Totally random Thursday post about a few different things:

Good day everyone, dear blogmates! Unfortunately miss Fede (or FeeDee, or Féd or however else you call her ;) has been very busy over the last days, so she didn't find the time to update her blog. Sorry for that, dear readers.
Between the things I had to do over the last days there was a lot of studying, especially for my philosophy test about Schopenhauer and Kierkegaard (again!). To my shock, when I first read it this morning, I didn't even understand what I had to do in the first exercise. If I couldn't understand that part, just imagine how well I could understand the extracts from 'Aut-Aut' and 'The world as will and representation' (I'm making up the English names of the books, I wouldn't swear they're correct!). Moreover, over the last days I've been preparing myself to the approaching end of my favourite tv series by watching many times the second episode of it. 'What is your favourite tv series?', I hear you ask. 'Whitechapel!', I reply proudly while thinking about the main character. 'What?', I imagine you asking. 'Whitechapel! Come on, you've never heard of Whitechapel? Think about it more carefully, I'm sure you've heard about it somewhere...Come on, Whitechapel! Whitechapel I say! What? You don't know what it is? No? Well, you're not the only one', I answer you. In fact, over the last 2 weeks I've found just one (one!) person in my class who watches that series and likes it. However, she doesn't find it as exciting as me and this morning she told me that my favourite character is very likely to end up in a mental hospital in the next (and last) episode of the series. And to say that this is the only police-series that has ever managed to thrill me in the last 18 years... What a sad possible end for it :(

However, let's talk cycling. First of all, congratulations to Jack Bobridge on the new world record in the individual pursuit. The former record had been made by Chris Boardman 15 years ago and to do it Boardman rode a very strange bike which was later prohibited by the UCI. Now, Bobridge has broken that record with a 'normal' bike. Chapeau to him then!

On to another news, the Ladies Tour of Qatar began yesterday with Rochelle Gilmore's victory. The Australian rider outsprinted world champion Giorgia Bronzini and Chloe Hosking.
This year I'm going to talk about women cycling more often than usual, because I think that becoming a professional cyclist and making a living out of it is much more difficult for a woman than for a man. Therefore, here there's a video with the highlights of stage 1: http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/video-stage-1-highlights-of-the-ladies-tour-of-qatar . You can't see the finish very well in it, but it's always better than nothing. Bronzini complained about another rider creating her problems in the sprint, but the video doesn't allow me to tell whether she's right or not. By THE way, the funny thing is that, when Giorgia won the Worlds in Geelong, Gilmore was working for Australian tv and she was the first one to interview the Italian rider. Yesterday, instead, the interviewed one was her.

On to another news, Menchov has recently declared that he's not going to leave Geox for Saxo Bank (I've always said that Denis is a great person ;)
Talking about Geox, the team presentation should have been held 4 days ago, but it was postponed to the 12th of February. However, UCI has published the list of Geox riders on its website (or at least, that's what I understood from an Italian unclear article I've just read) and it has accompanied the list with a picture of how the new team's jersey should look like: http://tribunatreviso.gelocal.it/sport/2011/01/27/news/geox-il-giallo-della-maglia-svelata-3291209 . Someone has already said that it isn't the true official jersey and I hope that those people are right. Geox' kit is better than Footon-Servetto's one, but what about the 'breathing shoe' on the front of it? Dreadful, isn't it?

Talking about another team, Saxo Bank has put the pictures of the riders wearing their new kits on http://www.riis-cycling.com/person_profiles.asp . Watcing those pics, I must admit it, my eye always fell on the eagle. I did try to fight that instict, but I couldn't: that animal is a real eye catcher (better if I stop here, otherwise someone may take this blog as a naughty one!). Anyway, has anyone else noticed David Tanner? ;)

Penultimate thing to say for today, I've recently got the news of the opening of Leopard Trek official website. I must admit I was pretty confused when I typed its name in Google and saw a picture of Giacomo Leopardi appear on my computer screen as I was writing, but luckily it soon disappeared and left me free of wandering around http://www.leopardtrek.lu/ . I must say I pretty like this website, although I find its design too classy. Moeover, the black and white style doesn't appeal too much to me. But hey, it is a good website anyway.

BTw, am I the only one who has confused Brian Nygaard with Bjarne Riis as I entered the 'Riders' section of the website? :S

RANDOM LINK OF THE DAY:

http://blog.tv2.dk/chris.anker.ol/entry395538.html : as you can imagine, this is the link to Chris Sorensen's latest blog entry, in which he talks about his first approach to track riding by saying that he stayed at the bottom of the steep track, 'looking like Bambi walking on the thin ice'. What a poetic similry!

Team Leopard-Trek presentation:

To everyone's joy, miss Fede is back on her blog after an entertaining (and devasting) short holiday in Vienna. Many things have happened in the cycling world and in the Blogosphere over the last days, so let's start talking about them.
First of all, I want to say that I'm very sorry for the disappearance of the Schleckland blog. However, I'm sure that Cougar Girl had her good reasons to stop writing it and I think that she's not obliged to tell us what happened. Btw, I'd like to thank her here for the good time I had while reading her hilarious posts. I'm going to miss them a lot, CG, and I wish you all of the best for your future.

On to another issue, someone has recently come across my blog by writing 'radom' in Google. I'm astonished.
Anyway, let's now talk about some important events that happened last week. Or, better, let's talk about THE event that took place last week, aka Team Luxembourg's presentation. During it, we poor supporters finally discovered that the official name of the team is Team Leopard-Trek and we could finally see the team's kits. It was high time (and the guys in the pic below completely agree with me)!!

First of all, let's say that the presentation was attended by about 4000 fans and by Pat McQuaid in person. At the beginning the riders were wearing black suits and white shirts. None of them wore a tie, a thing that surprised me a bit. In fact, miss Fede has always loved men with suits and ties, mainly because that's what John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd were wearing in the Blues Brothers movie (my favourite film ever). Anyway, the Leopard riders accompanied their suits with some scarves. Talking about scarves, here you have a nice picture of Fuglsang, looking as lovely as usual at the presentation.
If you, like me, couldn't watch it live, on http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/team-leopard-trek-presentation-video there's a video of the presentation, which made me notice Kim Andersen's good German. From the vid the presentation looked very exciting, no doubts that the organisers did a very good job with it. However, why did the guy playing with the circle wear a zebra kit? It should have been a leopard kit, shouldn't it?
Anyway. Talking about the part of the show in which the riders were presented, it was very nice to see the new guys, especially the young 'unknown' ones.
Stefan Denifl looked really handsome, although I had the impression he was a bit embarassed. Martin Pedersen looked very nice too, although he looked short next to the woman who was presenting (she was wearing very high heels and that didn't help at all).
When the woman had to present Bennati and Viganò, she obviously pronounced those names in a pretty wrong way. Italian names aren't easy to pronounce, but here's a clue for everyone of you who'd like to say them correctly. First of all, the double 'n' in Bennati's name and the accent on Viganò's last 'o' aren't there just because they look good. They're there because you should stress the last 'o' of Davide's surname and because you should double the 'n' in Daniele's one. Oh, and since I'm talking about this boring subject, let me remind you that you should say Nìbali (and not Nibàli) and Cùnego (and not Cunégo). Ok?
Talking about Bello Benna, he looked very nice on the stage and the man who was presenting told him (in Italian) that he was a very handsome boy. What a funny man. Still talking about the riders on the stage, Brice Feillu looked taller than ever, while Fuglsang was incredibly lovely and made many fangirls melt (right Leela and Mar?).
The Schleck brothers were the last guys to be presented, together with Fabian Cancellara. The brothers received great applauses, that were completely deserved. They got on the stage with their new bikes and I must say that I really do like them (although light blue isn't actually one of my favourite colours).Let's now talk briefly about the team kits. I'm not that keen on classic looks, therefore I find the new jerseys boring and unoriginal. Moreover, I don't like the national champions jerseys at all (how are we supposed to recognise those riders during the races?). But still, the designers were intelligent enough to use black shorts and they didn't make a complete disaster. So, I think we can all have a sigh of relief now that we've seen the new kit, which isn't as horrible as Footon Servetto's 2010 one. In addition, I predict we'll get used to it in few weeks time.My last thought about the team presentation is that it looked as if there was a very thrilling atmosphere in Luxembourg that night. It was pretty strange to realise this, because it doesn't happen often to feel such strong emotions while watching a video on the computer. Actually, while watching the replay of the presentation I had the feeling that a big new adventure has begun. If I feel this way and I'm just a supporter, I can't imagine how the guys on the team must feel now...
So, this was the long awaited presentation of team Leopard-Trek. My post doesn't probably add anything new to what has already been said/written/thought about it over the last days, also because I've come back in contact with the cycling world just today. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it anyway. As I said, a new big adventure has just begun- and now, finally, it is true racing time.

(pictures from Bettini and Cyclingnews)

New jerseys: Saxo Bank and Garmin

Dear readers, miss Fede is proud to present you, in her first post of 2011, the new jersey of team Saxo Bank.
Ok, I know that the most of you only cares about the kit of the Schleck's new team, but we mustn't forget that in SB there are still some great guys like Porte or Chris Anker Sorensen or Laurent Didier and so on. Therefore, here you have it, the new Saxo Bank jersey!

The thing that striked me most when I first looked at it was the black eagle at your right. As you probably know, Riis Cycling's logo has always been an eagle, and Riis himself was nicknamed 'Eagle from Herning' during his career. But still, I don't like it very much.
The other thing that striked my attention was the fact that the jersey background is not white, but light blue. This is an original choice and I hope it will make the jersey easier to see during races.
If you want to take a better look to the kit, on http://www.team-saxobank.com/ny_news.asp?n_id=3016 there is a picture of Morkov (if my eyes don't fail me...) wearing the kit. I like the shorts and also the back of it while, as I already said, I don't like the eagle on the right that much. Logic, who adored last year's kit, is a bit skeptical about the eagle, while Fangirl seems to love the new jersey. 'It is original and I think it will also be easy to spot in the peloton. Moreover, the trousers are black!', she said in an unofficial interview.
Talking about the new kit, Riis said: "I really think we have created a cool jersey, and I can't wait to see it on my riders in the first races of the season. Both the light blue background and the eagle are also reflected on our cars, trucks and buses as they form the leitmotif of our entire design.In many ways, I'm now the leader of a new team after a turbulent year, that measured on the sporting outcome was so successful, that we once again finished as the world's best team. But 2010 was also a season characterized by the fact, that a number of our riders and staff wanted new challenges elsewhere. Therefore, we have welcomed many new faces in our organization. But at the same time, the philosophy of the team and our values remains the same". In an article that appeared on Cyclingnews, Bjarne also wished all of the best to those who abandoned his team in 2010. Moreover,he thanked the sponsors and the fans for their support and he wished everyone a happy new year.

Still talking about jerseys, also Garmin Cervélo has recently presented the new team's kit. Said kit looks a bit shocking to me, since it is a fusion of Garmin and Cervélo's old kits, with one big difference: I can't see the argyle pattern anywhere. What a shock. However, Cervélo's 'è' has remained on the back of the jerseys.
I predict it won't be easy to get used to this kit (I just hope Sky won't adopt black jerseys too!), but it seems pretty nice to me. Anyway, I have a question: how are the riders supposed to ride in the Tour's hot weather with a completely black kit on? Mistery.

(Picture 1 by Tim De Waele, picture 2 by Cyclingnews)

Astana and Rabobank's new kits plus random randomness:

I swear it: this morning I did try to go to school. Seriously. I did try to go to school, but then I was defeated by the ice and came back home. After all, this Fangirl doesn't want to break her neck on a cold and frosty morning, without even knowing what Team Luxembourg's kits will look like next year!
Really, what happened to me this morning was very strange. And also a bit funny, actually. Yesterday it snowed the whole day here in Bergamo but, since Bergamask weather knows that we people of the town and of the suburbs are work-addicted, before starting to snow it rained for some minutes. Therefore, the snow on the roads didn't become too much and Bergamask people could happily go to work/to school.

This morning it didn't snow and, since it seemed that there wasn't too much snow on the garage ramp, I asked one of my parents whether they could give me a lift to the bus stop (it's a pretty dangerous road from my house to it). They said 'yes' and so I jumped inside the family car happily. Too bad that my prediction about the garage ramp's conditions was wrong. The snow wasn't that much, but there was some very tricky ice there and so coming out of the garage was very difficult. We tried to go outside it twice, but failed both times. So I got off the car and started to run to the bus stop (I had just 3 minutes to do so). While walking/running I slipped a few times, risking to break my neck, and I arrived 20 meters far from the bus stop just on time to see my bus driving fast in front of me. I had lost it because I had been 30 seconds too late. Nervous.

After reaching the bus stop however I decided to wait for the next bus to come. It arrived and I asked the driver whether he was heading towards the place where I needed to go. 'Yes', he said. I thanked him for the information but, as soon as I went to sit down on a free seat, he called me back: 'Sorry but I shfifiufgyfdsh', he told me. 'Eh?', I replied. The man looked at me and went: 'I said I'm not jhnbvxchgvasdj. Have you ophidfagasdg?'. For the second time in 10 seconds, I hadn't understood what the bus driver was trying to tell me. I felt like a stupid. 'Sorry but I can't understand you...', I said, trying to look sorry for being that deaf. The man looked at me as if I was crazy and repeated very slowly, as if I was a patient of a mental hospital: 'I'm not going where you need to go. Sorry'. I looked at him, understood (it was high time) and got off the bus. 'And now?', I asked myself. The next bus was due to arrive in 30 minutes time. 'Enough time to freeze', I thought. So I called home, discovered that one of my parents was still there and reached them.

I managed to do so without killing myself (and it wasn't that easy!) and, when I got home, I realised that the situation was very bad. I had left the house 15 minutes earlier, but things outside the garage looked pretty much the same.

It eventually took us (me and my parents) 45 minutes to clean the road outside the house and at that point I had 3 options: 1) getting in the car again, asking to be brought to school and making my parents arrive way too late at work; 2) going back to the bus stop to get on the 8.30 am bus (which, considering the ice on the roads, wouldn't have arrived outside my school before of 10 am); or, 3) staying at home. Obviously, I chose the latter option (and don't worry, I studied for my exams :P).

Anyway, I've just realised that I digressed too much. Sorry.

On to cycling, the most interesting news of the last hours regard the teams presentations. Yesterday I found out that I'm going to lose Team Luxembourg presentation in January (I won't be in Italy at that time of next year), so in this post I'm going to talk about some 'kits news' regarding Rabobank and Astana.

Talking about Astana, the kit is pretty much the same as this year (although I already know that I'm going to miss the yellow sun on the front of the jersey). But what attracted my attention most, however, was the fact that Astana guys had to take Vinokourov as a model for the new kits. This made me wonder: who will model the kits of Team Luxembourg? Andy? Frank? Fabian? Jakob? Or Bennati? A wide range of choice, as you can see.

Btw, here's a picture dedicate to all the girls who are part of the 'Anonymous Association of Vino's Lovers'. Enjoy the view ;)Talking about Rabobank's presentation, instead, I liked the place where it was held and, to say the truth, I also quite like the new team cars.

Unfortunately, I don't like the new Rabo kits. It looks too old fashioned imo. Moreover, I think that Rabobank has kept the same jersey design for the last 3 years or so, therefore I didn't expect them to change it this year. What a sadness. Oh, and Fangirl is sure that this kit will also end up affecting Matti Bresche's sexyness.Uff. Also Denis Menchov didn't look that convincted during the kits' presentation, did he? Talking about Team Schleck, instead, Robert Wagner showed his new bike to the World through Twitter. I like the colour, but now I'm even more curious to know what the new kit will look like.

Let's wait for more news to come in the next days!

(Pic of Rabobank's presentation by Bert Geerts, pic of Vino by Team Astana, last pic by Wagner).