Some random cycling links (updated with some other Schleck videos):

Right after the end of the Tour, people often find themselves with nothing to do during the afternoons. Therefore, miss Fede decided to collect a few random links related to cycling (which she collected especially thanks to her kind readers) in order to amuse herself and her readers. Have fun!

VIDEOS:

- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kin72YxiDsg : Kat, a kind Danish reader, has recently updated on YouTube a video in which mr. Jakob Fuglsang gets his daily massage during the Tour. She uploaded it just for us, so let's thank her before starting to drool over the Leopard Trek rider (it's advisable to watch this video when you're alone).

- http://youtu.be/VrNv89dqMP0 : Marleen from 'Ride On!' has kindly pointed out this other video, featuring the Schleck brothers, de Zjonnies and an old car. In it Andy and Frank show their driving skills and, as they drive, they also find the time to damage the vehicle in many different ways.

- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ovgs9CFoFCk : They're everyone's favourite cycling chronists: Christian Paasche and Johan Kaggestad. In this video you'll see them go bananas as Edvald Boasson Hagen wins his second TdF stage of the year. From 0:24, things get really ridicolous and at 0:58 you can see an unknown chronist that sneaks into the Norwegian room and puts his headphones next to Christian's mouth, so that his viewers can realise how hard it is to work next to the Norwegian chronists.

- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3wHT5OJRWg (via miss Sansen): Carlos Sastre and Denis Menchov, together, in just one video: in it they speak English, they talk about their wives and they almost forget for how long they have been married. Moreover, they laugh . In particular, Menchov has a great time while talking about how he met his wife. And the worst thing is that there's nothing hilarious in that.

OTHER RANDOM LINKS:

After watching some videos, here are three other random links:

- http://womanmanfishbicyclemag.tumblr.com/ : the above-mentioned miss Sansen has recently surrendered to Tumblr. Visit her blog in order to read an exclusive 'from Fablish (or Fabianese) to English' vocabulary.

- http://www.sporten.dk/cykling/klar-parat-tour-fest: our special detective Susanne has recently provided us with some good pictures from the post-Tour parties in Paris. Enjoy!

- http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/the-cyclingnews-guide-to-rider-transfers-2011-2012 : the cycling market has already started and, so far, the interesting moves have been two: Van Hummel goes to Vacansoleil, Pozzato exits Katiusha (although his final destination is still unknown). What if he really joins Leopard Trek?

UPDATED PART:
Some kind readers have decided to add other amusing videos to this post. Lt's enjoy them!!
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFIKnK7GpeQ : Cancellara and Frank Schleck kidding with the cameras during the Tour. Lovely!
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbdFQ5rwEZs : What did the Schleck brothers and Fabian Cancellara do the day after Andy's victory in Liège 2009? In this video you have the answer! (this video, just like the previous one, has been found by our dear Cristin)
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0tVAQech7g&feature=related : Also our friend Figbash decided to point out a link: it is an old classic which every Schleck fan should watch at least once pro day. Enjoy the jokes and the relaxing view!
- http://bananasaboutbikes.blogspot.com/ : After a period of break, 'Bananas about Bikes' is back with a new, exciting post by Marleen! If you haven't done it yet, I suggest you reading it. Moreover, I suggest you paying some attention to that blog in the next days: we have lots of tales coming up! If you're a supporter and you've had a great time while visiting a bike race, send us a description of your day at bananasaboutbikes@gmail.com . We accept stories related also to women cycling, cyclo-cross, track cycling, criteriums, whatever! Moreover, they don't have to be very recent. We can publish also posts that date back to some months or years ago, we're not strict at all!
(ok, end of the shameless self promotion part ;)

Enjoy the videos and the links!

Phil Gil takes also Fleche:

Unbelievable. Simply unbelievable. I have no other words to describe Philippe Gilbert's latest victory (and the fact that I'm writing a new post just 3 days after the last one) :P
Fleche Wallonne is the strangest of the Ardennes Classics. The riders race for 5 hours and face the mur de Huy three times during it, but in the end the winner is always decided by the last 800 meters, the steepest ones that you can find in a Classic.
Marco Pastonesi from 'La Gazzetta dello Sport' once wrote a great description of the mur de Huy, saying that pilgrims used to climb it by foot during the Middle Ages. In fact, there are 7 little chapels on the road to the top of the mur and each of them is a different station of the via crucis. Talking about this fact, Pastonesi said: 'The pilgrims saw images of the Virgin Mary at every chapel. By the time the riders arrive on the top of the climb during FW, they see Virgin Mary in person'. I've never faced mur de Huy (I'm not fit enough :P), but I think that said climb can definitely help you if you want to have a deep, religious experience. In fact, here in Italy we usually say that someone 'has seen the Madonna' when that someone has done something very painful or very tiring. Painful and tiring like climbing the Mur de Huy, for example.

Talking about the race, nothing important happened before the beginning of the final km. The first breakaway du jour was formed by Paterski, Vantomme, Van Hecke and Helminen (and not 'Eminem', as someone said yesterday).
In the last 30 kms of race there was the second breakaway du jour, which was formed by Thomas Lovkvist (he's alive!!!), Alexandr Kolobnev, Enrico Gasparotto and Teejay Van Garderen. Also Kiryenka, Gorka Verdugo and Michal Golas joined the breakaway and eventually Kiryenka and Lolo (Lovely Lovkvist) said 'adieu!' to their fellows. Unfortunately, the couple was caught with 8 kms to go, as a consequence of the work made at the front by Omega-Pharma Lotto, Rabobank and Leopard Trek. At that point of the race, Pineau and Marcato attacked, but they arrived at the bottom of the mur with just 20 seconds of advantage. And to win on the mur, you need to arrive at its bottom with at least a minute of advantage on the peloton.
Before the beginning of the climb, Andy Schleck took a turn at the front before vanishing in the bottom of the peloton. He didn't feel well, but apparently his brother Frankie was doing fine. Also Rodriguez, Contador and Gilbert seemed to feel fine, since their men pulled hardly at the front.
During the first part of the climb, Wegmann pulled for some time, followed by Albasini and Le Mevel. Fabian kept on turning his head to see where Frank was, since it was very hard to spot him in the peloton chaos. Then, with about 300 meters, Gilbert launched a terrible attack and no one could follow him. Phil Gil started celebrating with about 15 meters to go and, in spite of this, he managed to finish the race 3 seconds before of Joaquim Rodriguez. Amazing.I was so amazed by Gilbert's strong attack that, when I saw the gap that Rodriguez had from him, my mouth fell open and remained so until the end of the race, when I whispered: 'How can he have done such a thing even today?' in a very allucinated way. I would have never bet on a victory by Gilbert yesterday and that's why I was so shocked. That boy has been winnng Classics since October 2010, isn't that amazing?

Talking about another Cannibal, the women race was won for the fourth (fourth!) time by the Wonder Woman of cycling, the 23 year-old Marianne Vos. Second was Emma Johansson, while 3rd was Judith Arndt and 4th a very good Elena Berlato.
Emma Pooley didn't take part in the race because she broke her collarbone last Tuesday, on a training ride in Switzerland. Hopefully she'll be back in good shape for the Giro Donne.

Back to the male FW, Omega Pharma-Lotto was, once again, the best team. Gilbert told the journalists that he thought that mur de Huy was too long for him and that he decided to try winning yesterday race just because his teammates suggested him doing so. As we could see, the guys were right.
Jelle Vanendert was amazing once again, since he helped Phil and he also managed to come in 6th. Also Van Den Broeck (17th) was really good, just like De Greef.
Second in the race was Joaquim Rodriguez. He was the main favourite, but for the second year in a row someone rode up the mur de Huy faster than him. Katiusha did a great work to help him and Kolobnev and Di Luca really did their best. Moreover, Moreno was a good 8th.
Third instead was Samuel Sanchez. Euskaltel, who was invisible in the North Classics and didn't shine in Amstel, worked really well yesterday and Samu was a surprising 3rd. In fact, I would have expected Igor Anton (5th) to ride better than the Olympic Champion, instead Sanchez managed to end up on the podium. Wow!
4th was Vinokourov (*chorus of joy coming from the AAVL sector*), whose team, Astana, worked well. Especially Iglinskiy and Gasparotto were good, while Vino was surprisingly faster than guys like Gesink, Contador and Hesjedal.

Giving a judgement about the teams in a race like FW is very hard, because in the end the team work doesn't count that much on the mur de Huy. In fact, in the last 300 meters of it (where the hardest part begins) the only things that count are the team leader's legs and his sense of timing. Therefore, the work that the team has done to help the leader until that point of the race doesn't always lead to a good result.
Leopard Trek, for example, did a great work yesterday, but Frank Schleck eventually ended up just 7th. He didn't sound very satisfied with his performance in an interview with Cyclingnews and he said that yesterday he made a mistake with timing. But still, I think that a 7th place in this race (which doesn't suit 'regular' climbers like him or his brother) isn't a very bad result.
As far as the rest of the team is concerned, Wegmann worked well on the climb, whereas Andy had a bad day at the office. "On the next to last climb I didn’t feel very good", Our Glorious Leader told Cyclingnews. "I'm not sure if it was due to the weather, but I had red eyes and some breathing problems. So I decided to work for the team and I did the best I could for Frank in the final kilometre". Hopefully our boy isn't experiencing 'allergy problems', since me perfectly knows that they're extremely disturbing and they can really limit someone's physical performances.
Another team who did well, although its team leader wasn't that strong, was Saxo Bank. Nicki Sorensen worked hard at the front, but Contador was just 11th, whereas Chris Sorensen was 24th. Allergy problems also for the Spaniard? I don't know.
Also Rabobank worked hard, although the best team rider, Martens, was 10th, whereas Gesink was 14th. However, I don't think FW suits Gesink, since he isn't a very explosive climber and mur de Huy is a bit different from the San Luca climb at Giro dell'Emilia (a race that Gesink loves and has already won twice).
Talking about other teams, HTC Highroad tried to do something with Van Garderen. The team leader, Toni Martin, was just 89th, whereas Albasini was 12th. This makes me wonder: why was the team pulling so hard at the beginning of the mur? Mistery.
Landbouwkrediet entered a breakaway too and Bert De Waele was a good 15th.
The climb was too steep for Simon Gerrans, whereas Ryder Hesjedal probably hasn't recovered properly from his stomach problems (he was 13th). Best Garmin rider however was Le Mevel, excellent 9th.
Talking about Italian riders, Cunego was just 61st, but he crashed with about 3 kms to go. Basso instead wasn't in a great form (moreover, the mur de Huy doesn't suit him), while Di Luca worked to help Rodriguez.
A disappointing rider, imo, was John Gadret, who should feel comfortable on climbs like mur de Huy. Still, he was invisible yesterday.
The same worths for the whole BMC team, who couldn't have Evans in the line-up. In spite of this, I think they could have showed themselves during the race, whereas me actually found out that this team was racing when I casually opened a 'start list' page on Cyclingnews a few seconds ago.

Before closing this entry, here's the link to Chris Anker Sorensen's latest blog entry: http://blog.tv2.dk/chris.anker.ol/entry401212.html . In it Chris says that he's asked himself whether Father Christmas has a holiday house in Italy. In fact one day Chris, while training, saw a man working in a field. Said man, according to CA, had the same belly, the same beard and the same face as father Christmas, although he obviously wasn't wearing the same clothes. That made him ask whether Father Christmas has a house where he can spend the summer and whether said house is in Italy.
Moreover, Chris wrote something about Jens Voigt in his blog. Unfortunately, Google Translater doesn't want to let me understand that part, so I beg one of you, dear Danish readers, to help me understand what Chris says in it. Every LT supporter out there would be very happy if you could me this favour!

So, that's all from me for the moment. Have a good time during the Easter holidays and let's hope that one Schleck will cross the finish-line before everyone else on Sunday!
(Pic 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 :)

Random Post with Random Links:

The Giro d'Italia begins next week and obviously Fangirl is really looking forward to it because, as a famous Italian journalist once said,during the Giro 'everyday is a holiday' (in Italian the sentence sounds a bit different,but that's the meaning).
Hoping that this year Giro won't end up like last year (read: 'hoping there won't be any doping cases'), here I go with some random links about Team Saxo Bank's riders that are racing in the Giro and also with some little useless comments of mine about Tour of Romandie.Enjoy!

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/saxo-bank-cofidis-for-the-giro-ditalia : first of all,the Saxo Bank line up for the Giro.Lots of people have been very surprised by Riis' Giro team ("Where are the Schlecks? Where is Cancellara? Where are Fuglsang and Breschel?!? And Voigt and O'Grady?") and I can understand them completely. The trouble is that,as Frank Schleck once admitted in an interview, the team sponsor (Saxo Bank now,but also Csc in the past) doesn't care at all about the Giro, so Italian tifosi can't do nothing but complain about the lack of big stars in Saxo Bank's Giro line-up. As well as that, the Giro isn't as famous as the Tour (although the hardest mountains are here in Italy) and this year Riis desperately needs his team to get good results during the Tour, and not during the Giro, if he wants to continue his adventure in Cycledom for some other years.

When the Giro parcours was first announced in November (was it November? Oh,who cares!), both Fangirl and Logic had one big hope: seeing one of the Schleck brothers, possibly Frank, in Italy in May. "Why Frank and not Andy?",someone asks. The answer is simple: this year the Giro features lots of hard climbs and a few time trials so,in my opinion, it could have been possibe for Frank to win.As well as that, Italian journalists never pay a lot of attention to him,so he could have ridden without a big pressure. Then, after getting a good result in the Giro, Frank could have gone to the Tour as a 'super helper' for Andy and he could have tried to get a good GC result also there. Obviously I know that this is just imaginary cycling and that there are lots of factors that influenced the season schedule of the brothers, but me would have loved to see one of the Schleck brothers come back to the Giro this year. Well,it will be for another time.
Anyway,back to SB line up for the 2010 Giro, here it is: Larsson, Cooke, Lucas Haedo, Chris Anker Sorensen, Nicki Sorensen, Michael Morkov, Laurent Didier, Richie Porte, Anders Lund. When I told some people I know that the Saxo Bank's captain for 2010 Giro would have been Chris Anker Sorensen, they looked at me in a very surprised way. "Who?",they asked. "Chris Sorensen",I answered. "The one that won a stage during last year Tour?","No,that was Nicki Sorensen". "And who's this Chris Anker,then?" . Anyway the most irritating fact featuring me talking about SB's Giro line-up with other people involved a little boy that goes to my school. When I told him that Saxo Bank wasn't going to bring the Schleck brothers and Cancellara to the Giro, he started to make fun of Saxo Bank. And until that point I managed to stay calm. Everyone's free to make fun of everything/everyone,right? And then I couldn't be rude to him because his mother was there as well while we were talking. But then,at a certain point,the little boy dared to say that "Saxo Bank totally sucks.They have Cancellara and they never manage to win team time trials during Grand Tours. Well, that's obvious when you have a team in which together with Cancellara you have guys like the Schlecks or Larsson, which can't ride time trials at all". Now, I think that the stupidity of this sentence doesn't even need any comment because by commenting it I would just waste my time. Simply, I remember you that Larsson was second in the TT at the Olympic Games in Beijing and at the 2009 Mendrisio Worlds.

Anyway,back to the line-up. As said, the team captain should be Chris Sorensen. I say 'should' because you all know that he broke his collarbone in March and he hasn't ridden any race since then,so I don't know how his condition is right now. Anyway also Gustav Larsson could get some interesting results, especially during the time trials. Nicki Sorensen is a very strong rider as well and he isn't that bad as a climber. Cooke and Lucas Haedo (who has never ridden a Grand Tour so far) are both good sprinters, but in Italy they'll have to compete against guys like Greipel, Petacchi and Freire. Anyway they can always enter a breakaway and get a good result,right? Morkov is a rider who comes from the track (where he got excellent results together with Alex Rasmussen), whereas Lund is an all-rounder. Porte and Didier are two neo-pros that will surely show something good. Porte got a great victory the other day in Tour of Romandie, while Didier was really good during the Ardenne's classics and has showed that he can climb very well. Therefore,although the team hasn't got any famous name in its line-up, I believe that they will ride a good Giro.Actually,the fact that some riders are completely unexperienced could be good, since they will surely have the will to demonstrate their skills. Anyway don't worry, I'll probably come back talking about the team's line-up for the Giro in the next days (if my maths teacher allows it...).

http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/64th-tour-de-romandie-upt/stage-3-itt/results : this is a link about Richie Porte's incredible first win,which Richie got in front of guys like Valverde, Menchov and Rogers.If you want to know more about Richie,here's the link to one of my uforgettable posts about Saxo Bank's neo pros: http://fede-myblog92.blogspot.com/2010/02/random-post-about-richie-porte.html

Tour of Romandie: I know I haven't talked at all about Tour of Romandie over the last days and I apologise for that. Actually, I have to admit that I missed almost all the stages of that race because I didn't know it was broadcasted (anyway I fear that I would have been too busy to watch it even if I had known that it was broadcasted). That was obviously a big shame, since the race saw guys that I really do like (Pinotti, Sagan, Porte and Spilak) get some good victories. In addition, Jaroslaw Marycz attacked in the last kms of the stage eventually won by Cavendish and showed once again that he's a really talented rider.As well as that, Menchov showed he's in a good form and this made Logic really happy. Yes,Logic and not Fangirl. In fact Logic surprisingly approves me supporting Menchov because he seems a very clever man and also because he suffers from spring allergies just like moi
By the way,talking more seriously about the race,I have some small things to point out.
1. Richie Porte rode incredibly well this afternoon.
2.Professor Pinotti is in great form.
3.Sagan and Spilak are both very impressive riders.
4.If Basso rides this way also at the Giro (today he crossed the finish-line 9 minutes after Valverde), Liquigas would better give the captain title to Pellizotti or to Sylvester Szmyd.
5. yes, Menchov's smile in the photo below is worrying.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/bellis-to-return-to-racing-at-uk-nationals :a very nice news for cycling supporters: Bellis may come back racing this summer at the UK National Championships. Obviously me wishes him all the best for his comeback.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/features/cyclings-best-worst-and-strangest-victory-salutes : this is a funny Cyclingnews feature regarding the 'worst,best and strangest victory salutes'. Cyclingnews did a very good work, but me is able to add one more strange salute to that list. In fact,how could someone forget Chris Sorensen's 'fisherman' salute? (vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrjO0CPNhJM ).

http://eavis.jp.dk/index.php?alias=DK-JPTO&s=8434&p=217601 :still talking about Chris Anker: here's a great interview that A Beautiful Freak (http://mahoela.blogspot.com/ ) pointed out to me the other day (thank you once again!) .In it Chris talks about his interests aside cycling. And,between those interests,there are also reading historical books,watching football matches and cooking (this last interest particularly shocked me especially because he knows how to prepare a risotto while me can't hardly prepare a coffee).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_t1rvhspX7E : if you're a Schleck supporter and you've been so kind to read all this post,here's a little link that you might like since it features Andy before and after Liége (attention: for a brief moment, also Vinokourov appears in this vid).

(pic by AFP)

Liege-Bastogne-Liege Preview (post including the start list,some personal opinions of mine and random links):

Since my hell week is nearly over,me now has more time to write bullshits,ehm,cycling observations on this blog.Therefore,here's a long useless post about Liége-Bastogne-Liége,also known as La Doyenne.I'm sure you all remember what happened last year during this race: Andy Schleck attacked on the Cote aux Facons and he soloed to victory. This year things seem tougher for Andy and for his brother Frank,because there are lots of riders that are going really well right now.For example,Gilbert and Evans.But I could add also Ivanov, Kolobnev, Contador, Kreuziger,Valverde,Hesjedal and many others.In order to take a careful look to all the teams who are taking part in tomorrow's race,here's the provisional start list (taken from Cyclingnews and accompanied by the usual useless comments of mine).
ACQUA & SAPONE: Codol, Failli, Garzelli, Honig, Masciarelli, Paolini, Sarmiento.Garzelli was 2nd in Liége in 2002,Masciarelli is a strong climber and also Paolini could be dangerous.
AG2R LA MONDIALE: Bouet, Champion, Dupont, Gadret, Kadri, Lelay, Riblon, Roche.
ANDRONI GIOCATTOLI: Bertagnolli, Bertogliati, Bertolini, Ginanni, Margutti, Piemontesi, Solari, Wurf.Me predicts that someone will enter a breakaway,perhaps with other riders from a team like,say,Acqua & Sapone.
ASTANA: Contador, Fofonov, Gasparotto, Grivko, M.Iglinskiy, Jufre, Pereiro Sio, Vinokourov. What a team,Logic states. Vinokourov won a Liége back in 2005 (on that occasion second was Voigt and 3rd was Boogerd), Contador was 3rd in Fleche (and looked a bit disappointed for this result), Pereiro won TdF 2006, Gasparotto was 3rd in Amstel last week and Iglinskiy won Eroica. Vino is in good form,just like Gasparotto and Iglinskiy (the magic couple Enrico-Maxim is in a great form since March,to say it all). Contador is always in form when climbs are concerned, so I believe that in the last kms he'll surely be there with the group of the best riders.Anyway this team has so many good riders that it's hard to say who the most dangerous is.Contador keeps on saying that Liége will be just an "experience race" for him (but he said the same things also before of Giro 2008),while many people thought that Vinokourov would have abandoned Trentino during the last stage (in spite of being the GC leader) because he wanted to be at the top for Liége. Therefore,me thinks that Vino will be ready to give battle,even if Contador will be there as well in the end.And look out for the couple Gasparotto-Iglinskiy!
BBOX BOUYGUES TELECOM: Bichot, Charteau, Fedrigo, Gautier, Lefevre, Rolland, Trofimov, Voeckler. Pierrick is racing and me is happy.
BMC: Bookwalter, Evans, Frank, Louder, Morabito, Santambrogio, Zahner. The provisional start list also includes Santambrogio,but me doesn't know whether he'll really race because,from the theoric point of view,the team has suspended him before Flanders for that anti-doping investigation in Mantova.And if BMC had suspended Mauro's suspension (yes,I like stupid words play),Italian newspapers would all be cheering about that right now,wouldn't they? Anyway,this team features the promising Mathias Frank and,more important, the World Champion Evans. Poor Karsten Kroon broke his nose and other 2 bones in his face after a crash in Fleche (I wish him a fast and good recover),so the team captain will be this funny Australian man with a squeeky voice and a rainbow jersey.

CAISSE D'EPARGNE: Erviti, Garcia Acosta, Kiryenka, Lopez Garcia, Moreau, Pasamontes, LL Sanchez, Valverde. Here's another strong team.Kiryenka is oh so going to attack,while LL and Aliejandro,sorry,Alejandro (yes,it was another stupid word play with the fact that "Liége" in Spanish is "Lieja") will probably be there in the end.However I believe that Valverde (2006 and 2008 winner) will be the team captain,while the young LL will be a protected rider.
CERVELO: Deignan, Florencio, Gustov, King, Konovalovas, Sastre, Tondo, Wyss. Oh,Konovalovas is racing just like Wyss! Yes, Fangirl is happy. Anyway I believe the team's captain will be Tondo. "What about Sastre?",I hear you ask.Well, I believe that Sastre will just use Liége as a good test for understanding how his form is,and so he will probably leave the captain role to Tondo,the hero who last week drove for about 1600 kms in order to reach Maastricht before the start of Amstel (me is obviouly aware of the fact that,after writing these things, Sastre will show he is the team's captain since the very first km of race).
COFIDIS: Duque, El Fares, Kern, Kriit, Moinard, Moncoutie, Pauriol, Taramaae.Attention to Taramaae-he's not afraid of attacking and has the chance of getting a good result.
EUSKALTEL: Anton, Galdos, Isasi, Egoi Martinez, Oroz, Perez Lezaun, Sesma Sorbet, Velasco Murillo. Anton showed a great form in Fleche and he may double the show tomorrow in the last kms.
FRANCAISE DES JEUX: Cherel, Di Gregorio, Le Mevel, Meersman, Roux, Roy, Sulzberger, Vaugrenard.
GARMIN TRANSITIONS: Hesjedal, Kessiakoff, Lowe, D.Martin, Christian and Cameron Meyer, Peterson, Stetina. Hesjedal is a very good rider (2nd in Amstel last week),but also Kessiakoff is a good climber.
LAMPRE FARNESE VINI: Bono, Cunego, Gavazzi, Loosli, Mori, Pietropolli, Righi, Spezialetti. Cunego will probably feel the pressure of the fact that the Italians haven't won a Classic/Grand Tour since October 2008 ,just like the Gazzetta journalists love reminding to the readers every single day.He was 3rd in 2006 and I believe that,if he's in form, he can really do something good (although this week he didn't look very brilliant to me).As far as the others are concerned, Loosli is in super form.
LANDBOUWKREDIET: Bellemakers, Commeyne, De Waele, Delfosse, Dockx, Ricci Poggi, Scheirlincx, Verheyen. Well,a team whose name is "Landbouwkrediet" must have someone with surnames like Scheirlincx or Bellemakers in it,doesn't it? Although 'Delfosse' sounds like an Italian surname (it would mean 'of the ditches'),Sebastien is Belgian,just like Riccì Poggì,ehm,, Ricci Poggi is French.And then in this team there is also a rider called Bart (Dockx) and another one called Bert (De Waele).Anyway,talking about tomorrow's race,and not about the riders' surnames, me hopes that De Waele will get a good placement.
LIQUIGAS: Agnoli, Bellotti, Finetto, Kreuziger, Nibali, Pellizotti, Santaromita, Willems. Another very strong team, with the trio Pellizotti-Nibali-Kreuziger ready to give battle. Pellizotti however is getting ready for the Giro so I think he won't have a leading role.Kreuziger showed his form in Fleche,just like Nibali.They're both young,cunny,talented and brave,so I think that they'll be a danger for everyone tomorrow.
OMEGA PHARMA LOTTO: Aerts, Brandt, Gilbert, Kaisen, Moreno Fernandez, Peraud, Van Den Broeck, Van Goolen. Gilbert,the boy who lives near La Redoute,desperately wants to win this race after winning Amstel and so he'll give it all to try achieving this dream of his.He's a good climber,he's fast and he's got a great punch,so he'll be dangerous for everyone if he arrives in Saint-Nicolas with the best riders' group.The team will support him completely.
QUICKSTEP: Barredo, Cataldo, Chavanel, Devenyns, Devolder, Pineau, Seeldrayers and Van De Walle. Chavanel, Barredo and Van De Walle were seen at the head of the peloton during this week ,but I believe that the most dangerous in this team (together with them) is Seeldrayers. Devolder once wanted to win the Tour and has won 2 Tours of Flanders,but I don't know whether he'll be able to keep the pace on La Redoute.
RABOBANK: Freire, Garate, Gesink, Martens, Menchov, Moerenhout, Tankink,Ten Dam. Fangirl is happy because Menchov is racing (the Giro is approaching and I keep on annoying my sister about last year's result of that race),although the Russian who suffers from spring allergies (how I understand him!) has said that Liége will be just a test for him.Therefore,look out for Gesink.If he doesn't crash/puncture and if aliens don't kidnap him during the race,he could be dangerous.And I'm curious to see which role Freire will have.
SKY: Calzati, Carlstrom, Cummings, Froome, Gerrans, Lovkvist, Nordhaug, Wiggins.Oh,finally I have the honour of seeing Lovely Lovkvist's name in a start list.Wow. Wiggo is preparing the Giro,so he should be already in good form. Anyway I believe that the team's captain will be Lovkvist.
TEAM HTC COLUMBIA: Albasini,Guldhammer, Lewis, T.Martin, Monfort, Siutsou (how can he be in the start list if he broke his collarbone last month?),Van Garderen,P.Velits. Policeman Toni Martin (scoop from Miss Sansen's blog http://sansenmag.l%20ivejournal.com/182793.html ) will be the captain,whereas TJ Van Garderen showed a good condition in Tour of Turkey.
KATIUSHA: Ivanov, Klimov, Kolobnev, Mazzanti, Rodriguez, Vandenbergh, Vantomme, Vorganov. Kolobnev,Ivanov and Rodriguez showed an incredible form over the last days and they'll be at the front also tomorrow.Look out for them!
MILRAM: Frohlinger, Gajek, Gerdemann, Knees, Rohregger, Voss, Wegmann. Linus is going to be team captain's in Giro,so he should be already in good form.
RADIOSHACK: Busche, Hermans, Horner, Kloeden, Paulinho, Zubeldia. The Chinese rider Li resulted positive at the anti-doping after a race in March and was suspended by his team (news: http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/radioshack-suspends-li-after-doping-positive ).This has obviously caused some exaggerated title on some websites (for example, "Armstrong ramt af dopinskandale" by http://www.sporten.dk/cykling ),but since my blogging idea about doping is "let's talk about it as least as possible",I will go on with the start list and won't spend useless words about this. Horner is in good form,so he'll probably be the captain together mit Andreas Kloden.
SAXO BANK: Didier,Fuglsang,Jorgensen,Andy and Frank Schleck,N.Sorensen,Voigt, Steensen. Yes,I know that Cyclingnews says that also Chris Anker will race tomorrow but believe me, he's not racing.In fact he received the "you can go back training on the asphalt" message from the doctors just yesterday,so I don't believe he'll immediatly come back racing in tomorrow's Liége. Anyway, the team is strong.Didier has showed his talent also during Fleche,Jorgensen and Steensen are precious helpers and I guess there's no need to talk about Nicki Sorensen,Voigt and Fuglsang to make you understand how good they are.The captains will be the Schleck brothers and hopefully Frank will be the one who'll raise his arms to the sky in Liége.
TOPSPORT VLAANDEREN-MERCATOR: Armee, Baugnies, Coenen, De Gendt, Jacobs, Neyens, Van Hecke, Vanspeybrouck.

So,this is the start list.Now it's time to try and give my race predictions,starting from last year's winner Andy Schleck.Last year Andy seemed stronger to me (yes,I know you disagree),although this year his motivation is probably as high as never because,apart from being the 2009 winner of La Doyenne,he's also just become uncle.Lots of people then expect a lot from him this year, but this shouldn't be a problem since it seems that Andy can stand pressure in a perfect way. However it is also true that this time the other riders will try not to let him get away from the group all alone.And if Andy arrives in Liége together with a guy like Valverde or Gilbert,well,he's likely to be outsprinted by them (at least in theory).Anyway this year the parcours seems even harder than last year's one and so Andy and his teammates will have more opportunities to make their adversaris become tired before they arrive in Liége.
As far as Frank Schleck,is concerned,I think he's even more motivated than Andy and on him there is less pressure than on his brother.His form is very good and I think that Andy tomorrow will race for daddy Frankie rather than for himself.Anyway the sprint problem worths also for Frank.In fact I believe that he can outsprint guys like Evans or,say,Kreuziger,but I don't think he has many chances against Gilbert or Valverde.
And here we come to Gilbert.He's very motivated,knows the race by heart,he's in a perfect form and has already won Amstel last week.He's fast and can keep a high pace on climbs,so he's one of my race favourites,although we must remember that a wrong day can happen to everyone (Philippe included).

Valverde, just like Gilbert, is fast and is a good climber,although his form doesn't seem as good as Gilbert's one. Attention also to his teammate LL Sanchez.
Evans is in a great form,but he has to arrive alone because he's not very fast.The same worths also for Kreuziger,Gesink and Nibali, while Cunego and Garzelli are riders who can get good results if they're on the right day.And then there are the Astana riders,aka Contador and Vinokourov. Vino always tries getting good results and has already won Liége,while Contador is there just to get more experience.Should we trust him?
Joaquim Rodriguez was second last year,but also Ivanov and Kolobnev will be very important for his team.
Then there are obviously the "outsiders" (if we can call them this way) like Igor Anton, Toni Martin, Hesjedal, Horner, Gasparotto, Iglinskiy, Lovkvist and De Waele (first names that came into my mind).Hoping that one of the Schleck will win,I close this post with a pic from last year's Liége and some random links about the brothers.

RANDOM LINKS:

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/frank-schleck-sees-a-future-at-flanders : I totally agree with Frankie,especially when he talks about the management going to murder him if he decides to change his season schedule.
http://lequotidien.editpress.lu/index.php/les-sports/10852-Nous-avons-les-jambes.html :interview with Frank.
http://lequotidien.editpress.lu/index.php/les-sports/10851-Les-Schleck-centre-dbat.html :article about the Schleck brothers.
http://msn.tv2sporten.no/sykkel/schleck-gjoer-et-nytt-forsoek-paa-soendag-3191305.html : video interview featuring super cute Andy Schleck with unshaved upper lip.
http://www.saxobanktakingthelead.com/?p=2928 :ok, it's an interview with Jonas Jorgensen, not with the Schleck brothers,but you know I have a weakness for Danish cyclists who race for Saxo Bank team,so don't get angry at this poor mad Fangirl.

Wishing you all a good evening and a happy sight of 2010 Liége,I close this post.Allez Schlecks!

(pic by Bettini)

Saxo Bank vid + Random News:

In those days the effects of nearly 3 months spent without watching any cycling road race on tv have begun to show.And since I can't avoid to talk about cycling at least on this blog,here's another usual random post about many different things.

First of all,on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rAXH9uUuhQ there's a vid about the usual bike fitting that the Saxo Bank riders have to face every year.The vid features Frank Schleck, Jens Voigt,Frank Hoj and JJ Haedo,and for some Fangirls it may be a very nice thing to see.The vid has also allowed myself to notice the gap between Frank Hoj's front teeth,which is a wonderful thing that makes him enter my special list dedicated to people with this characteristic. In fact my dentist once told me that I absolutely had to do something about the gap between my own front teeth,because it was an horrible thing to see.Since that day (and after changing dentist) I started to keep a mental list about people who have this facial feature as well,because I deeply believe that it is a very classy particularity (feel free to disagree ;).

Btw,let's go back to cycling.Jakob Fuglsang's knee is really giving him problems (check his Twitter for more info) and so I can officially state that my dear online translater isn't a liar.

An interesting cycling link that I've found today is the one to Chris Anker Sorensen's blog (http://%20blog.tv2.dk/%20chris.anker.ol/entry356119.html ).He updated it yesterday and wrote that he's happy to be Jonas Aaen's roommate,"because he's a good boy and also because he's brought lots of films to watch.This is a very good thing because I watch the Spanish tv just when they show the Real Madrid-Barcelona football match",Chris writes.

Here instead there's a pic of SB new jersey.Its back is white and black,a design choice that I absolutely approve because it reminds me of the good old days back in 2007.RANDOM NEWS NOT ABOUT SAXO BANK:

Giro jerseys: also the Giro now has its own maglia roja,which has replaced the old "ciclamino" jersey for unknown reasons.

The Cobra's Comeback:: today edition of the Gazzetta has 2 pages dedicated to cycling.Good thing,you may think.And instead no,this isn't a good thing.At least,it isn't a good thing when one of the pages is dedicated to Armstrong and the other one is dedicated to Riccò. Yes,Riccò. The dude has answered Cavendish and Pinotti's comments about his comeback.About Cavendish,he pretended not to remember his name.About Pinotti (who,on his Twitter,once wrote "Read on magazines that cobra and salbaneo "have learnt the lesson" and dream about coming back in the Giro;it make me puke") ,Riccò said that he's hoping that Pinotti will get over his health problems soon and stop puking.What a classy man,what a champion! (now I stop talking about him because otherwise I'll end up with Pinotti's same stomach problems).

Saxo Bank new sponsor and 4 random links:

Yes,Saxo Bank has found a new sponsor for the team.Its name is SunGard and it is a company that provides softwares,disaster recovery services and does lots of other things (you can read about them in the following article).The company won't be the main sponsor of the team this year (or at least,that's what I understood) and will work with Riis also in 2011.

Of course I think this is a very good news for the team and I hope Bjarne will soon find another sponsor for his riders.Allez guys!

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/sungard-signs-on-as-sponsor-for-team-saxo-bank
US IT firm signs on for one year as minor sponsor
Team Saxo Bank has signed US-based SunGard as a new sponsor for the team this year. The information technology firm will not serve as name or co-sponsor, but the news gives some much needed morale support to the team after Saxo Bank announced they would terminate their support at the end of 2010.
SunGard is one of the largest privately owned companies in the US, with annual revenue exceeding $5 billion. According to its web site, it “provides software and processing solutions for financial services, higher education and the public sector. SunGard also provides disaster recovery services, managed IT services, information availability consulting services and business continuity management software.”
“This agreement sends a very strong signal, and it could not come at a better time,” team manager Trey Greenwood told sporten.dk. “It is a real scoop for our team.”
While the amount of the sponsorship was not announced,it was speculated to be anywhere from one million dollars to “several million dollars”.According to Greenwood, “it is not enough to be a co-sponsor,but it is big enough to change some things for us.”
Team owner Bjarne Riis did not dismiss the notion that the sponsorship might be expanded in 2011.“It is a great sponsor who wants to be here. Whether it could ultimately become something more remains to be seen. The important thing is we get them on board and we now show them what we have to offer, " Riis told sporten.dk.
Greenwood added,“Compared to the exposure you get as our sponsor,you will certainly get back more than you paid for.”
That is exactly what the company is hoping for.“We see a great potential to improve SunGard's brand awareness and visibility as a global IT business by sponsoring Team Saxo Bank.We are pleased that SunGard now stands stand side by side with one of professional cycling's leaders,” according to a statement issued by Brian Robins, SunGard's director of marketing.
The agreement provides the team with more than moral support, though.It “means that we can pass this year on the same or slightly higher level than last year.And we can keep a level we can be happy with and start with some of the steps we'd like.”

RANDOM LINKS
http://blog.tv2.dk/chris.anker.ol/ :Chris Anker Sorensen has updated his blog with a funny list of "Goals achieved during the 2009 season".In said list,cycling is just very briefly mentioned.

http://www.sporten.dk/cykling/dansk-stjernerytter-skadet :according to Sporten.dk,Jakob Fuglsang is having some problems with his knee and his training camp may already be over after just one day.Me warmly hopes that the online translater is not telling me the truth and that,in case my online translater isn't a liar,Jakob's problem isn't too serious.

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/saxo-press-conference :link to SB press conference.I've watched it this afternoon and I've really liked it,also because it rememberd me why I like the Schleck brothers so much.

http://www.pezcyclingnews.com/?pg=fullstory&id=7900&status=True&catname=Latest%20News The title of this interview,"You gotta love Kenny Van Hummel",speaks clearly about its topic.

Few Random Links:

After a super busy week,here I am again.I haven't written anything in the last days not just because of the lack of news,but also because I had a lot to do between school and other random things that happened to me this week.For example this week I had to cope with a Jeohvah's Witness who wanted to save my soul and gave me a free copy of a very funny magazine.This scene happened on Wednesday evening,while I was risking to die of hypotermia (ok,I'm exaggerating) because the bus I had to take had a delay of 15 minutes (it may seem a normal delay,but I always get annoyed when a bus is late and I've been waiting for it for almost 45 minutes).Well,there I was,looking very tired after a long day of school,when this woman came up to me and offered me a magazine.I read the title and my reaction was "Oh man,I've come across a Jeohvah's Witness for the first time in my life!" Luckily the woman realised that I wasn't in a very religious mood in that moment,so she just asked me few questions about my relationship with the Bible and religion and then told me that I had to love the Bible if I wanted to get the etern life as a premium.Then she disappearead in the fog.

On Monday instead a man in a car stopped me to ask for information (he wanted to know the direction for my school).Then,after hearing my answer,he asked me whether I wanted to get in his car and help him to find his way to my school.It's unbelievable to think how disgusting men can be...

Anyway,I don't want to bore you any further with my personal tales,therefore here are few cycling links.
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/breschel-joins-saxo-bank-teammates-on-mountain-climb :during Saxo Bank's boot camp,Matti Breschel twisted his ankle.Btw he's now alright and even joined his teammates in a night trip on a Fuertaventura climb.The boot camp is now over and Fangirl is waiting for some info about it to come out in the Net.
http://www.saxobanktakingthelead.com/?p=1870 :that's a really nice interview with His Amazingness Jens Voigt,in which he talks about the past,the future,the present,the Tour's fall and his children (also Andy Schleck is mentioned in it).
http://blog.tv2.dk/chris.anker.ol/ :Chris Anker Sorensen updated his blog before of the beginning of the boot camp,that's the link.
http://www.sporten.dk/cykling/nicki-s-touren-overskygger-alt :After giving so many links about CA in the last weeks,I couldn't keep on ignoring the other Sorensen,right? If someone's interested,on that link there's a good (even if short) interview with Nicki (I didn't know he lives in Italy!).
http://www.saxobanktakingthelead.com/?p=1898 :nice video interview with the Schleck brothers (both wearing suits).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTUaj2K10z4 :if you like tribute videos starring the Schleck brothers and/or you break into tears every time you see the images from the 2009 Liége and/or the Grand Bornard stage,that's a link you may enjoy.
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/bettini-accused-of-tax-evasion: yes,after Rebellin,also Bettini is having tax evasion problems.
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/pereiro-admits-retirement-is-very-probable :I really hope that Pereiro will change his mind,he's a very good rider and IMO he doesn't deserve to end his career in this way.

Vids with the Schlecks,little news about Frank,2015 Championships and random links about Horrillo and CA Sorensen:

I've been incredibly busy in this period and this is the first time I can find a few minutes to write a post about what's going on in Cycledom,so here it is.
First of all: the Schleck brothers stuff.The little news about Frank is that he has confirmed to Luxembourg Wort that he proposed to Martine in Curaçao (original link: http://www.wort.lu/wort/web/sport/artikel/57486/wir-haben-uns-verlobt.php )."I actually wanted to tell this to my father",Frank said,"but a journalist couldn't keep the news for himself and so people got to know about my proposal in a very fast way,faster than I would have liked to.Anyway it's true,Martine and I are getting married". No words were said about the rumours regarding a possible "baby Schleck" coming soon.
Still talking about Frank:here' a vid that was made at the Velomania presentation in which you can see him playing with some kids: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Fptc-qXe88 .
On http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJTpqRbar-g instead you can see Andy's visit to the redaction of the Spanish magazine "Ciclismo A Fondo" and a part of his challenge against Burry Stander.
Instead if you enjoy watching the usual tribute vids that are often dedicated to Andy,that's the right vid for you: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rt5koJK8VdY .

Anyway,the most important newsdu jour connected with Cycledom,at least IMO,is that the city where I live wants to host the 2015 Cycling World Championships.

Of course I'm very happy for this news and really hope that my city will be chosen.Ok,I know I'm not impartial at all when I talk about this topic,but I think lots of people will agree with me when I say that a race lap around the city of Bergamo would be nice not just from the "landscape" point of view but,more important,it would be very nice also from the cyclistic point of view.In Bergamo there are some very hard climbs (just think about the Boccole one),so I think that a Worlds race in Bergamo would be very nice for the supporters and hard for the riders.

Of course,as I already said,I'm writing these lines in a very impartial way,but I'd love my city to host the Worlds also because in 2015,if everything goes well,I'll have a degree and perhaps I could even manage to find a temporary job in the Worlds period (according to my plans for the future,in 2015 I should be able to speak 6 languages,so I could work as a translater somewhere). Anyway Logic believes it's better to stop talking about this topic now,otherwise Fangirl will be too disappointed if Bergamo doesn't turn out to be the winning city.In fact,although the winner of the "Worlds city competition" will be known in about 1 year time,Fangirl's already trying to imagine what would happen if she was employed as a translater in the Luxembourgish or Danish hotel...

Other news (that will probably interest you much more than the one about Bergamo): Cancellara will receive the silver medal for the Beijing Olympic Games RR after Rebellin's positivity for CERA.The bronze medal will go to the other Saxo Banker Alexander Kolobnev. Unlucky Andy,who got 5th in the race,is now 4th,but according to Logic he will be consolated by the attribution of the 2009 Fleche Wallonne victory.

Link regarding Pedro Horrillo: http://www.gara.net/paperezkoa/20091116/166878/es/De-todo-intento-sacar-positivo-experiencia-ha-enriquecido .On this link there is a long interview with Pedro Horrillo,the Spanish rider who had a very bad crash during the Bergamo stage of the 2009 Giro.Talking about a possible comeback,Horrillo said: "Even being able to ride my bike again is a great thing to me,since cycling is my job and my passion.My team (Rabobank) has offered me the chance to renew my contract,but (...) I prefer to see if I can reach a decent level before of coming back racing again,since I don't want to come back racing if I'm not at a decent niveau.Btw I'm getting better and I believe I'll manage to reach this level.If I can reach it,it will be wonderful.Otherwise,it will be hard,but...(...) For the team,my comeback has a big emotive meaning,but I still don't know if I'll be able to come back.I don't want to become obsessed with it.I prefer to take things step by step and,if I decide to give up racing,it will be because I really can't go on and it won't be a trauma.(...) And if I continue,I know it won't be easy,especially at the beginning,but I can always decide to give up if I notice that I'm suffering too much.I'll talk with the team about this,I want to be clear".Of course me really hopes that Pedro will be able to come back racing again.Good luck!

Last news: you've probably already heard the news regarding CA's missed anti-doping warning. Chris yesterday updated his blog and wrote:"I talked about my missed anti-doping test in my book not because I want to criticize the Danish Anti-Doping service.In fact I believe that they do a good and necessary job,but I really do hope that one day there will be so much confidence in cycling that the whereabouts-rules will become less strict.As I often say,I don't have anything against the anti-doping system and I give my disponibility to make as much tests as they want.I talked about what happened in July just because I wanted to give people an insight of how the anti-doping system works.It isn't easy to update the whereabouts data very often and I hope that people have realised this.However,I am pleased with the feedback I have received,lots of people have been positive to me and this means a lot to me".
Chris missed an anti-doping test this July,two days after the end of the Tour de France.In fact the evening of the last stage of the French race he flew back to Denmark and the following day he rode a race in Kjellerup.On that evening he and some friends had a party and so the young Danish rider decided to spend the night in Kjellerup and not at his parents' house.Little problem,the Anti-Doping guys went to control Chris at his parents house the following morning and couldn't find him,so he received that warning.
Of course when Fangirl firstly read the headline of the news ("Chris Anker Sorensen receives a warning for missed doping control"),she immediately went "WTF has happened?" but,as soon as she read the article,she could understand that there was nothing to worry about.In fact I believe that Chris just wanted to talk about how strict he anti-doping rules are and not create a scandal or something similar (the evil part of me thinks that it's also a way to sell the book better,but Fangirl immediately cancelled this possible reason from my mind).
Btw,a little question remains: why do the anti-doping guys have to control a rider on his first bike-free day after 3 weeks of races? And then,why do they have to control him in the morning? I don't have anything against the anti-doping guys,but I can't find any answer to this question (sadism isn't a reason,right?).

And now that I remember,there's another question to which I can't find any answer and it is:if Chris Anker Sorensen isn't blonde and hasn't got blue eyes,how can you dear Cyclingnews boys still get confused between the 2 Sorensens (Chris and Nicki) and publish pics of Nicki instead of the ones of Chris and viceversa? I really have no clue about this.I can understand people who get confused between Frank and Andy Schleck (after all,they are very similar to one another),but getting confused between Chris and Nicki Sorensen,well,I guess it's a bit like confusing HGS and Ballan.

Curaçao stuff + news about O'Grady and Bellis:

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

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

NEWS ABOUT CONTADOR,O'GRADY AND BELLIS:

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

Random Post:

Yes,here's my usual random post with random news about random things.
JAPAN CUP RACE: Fangirl doesn't believe (or,better,she doesn't want to believe) that the 2009 season is "already" over,not just because this means she won't be able to watch any cycling road race on tv for the next 3/4 months,but especially because she's waiting for the Japan Cup Race on Sunday before of starting getting depressed.Said race is important for Fangirl because it's Chris-Anker Sorensen's last chance to win a race this year.According to the team website, Saxo Bank team for the race will be formed by both los Sorensens,Jens Voigt,Michael Morkov and Gustav Larsson.

WAITING FOR THE GIRO: the awaiting for the Giro parcours already started last month here in Italy,but in the last days I've began to feel it as well,especially after reading the news that Milano won't be included in the 2010 race parcours(http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/%20giro%20-ditalia-to-skip-milan-in-2010 ).Considering that the Corsa Rosa probably won't arrive in my city either,Fangirl's already asking:Where the hell will I go to see the Giro live? Btw,Logic has suggested her waiting until Saturday before of getting depressed about this as well.
CIAO CIAO BULBARELLI: Yes,Italian chronist Auro Bulbarelli is leaving his job.This news is oh so heartbreaking,especially because we Italian tifosi won't have any chronist left to talk about food during the Tour de France stages.Btw,I'm sure that the famous "Sorensen sentence" that every Italian cycling fan has heard at least once (and that says:"There are 2 Sorensens in the Saxo Bank Team,one is Nicki and the other one is Chris-Anker.Nicki is the one who won a stage during 2009 Tour de France,while Chris-Anker is the one who didn't win anything.Oh,and remember:the 2 Sorensens aren't relative") will survive even after the departure of his creator.
PINOTTI WINNING A TT (http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/pinotti-ends-season-on-high-with-time-trial-win): The funny thing about this TT was that the rider who came in 2nd is Ivan Basso's cousin.And guess who came in 3rd? Yes,Ivan Basso.
GALA DI CONEGLIANO: Tatiana Guderzo has been the first woman to receive the Atena d'Argento (an Italian prize that is given to the best cyclist of the year) and I'm very happy for her. Together with her at the Conegliano Gala there were also Cavendish and Menchov,and you can see Cav talking Italian and Menchov understanding Italian and speaking Spanish on this link: http://www.gazzetta.it/Ciclismo/20-10-2009/russo-annata-d-oro-501682599139.shtml

BYE BYE MARCUS AND KURT: Yes,Marcus Ljungqvist and Kurt-Asle Arvesen have decided to leave the Saxo Bank team because they are both going to Team Sky (Marcus will be Sky ds,while Arvesen of course will continue his career as a rider).Some articles about them can be found on http://www.riis-cycling.com/
LAMPRE AND ASTANA CHANGINGS: According to La Gazzetta dello Sport,after the Lombardy Tour Cunego got angry at Santambrogio and Tiralongo got angry at Cunego.Solution: Santambrogio is riding for BMC in 2010 and Tiralongo is riding for Astana.Gasparotto hasn't argued with nobody,but he's going to Astana anyway.
CHRIS ANKERS BLOG (http://blog.tv2.dk/chris.anker.ol/): 2 posts in 4 days,one of which has an Italian title ("Ci dispiace ma hai dimenticato la tua mortadella",aka "We're sorry but you've forgotten your mortadella") and is very hilarious one (if I have time,will and enough linguistic skills I may translate something from Sorensen's blog during the winter months).
VID WITH ANDY (http://www.youtube.com/teamsaxobank): Yes,I know,you've already seen it for about 5 times,but Andy looks sooo nice in this vid! Anyway,a question about Andy and Frank:is it true that they're going to Curaçao? Please answer "yes" or "no" if you have some sure info about this.

Video with Andy,some Worlds team and random randomness:

School began yesterday here in Italy,so me's terribly busy right now.The first 2 days went,erm,well,if you don't consider my epic fall in the school car park on the first day and the problems with my mobile phone this morning.My dear mobile in fact started ringing even if it was off and kept on ringing for a while because Logic didn't accept the idea of an "off-phone" who suddenly switches on and starts to ring.The teacher of course was pretty annoyed by this,noticed that the ring seemed to come from my jacket,looked at me and said: "Your mobile phone is ringing,why don't you switch it off?" "It's already off!" "No,it can't be off,it's ringing!" Of course Teacher was right and Logic was wrong.The problem was that 5 minutes later,the phone started ringing again! I immediately stated "It's not mine,my phone is off NOW! It's someone else's!" And instead it was still my phone.Finally a classmate suggested that perhaps I had the alarm clock function on ("it works also when your phone is off",she explained to me later),so I gave her the phone and she managed to make it shut up.Oh,peace.
Anyway,let's talk about cycling.

I've found this video (http://www.saxobanktakingthelead.com/?p=1610) on Saxo Bank Taking The Lead.It features Fuglsang,Arvesen,Andy and Model Matti and I decided to watch it because right now my right knee is violet with yellow and green stripes,so I thought that watching some serious injuries could have made me feel better...The audio doesn't work and I can't uderstand why.A little advice? Prepare yourself mentally before of watching the vid...

WORLDS WORLDS WORLDS:

The 27th of September is rapidly approaching,so yesterday Italian team was announced.The riders will be Cunego,Pozzato,Basso,Paolini,Garzelli,Tosatto,Bruseghin,Visconti,Santambrogio (yay!),Scarponi and Ballan.The only Italian who's going to race the Worlds TT race is the Professor Marco Pinotti.There was an other Italian rider (Maurizio Biondo) scheduled to run that race,but he failed an antidoping test and had to said adieu to the chance of racing the Worlds.

The women Italian team will be formed by Baccaille,Guderzo,Cantele,Berlato,Bronzini, Carretta,Luperini and Tamanini (Cantele and Guderzo will run also the TT).

Switzerland team instead will be formed by Fab Fab,Albasini,Bertogliati,Mathias Frank (yay!), Rast and Zaugg.The reserves will be Loosli,Salzinger and Morabito.

Belgium riders instead will be Tom Boonen,Francis De Greef (Fangirl's happy,very happy!), Kevin De Weert,Maxime Monfort,Nick Nuyens,Greg Van Avermaet and Maarten Wynants.The team leader will be Philippe Gilbert.

Devolder hasn't been included in the team and has said that this has been "the biggest humiliation" of his career.

Germany's team instead will be formed by Gerald Ciolek,Johannes Fröhlinger,André Greipel,Christian Knees,Paul Martens,Tony Martin (allez Tony!),Grischa Niermann,Marcel Sieberg and Fabian Wegmann.The reserve will be Simon Geschke.

Netherlands has announced 5 of the 6 Worlds riders.They are Lars Boom,Johnny Hoogerland,Robert Gesink,Karsten Kroon and Koos Moerenhout.Laurens Ten Dam,Sebastian Langeveld,Bram Tankink and Pieter Weening are the candidates for the final place.

Usa riders will be Tom Danielson,Tyler Farrar,Brent Bookwalter,Craig Lewis,Andrew Bajadali, Jason McCartney,Tim Duggan and Tom Peterson.

VUELTA:

Yesterday stage was won by Lars Boom,who left all his breakaway companions behind with about 25 kms to go and won the stage with 1'30" of advantadge on the second rider,Spaniard David Herrero.3rd was Roels,while Saxo Banker Kolobnev was 6th.

Today's stage ended up in a bunch sprint and was won by André Greipel.2nd was Bonnet,while 3rd was Bello Benna.

RANDOM RANDOMNESS:

First random news: Baden Cooke has signed a contract with SB.

Second random news: Jakob Fuglsang has Twitter.Probably you already know about this,but don't forget that me's been away from a computer for 15 days and so this is a news to me.

Random link: http://blog.tv2.dk/chris.anker.ol/entry335317.html :yes,Chris-Anker Sorensen has updated his blog.He talks a bit about USA and about his preparatin for the Worlds.He also compliments on Wozniacki's great performance in tennis.

News news news...Links links links

So,here I am again after having spent some days in the only city where your pics can be spoiled by double red buses driving on the street.Of couse I had a lot of fun,saw lots of nice places, sometimes thought about le Tour 2007 and become addicted to Starbucks (why doesn't it exist in Italy,why?).
Anyway.
Lots of things have happened in the last 5 days,here's a small resume.
VINO'S RIDING THE VUELTA: This news has totally shocked me,myself and I,aka me,Logic and Fangirl.Logic was speechless after having read this news,while Fangirl started blattering something about the Tour 2007,Astana,Davide Cassani,the Chickenman,the Tour 2008,Blood and Bleah.

Rasmussen won't be racing because of a rule that says that a rider must sign a contract with a team 20 days before of the beginning of a race.Perhaps,rather than Vino,I would have preferred to see the Emaciated Chickenman riding on the Spanish roads.

NIBALI BROKE HIS COLLARBONE: I don't know what the Italian newspapers wrote about this news,but I can imagine it.Nibali was one of the riders who could have raced the Worlds for the Italian team,but now his season is over because he broke his collarbone at the Eneco Tour.

Of course Italian ct Ballerini is having big problems with choosing the riders for the Worlds.The only rider that will surely be on the team is Ballan.Then,between the riders who are "under observation",there are Cunego,Basso,Visconti,Bertagnolli,Bertolini,Nocentini,Paolini,Bosisio, Bruseghin,Tosatto,Garzelli,Pozzato (aargh!),Santambrogio and probably other guys I can't remember right now.

NO POSITIVE RIDERS AT THE TOUR 2009: Or not yet,at least...Of course newspapers gave little space to this news,while instead they wrote a big article when,some time ago,someone said that there would have been at least 20 positive riders after this year's Tour.

ENECO TOUR: The GC of the Eneco Tour was won by Edvald Boasson-Hagen.Sylvain Chavanel came in 2nd,while 3rd was Sebastian Langeveld.Best Saxo Bank racer was Lars Bak, who came in 7th in the final GC and also managed to win a stage.
TOUR OF IRELAND: The GC of the Tour of Ireland was won by Russell Downing,who also won the first stage and came 2nd in the last one.Lars Nordhaug (winner of the last stage) came in 2nd in the final GC while Matti Breschel came in 3rd.4th in the GC was Kolobnev,while 5th was Professor Pinotti.The 2nd stage of the race was won by Cavendish.

LINKS LINKS LINKS:
Here are some Saxo Bank links and news.
JENS VOIGT RENEWS CONTRACT WITH SAXO BANK TEAM: http://www.riis-cycling.com/ny_news.asp?n_id=2488 .His Amazingness will be racing for Saxo Bank team at least until the end of 2010,and me's very happy to hear this news.Allez Jens!
CANCELLARA LINK: http://bazonline.ch/sport/weitere/Es-ist-meine-letzte-Chance-im-eigenen-Land-Weltmeister-zu-werden/story/11128933 (German).Answering to one question about the Worlds Championships,Cancellara said: "It's hard to decide which race is the most important for me,the TT or the road one.I've already been World TT Championship twice,but I haven't won any title on the road yet.So the idea of winning the road race appeals more to me.But on the other hand,it's also true that this one is my last chance to become World Champon in my own country and I've got more chances of victory in the TT race than in the road race one.In Mendrisio there will be lots of fans on the road and this means a lot to me".

ANDY SCHLECK TRIBUTE VIDEO: http://www.saxobanktakingthelead.com/?p=1390 .

I found this video on Saxo Bank website and I think it's a pretty one.I especially like the parts regarding the Liege,because they remember me of all the fears that I had during the last 10 kms of that race.In fact you must know that every time one of my favourite riders is alone on a breakaway,even when victory seems very close,I keep on having fears like: "Now he blows up.Now he falls.Now he runs over a dog.Now a fan makes him fall.Now his bike breaks."I know it's foolish,but that's it.

Videos and Pics with the Schlecks!

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

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

But also Frank looks good in these pics...

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

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

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

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

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

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

Frank's vid from Saxo Bank website plus 2 little news:

So,here are some vids from Saxo Bank website.
The first one (http://www.saxobanktakingthelead.com/?p=1023) is Frank Schleck's "diary of the day".The Luxembourgian rider is struggling to finish a book and says that the Tour has been going on well for him.His pick for today's stage winner is Cavendish.
This other video (http://www.saxobanktakingthelead.com/?p=984) was made by Chris-Anker Sorensen in his hotel room and features also the other Sorensen,Nicki.Me thinks that the Schleck brothers would have fit perfectly in this vid.
The last vid from Saxo Bank website is the following: http://www.saxobanktakingthelead.com/?p=1009 and it's an interesting little tour on the team bus.

Little news: according to Italian newspapers,Dean and Freire were shot by 2 boys of 16 and 17 year-old that wanted to feel strong emotions and kill boredom.Unbelievable.

Second news: Although yesterday Simon Spilak crossed the finish-line 45 minutes after Haussler and 23 minutes after the gruppetto,he's started today's stage.This because yesterday he encountered lots of fans and traffic on the descents and this clearly made him lose a lot of time.Hopefully today's stage will end up better for him.