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!

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)

Very funny photoshopped pictures and some random links about Saxo Bank (post including also other random randomness):

To everyone's delight, on this wonderful page lost in the Blogosphere you can see miss Fede's latest post, in which you'll be able to find the usual random links and, surprise surprise, two very funny photos that have been photoshopped by our dear blogmate Mar.
Our blogmate in fact has recently sent me an e-mail that contained two pictures that she had modified in a very funny way. The leitmotiv of the pictures was, attention attention, men and parfumes.
In fact Mar once read on a blog that Jakob Fuglsang would have looked good acting as a model in an 'eau de cologne' commercial (whoever had this idea is a genius!)

Mar thought a bit about this fact, pictured the commercial in her mind and then she made this really good picture, thanks to which Jakob magically entered the world of parfume's models ;)

Still talking about parfumes, who doesn't like the aroma of coffee? As far as I'm concerned, I really love it (and I'm sure I'm not the only one).
If Starbucks created a coffee parfume, not only would I buy it immediately (although I'd never use it to go to parties or to school), but I think I'd also have a good suggestion for the people who'll have to find a model for the new fragrance's commercial. In fact, who could advertise a coffee parfume better than Jens Voigt, one of the most famous coffee-aholic of Cycledom? ;)

RANDOM NEWS:
After having fun with the pictures above (thank you once very much for your nice work Mar!), let's now go on with some random links.
Let's begin with the first interesting link that I've found over the last days: http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/contador-attends-first-saxo-bank-sungard-camp . As you probably already know, Saxo Bank is having a training camp in Fuerteventura right now and Tim De Waele went there to take some pictures of the riders.
The shocking thing is that in some of those pictures you can see naked men coming out of nowhere and watching/being watched by the riders and the team's stuff in a very curious way. For example, there is a picture of a fat, naked man looking at the riders in a very strange way. Run away as long as you can boys!!!
The second shocking thing is that the naked man who appears in said picture looks at the riders in a strange way, as if he was aking himself: 'Hey, why are these guys windsurfing? And why the hell aren't they taking it easy as me?' Such question, made by someone who's walking on a beach in a very 'natural' way, seems a bit weird to me. Actually,that picture also reminded me of a boy that I saw while waiting to leave my town for the 2010 summer holidays. I was in the center of my village, with a bright orange suitcase, waiting for my friend to come and give me a lift, when there came this boy, dressed like a cowboy and riding a horse. Still, he was brave enough to look at me in a very strange way, as if he was asking himself: 'What is this girl doing?'. A question which, asked by a teenager dressed like a cowboy, in Bergamo, riding a horse in the center of the town, actually sounded a bit strange.
Anyway, back to the link. Another thing that pretty shocked me was the shirt that Chris Anker was wearing while Tim De Waele took some of his pictures. If you check mr. De Waele's website, and notice a Saxo Bank rider wearing a bright pink/blue shirt, you'll immediately understand what I mean. However, as they say, just true men can wear pink, therefore I should probably be happy to know that Chris is brave enough to wear it.
The last shocking thing that I noticed about the pictures is that Riis' idea of 'building team spirit' terribly looks like my P.E. teacher's idea of 'let's teach my girls how to work together!'
The main difference is that, at least, when I work together with my classmates (a kind way to say that I sit down and they stand up on my spine, as if that was a very normal thing to do), we don't have anyone taking pictures of us (after all, I don't think I could actually stand people taking pictures of me during my PE lessons- not if I'm sober, at least).

Talking about other shocking things, I'd like to know whether some of you can recognise the rider who appears in the picture below.
I know that that you won't believe me, but I must tell you that the rider in the picture above is Pellizotti.
'Pellizotti? That Pellizotti? Are you serious? It can't be him! Where did his golden curls go?!?', I hear you wondering in despair. Unfortunately I'm as shocked as you and I don't have the answer to your last question.

Changing topic, Kim Andersen has recently said that Brian Nygaard and he actually started to hire Saxo Bank riders for their team in mid-June 2010 (link: http://www.velonation. com/ News/ID/6612/Team-Luxembourg-and-Saxo-Bank-battle-began-in-June.aspx ) and Jakob Fuglsang said that he had already decided to join the new team of the Schleck brothers before of the Tour's beginning.
Still talking about Jakob, in the next days there will be 'best cyclist of the year' awards in different countries and, as far as Denmark is concerned, the riders who'll battle against each other for this prize are: Chris Anker Sorensen, Matti Breschel, Jakob Fuglsang and Alex Rasmussen. Sorry for you, Jakob's lovers, but this time this Fangirl will support Chris Anker in the fight ;) Go go Chris!
On the other hand, the best Luxembourgian sport personality of 2010 will be named on Thursday, but I think we can already say who the winner will be. Anyway don't expect any post about that prize from me, since unfortunately on Thursday I'll be drowning in a sea of sh..., ehm, homeworks.

On to another news, you must know that Silvére Ackermann was a young rider that I really liked. He used to race for Voralberg Corratec, but then he retired this June during the Swiss Championships. The news made me very sad, since I've always liked Silvére's riding style and I thought he could have been a very good rider also in the ProTour category. On http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/ackermann-explains-reasons-of-retirement, Ackermann explains why he got retired. At least, no one can deny that he did so in a very spectacular way, by getting retired as he was in the leading breakaway at the Swiss national championship.
I'm still very sorry about his retirement, but I wish Silvére all of the best for his new career anyway. Good luck for your future boy!

On to a last (and happier) news, on http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/saxo-bank-names-two-danes-in-giro-ditalia-squad it is said that 2 riders are already sure of riding 2011 Giro for Saxo Bank. They are Mads Christensen and Jonas Aaen Jorgenen.
I must admit that I don't know much about Mads, while last year I wrote a post about Jorgensen and so I followed his first season at Saxo Bank pretty carefully. He's a very good and young rider, so I'm really glad to hear this news. If the Schlecks really don't come to Italy next May, I surely won't have many doubts about who to support during the Giro!

PS: I know that I keep on writing about Saxo Bank and that this may annoy some of you, but:
1) finding interesting news about team Luxembourg is almost impossible, since even Wikileaks would have problems discovering something about it
2) I still love the guys on this team.
(Pic 1 and 2 by Mar, pic 3 by Bettini)

ProTour licenses, some riders heading to Saxo Bank, article about Fuglsang, fangirlistic videos ad more:

In spite of all the problems miss Fede has had over the last days (her telephone doesn't ring anymore, her wallet pretended to disappear making her feel desperate, Logic forced her to swallow her pride a few times in order to stop childish battles), here she is with a post about what's been going on in Cycledom over the last days.
First of all, you probably know that today UCI announced which the 2011 ProTour teams are.
On http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news/latest/507898/uci-announces-2011-proteams-early.html you can find a list of all ProTour and continental teams, which I write below in case you're too lazy to click on the link above:
UCI ProTeams
Ag2r (FRA)
Garmin-Cervélo (USA)
Katusha (RUS)
Lampre-ISD (ITA)
Omega Pharma-Lotto (BEL)
Quick Step (BEL)
Rabobank (NED)
Saxo Bank SunGard (DEN)
Sky ProCycling (GBR)
Team RadioShack (USA)

ProTeams renewed or received its first licence
BMC Racing Team (SUI) 2011-2014
Euskaltel-Euskadi (ESP) 2011-2012
HTC-Highroad (USA) 2011-2014
Liquigas-Cannondale (ITA) 2011-2014
Luxembourg Pro Cycling Project (LUX) 2011-2014
Movistar Team (ESP) 2011-2013
Pro Team Astana (KAZ) 2011-2013
Vacansoleil-DCM Pro (NED) 2011-2013

I'm very glad to see that Euskaltel managed to get its Pro Tour license also this year, while I'm simply entusiasthic about knowing that Vacansoleil now is a ProTour team too. This means we'll see a lot of breakaways starring Johnny Hoogerland in 2011 GTs and this is something I'm really looking forward.
Btw, one important name is missing from the list above: Geox in fact didn't manage to get a ProTour license. This news ruined Fangirl's day, since now it isn't known whether Denis Menchov will be able to take part in all the most important races of the world next year. Stupid ProTour system.
Btw, if you thought that I had forgotten about the team of the Schleck's brothers, don't worry: dulcis in fundo, Team Luxembourg got a 4 year long Pro Tour license and this is a very exciting news for me. Btw I'm also glad to know that Saxo Bank got a ProTour license too, since for Bjarne failing to reach this little target would have probably been the most terrible blow of the last 12 months (at least imo).
Talking about Team Luxembourg, Brian Nygaard said that he's obviously satisfied with this new Pro Tour license (http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/brian-nygaard-weve-done-our-homework ). However he added that he's not going to reveal the main sponsor of the team before of January and he also said that the final line up of the team will be known soon. Imo I've already been waiting a bit too long for knowing these details, but probably guys at 'Team Luxembourg-Schleck the best, fuck the rest' think that all this mistery is good for the team. Let them believe so then.

However, here's the line up of the team so far. Nice to see that there are some young Italians too!
Will Clarke (Genesys Wealth Advisors), Stefan Denifl (Cervelo), Brice Feillu (Vacansoleil), Daniele Bennati (Liquigas), Davide Viganò (Team Sky), Giacomo Nizzolo (neo), Bruno Pires (Barbot Siper), Maxime Monfort (HTC-Columbia), Wouter Weylandt (Quick Step), Dominic Klemme (Saxo Bank), Linus Gerdemann (Milram), Fabian Wegmann (Milram), Jakob Fuglsang (Saxo Bank), Stuart O'Grady (Saxo Bank), Jens Voigt (Saxo Bank), Andy Schleck (Saxo Bank), Frank Schleck (Saxo Bank), Anders Lund (Saxo Bank), Martin Mortensen (Vacansoleil), Tom Stamsnijder (Rabobank)

And now, to celebrate this happy news, I'd suggest you all taking a look at the old vid here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SH6EV3mjofI&feature=player_embedded . It lasts just 15 seconds and, if you haven't seen it before, it is very likely to make your day. I know that the oldest supporters have probably already seen it (I first saw it back in 2008), but I also know that some of my readers in 2008 didn't even know who Andy Schleck was (nothing bad in it, don't worry; I'm not going to begin an 'I'm the oldest Schleck fan of the Blogosphere!' fight ;) and so this vid might be very enjoyable for them. Moreover, it contains the official anthem of Andy's supporters from all over the world: Allez Andy, allez Andy, allez Andy...

Anyway, let's now forget about Andy for a while and let's talk about Saxo Bank. Although Andy and Frank have left the team, I won't start ignoring SB completely from now on, especially because Chris Sorensen is one of the few guys who've remained faithful to Bjarne over the last months (and, if you still hadn't realised it, Chris is one of my 3 favourite riders).

This evening I'm writing about this team because I wanted to inform you that between the guys who are racing for SB next year there will be also Tosatto (he was the best Italian rider in Melbourne in my opinion), Gustov and the young Italian Manuele Boaro. It's nice to see young Italian boys turning professional with such important teams like SB and Team Lux, and I think it is also a great relief to know that Tosatto has finally found a new contract for next year. He completely deserved it!

Talking about SB, on http://blog.tv2.dk/chris.anker.ol/entry388829.html there's the latest entry of Chris Sorensen's blog. In it the Dane says bad things about a book that he's recently read ('it took me a lot to read it, not because it was in English but because it was very bad') and he also expresses his surprise at discovering that we Italians call 'Russian salad' the Italian salad (or, at least, that's what my translater says). This makes me wonder: does a salad that foreign people call 'Italian salad' actually exist, or is Google Translater translating worse than usual?

To close this post, then, here's a link about Jakob Fuglsang: http://www.velonation.com/News/ID/6440/Jakob-Fuglsang-dreaming-of-Tour-de-France-leadership.aspx .
Here instead there's a vid ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1YPlkTFd_U ) that Mar (thank you girl!) pointed out to us some days ago. It is probably one of the most fangirlistic videos that I've ever seen and I'm sure that Cancellara, Fuglsang and Schlecks' s supporters are going to enjoy it very much :)

That's all for now, good night to everyone.

PS: As you probably know, on this blog it is possible to leave comments even if you don't own any Google account. In that case, the comments will appear as written by an Anonimo.

Over the last days I've noticed an increase of the 'Anonimos' commentators on this blog. Since talking to different Anonimos without knowing whether they are the same anonimos that wrote to me some days before is a bit strange, I have a little favour to ask you: if you don't own any Google account, could you please sign your comments? I don't want to know your true names, a number or a letter would be enough. You know, I'd like to know if I'm always talking to the same person or if there are different Anonimos around this blog ;)

Thank you very much for the attention and wish you all (again) a good night :)

End of the season and news about team Luxembourg:

In spite of the high chances of being examined tomorrow about the bloody 'Fraeulein Else', me is here to give you a lot of joy with this useless post. In fact miss Fede doesn't give a **** about the chance of being tested tomorrow because, after being examined on Jack Leopard (better known as Giacomo Leopardi) on Monday and on Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel today, she thinks she's already done too much hard work this week.

Anyway, let's talk about serious things, like, for example, the end of the cycling season. The end of the season which, this year, corresponded to the end of team Sexy Bank, not to be confused with team Saxo Bank. In fact team Saxo Bank will keep on existing also next year, but unfortunately its hottest and best riders are leaving. Therefore, we fangirls won't be able to talk about Sexy Bank anymore (*sniff sniff!*), since the team formerly known with this name will probably lose a lot of his sexyness with the arrival of the new year.

To be more precise, the best (and most good-looking) riders who are leaving Riis and his team are Andy and Frank Schleck, Jakob Fuglsang, Fabian Cancellara, Jens Voigt and Matti Breschel. All the boys I've named (with the exception of Breschel) are joining los Schleck's new team, while Matti is joining Rabobank (will orange affect his sexyness?, Fangirls wonder).

Anyway, fangirls, don't get desperate at all. If you're worried about the disappearance of Sexy Bank, you just have to take a walk on the wild side and become a supporter of the new 'yet to be named' Schleck's team: it is the same thing as Sexy Bank, the only difference is that the bald ds is Brian Nygaard and not Bjarne Riis.

Sounds easy, right? Unfortunately, it isn't. At least, for me joining this new team won't be completely easy. In fact, between the riders who are staying at Saxo Bank there is Chris Anker Sorensen, one of my 3 favourite riders. Therefore, now my problem is: who will I support during the Classics or during the Grand Tours next year? The Schlecks and their team or Chris Anker and the other guys at Saxo? That is the question.

However, let's now talk about another thing. To the joy of those who, like me, feared that the Schlecks' new team could be named 'Leopard True Racing', Brian Nygaard officially said that this won't be the new name of the team (link: http://www.velonation.com/News/ID/6155/Team-Schleck-will-not-be-called-Leopard-True-Racing.aspx ). He didn't say the name of the new squadra, but in spite of this I think that Brian gave us a very good news. In fact for me passing from screaming 'Go Go Sexy Bank!' to 'Go go Leopards!' would have been a terrible shock, so I'm glad that Nygaard reassured me by saying tht the team won't be named this way. As well as that, Nygaard also reassured cycling (and fashion) lovers by saying that the new team's kit won't have a leopard print on them. Brian Nygaard, thank you for bringing me this good news.

Talking about the new team and the new kit, however, I expect the team to have red and white kits with the Luxembourgian lion on them. As far as the name of the team is concerned, instead, I think it will be called 'We're the best brothers of the peloton' (although I have to admit that also 'Schleck the best, fuck the rest' would be a good name).

Anyway, let's go back to seriousness. Talking about the new -insert name here- team, then, three new riders officially stated they're going to race for the Schlecks next year. They are Dominic Klemme (another rider who raced for Riis this year), Maxime Monfort and Wouter Weylandts (please notice the wonderful allitterations in the names of these 2 riders).

I'm happy with these new signings because Weylandts is still young and is a tough guy, just like Monfort. Also Klemme showed some very good things in this year Roubaix and I think he'll get even better in this new team.
As far as Saxo Bank is concerned, instead, the new signings are Brian Vandborg and Mads Christiansen.

Talking about the Schlecks, anyway, it is known that they're on holiday right now and I wish them a lot of fun. After such a stressing season, I think they really need to spend some good weeks off of their bikes.

Btw, the boys have recently raced a criterium in Chihuahua which, to the joy of the not-so-anonymous-anymore people who have recently admitted their not-so-secret-anymore passion for Vinokourov, was won by Vino in front of,guess who?, Andy Schleck.

Apropos: the vid of the race will soon be broadcasted at the first international meeting of the people who'll eventually join me at the Vino's therapy, in which they'll be taught how to to cure this very bad (and apparently contagious) disease.

To your sadness, that's all for now folks. I've already wasted enough time and now it seems like I may be able to pull herself together and go studying. Bonne soir!

Voigt officially heading to Team Luxembourg + other random news du midweek:

Eventually, the end of the 2010 cycling season has come. In less than a week time, in fact, we'll also know the name of the Lombardy Tour's winner and the long and cold winter will begin.

From the cyclistic point of view, this winter will be very different from the past 3 ones. In fact, for the first time, me will have to divide her attention between the new upcoming Luxembourg team of the Schleck brothers and the old and fading team Saxo Bank.

I've been supporting Riis' team for the last 3 years of my life and in this period I could cheer on the boys' successes and, sometimes, also get desperate because of their problems/ defeats. In particular, me has always been a supporter of the Schleck brothers (that's obvious) and of Chris Anker Sorensen. As well as them, on my 'favourite riders' list there are also riders like Voigt and Breschel, who've been racing for Saxo Bank too. But from next year, things will change a lot for me. In fact not only are los Schlecks leaving Riis and creating their new team, but also Matti Breschel has decided to leave Bjarne and the only one (between my favourite riders) who's remaining faithful to his chief is Chris Sorensen. Therefore this Fangirl next year will have to divide her cyclistic support between 2/3 different teams and 3/4 different riders and this will obviously be a bit difficult.

But still, the 'it ain't over 'til it's over' rule can be applied also to cycling (luckily), so here I stop getting depressed while thinking about the cyclistic future of my favourite riders and try to think about the upcoming races, without getting worried about the future of these boys (although I have to admit that, lately, I've been much more interested in my own problems than in those of cyclists and cycling teams).

Anyway, talking about the riders' exodus from Saxo Bank team, it is now official that Jens Voigt has signed a 1 year contract with the new Luxembourg team of the Schleck brothers (http://www.wort.lu/wort/web/sport/artikel/2010/10/119201/routinier-voigt-ist-auch-mit-dabei.php ). To wort.lu Voigt also told that, in two weeks time, the team jerseys and the whole roster of riders should be decided.

RANDOM NEWS DU MIDWEEK:
BREAKOUT GESINK NEWS:

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/gesink-out-of-tour-of-lombardy : Robert Gesink, one of the main favourites for Giro di Lombardia, won't take part in the Classica delle foglie morte because his father had a bad crash with his mountain bike and so Robert decided to go back to Netherlands to stay close to his father in this delicate moment. Hopefully everything will end up well for the Gesink family.

HUSHOVD HAS NEVER SEEN DRUGS IN CYCLEDOM:

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/hushovd-i-have-never-seen-drugs-in-cycling . New World Champion Thor Hushovd said that he's never seen drugs in cycling or in society. He didn't deny the existence of these problems in sports and in society, but he has stated that the abuse of these substances "is about what you want to achieve. If I wanted to dope in the cycling context, I would have found it, and if I wanted to dope to have more fun on the town - if it's possible - I would have certainly found the drugs there, too, of course". By chance, these are the same words that Italian teachers use to reassure children when they start to go to the high schools. 'If you don't want to use drugs, you'll never discover where to find them. If you want to use them, you'll have no problems in getting them. It's all up to your will and to your conscience'. And the surprising thing is that, although this may sound very naive, during my scholastic experience I've found out that these words correspond to pure truth.

RIDERS WITHOUT CONTRACTS:

(http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/furlan-hopes-paris-tours-result-will-secure-new-contract ). After arriving second in Paris-Tours, Furlan has sent out messages to all the teams of Cycledom: 'if you want me, here I am, with no contract for next year'. Unfortunately this sad situation doesn't regard just Furlan but also another great Italian rider who's called Matteo Tosatto.

GP EMILIA:
Emilia is one of my favourite one day races since it's very hard and always has important people riding it. For the 18th year in a row me couldn't go to see it live because of some stupid reasons involving school and the fact that it's a 3 hours long drive from here to Bologna, but hopefully next year things will change.
Btw, the race this year was won by a great Robert Gesink, while second was Daniel Martin and third was Scarponi. 4th was Kolobnev (will he ever win a race?), 5th Nibali, 6th Pozzovivo and 7th was the surprising Coppel. 9th and 10th were too of the most loved people in Cycledom, Patrik Sinkewitz and Riccardo Riccò. I have to admit that, when Riccò was in the group together with all the best riders of the race, I feared he was going to win also this race (last week he had already won Coppa Sabatini). Luckily my horror dreams didn't turn into reality.

I swear that I do try to behave in a 'normal' way towards Riccò, but that's a kind of 'mission impossible' for me. I've never liked him as a person, but after what he did in the Tour 2008 my esteem for him got as low as possible. I know that the fact I like Vinokourov and dislike Riccò could make some of you think I'm a hypocrite, but I really can't do anything about this. I can stand Vinokourov but I can't stand Riccò. Perhaps it's because of the fact that Riccò in 2008 directly damaged some of my favourites riders, while Vino in 2007 didn't damage any of them; or perhaps it's because Riccò receives such a big attention from supporters here in Italy who consider him the savior of Italian cycling, while Vino is still seen as the cycling devil by a lot of people; or, more probably, you're right in saying that I'm a hypocrite. But the thing is, I can't stand Riccò. Sorry, but that's how things are right now.
Going down in the race classification,btw, we found Fuglsang at 11th and the incredible Johnny Hoogerland at 12th. They created one of the best action of the race and I was really sorry when I saw they wouldn't have won this race. Jakob is in an astonishing condition and Johnny impressed me once again with his strength and courage.
14th was Chris Anker Sorensen (yay!), while 17th was Niemiec and 19th was Szmyd.
Andy Schleck didn't finish the race and said on Twitter that he's a bit ill. Get well soon boy!

PARIS-TOURS:
Paris- Tours is a very strange-and difficult-race. You never know how it will finish-in a bunch sprint? in a sprint between 4 or 5 riders? or will someone get to the finish-line alone?
The great charme of this race then lies in its very beautiful landscape: little narrow streets in the woods and, in the end, the great Avenue du Grammont, a 2.7 kms long road which is very large and doesn't have any curve. Unfortunately this was the last time the race arrived on this road, since next year a tramline will be built in the traditional finish zone. What a shame.
Btw, with 20 kms to go the breakawayers du jour had been caught by the peloton. Everyone was awaiting for an attack of Philippe Gilbert, but the Belgian kept on hiding himself (just like Pozzato). With a few kms to go Radioshack's stylist,ehm, rider, Lequatre, launched a solo attack. In the peloton there were some moments of confusion in which no one pulled, so that Lequatre soon reached an advantage of about 30". Some riders like Tosatto or the always good Van Marcke tried to chase him, but didn't manage to. So, with 2.7 kms to go, Lequatre was alone at the head of the race, with 20" of advantage on the peloton.
Poor Geoffre was caught with just 400 meters to go (I felt awfully sorry for him) and at that point also the sprint was launched. Hondo appeared on the right of everyone's tv screen, then Furlan rode past him in a much faster way. Then, from behind, a rider with an orange kit on appeared, rode past Furlan and raised his arms to the sky. This rider was Oscarito Freire, who's said that he'll finish his career in 2011. Oscar had a great sprint, since he managed to win although during the sprint he had been closed against the barriers twice. Third was Steegmans, while second was Furlan.
4th was a surprising Lodewyck (Topsport is a very good team, they always have new surprising riders!), 5th was the amazing Arashiro, 6th R. Feillu, 7th the good Offred, 8th Weylandt and 9th was Eisel. Sebastien Chavanel was 10th, 11th was McEwen,14th was Hondo,15th Vanmarcke, 16th Van Avermaet.
18th was a very good Fabien Bacquet, a 24 year-old rider who rides for the Continental Team Big Mat- Suber 93. Fabien is a very good rider and, although this year he didn't achieve any victory, he got some very good results anyway. After this 18th placement in such a hard race, I'm sure Fabien can head into holidays in a very serene way and enjoy a very well deserved period of rest. If you want to know more about him, here's the link to his official website: http://fanclub-fabienbacquet.com/default.aspx .
Breschel was then 25th while Bennati was 42nd; last year's runner up Bozic instead got lost in the middle of the classification just like Gilbert and Pozzato.

The Worlds are coming: little random post

In less than one week time each of us will know the names of the 2010 World Champions of Cycledom.

Tomorrow there's the Under 23 and the women TTs (go go Cantele!!!) which I'm afraid I won't be able to watch because I'm supposed to be at school (or in bed) between 5.30 and 8.30 of every Thursday mornings from here to July.

Actually, I'm afraid I may not be able to watch the Men RR either because of the time zone. In fact there is a difference of 10 hours between Italy and Australia and this means that in Australia it is 5 pm when here in Italy it is 7 am. So, if I want to enjoy all the excitement of the Worlds I'll have to get up at least at 4.30/5 am, which I consider a very difficult thing for me to do because it's just Tuesday and I already have a deficit of 4 hours of sleep this week. And then on Saturday's evening a friend of mine could finally decide to have her birthday party, and that would mean me coming home at 1 am (if I behave well) and getting up again at 4.30...Oh, how dreadful.
Anyway, let's leave time zones apart (I'm sure I'm not the only who has this problem with this year Worlds) and let's focus on some random news.

TEAM LUXEMBOURG:
First of all, here's a list that a dear Anonimo dropped in at the comment box under my previous post. Said list comes from wielerland.nl and refers to the riders who,apparently, may be riding for Team Luxembourg next year.

The team seems very good, although so far it seems like a cobblestone specialist is still missing...Therefore hurry up Fabian! Los Schlecks need you!!!

Riders who are probably joining los Schlecks at their new team:
BENNATI Daniele: he's surely joining the brothers. Daniele hasn't won a lot this year, but he's surely got a lot of talent.Let's just hope that illnesses will give him a break next year.
DIDIER Laurent : could the third Luxembourgian of Team SB not be linked to Team Luxembourg? Of course not! Frank has always had great words for Laurent, who is a very strong climber who did very well at this year Giro.
FEILLU Brice : he's surely joining los Schlecks too. He won a stage at le Tour last year and he's the classic skinny rider who rides well in the mountains.
FUGLSANG Jakob : he's leaving Riis, but hasn't said yet what his new team will be. A great rider, no doubts about it.
GERDEMANN Linus : Linus,who has the fame of being one of the least pleasant guys in the professional Cycledom, has to leave Milram at the end of the season and so it seems that he's joining los Schlecks. No doubt, the boy's got talent and can be dangerous also in the Classics
KLEMME Dominic : a hard-working guy, just like LUND Anders. Will they both betray Bjarne and go to Team Luxembourg? That is the question.
MONFORT Maxime : another hard working guy who can be very precious in flat races. Don't know if he's really joining the brothers.
MORTENSEN Martin : I have no news about Martin's chances of joining los Schlecks. Btw, look out for him: he comes from Designa Kokka!
O'GRADY Stuart : will one of the two main riding characters of Beergate join his fellow Andy at his new team?
POSTHUMA Joost: nice rider who got a Top 20 placement at this year Giro. Voices have linked him to Team Luxembourg.
SCHLECK Andy, SCHLECK Fränk : yes, they're surely riding for Team Luxembourg next year.
STAMSNIJDER Tom : apparently, in this team there could be a trio of riders whose surnames are 'Schleck',' Fuglsang' and 'Stamsnijder'. Add 'Weylandt' and this will become the scariest team of the world for poor Rai's chronist Gigi Sgarbozza.
VIGANÒ Davide : I had never heard of Team Luxembourg's interest for this Sky's rider. Btw, having 2 Italians riding for Team Luxembourg wouldn't be bad.
VOIGT Jens : will Jensie join los Schlecks at their new team?
WAGNER Robert : according to De Telegraaf, this rider is the latest one who has signed for the Schleck's brother team.
WEGMANN Fabian : if Fabian W. is really going to join this team, me will be a very happy Fangirl.
WEYLANDT Wouter: after seeing him winning a stage at 2010 Giro, and after hearing him say 'Fuck!' on Italian tv, I've started to appreciate this guy. So, let's hope he'll really join Team Luxembourg too.

I know that the list above will surely be changed in the next days (some riders are surely going to be added to this team), but wasting my time on this kind of things is something I really enjoy.

WORLDS NEWS:
http://www.velonation.com/News/ID/5749/No-world-championships-for-Vinokourov.aspx : Vinokourov is not taking part in the Worlds race. Pity, because the parcours would have suited him.
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/leukemans-injures-elbow-and-hip-in-training-crash-in-melbourne : I really do hope Leukemans will recover from this crash soon.

SAXO BANK'S EXODUS CONTINUES.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/hoj-announces-retirement : He of the big gap between his front teeth, 37 year-old Frank Hoj, is retiring from Cycledom at the end of the year. How sad.
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/julich-leaves-saxo-bank-management : Bobby Julich is leaving Saxo Bank too. Now I'm just waiting for los Sorensens to announce the creation of their new team (read previous post to understand what I'm talking about).

GO GO MARINA!!
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/romolis-rehabilitation-continues : Marina Romoli's rehabilitation continues, although her legs haven't gained sensibility yet. Don't give in girl (you can find her story here: http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/romoli-seriously-injured-in-training-accident )!!!

Bennati to Team Luxembourg, Porte wants freedom and random marketing reflections of mine:

To everyone's joy, miss Fede is pretending she doesn't have any history homework for tomorrow and is here to delight you with a new great post of hers. In fact,it seems that the riders' exodus from the former glorious Team Saxo Bank may continue with Richie Porte's exit from the team and so me feels in need of commenting on this news. If things continue this way, in fact, I'm afraid that the only guys who'll take part in Saxo Bank's first training camp next year will be Chris Anker Sorensen and Alberto Contador. Or, perhaps, Chris will get fed up by Riis before of the end of this season too, will decide to create his own personal team with the help of Nicki Sorensen (the events of the last months show that you need to be in two and have the same surname to create a new successful team) and his new team will steal some other riders from Bjarne Riis as well. Obviously, the name of the team will be the Danish translation of the sentence 'We Sorensens aren't brothers, keep it in mind!'
I'm obviously trying to joke, but the latest news about Richie Porte (who may leave Saxo Bank too,although his contract expires at the end of next year) really leaves me speechless. If I were Bjarne, I would probably be very angry right now and my favourite dream would probably be Alberto Contador's 4th Tour de France triumph.
Actually, what's happening to Saxo Bank reminds me a lot of the Murphy Law. I don't have a big knowledge of it but, after all, who has never heard famous sentences like 'Everything that can go wrong, goes wrong' and so on? Actually, there is one application of the Murphy law which says that 'Everything goes wrong at the same time'. Well, imo these words seem born to describe what's been going on at Saxo Bank over the last months.
Talking about Porte, btw, the young Tasmanian has told Cyclingnews that, although he's got another year of contract with Riis, he hasn't decided yet whether he'll ride for SB or not next year (http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/porte-considering-his-options-for-2011 ).

Obviously Riis exploded with anger at the news and complained about the behaviour of Richie's agents and managers. 'The problem is that managers and agents are pushing the riders to their limits and advise their riders wrong. Contracts must be respected', Bjarne said. 'Richie's manager continues to provoke and try to push us. We have told them that it cannot happen. He cannot be bought off. Yet they continue.It's fair enough for a manager to ask,but when he is told no, he must stop. He pushes lawyers and everything at us,but according to the rules you don't come out of a contract unless both parties agree” (full article on http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/porte-must-stay-with-saxo-bank-riis-declares ).

Poor uncle Bjarne. Two days ago I thought nothing else could go wrong for Saxo Bank and instead, here comes this new problem. And the trouble is that, even if Richie eventually stays with Bjarne, I don't think his manager will have a good relationship with Riis in the future...

Anyway, although this is a very bad period for Saxo Bank (luckily for Riis the end of the marketing season is getting closer everyday!), we can't say the same about Team Luxembourg (or how the hell it is called) and its riders. The team in fact is always very active on the market and the other day Bennati said he's going to ride for it next season. Also Jens Voigt has been linked to this team very often, although he said he can't confirm any rumour yet.

Apropos, I don't know what your opinion is, but all this secrecy about this nre team is really annoying me. I mean, we're talking about a cycling team, not about a new top secret way of avoiding terroristic attacks to important places in the World! Supporters want to know which athletes are going to ride for their new favourite team next year, they want to know what the name of said team will be, they want to know which the colours of the new team kit will be (well, at least some do)!! I understand that guys at Team Luxembourg want to create suspense, but aren't they exaggerating a bit? I mean, Leif Hoste signed for Katusha the other day and everyone already knows about it.They didn't create any mistery or so and nobody complained about it, right?
Also Taylor Phinney, after some very long reflections, decided to join BMC, but didn't behave in a mysterious way as almost everyone who's leaving Saxo Bank is doing. After he had taken his decision, Phinney simply told the press and the supporters about it. And no one complained for the lack of suspense, right?
Luckily for Fangirls, however, there are also guys (a few ones, to say the truth) who have already admitted they're joining Team Luxembourg next season. One of them is the lanky Brice Feillu, the other one is Daniele Bennati (http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/bennati-to-luxembourg-team-for-two-years ). Logic doesn't like Bennati very much, especially because she had great hopes for him in the past but, unfortunately, those hopes have been disappointed over the last years. 3 years ago in fact it seemed that Daniele was going to become the new Petacchi, but nowadays instead he's a decent sprinter and nothing more. Hopefully he'll find new motivation at Team Luxembourg and will offer us good sprints like those he used to show us in the good old days.
On the other hand, however, Fangirl is completely happy to read that Bennati's joining SB. 'With him, the Schlecks and Brice Feillu, the team is already very good-looking! And the level of handsomeness of the team will become even higher when Fuglsang and Cancellara join it!!! Oh, I can't wait to see the new picture of the team's riders all together!!!', she's been screaming for the last twenty-four hours. 'Hopefully, this new team won't be just hot- it will also be strong. Because remember darling, that to win races you need fast legs and a clever head, not a good-looking face and a pair of blue eyes!', Logic replied her. Unfortunately, I'm not sure Fangirl has received the message yet...

Grande Vincenzo!

To everyone's sadness, the Vuelta a Espana (last Grand Tour of the season) is over.
The Vuelta (at least here in Italy) doesn't get all the attention that the Giro d'Italia or the Tour de France usually receive, but its parcours is always very entertaining and exciting and so it's always very nice to watch it. Btw I think there are some things that could be improved in the Spanish race -the tv broadcast, for example (the way they filmed today's sprint, for instance, was simply terrible). And then, in comparison to some of the Spaniards' supporters, even we Italians seem civil people. At least, we don't stay in the middle of the streets during the last km of the mountain stages (not always,at least;).
Another problem that la Vuelta has, at least here in Italy, is that it receives very little attention. The national tv in fact doesn't broadcast it, so many supporters had to watch the race on Eurosport. I don't have any problem with this, especially because Vuelta's chronists this year were really funny (this afternoon one of them suddenly went: 'I'm Tyler Farrar, sprinter of team Garmin Transition; during the races I need perfect vision!' and made me laugh like mad), but many people don't have the chance of watching Eurosport and don't even have a computer, so they can't enjoy the race. And then, Italians media talk about the foreign riders who take part in the Vuelta just when they're kicked out from the race after a late night and I don't like this thing at all. But at least, thanks to Nibali, this year the Vuelta received something like two pages of attention pro day on la Gazzetta (last year it usually received just half a page), so I think things could have gone even worse.

As you probably know, the eventual winner of the race was Vincenzo Nibali, who imo was simply amazing in the last weeks. His final victory made me very happy (I can be very patriotic sometimes) and it demonstrates that we Italians have a new Grand Tour rider who next year may be able to do well also at the Tour.

Both Fangirl and Logic think that Vincenzo was simply great over the last 3 weeks and that he was simply magnificient yesterday on la Bola del Mundo. He didn't panick when Mosquera attacked him and in the end he almost won the stage. As well as that, over the last 3 weeks Nibali showed he can stand pressure very well and that he's a very complete rider, who rides fast on the climbs, in the TTs and also when the road goes downhill. 'A new star is born',someone has already said- and right now, I absolutely have to agree with them.

I really like Nibali also because he seems a very hard-working, honest and modest person. As well as that, Vincenzo improved very gradually over the last years and this, according to Logic, should prove that he's not a doper. Also his team is very serious as far as doping is concerned, so I think that, perhaps, Italian cycling has really found his new (this time clean) symbol (and we really needed that, believe me).

As far as the riders who accompanied Vincenzo on today's podium in Madrid, they were Ezequiel Mosquera and Peter Velits.

Mosquera's podium could have been predictable, but I didn't think he would have arrived 2nd. He was great in the TT, won the queen stage of the race (it was high time!) and he raced in a very spectacular way during the whole race. So, chapeau to him.
As far as Velits is concerned, I was completely surprised by him. He was very strong on the climbs and, most important, he was the best in the only ITT of the race. So, chapeau to him as well.
4th in the race was the unlucky Joaquim Rodriguez, who lost all his victory chances in the TT. I don't like TTs, so I always feel sorry for the guys who lose Grand Tours because of them.
Another guy who lost his podium chances because of the TT was Frank Schleck. Frankie couldn't keep the pace of the best riders on the climbs, but his 5th place in the GC is a very good result, if you consider that he didn't train specifically for la Vuelta and that this was the first important race he faced since he broke his collarbone at the beginning of July. So, chapeau also to him.
As far as the other GC riders are concerned, Sastre confirmed that he's become a bit of a wishy-washy rider. Tondo was really good, while Roche was simply surprising. Kasheckin, at his first GT after his 2 year-ban, was 18th. Van Garderen, who showed very good things in some stages, eventually came 35th in the GC.
Poor Igor Anton was forced to abandon the race after a crash when he was wearing the red jersey. That crash destroyed his victory ambition, as well as the podium's ambition of Marzio Bruseghin.

Talking about the stage winners, I must say I'm happy that Farrar won this afternoon in Madrid. After all those 2nd places behind Cav, he needed a good stage victory!
Cav won the foggy,ehm, the green jersey, while Moncoutié got the polka dots one. The biggest stage surprise of the race imo was Yahueni Hutarovich's victory in stage 1 , while me was utterly scared by Gilbert's first stage victory. If the boy flies that way also in Melbourne, many other riders can say 'farewell' to their victory dreams.
Talking about Melbourne: you probably know that Pinotti's not going to race in Australia anymore (link: http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/pinotti-out-of-italian-world-championship-team ). What many websites forget to say is that Pinotti was really pissed off by Bettini's choice. In fact he complained about that on the local newspaper (after all, living in Bergamo has some advantages...) and said that Bettini could have waited other 2/3 days before of deciding to leave him at home.
Still talking about Melbourne, Fabian Cancellara hasn't decided yet if he'll race in Australia or not ( http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/cancellara-to-decide-tuesday-on-worlds-participation ). "On Tuesday I will likely go for a long training ride and then definitely decide whether I get on the air plane on Wednesday. At the end of a long season, I am just going day by day.”, he told Cyclingnews.
Talking about Cancellara obviously brings us to talk about Saxo Bank team. Alex Rasmussen announced he's going to leave the team as well, while Cancellara abandoned la Vuelta in a very controversial way the other day. It seems like things are escaping from Uncle Bjarne's control and I think it's very sad to see my favourite team in this condition.

This in fact was the last Grand Tours that many guys raced for Team Saxo Bank and I'm very disappointed at how things are ending up for this team. Btw don't worry,after Tour of Lombardy I'll surely dedicate a very moving post to the end of the Schleck- Cancellara- Sorensen- Breschel- Fuglsang- Voigt- O'Grady -Riis love story. For the moment, let's just 'enjoy' (or, at least, let's try to) the last part of this long adventure all together (in fact, after 3 years of uncoditionate support, miss Fede is going to leave Saxo Bank as well...) .

Hoping that Saxo Bank's decay won't go any further than this, and hoping that an Italian (not Pozzato please!) will be on the highest spot of Melbourne's podium in 2 weeks time, here I close this long and chaotic post and wish everyone a good night.

(Pic by Bettini)

And in the end,they finally reached Paris: randomness,celebrations and links

Another Tour de France is over and another Tour de France was won by Alberto Contador. Cycling isn't maths (luckily),but 1 Giro plus 1 Vuelta plus 3 Tours makes 5 Grand Tours won by the Spaniard,which divided for 27 (the years of life of Contador) give the result of 'Great cycling champion'.So,chapeau to Alberto for winning this year race. As you could see from my last post,after the final TT I was a bit brainwashed.In my defense however I must say that,less than 5" after watching Andy losing this Tour,I had to hear a journalist reminding me that next year also Riccò will probably take part in the Grande Boucle.

"This year things ended up this way,but just imagine what an epic battle these two riders will offer us next year: Alberto Contador and Andy Schleck fighting on the French climbs, together with our Grand Tour hope Riccardo Riccò",the cycling historian Beppe Conti said with a smile on his face.

Now,me wonders, did he really think to make Schleck supporters feel better by saying that?

If so,well,thank you for the effort,sir. Really,thinking about Riccò's comeback in the Grand Tours was right what I needed after watching my favourite rider losing a Tour for 39". Really,that news made me jump around the house screaming happily "Oh,Riccò will come back soon! I'm so excited! Oh,I so hope Quick Step will sign a new contract with him and I so hope he'll be able to race Vuelta,steal a podium spot from a good honest rider and,why not,steal Lombardy Tour from Cunego or Gilbert.What a joy! What an excitement!"

However,I have to admit that Beppe Conti was totally right about one thing: Riccò (and not Nibali) is perfect for wearing the clothes of "Italian new hope for Grand Tours",especially if you consider that almost all the important cyclists who had doping problems over the last months were Italians (Di Luca, Rebellin, Riccò, Pellizotti, Basso...).He's the perfect flag for Italian cycling,no doubts about that.

And then,as many of Conti's colleagues point out every time he wins something,Vinokourov is 'unpleasant,too patriotic,too arrogant and is even a former doper', while Riccò is 'a boy who made a mistake' but,in spite of that,is the living portrait of humilty,modesty and is a very pleasant person,a person who left his girlfriend after that she was found positive (or not?) at the anti-doping. Geez,what a jerk,ehm,what a great cycling champion we Italians have.And to say that some people still detest that rider.I wonder why...

Anyway I realise that,as usual,I'm straying away from the point.So let's forget about Riccò and Beppe Conti and go to the heart of this post: yesterday Tour de France stage,the podium and the celebrations.

During the first part of the Paris stage,as usual, the riders were seen riding happily towards the Champs Elysées. Arashiro ate a lollipop,Vinokourov attacked a packet of crisps,Contador drank a glass of champagne...At a certain point,the Spaniard and Andy Schleck decided to simulate an attack and,to my horror,they had to stop because Andy had a mechanical problem and had to change his bike.This time,however,Contador waited for the Luxembourgian.

On Champs Elysées the atmosphere changed,since the fight for the green jersey was still open and some riders tried to form a beakaway before of the last spint of this Tour.Those riders were Nicki Sorensen,Christian Knees and Karsten Kroon and they didn't have any luck.

Cavendish won the final sprint of the race and,thanks to his second placement,Petacchi won the green jersey."I'm very happy",the Italian said after the finish-line."My son is surely watching me right now and he will surely say 'Dad all green!"

After the finish-line,the podium celebrations began.

Cavendish went on the podium for receiving the stage victory award and that moment signed the beginning of my usual 'How awful the Tour trophies are' monologue,which takes place every year at the end of Tour de France.

The following rider to receive his award was the green jersey Petacchi.The Italian won the green jersey 42 years after Bitossi and became the second Italian to do so in the whole history of Cycledom.On the podium,he had the little shoes of his little son Alessandro jr. around his neck.

Charteau was the surprise winner of the polka dots jersey (second was 39 year-old Moreau). I've read that some people complained about his victory in that competition but I think that Anthony has no blame at all in that.If the organisers really want a grimpeur to win the polka dots jersey,they should simply give less points to 4 category climbs and more points to those who come first on climbs like Tourmalet,Aubisque and so on.

The 'most attacking rider of the Tour' award was given to Sylvain Chavanel.I think it was a right choice,especially if you consider that Sylvain was at the front of the race very often,won 2 stages, got the yellow jersey twice and showed his teeth at the head of the peloton even during the last stage of Champs Elysées.Chapeau,monsieur Chavanel.

Andy Schleck looked a bit disappointed as he received his white jersey and the thousandth Skoda Yeti of his career.I wonder where he stores all those horrible things,one of which was kindly defined by Andy as 'teddy' on Twitter. Let's just hope Leea and the other children of Saxo Bank's riders have a weakness for white, furry and scaring toys.

Contador really looked relieved when he hopped on the Paris podium for the third time in his life.He got off of it and soon climbed it again,this time with Andy Schleck and Denis Menchov at his side.Contador received the usual blue trophy (he's already got 3 of them at home),Andy received a transparent plate of glass,while Menchov received a golden glass plate as well.

This time the anthem that Contador heard from the podium was the right one,while Menchov and Schleck looked very serious and both took their hats off in front of the Spanish anthem.In that occasion,me had the clear feeling that Andy was spying Menchov's moves on the podium.

Best team was then Radioshack,whose riders went on the podium with jerseys that remind us that,in the World,there are 28 millions of people who suffer from cancer.
After the podium celebrations,the boys were finally ready to have their well deserved beers, pizzas and parties in Paris.

Frank Schleck was in the French city as well,together with Martine and Leea. On http://www.sporten.dk/cykling/fraenk-schleck-vi-havde-vundet you can find an interview with him.This article reminds us that the Schleck brothers are going to leave Riis team (*Fangirl sighs*) at the end of the year and another article on the same website tells us that both Fuglsang and Breschel have already decided what their cycling future will be,although they said they wanted to wait some days before of revealing their decisions to the press.On http://www.sporten.dk/webtv/269/11666 then there's a video interview with Voigt who,so far,is the only non-Danish person that I've ever heard pronouncing the word 'Fuglsang' in a very speedy and determined way.Also Jens tells us that he's already decided what his team for next year will be,but he also belongs to the "Let's make the supporters suffer!" party (I'm joking,since I know that for at least one week now the riders should just think about themselves and forget about bikes).

As far as the riders' celebration is concerned,here are some websites with very good pictures:

http://www.tdwsport.com/ Tim De Waele's pictures from the last Tour de France day are very interesting.For example,in one of them there is Contador with the blue trophy and Schleck with the infamous transparent glass plate.

From the pictures we can also understand that the fashion sense of some teams isn't actually that good.Just take a look at Menchov's orange hat (my eyes were burning!) and to the yellow shorts of the Astana riders (the same ones that Vinokorouv was wearing after Friday's TT and that probably caused the tears of Contador) and you'll understand what I mean.

On this website there are also some impressive shots of the riders with the Arc de Triomphé behind them and there are also lots of pictures of Armstrong,who is now ready for his last retire from the riding peloton.Also for Moerenhout and Moreau this was the last TdF,while it isn't clear yet what Vinokourov will do next year.

The website also features some nice pictures of the riders' train travel towards Paris (apropos: Chris Sorensen was next to Voigt on the train; does this mean that he has definitely abandoned Nicki for Jens? ;)

http://www.corvospro.com/arimages.aspx Also Corvos pictures are very good and they feature lots of different teams.There are the usual pictures of Saxo Bank Danish riders with Viking helmets on (read what I've written above about the fashion sense of some riders...),Cavendish with Renshaw,Andy Schleck looking enviously at Contador's blue trophy and,obviously,there are lots of pictures of Rabobank Dutch riders.

http://www.bettiniphoto.net/ :there are some very good pictures also on Roberto Bettini's website.The Italian photographer (who took the first two pictures of this post) this year took part in his 20th Tour as a photographer.Congratulations!<>

http://www.wort.lu/wort/web/fotogalerien/104301/index.php?pg=0 Wort.Lu dedicates a little photo gallery to the Schleck brothers and to the Grand Duke of Luxembourg.

So,that was the last stage of the Tour.Congratulations (and thank you!) to all the riders who took part in the race and also to everyone who worked for the Tour (journalists,chronists,drivers,etc). Sometimes they say/write some stupid things but hey,who doesn't (read my "those 42 seconds won't be important at the end of the Tour" statement in the post about Rotterdam's prologue...)? They're human beings as well and,although sometimes I joke about them,I know that without them the Tour would be very different.

To next year-and remember,Alberto,that Andy will be even stronger next July!

(Pictures by Bettini;last picture by Reuters)

And then,one day,Andy Schleck's white jersey became yellow...

As predictable,right now Fangirl is crazy.She's euphoric.Entusiastic.Super happy.She's been screaming: "Dài dài Andy!" for the last 10 minutes and now she's making me think seriously about not going to my driving license lesson this evening.The excuse? 'Maillot jaune celebration'.

Yes,as I had predicted,Andy Schleck is finally wearing yellow.And now,the Tour seems a question between 2 riders: the 25 year old Luxembourgian and Alberto Contador.Alberto Contador who,after a week of race and a rest day,hasn't dropped Andy yet.Actually,it's Andy who gained some seconds on him in the last days.So,go go Andy!!!!

Obviously the yellow jersey is something that requests a lot of work from the team of the man who wears it.As well as that,having the yellow jersey is stressful: interviews everyday,anti doping everyday,a lot of attention from fans and medias,a lot of pressure on your team...But still,wearing it is the dream of every rider of the world.Because wearing that jersey means that,for a day or more,you're better than anyone else.Because it makes you feel closer to cycling legends who wore it in the past.It gives you a lot of motivation and you can even get some energy from it in the hardest moment.And then,talking about the amount of work that this symbol involves,Chris Sorensen has recently written on his blog that having the yellow jersey is good because it allows you to stay at the head of the peloton without making efforts and,at the same time,it allows you to avoid crashes.And Chris Sorensen in this Tour is a helper,so he knows what he's talking about.And if he says that having the yellow jersey isn't bad for the team,I think we must trust him.Even Contador last year got the jersey after just one week,but he and his team didn't have problems in keeping it.

A man who has always had problems with keeping his leader jerseys instead is Cadel Evans.Today he went through sportive hell,since he got dropped with 8 kms to the top of Col de la Madeleine and crossed the finish-line almost 10 minutes after the day's winner,Sandy Casar.His tears after the finish-line,together with Santambrogio's hug,have created one of the most moving moments of this year Tour.

Also Lance Armstrong struggled a lot the other day,on the road towards Morzine-Avoriaz.I didn't think he could have ended up on this year's podium,so that wasn't a big surprise to me. Still,it was sad to see him crossing the finish-line 11 minutes after Andy Schleck.In that moment,he really looked old.Contador said that,after Sunday,his admiration for Armstrong has grown.The same worths for me,since sir Lancelot refused to retire and said that now he'll ride just to have fun.

As far as today's stage is concerned,it was won by Sandy Casar.In the last meters I was supporting Damiano Cunego,but he threw away all his work by coming 3rd.

Some GC riders, then,simply disappeared on the last climb.Between them there were Wiggins, Hesjedal, Kreuziger and Rogers.Samuel Sanchez instead rode very well,even if in the finale he had some problems with his right thigh.As far as Contador is concerned,then,he looked much stronger than the other day.And his team is amazing: Vinokourov,Navarro, Tiralongo...3 helpers that on tough climbs can set an infernal pace.However,also Saxo Bank's guys were amazing this afternoon: Chris Sorensen,Jakob Fuglsang and the fucking amazing Jens Voigt simply rocked the climbs.

Talking about Saxo Bank: Riis has finally found 2 sponsors and so his team will exist for other 2 years.Things now are much more complicated for the Schleck brothers' team.For example,Chris Sorensen is going to stay with Riis,since he had extended his contract with him already some months ago.And I think that Jens,Fabian,Nicki,Stuart and some of the team young guns will stay with Bjarne as well.Also Breschel and Fuglsang are probably going to stay with Riis,since they have recently said that they would have preferred to remain with Riis rather than change team.In particular,Jakob would love to race a Tour as team leader one day,and that wouldn't be possible in the team of the Schleck brothers.

Anyway,let's just forget about this for a while.Our boy's got the yellow jersey right now,and that's what matters the most.He and the Saxo Bank boys still have to face half of the long and winding road to Paris and so they need to focus completely about that.Then,it will be time of explanations,contracts and,perhaps,for the riders and the supporters it will be time to become very emotional.But what counts now is that so far,after more than a week of race,Andy Schleck has been the best Tour rider.Allez man!

(Pic by Reuters)

All's well that ends well:

On this blog,today's TdF stage will be known from now on as the "All's well that ends well" stage.Firstly,because the stage winner (Sylvain Chavanel) fractured his skull during Liége 3 months ago but managed to win a stage of the Tour anyway.Secondly,because the Schleck brothers didn't lose time in the GC in spite of crashing.Thirdly,because the title of 'Day of the many crashes' is no longer available.Fourthly,because miss Fede wants so.

I understood that it was going to be a dangerous day early in the stage, when a crash involved Cunego,Van den Broeck and Mickel Delage.Poor Delage,who really looked in pain and had a bad cut under his eye,was forced to abandon the race.
Then,with about 30 kms to go,Gavazzi crashed.The Lampre rider had a gap of a few seconds of the rest group (he was part of an early breakaway together with Chavanel and other riders) and he crashed during a wet,narrow descent.A tv motorbike avoided the Lampre’s rider (the wheel of the motorbike passed incredibly near to his feet) and crashed a few meters after the Italian. Gavazzi immediately went on the edge of the road, but his bike remained in the middle of it.So,when the peloton arrived after a few seconds,almost everyone crashed in order to avoid the bike and the motorbike.And,between the guys who crashed,there was also Andy Schleck,who really looked in pain.My heart skipped a beat when I saw him touching his arm and Logic immediately thought ‘He’s broken his collarbone’.Fangirl was desperate.A few seconds later,the tv showed Petacchi (he had crashed as well) and guess who was there,behind Ale-Jet? Frank Schleck,who had crashed as well.Fuck.
Luckily Matti Breschel had stopped (or crashed?) together with Andy and was ready to give him his bike. Suddenly,I found myself on the couch,with the eyes glued to the television,and I started to scream “Thank you Matti,thank you thank you thank you!”. At first Andy didn’t look good (he was riding very slowly and still looked in pain),but then things started to look better.
In the meanwhile Cancellara (who hadn’t crashed) began to talk with the other riders who were with him and they agreed to wait for the riders who had crashed.Gutierrez made a movement with his hand to indicate that the few people who hadn't crashed were going to wait for the other guys.Then,suddenly,Cervélo’s Hunt began to pull the little group of those who had survived the crash.At that point,Fangirl exploded (”What the hell is he doing?!?”) and started to scream "Stop pulling! Stp pulling! Stop! Now!" to her own tv,believing that Hunt could hear her.How embarassing.Btw Fangirl's attitude can be understood if you consider that she couldn’t see Sastre anywhere in the front group,so Hunt’s move was a mistery to her.Luckily (did he hear me?) Hunt soon stopped pulling and,in the same moment,the tv showed Nicki Sorensen and Jens Voigt helping Andy and Frank.I have to admit that I was very surprised by Frank's appearance.In fact,after hopping on Matti’s bike,Andy had begun his ‘peloton chase’ on his own,so it was very nice to see him there with Nicki,Frank and Jens.
In the meanwhile Chavanel was riding towards success.His advantage now was of 2’ on the yellow jersey group and this meant that Cancellara was going to lose the overall lead.But still,Fabian didn’t even think about chasing the Frenchman and defending the jersey,but decided to wait for his teammates.What a champion.
With about 20 kms to go a super group including Wiggins,Contador and Armstrong joined the head of the race.At that point Fangirl had a big doubt: in fact,what could have happened if,after that the majority of the GC contenders had joined the group,they had started to pull in order to leave the Schlecks behind? In front of that eventuality,Fangirl mentally repeated her vocabolary of international insults understandable to everyone who speaks English,German,Spanish and/or Italian,and got ready to support Cancellara in a possible boxing match against,say,sir Lancelot.Luckily I wasn’t forced to do these things because no GC contender started to pull after they had joined Cancellara’s group and,with 15 kms to go,the Schlecks could finally come back in the main peloton.What a relief!

The peloton then rolled quietly to the finish-line and Cancellara scolded off a rider (Bouet) that had sprinted in order to get the second placement in the stage.
So,this was today’s stage.A big protest (or,at least,something that looked like a protest),some frightening moments,a lot of crashes,and Chavanel’s victory.
As far as I know,immediately after the stage 2 ‘parties’ were born: the one of the ‘Stopping to wait for the others was a lack of respect towards cycling!’ party and the ‘fair play’ party.Some riders said that they weren't protesting,but that they decided not to take risks because the parcours was dangerous. Mr.Chris Horner however later said that,with the riders rolling slowly and united towards the finish-line, 'the Tour organisers got what they deserved' (http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/horner-tour-organisers-got-what-they-deserved ).Now,if mr.Horner complaints about today,I can imagine what will happen tomorrow.Surprisingly,Horner is a Radioshack rider and it's known to everyone that during 2009 Giro Lance Armstrong (who,in case you don't know it,is Radioshack's captain) tried to hickjack about 3 stages because he considered the parcours 'crazy and dangerous'.As you may know,this team wasn't invited to this year Giro (Mwhahaha).

Anyway,back to today,I’d like to point out the attitude of SB riders during the stage.Breschel was always next to Andy and made a super job,like O’Grady and Voigt. Matti and Chris Sorensen crossed the finish-line 19 minutes after Chavanel because they had lent their bikes to the Schleck brothers.Both Voigt and Nicki Sorensen gave it all to help the Schlecks.Fuglsang was glued to Cancellara after the crash in order to keep an eye on Spartacus ('And help him in a possible boxing match against Radioshack guys',Fangirl adds).And,more important,Cancellara gave up the yellow jersey in order to save the Tour of his teammates.Too bad that the team is going to disappear at the end of the year (*sniffs her nose and cries*).

Anyway,let's not think about the future of the team and let's just enjoy this TdF.And,in order to do so,I recommend you reading Chris Sorensen's latest blog entry http://blog.tv2.dk/chris.anker.ol/entry375763.html (what else?).

So,that's all for today.Let's hope that no one will have to abandon the race this evening and let's also hope that tomorrow there won't be too many crashes (and let's cross our fingers and pray for sun!).My fingers are already crossed.

Team Saxo Bank's Giro squad:

Yes,finally,after 12 months of await,the Giro d'Italia is beginning once again.And,obviously, Fangirl is excited.Terribly excited.So excited that,the other day,she spent the whole bus travel to school thinking about the Giro and she decided that,between all the people who work at/in/for the Giro,those who she envies most are the journalists.Therefore,Fangirl spent a lot of her school time thinking about how nice it would be for her to be a cycling journalist.
Anyway,since it's almost Giro time,and since I have two days off,today I go with 2 useless posts: one includes the Giro start list,the other one (this one) is about Saxo Bank's Giro squad.

"Why do you have two days off?", I hear you ask.Well,simple: this year my town hosts the Raduno Nazionale degli Alpini ("Alpini's National Meeting") and so the streets of my town are full of men in militar suits and hats that cook cotechini and costine and drink a lot of wine.Since the Alpini (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpini ) have put up their tents in every park/ piazza/ garden they have found (they come from every part of Italy and so they have to sleep somewhere here in BG), and considering that they've also taken possession of some schools (mine included), me has two days off. To make you understand the "Alpini fever" that keeps on making victims here in Bergamo, I give you a link to some pics regarding today's parade in the center of the town: http://www.ecodibergamo.it/galleries/Foto/1862/1/#top_galleries (please notice the Upper City's Walls covered with the Tricolore).

Anyway, it's probably time I started to talk about cycling.So,in this post you'll find some information about every Saxo Bank rider that is racing the Giro and,where possible,you'll find a link to the latest news about him. Enjoy.

BADEN COOKE:

This Australian rider of 31 is one of the most experienced boys that are racing the Giro for SB this year.This is his first season with the team, but he has already got some Top 10 results in races like Tour of Qatar,Tour Down Under,Tour of Oman and Tirreno-Adriatico.He also came 14th in Gand Wevelgem.In 2003 he won a stage in Tour de France and he also won the point classification of the race.Between his main results that are stage victories in Herald Sun Tour, Tour de Suisse,Tour Down Under,Three Days of La Panne and Tour of Poland.He's also won Dwars door Vlaanderen and Kampioenschap van Vlaanderen.To my disappointment,no news about his shape are available.

LAURENT DIDIER:

This Luxembourgian rider of 25 is a neo pro and this is his first year in Team Saxo Bank. He has a degree in Engineering and he used to race for Team Designa Kokka until last year.So far in the season he has showed he's a strong climber and he has been an excellent helper for the Schleck brothers during the Ardenne's week.He's not the first cyclist in the Didier family,since both his father and his grandfather were professional riders.In 2005 he won a stage of Fleche du Sud and the U23 Natonal Championship.In 2007 he won a race in Staargau and a stage of Friedens-und Freundschafttour (which,judging by its name,is probably the most peaceful sport competition of the world).This year his best result has been a 12th place in Hel van het Mergelland.

On http://lequotidien.editpress.lu/index.php/les-sports/11129-CYCLISME-Lobjectif-cest-terminer.html there's an interview with him made by Romain Haas.In it Laurent says that his main goal for 2010 Giro is arriving in Verona. He says that his form is good, that he's really anxious to begin because he wants to test himself during a Grand Tour and that the Giro reminds him of Andy Schleck's second place in 2007.

LUCAS SEBASTIAN HAEDO:

Lucas is the younger brother of JJ Haedo and this is his first year in Team Saxo Bank. Argentinian, this 27 year old boy is a sprinter,just like his brother.Last year,his first one as a professional rider,he won Nature Valley Grand Prix and a stage at Tour of San Luis.So far in the season he has already got Top 10 results in Tour of Oman and Volta a Catalunya.As well as that,he was also 4th in a stage of Tour de Romandie and this demonstrates that the boy is in good form.

GUSTAV LARSSON:

Gustav is a rider who doesn't need any presentation.Swedish,29 year old,he's probably the second strongest time trialist of the world behind Cancellara.He was 2nd in the TT race in Beijing 2008 and he was 2 also last year,in Mendrisio TT championship.In 2008,on a very hard parcours,he was 14th in the Giro GC.He hasn't had any success so far in the season,but tomorrow's Giro TT could be a good chance for him to show his skills.

If you want to follow him during the Giro,this is the link to Gustav's twitter,which he shares with his girlfriend (and professional cyclist) Veronica Andreasson: http://twitter.com/GustavVeronica.

ANDERS LUND:

This 25 year old Danish rider is an all-rounder and has been racing for Saxo Bank since 2007.He was second in the 2003 junior World Championship and he hasn't got any victory in the pro category yet.In 2005 he was second in U23 Liége-Bastogne-Liége and in U23 European Championship and this year he was 8th in a stage of Tour of Romandie,result that shows shows that he's in a good form.He indicated his teammate Porte as a possible surprise for tomorrow's prologue.

MICHAEL MORKOV:

In the Rasmussen-Morkov couple,Michael is the blonde one.He comes from the track world where so far he got many excellent results together with Alex Rasmussen.He's 25 and in 2009 he became World Champion in 4000 team pursuit,World Champion in Madison and won a Six days race in Copenhagen.On the road he won a stage of Giro del Capo,South Africa,in 2008.He he was also second in U23 Ronde van Vlaanderen,and this shows that the boy's got talent also on the road.

On http://sporten.tv2.dk/cykling/article.php/id-30373971:m%C3%B8rk%C3%B8v-er-giroklar-og-skadesfri.html there's an article with him written by Kasper Nielsen.In it Michael says that he's had problems with a knee for 4 months,but that now he can finally ride painfree. "Racing a Grand Tour is a dream that comes true for me.I obviously dream of winning a stage,but I also have to be realistic.I'm a good rider and my form is good,but I know that I'm not a climber and that I'll have to spend as less energy as possible during these 3 weeks,if I want to finish this race",he told Nielsen.If you want to follow Michael on Twitter,here's the link: http://twitter.com/michaelmorkov .

RICHIE PORTE:
I've talked about Richie a few times on this blog, so if you want to read a decent post dedicated just to him (and including one of the usual interviews whose questions are: "What's your favourite food? Do you miss your home? Do you like Italy?",ecc), I suggest you looking for the post that I wrote in February and that was completely dedicated to him.Richard is 25 year old and is an all-round rider.Last week he won a great TT in Tour of Romandie and last year,as a young rider,he got some good results,like a victory in a TT at the Baby Giro d'Italia.
Here's one of the latest article about him (there are dozens around the Net!): http://www.velonation.com/News/ID/4070/Giro-dItalia-Saxo-Banks-Richie-Porte-ready-for-debut.aspx .Richie also has a Twitter page,whose link is: http://twitter.com/porteye .

CHRIS ANKER SORENSEN:
If you've been reading this blog for some time,you're probably aware of the fact that Chris is one of my favourite riders.Perhaps,he's probably Logic's favourite riders,because of his passion for historical books (yes,Logic has strange tastes).Even if Fangirls may not like him because he actually doesn't look as handsome as,say,Boonen or Bennati or one of the Schlecks,I assure you that this boy is great rider and a very amusing guy.
Chris Anker joined Saxo Bank in 2007 and that year he was 17th in Vuelta a Espana GC (he rode in support of Sastre on that occasion).In 2008 he won the Kitzbuhel stage in Tour of Austria and La Toussuire stage at Dauphine Libére.Last year he was second in the Danish National Championship and he won Japan Cup.
As you probably know,he should have ridden this Giro with good expectations for the GC,but then he broke his collarbone during Volta a Catalunya and everything was fucked up,ehm,his plans had to be changed,that's what I meant.After his injury,Chris has said that he would ride the Giro trying to win a stage and trying to build a good shape for the Tour.
One of the latest articles about him is this one: http://www.velonation.com/News/ID/4041/Sorensen-amongst-Saxo-Bank-riders-confirmed-for-Giro-wants-to-ride-into-form.aspx ,while if you want to follow Chris almost daily during the Giro, well,here's the link to his blog: http://blog.tv2.dk/chris.anker.ol/ .As you can see he updated it yesterday and he said that he's going to update it often during the Giro.In yesterday's post he wondered why the Giro has to start from Holland,which isn't actually that near to Italy,and he complains a bit about this.Anyway he quickly says that he's very happy to take part in the Giro,says that the Italian journalists "aren't surprisingly focused on me" and says that he's both nervous and happy for the Giro start.He then writes that he hasn't updated his blog in the last weeks because he says that probably his tifosi aren't interested in knowing that he defeated his 4 year old neighbour while playing "Mario Cart" videogame.

NICKI SORENSEN:
Last guy to be presented in this post,Nicki Sorensen is a 34 year old Danish all rounder.Last year he won an amazing stage at Tour and some years ago he also won a stage in Vuelta.Therefore,his main goal for this year Giro is winning a stage and become the second Danish rider to win stages in all 3 Grand Tours.However Nicki doesn't know whether he'll arrive to Verona,because he says that the 3rd week this year is probably too hard for him and that the Tour,not the Giro, is his main goal of the 2010 season (read more on http://www.velonation.com/News/ID/4059/Saxo-Banks-Nicki-Sorensen-looks-to-complete-the-trifecta.aspx ).

LITTLE FAST GUIDE FOR THOSE WHO ARE GOING TO READ THIS BLOG DURING THE GIRO :
First of all,I won't update this blog daily during the next days because,surprisingly,I also have an offline life that is offering me many tests during the next 3 weeks.Anyway don't worry, I've reserved my precious 'justification' in philosophy for the last week of May because,when the teacher will be examining people on Kant,me will not probably be very present with her mind.
Anyway,the main aim of this last part of this post is: the differences between Nicki and Chris Anker Sorensen. First of all,you have to remember that they're not related.And then,look carefully at the pictures below: in the first one,there is Nicki,while in the second one,there is Chris Anker.

Why am I doing this,you may wonder.Well, I'm doing this because I don't know whether I'll be able to bear people confusing them every day during the next three weeks.No,I'm not talking about you,dear reader: I'm talking about the many chronists,photographers,journalists,ecc. that will talk/write about the Giro in the next days. For them,here I've organised a little course to make them discover the differences between Nicki and Chris.
Obviously,miss Fede can understand that,after a quick gaze on these two riders,the similarities could seem more evident than the differences. In fact,to say the truth,none of them is as good looking as one of the Schleck brothers.Then,they're both Danes,they both ride for team Saxo Bank and they also have the same surname.And they are permanent roommates as well.But,if you look carefully,you'll notice that they actually don't look that much to one another.I mean,one (Nicki) is blonde and has blue eyes,the other one (Chris) is less blonde and has brown eyes. And then,one of them (Nicki) usually wears orange glasses,while Chris wears violet ones. As well as that,their riding stye is very different.Nicki rides in a 'normal' way,while when you see Chris riding full gas,moving on the saddle,you can feel his pain. And remember: Nicki is the one who won a stage during 2009 Tour,while Chris is the one that about the Tour 2009 wrote a book.Clear?
So,that's all for now: obviously me wishes all of the best to the SB riders (but also to the other ones) for the next three weeks of race.Allez guys!
(Nicki's pic by Tim De Waele,Chris' one by Nielsen).