmop Sorelle Ramonda Bottoli Parolin*.
Nizzolo took up cycling when he was 6, 'as a birthday gift'. Talking about his relationship with the track world, he says he's recently abandoned track racing, although he thinks that riding on a cycling track is very important for sprinters.
Talking about his hobbies, Nizzolo likes riding his motorbike, skiing, going out with friends and going dancing. Talking about his qualities, Giacomo says he's generous and honest. On the other hand, he's stubborn, he's often late and he 'sleeps too much'.
Speaking of his climbing abilities, Nizolo says he can resist on mid-difficult climb when he's in a good condition. His dream race is Milan-Sanremo and his model as far as cycling is concerned is Tom Boonen. He's got a girlfriend and, talking about Team Leopard, he said: 'The official language in the team is English, I'm getting better at it!'.

Talking about 2011, Giacomo says he's not going to take part in any Big Classic, but he's likely to race in a Grand Tour.

Speaking of his Leopard Trek captains, the Italian rider says that they've impressed him because of their confidence and because they seem to do everything in a very easy way. He likes the atmosphere of the team and he says that he's become a good friend of Bennati.
In the picture below, you can see Guardini and Nizzolo (the rider at your right) joking together before of a race. So, this was my little introduction to Giacomo Nizzolo. It's not very long, but I hope you enjoyed it anyway. Let's wish this boy a nice season!

Still talking about Leopard Trek riders, on http://www.lequotidien.lu/les-sports/20036.html there is a nice 'double' interview with Frank Schleck and Brice Feillu.
Here is a little translation of some parts of it.
Journalist: Do you remember your first conversation?
Brice Feillu: First conversation? Uhm...
Frank Schleck: I think it was after his victory at the Tour, in Arcalis. I went to congratulate him. Then we saw each other in Curaçao, where we both spent about 10 days of holidays.
J: (joking) And that was when Brice said: 'One day, I'd like to race with the Schlecks'. Right?
BF: Well, I've always thought that they're nice people, but now I've got to know them even better because we're part of the same team and I realise that they're really great guys. They're the ones who came up to me to talk. (Watching Frank) Frank, I'll pay you a beer later...
FS: Ok, thank you.
J: Do you have something in common?
BF: The weight. 67, 68 kgs.
FS: Oh no! I weight 64 kgs, you're a bit fatter than me and also a bit taller (ndr; they laugh).
(...) J: Brice, what does Frank represent for you?
BF: If someone asked me if I wanted to have the same career as Frank's, I would immediately sign a contract with that person. Frank's career isn't over yet, but I'd be happy to win as many races as he did in those last years. Frank is an example for many people. Frank, you realise this, don't you?
FS: No! But I'm proud to know that other riders take me as example. I'm proud of this. Brice was able of winning a Tour stage and now he says he'd like to have the same career, the same results as me. It makes me feel proud. And it makes me aware of the responsabilities I have in this team.
J: Frank, what do you think of Brice?
FS: He's a pure climber. When I had to think about this new team, I immediately thought about him. We know he'll help us in hard races and he's also got a very big potential. He's also in a very good team now, where he can develop his full potential (...).
(...)
J: Brice, when did you hear the names of the Schleck brothers for the first time?
BF: It must have been at a Liége-Bastogne-Liége. When they were amateurs, I used to take part in thriatlon competitions, so I didn't have a big bike culture...
FS: Attention to him, he's not bad at swimming. When we had a competition in Curaçao, he fucked me up. And I'm not that bad at swimming...
BF: It's true (he laughs). I love swimming, I think it is good for your body, especially during the winter. It was my first sport.
J: You can't remember when you first heard the names of the Schleck brothers.
BF: No, although I like cycling, I watch tv and read newspapers I can't remember exactly when I heard their names for the first time. Romain (ndr; Brice's brother, Vacansoleil's rider) and I couldn't avoid to pay attention to them, because they are brothers, just like us.
J: Do you remember Frank winning Amstel 2006?
BF: No, I know he's won it but I can't remember watching that race. I remember an open jersey. He once won an important race and he kept his jersey open. Was it at the Giro?
FS: No no, it was Alpe d'Huez, in 2006...
BF: It's funny, I remember about the open jersey...
FS: The open jersey, and you dare talking about that! When you won in Arcalis, your jersey was even more open than mine!
BF: Yes, that's true.
J: The sponsor complained about it...
BF: Yes, I was scolded. Well, on occasions like that, you're young and you don't always think about everything. It's true that, if I won an important race today, I would surely zip my jersey before of crossing the finish-line. But still, I didn't think about it that day. It is that kind of stupid things that young people do and that sponsors dislike.
J: Frank, when Brice won his Tour de France stage, Andy was fighting against Contador. Do you remember Brice's victory?
FS: After that stage, inside the bus, I watched the arrival of Brice. I's true that, however, we were more focused on Contador. Brice had got in a small breakaway and we didn't get worried about him. We focused on our race. On Contador, Evans and Armstrong. Brice got a brave victory.
(...)
Talking about racing for a non-French team, Feillu says: 'It widens your horizons. For example, I'm starting to understand English, although I don't speak it well. For me, it's a barrier to destroy.
FS: He doesn't always understand the orders from the radio. In Mallorca there were no radios, so everything was fine with him (laughs).
BF: Great thing, races without radios! Actually, cycling language isn't that complicated, but I have problems with more complicated discussions. It's a common problem for French riders. They ask me for advice, they have the same problem as me with the language. Racing for a non-French team allows you to discover a new universe, it isn't easy for everyone.
(...)

As you can see, I didn't translate the whole interview. I suggest you reading it in French because it's very nice. Moreover, I'm not sure about my translation: I did my best, but there may be some mistakes in it.
So, that's all for tonight, have a good weekend!

UPDATE*: 15 February 2011
A very kind reader, Bru, has told me that Nizzolo broke his right hand in a nasty crash at the beginning of the 2008 season. Moreover, in that crash the poor boy lost 3 front teeth and got a nasty wound on his face.
Moreover, Bru has told me that Trevigiani Dynamon Bottoli, Bottoli Nordelettrica Ramondi an Filmop Sorelle Ramonda Bottoli Parolin are all names for the same team.
Thank you very much for these information!!