Vuelta, Hamburg, Cycling Market, Worlds and more:

Ok dear readers, it's finally time we started talking about la Vuelta and other random randomness. Unfortunately I couldn't write anything earlier because of some little problems connected to university - and, unfortunately, I won't be able to write anything in the next two weeks, because my parents have decided that our family holiday will start on Saturday. And guess what? I still don't know whether during that holiday I'll be able to watch la Vuelta. I mean, Smiley Menchov is climbing the Angliru in a few days time, and I probably won't be able to witness that event. Isn't that annoying?

Anyway, let's start talking cycling before I get too angry. First thing to mention, the Italian races of the last few days, which saw a great Rebellin get a stunning victory in Trofeo Melinda. The other day I read on la Gazzetta that his team doesn't have the biological passport, so I now have an explanation for his last efforts. I usually don't have doubts about riders who ride really well (I never doubted guys like Gilbert, Cancellara, Evans, etc. ), but imo Rebellin's latest results are too good to be true. Riders usually struggle with finding the race rythm again when they come back racing after a 2 years ban, but right now everything looks terribly easy for Davide - just like, in 2009, everything seemed easy for Riccò.

Anyway, let's leave my suspicious thoughts aside. Italian summer races are always nice because they allow supporters (and the head of the Italian team) to uderstand who the best national riders are. And Trofeo Melinda gave us very good news the other day: in fact Moreno Moser, who is a stagiare, went on a breakaway with 30 kms to go and he was caught just 25 kms later. Moreover, another stagiaire (Moreno Battaglin) was 7th, whereas the young Ratto was 4th. It's great to see the Italian young guns riding so well!

Talking about another topic, Gibert has officially signed for BMC which, next year, will have a very competitive team formed by Hushovd, Evans and PhilGil. Although Phil and Thor may have little contrasts during Sanremo and Tour of Flanders, I believe BMC will be the strongest team of the world in 2012. In fact, no one else has 3 champions who can win every Classic and GT stage they want and who can be competitive from February to October.

Still talking about cycling transfers, Leopard Trek has recently given a contract to Gregory Rast, a solid helper. GreenEdge instead has signed the 'climbing sprinter' Simon Gerrans.

A breakout news of the other day instead says that Vinokourov is already planning to come back racing at the Tour of Lombardy. If he really makes it, I may go watching that race with a Vino 4 ever t-shirt on (ok, just kidding).

After mentioning Leopard Trek, let's talk a bit about los Schlecks: after taking part in different criteriums, the brothers are going to race in the Tour of Colorado, which starts this evening. I would have preferred them to race la Vuelta, but los Schlecks seem to prefer the new American races to the traditional European ones: not only did they race the Tour of California in May (when they could have taken part in the Giro), but now they've preferred the Tour of Colorado to la Vuelta. Less pressure, I suppose.

Talking about the good old European races, yesterday the Hamburg Cycleclassics was won by an amazing Boasson Hagen. I think it's strange for him not to race la Vuelta (after all, he's one of the main contenders for the Worlds victory), but the guy surely knows what's best for him. Second in the race was Gerald Ciolek, whereas third was Borut Bozic. Fourth was a great Simone Ponzi, a young Italian who would deserve taking part in the Worlds. Talking about La Squadra, Bettini will have a tough time in deciding the names of the Italian riders who will take part in the Worlds. In fact Paolo would like to create a team formed by guys like Ulissi, Ponzi, Malori and Modolo - but will these young guns be able to resist in a race as long as the Worlds? That is the question.

After talking about the Hamburg Classic, let's talk about la Vuelta, which took off with a TTT in Benidorm. Unfortunately I couldn't see that stage, but of course I do know the result: an amazing Leopard Trek won in front of Liquigas and HTC. There were many crashes on the first stage and amongst the crashers du jour there were also Davide Viganò, David Blanco and Nick Nuyens. Brajkovic, on the other hand, had a mechanical right after the start. Cavendish instead didn't have any crash / mechanical, but he crossed the finish-line 2' 40" after his teammmates. Strange, isn't it?

The first rider to wear the red jersey was a happy Jakob Fuglsang, whereas a disappointed Carlos Sastre created a little polemic inside his team (source: Gazzetta dello Sport). In a few words, Carlos said that the team (ds, managers, so on) doesn't give enough support to their riders. According to some rumours, Smiley Menchov was even less smiley than usual after the TTT (after which he lost 39" from Nibali) and apparently he complained about his team as well. Geox guys must have done something very bad if they really managed to annoy Menchov: he never looks pissed off and he didn't even insult me when I stalked him heavily in San Pellegrino Terme!

Anyway, back to the TTT: another team who lost a lot of time was Sky (37"), who had some problems with riders losing contact from their teammates. Euskaltel did better than usual, whereas Astana was a good 4th (5" of delay from Nibali).

Yesterday the riders faced a 174 kms long stage from la Nucia to Playa de Orihuela. 4 brave riders went on a hopeless breakaway and the bravest amongst them was Adam Hansen, who probably wanted to put a remedy to his poor TTT (he lost contact from his teammates halfway through the stage). Everyone expected the sprinters to battle in the last meters of race, but no one (not even the race chronists and the journalists) had considered a little climb (about 300 meters with an average of 5%) that the rider had to face with about 800 meters to go. Also many riders looked shocked by that little climb and this makes me wonder why they didn't know about it.

HTC started pulling with 10 kms to go and that was a suicide-move. In fact Cav soon found himself with just 4 helpers, whereas other teams still had lots of riders ready to help their sprinters. With about 3 kms to go, Leopard Trek took the lead. Cancellara, O'Grady, Viganò, Bennati: everything was perfect. Unfortunately in the last curve of the race no one could keep Viganò's wheel, therefore Davide found himself at the head of the race, without knowing that his teammates weren't following him (at least, that's what Bennati said). However, Viganò wisely decided to try his luck, but he was swallowed by the peloton on the little climb before the finish-line. At that point HTC and LT's leadout trains broke down and Boonen tried to attack. Unfortunately for the Belgian, it was still too early and he was soon outsprinted by other guys. Sky's Christopher Sutton followed Omega's Reynes as the Spaniard attacked and he outsprinted the Vicente in the last meters of race. Third was Marcel Kittel, whereas 4th was Farrar, 5th Breschel and 6th Bennati.

"I knew it was a hard uphill finish", a happy Sutton told Cyclingnews. "Someone from Lotto accelerated and I jumped on his wheel. I thought, 'This is a long way to go.' But I looked back and no one was there. I thought, 'Alright, I've got this one.' To win today is a dream come true. I can't believe it". Reynes instead almost broke into tears after the finish-line, whereas a happy Bennati received the fourth red jersey of his career.

Today the Vuelta riders will face another flat stage which features a little climb with 13 kms to go. The victory will probably be decided by a sprint, in which Matthew Goss surely won't take part. In fact the HTC rider abandoned the race yesterday because of some physical problems.

Rest day: some reflections about yesterday's stage

Yesterday evening miss Fede decided not to write anything about the TdF stage won by LL Sanchez. In fact she was  too angry for what happened to Flecha and Hoogerland and too sad after hearing about Vinokourov's broken femur, so she went out to try to distract herself. Unfortunately, it didn't work. In fact, it's hard to forget that one of my favourite riders (remember that I'm a member of the AAVL!) probably ended his career yesterday, although he still had lots of plans for the future. Moreover, another rider who I really like (Hoogerland) had to abandon all his dreams of glory after being hit by a car and landing on a barbed wire fence, so you can understand why yesterday I wasn't in the right mood for writing a post. And even today, almost 24 hours after the end of the 9th stage, I'm having problems in writing down something decent.

As written, Hoogerland yesterday was badly injured because of a car who caused him and Flecha to fall off their bikes. If the riders threatened to boycott the Zoncolan stage of the Giro because of the presence of Crostis, I wonder what they should do tomorrow to protest against what happened to poor Hoogerland and Flecha. Moreover, if the riders once said that the Tour organisers were 'Assassins' (TdF 1910, if my memory doesn't fail me), I wonder what they should have said about the Tour's car drivers after yesterday stage.

Anyway, what happened during yesterday's stage?

First of all, Contador crashed. Again. He hurt his right knee and, apparently, this is creating him some problems.

Secondly, after 45 kms of race a breakaway was created. Said breakaway was formed by very strong guys: Voeckler, LL Sanchez, Casar, Hoogerland and Flecha (at the beginning there was also Terpstra, but then he got dropped). Talking about Sanchez: until yesterday Luis Leon (whose brother is a soccer player that Inter tifosi learned to love some time ago) had won two stages of the Tour - and both those stages had taken place on the 11th of July. Considering that this year on the 11th of July (aka today) there isn't any stage, Sanchez thought it would have been better to go on a breakaway on the 10th. And, in case you're wondering, yes, in the end he did win yesterday's stage.

With about 85 kms to go, supporters had to stand the sight of a dramatic and surreal scene: an Omega Pharma Lotto rider (GC contender Van Den Broeck) was lying on the asphalt, in the middle of the road. Two riders from Astana, instead, were running in the woods, looking for something - or someone. In fact, their leader Vinokourov had crashed as well and he had ended up straight into the forest, thus breaking his femur.

The following scenes were even more dramatic: while Van Den Broeck hopped back on his bike in spite of a collapsed lung and other injuries (he rode for just a few meters before giving in) , some Astana riders had to help Vino (who couldn't even walk) to get out of the forest and back to the asphalt, where the whole team was waiting for the Kazakh rider, who was forced to abandon the race because of a broken femur.
As predictable, Vino's retire made me (and Rolf Sorensen) really sad. Love him or hate him, one can't deny that Alexander is a very brave and attacking guy, one that can make an interesting stage out of a boring parcours. The Astana leader had great plans for this year Tour, in which he wanted to end up in the Top 3. Moreover, this should have been Vino's last Grande Boucle, although he had recently stated that, perhaps, he would have taken part in the London Olympics too. Unfortunately, considering that it takes about a year to recover from a femur fracture, I'm afraid the Kazakhstani won't be able to come back racing at the top level anymore. And this really hurts me, because since last April I became a supporter of Vino and I really hoped that this year he would manage to wear the maillot jaune for at least one day. And instead no, the dreams of Vino and of his supporters ended in that curve. Broken bone, broken dreams and, probably, broken career (*girls of AAVL sigh and cry*).
Unfortunately, Vino and VDB weren't the only riders who fell in that point. In fact also David Zabriskie and Fredrik Willems crashed and they both had to retire from the race.  DZ broke his wrist, whereas Willems became another fan of the 'Broke your collarbone!' movement.
Also Brent Bookwalter crashed and felt dizzy during the last part of the stage, but tomorrow he's likely to start. Another guy who fell off his bike during yesterday's stage was Andreas Kloden, who right now has problems with his back.

Unfortunately, the guys mentioned above are just the ones who crashed with 85 kms to go. In fact, supporters had to stand one last surreal scene before the end of the stage - and said scene was probably one of the most shocking I've ever seen.
Right after Vino/VDB/DZ/Willems' crash, the peloton slowed down a lot because everyone wanted to be sure that no one had got badly injured. In the meanwhile the 5 breakawayers du jour kept on racing at a normal speed, so that they soon reached 8 minutes of advantage on the chasers. Omega Pharma Lotto chased for some kms because Gilbert wanted the stage win, but then they gave in and it was Garmin's turn to work at the front. However, at that time Hushovd had already abandoned every hope of keeping the yellow jersey, so his teammates didn't make lots of efforts in chasing the 5 men at the front. Therefore, with 40 kms to go, Sanchez, Flecha, Voeckler, Hoogerland and Casar already suspected that they would have made it to the finish-line (at the time in fact they still had an advantage of 5 minutes) and Thomas probably began to dream about the yellow jersey.
Unfortunately, with 36 kms to go, Hoogerland and Flecha's dreams of glory were shattered by a terrible crash. In fact the Spaniard was riding quietly when, all of a sudden, a car (yes, a car) hit him, making him land on the asphalt. On the other hand, Johnny Hoogerland (who, at the moment of the crash, was behind the Sky rider) flew over his bike and landed on a barbed wire fence, thus having his legs cut in different places. The car (which, according to Italian tv, belongs to the French press) didn't even stop to check the riders' conditions, but continued its travel towards the finish-line. Voeckler, LLS and Casar couldn't help but keep on riding.
In spite of the terrible injuries and the broken bikes, Flecha and Hoogerland luckily managed to get back on their bikes. The Dutchman hopped back on his vehicle a few minutes after the Spaniard and he soon found himself at the back of the peloton. The Vacansoleil rider had blood all over his legs, looked very shocked and gave it all to reach the finish-line, so that he could wear the polka dots jersey during the podium ceremony (in fact, the poor thing had spent the whole day collecting points at the GPM).
He eventually ended the stage 16 minutes after the winner and 6" after Flecha, who soon found himself at the back of the peloton too and who stood side by side with Hoogerland in the last kms of race.
The Spaniard looked much more pissed off than the Dutchman and he clapped his hands ironically as the peloton overtook him. Johnny Hoogerland would have probably done the same, if only had he had the strength.
Of course, as Flecha and Hoogerland were riding slowly to the finish-line, the show had to go on so that, at the end of the day, Voeckler (who, in the morning, was just 1'30" down in the GC) got the yellow jersey, whereas Sanchez won the stage and dedicated it to his pregnant wife.
Although the GC contenders didn't attack each other in the last little climb, Ivan Basso lost 8" and Contador had problems in following the wheels of the best riders. If someone had attacked, the consequences could have been much worse.
After the stage, Flecha and Hoogerland were awarded with the 'most combative rider' award. Johnny also received the polka dots jersey and burst into tears on the podium.
I thought of Wouter Weylandt very often yesterday and I'm sure that, in that moment, the Vacansoleil rider probably did the same.
A few hours after the end of the stage, the car that caused Flecha's crash was expelled from the race. People keep on talking about safety in races, but now I really wonder why there are so many cars at the Tour. The team cars, the press cars, the motorbikes of the photographers, the Mavic cars, the motorbikes of the doctors, the ambulances: they all have the right to stay in the group. Unfortunately (according to Italian tv), the car that caused yesterday's crash was a car carrying some guests to the finish-line of the race. Now, can't these fucking guests get to the finish-line by driving their own fucking cars, like every other mortals do? If they want to watch both the start and the end of a stage ,they can go watching a TT- or they can go to Liége - Bastogne - Liége. But really, the guest cars are the most absurd thing on Earth. Especially when they follow the riders like they did yesterday - a thing that they couldn't actually do. I understand that some cars are necessary inside the peloton, but I really can't understand the existence of the guests cars (sorry for the use of the f*** word, I had a little 'Gordon Ramsay moment' there).

Still talking about yesterday's stage, let's focus for a while on the competitive aspect of this year Tour (yes, it may shock you, but the Tour also has a sportive aspect).
As you all know, on Saturday there was the first uphill finish of the race and the victory went to the brave Rui Costa. Vinokourov (sigh!) tried to get the yellow jersey but he failed, since Hushovd kept the wheels of the main GC contenders in a superb way. Considering his form and the fact that almost everyone is crashing, I think that the Norwegian can make it to the top 30 of the race.
Anyway. In the last two days we've also had the chance to see how Andy (and Frank) Schleck have decided to race. And in both those days, their main concern seemed to be Contador.
The brothers both looked great in the last two stages, but I think that they'd better pay a lot of attention to Evans right now. In fact, Cadel is feeling much better than Contador, has a strong team, a winning mentality and is a super time trialist. Contador, on the other hand, doesn't look as strong as he was in the Giro. Andy has focused on him so far and that is good - but he must remember that he has other contenders apart from the Spaniard.
And then, dear Andy, a little question: why didn't you attack yesterday, in the last km of race? Today it's the rest day, so I don't think it would have taken you too much to recover. And then, Ivan Basso lost 8" although no one attacked. What if you had made a little move? Perhaps the seconds would have become a bit more - and this is important, considering the 39" that cost you the 2010 Tour.
Of course this is just a random suggestion by a supporter, but I'm tired of having my uncles asking me 'Why didn't Schleck attack?' after every stage featuring a final climb!
PS: Given that you've been so kind to bear all my Maturità talks in the last few weeks, miss Fede is glad to tell you that she received her mark two days ago: 100 out of 100 (yes, the teachers gave him the 5 points bonus that those who do well in the written parts of the proves deserve). I don't say this to blow my own trumpet, but because I think you deserve to know this fact. And that's all from me for today.

Some cycling news plus Royal Wedding Fever (yes, I've come down with it too)

Almost one week after my last post, here I am writing a few things about cycling and about (guess what?) the Royal Wedding. Oh yes. You thought you could break free from the 'event of the year' by ending up on this blog, didn't you? Well, sorry to disappoint you, but I've come down with 'the Royal Wedding Fever' too. If you feel you can't stand another long comment of someone about the 'marriage of the century', go to the second part of my post: I won't be offended by your decision.
Actually, in the last months I did try to ignore the royal marriage as long as I could. After all, I don't know Kate and William, so I thought that I shouldn't have cared so much about their wedding. 'Just leave them a bit of privacy, poor things!', I thought every time I heard news about their marriage.
Just this morning I abandoned my indifferent attitude and I started feeling pretty excited about the wedding. So excited (and curious) that, as soon as I came home, I abandoned my dignity in the garden, entered the house and immediately asked: 'What was Kate wearing this morning?!?' to the first person I saw (who was my dad, aka the only creature in the house who hadn't watched the wedding). Ok, perhaps I've exaggerated this part. Actually, I must confess that the first thing I asked as soon as I entered the house was: 'How many seconds of advantage does Sorensen have on the peloton?'. Then, I asked about the wedding :P

In the last days I've tried to give a reason for all the big interest around weddings and , in particular, I've thought a bit about why women love marriages so much.
In my opinion, there are at least three elements that make most of us women go crazy about weddings. First of all, there's a 'historical' reason, if we can call it this way. In fact, girls start hearing stories like 'Snow White' and 'Cinerella' when they're 3/4 year old and they don't forget about them until they eventually come down with Alzheimer. These fairy tales enter our girly genes as soon as we start understanding things, just like they entered our mothers and our grandmothers' genes in the past. And how do these fairy tales always end? Well, simple: there's a commoner who marries a gorgeous prince and has an amazing wedding. An amazing wedding with 4 WHITE horses pulling a carriage, the prince wearing his best uniform, the bride wearing the most beautiful dress ever and the church bells ringing happily as soon as the married couple leaves the church. Now, compare this typical 'happy ending' of a fable to the story (and the marriage) of Kate Middleton: there isn't any difference,is there? (No, the fact that William is becoming bald can't be considered a difference). Imo, that's what we girls love so much about important weddings: every time, it's like watching a fairy tale that comes true.
Another important 'marriage love' factor, imo, is that there's a truly important wedding just once (or twice) every 30 year. Watching it (even if on your own little telly) makes you feel like you're part of the history of the world, it makes you able to say 'I was there!' when people in the future will talk about the wedding of William of England and his wife. After all, who doesn't love being part of the world history?
As we girls grow up, actually, another 'wedding love' factor makes its appearance on the stage: the love for dresses. And where can you see more dresses than at a wedding? And where can you see more dresses than at a royal wedding?
I think it's because of these three reasons that many people (especially women) couldn't help watching the wedding this morning (or catching up with it this afternoon). Apropos, thank you BBC News for the super long coverage!!!

Anyway, I realise I'm digressing. Talking about the Royal Wedding, I must say that I really liked it. Kate looked very nice and natural and with William she forms a very nice couple. Talking about the Prince, my mother's best comment about the ceremony was: 'Poor guy! And to say he had so much hair when he was a kid!' Btw fear not, William: you can ask Berlusconi what treatment he used to make his hair reappear on his head again. If it succeeded with him, it will surely succeed also with you.
Talking about fashion, I really liked the dresses worn by Kate (of course), by her sister, her mother and by Victoria Beckham. As far as the Queen is concerned, my sister said 'she looks like a banana'. I actually found her very sweet, in her yellow dress, looking like a normal granny who goes to her nephew's wedding. Actually, this morning the most discussed issue at school was: how does William address to her grandmother? I mean, does she call her 'Dear Grandmother'? Or does he refer to her as to 'Her Majesty'? Or do Harry and Will simply call her 'Betty the Granny'? (It's a fascinating topic of discussion, isn't it?)
Still talking about today's topics of discussion at school, one of the most 'successful' ones was the following: 'which prince am I going to marry?' Here you have some pictures of the Princes that haven't got married yet. Most of my friends went for Harry, but I'm afraid that they're not the only ones who had this idea today, while watching the marriage...
Talking about the nobles who took part in the ceremony, it was nice to see the faces of some people whose existence I had ignored until this morning. I was really curious to see the Grand Duke of Luxembourg (of course) and I was shocked when I saw the dresses of two of the members of the Royal Family (the Duchesses of York, perhaps?). However, I was very relieved that no one from Italian government attended the ceremony. Otherwise, we would have distinguished ourselves in a negative way even today. Moreover, I was very happy to see that no one from Casa Savoia went at the wedding either. I wouldn't have beared it if Emanuele Filiberto had started singing and dancing at the post-ceremony party. In fact, whereas Holland has a guy like Boogerd taking part in 'Dancing with the Stars', the Italian edition of the programme has had the Prince Emanuele Filiberto amongst its most famours performers. Thanks God Italy's no longer a monarchy.

CYCLING NEWS:
After expressing my few trivial thoughts about THE wedding, let's finally talk about cycling. Today was a joyful day for the whole AAVL, who could cheer for Vinokourov's victory in Neuchatel stage of Tour de Romandie. Vino followed Toni Martin (who had attacked with 2 kms to go) together with Cherel and he eventually won the eventual 3 men sprint. Cherel complained about Vino's way of sprinting, but imo the Kazakhistan rode in a correct way. The Frenchman tried to pass where there was no space, it's not Vino's fault if he made that mistake!
Still talking about Tour de Romandie, yesterday stage was won by Damiano Cunego and everyone was very happy about it (at least here in Italy). Moreover, CA Sorensen tried to escape from the peloton yesterday and he tried again this afternoon. Today he's even remained alone at the front o the race for some time, before being eventually caught with just 10 kms to go. Chris looks very good in these days and this makes me ask why he's not taking part in the Giro (and the same goes for Vinokourov and Cunego).
A rider who certainly won't take part in the Corsa Rosa is poor Daniele Bennati, who crashed two days ago in Romandie and broke his right collarbone and 4 ribs. I wish him a fast recovery and I hope he'll be able to race problems-free in the second part of the season.
Also Kiserlovski has had some physical problems lately. The Croatian rider in fact has just discovered that he has a cracked vertebrae, which is a consequence of his Paris-Nice crash (the one in which he ended up under a truck parked at the side of the road). Hopefully he'll be able to take part in the Giro, since I have high expectations on him.
Talking about another race that is going on right now, Tour of Turkey is a goldmine for sprinters. In fact, every stage of the race so far has been won by a sprinter. Today it was the turn of Andre Greipel, whereas Saxo Banker Jaroslaw Marycz, who attacked in the last km of race, couldn't get to the top 3. However, chapeau for trying.
So, these are some of the cycling news of the last days. As you can see, it isn't much. In the next days I'll probably post something about the Giro, so stay tuned!