Unstoppable Cavendish takes the rainbow jersey!!

First of all, let's say that I'm not in a very good mood right now. I couldn't see the Worlds 'live' (I've just finished watching the recordings), I didn't sleep enough last night and I must learn how to write every letter of the Cyrillic aphabet in corsive characters before tomorrow. Therefore, I hope you will forgive me for the bitchy moments that I'll have while writing this post.

So, the Copenhagen Worlds 2011 - also known as the only Tour de France flat stage that was raced at the wrong time of the year (today, 25th September 2011) and in the wrong part of Europe. Seriously,in my opinion the only difference between the Copenhagen Worlds and the boring flat stages of the Touris the fact that the winner of a TdF flat stage usually receives a yellow jersey, whereas the cyclist who won today's special stage received a special rainbow jersey.

To prove you that I'm not joking when I say that today's Worlds race was just like a TdF stage, I'll give you 3 proves:

First: HTC ruled the race, just like it usually does at the Tour.

Second: the last 2 kms of race featured 8 traffic islands, one roundabout and a curve with 800 meters to go - just like at the Tour.

Three: Thomas Voeckler attacked.

Anyway, back to 'seriousness'. During the whole race (which lasted 5 hours and 40 minutes) I counted three thrilling moments: the final sprint, the crash that destroyed Hushovd's hopes of winning another edition of the Worlds and the moment when they showed Bjarne Riis next to his super-hot son. Yes, these were the three top moments of the race. Every single breakaway in fact looked hopeless even before it was created, especially because the whole British team worked extremely hard in order to chase every man that managed to break clear from the peloton. The funny thing is that, since Great Britain didn't look strong enough, with 18 kms to go someone (the Irish rider Brammeier) decided to help Wiggo & Co. in their attempt of chasing the brave riders (Voeckler, Lodewyck, N. Sorensen and Hoogerland) who had just managed to create the last, desperate breakaway. Of course, the British/Irish poursuivants succeeded without problems.

The last 5 kms of race were the only exciting things of the day. Great Britain looked perfect, Australia was struggling to find a place in the sun for Goss, Italy and Spain were desperately trying to create a leadout train. Sagan was in the first part of the peloton, Boasson Hagen was invisible, the cameras still hadn't caught a glimpse of Farrar's face.

And in the end, after about 5'39" hours of race, the final sprint began: Cavendish ruled it, Goss arrived second, an amazing Greipel was third. Fourth was a super surprising Cancellara (well done to Barbara who yesterday evening included both him and Cav in his 'top favourites' list!!), 5th was Roelandts, 6th was Romain Feillu. The underestimated Bozic was 7th and he crossed the finish-line right before Boasson Hagen, Freire and Farrar. Sagan was 12th, Bennati was 14th. Frank Schleck didn't finish the race whereas his brother Andy didn't bother taking part in it because of some strange connections between his wisdom teeth problems and a possible heart muscle infection (his words, not mine!).

Anyway. The 2011 Worlds have come and gone and they'll always be remembered as the race with the easiest parcours of the last 10 years. Cipollini, who won the rainbow jersey in Zolder in 2002, said that this year the parcours was even easier than on that occasion. As an Italian chronist said, 'this year the roads of the Worlds Championship didn't choose the World Champion of cycling, they chose the World Champion of sprinters'. Of course we all know that Cavendish is a champion (he won Sanremo in 2009 and everyone knows that La Primavera isn't an easy race at all), but this parcours was simply too easy to be fun/good: not a hill, not a climb, not a slope. Nothing. I personally compared it to a TdF stage, but with a difference (as well as the 'colour of the jersey' one): in the TdF you need also a lot of luck to win a flat stage and, even if you fail winning the first bunch sprint of the race, you can give it another try about 24 hours later. This afternoon, instead, it was a matter of 'do or die': those who weren't lucky enough or who had problems with their leadout trains will never get a second chance.

Talking about 'having problems with your leadout train': Italy made a mess in the last kms of race, but I think everyone expected that. Bennati is a good rider, but not a champion, whereas Modolo and Viviani are still too young to win a World Championship. Criticising the boys is useless, because Bettini created the best possible team for this Worlds. And if you're disappointed because the Azzurri didn't win any medal, then go ask the Italian Cycling Federayion why they didn't allow us to bring Petacchi to Copenhagen.

So, the 2011 Worlds week is over. Now some riders will go on holiday, whereas some will keep on fighting until Tour of Lombardy. In the meanwhile, cycling market and polemics will surely keep us busy: Cancellara and Fuglsang in fact have recently announced that they've signed a contract with team RaNT (chorus of 'Nooooooo!!' coming from the fangirls of the whole world), whereas Teutenberg, Bronzini and Vos reacted openly to Pat McQuaid's words about the creation of a 'minimum wage rule' for women riders. The UCI president in fact has stated that the women's movement 'hasn't developed enough' to deserve a rule like that. Of course, these words are going to create a very hot debate in the next days.

PS: LeopardTrek's information system gave us another special moment this afternoon. In fact, right after the race, on their Facebook page they published an article called 'Cancellara takes the bronze medal also in the Road Race!' Amazing, isn't it?

A fabulous Andy Schleck triumphs on Galibier:

The last months have been tough for Andy Schleck. First, Beer-gate. Then, his new team. In April, the critics for his poor performances in the Ardennes Classics and for the fact that he takes part just in a few races. In May, the tragedy of Wouter Weylandt left him (and us) shocked after seeing what can happen when bad luck meets the descent on which you're following your dream and doing your job. In June, Andy was criticised because of his performances at Tour de Suisse. In the last two weeks, instead, he's been facing the Tour de France and he's been criticised for his lack of attacks, for his complaints about the stages and for his habit of turning his neck backwards while riding - a habit that has earned him the nickname of 'torticollis' amongst his colleagues. But still, Andy didn't let the critics take over him. He kept on saying that he would have given it all on the Alps and, in the end, that's what he did.

At the start of today's stage, the riders knew that they were going to become part of the long history of the Tour. For the first time, in fact, the Grande Boucle dared to challenge its Majesty the Galibier.

The approach to the climb wasn't easy. Galibier wanted to show everyone that he, the mountain, had a complete control on the Tour which, after all, is just a human thing. Nature is stronger than everything and the snow threatened the parcours of this stage until yesterday evening. Luckily, in the end the Giant was clement, although he wanted the riders to respect a deal: they could have ridden there, towards the highest finish-line of the history of the Tour, only if they were going to give it all. This stage was ready to enter history and the Galibier offered the riders the chance of becoming part of a living legend that, since the beginning of the 20th century, has been travelling across France.

This morning, the atmosphere at the start village in Pinerolo was electric. On one side of the boxing ring, Thomas Voeckler, the rider who, in the last days, has become the son, the lover, the father of the French cycling and, of course, of the French people. The Frenchmen wrote his name all over the climbs, they supported him with all their heart and all their soul: but this morning, Thomas knew that he might have had to abandon the maillot jaune. On the other side, his adversaries: people who have trained all year long in order to win the Grande Boucle, whereas Thomas' goal at the start of the race was a simple stage victory. Amongst T Blanc's rivals there were the tenacious Evans, the dancing Spaniard Contador, his ally (and best friend on wheels) Samu Sanchez, the Italians Basso and Cunego and the Schleck brothers, ready to take revenge on those who had criticised him in the last days.

The Tour left Italy by riding on Colle dell'Agnello. A colourful parade made of sufference and dreams took place on the road that divides and unifies Italy and France and a colourful river of supporters did its best in supporting the riders in their quest for glory. Some brave riders, as usual, tried their luck. Some did it because they were looking for a day of glory, some because they wanted to improve their position in the GC, some because they were ready to help their captains. This was the case of Monfort and Posthuma, who put their egos aside in order to help the Schleck brothers.

On the Izoard (where I fell in love with Andy Schleck in 2007), a thunder, a bolt, an eagle leaving its nest: Andy Schleck escaped from the group, without looking back. 'Is he crazy?, many people wondered. No, Andy isn't crazy: he had upsetted people with his racing style and he knew he had to give something back to his supporters, to his family, to his team. He knows that the recipe for glory is made of grit, determination and braveness and he mixed all these elements in order to paint a masterpiece on the roads of France. He slowly gained time on his rivals who, laughing at his efforts, underestimated him. On the top of Izoard he met his faithful helpers and Monfort led him to Lautaret together with Devenyns, whereas Chris Anker Sorensen and the Invincible Armada formed by Euskaltel and Saxo (when will the Basque riders abandon their kits in order to wear an eagle on their jerseys?) were chasing hard in the peloton. Voeckler looked worried, but he wasn't ready to give up.

A few days ago, talking about the stage towards the Galibier, he would have said that it wasn't going to his battle. After a crazy stage with a crazy epilogue and a crazy car driver, instead, he found himself at the top of the cycling world, ready to give it all in order to keep the 'maillot jaune' with him for another day.

With 17 kms to go and after more than 40 kms of breakaway, Andy Schleck had a gap of 3' 50" on T Blanc and his rivals. His teammate Monfort, a loyal helper, couldn't ride with him anymore and, at the beginning of Lautaret, he blew up. Andy didn't worry about that because he knows that true deeds, in cycling, always see one man crossing the finish-line alone after challenging bad luck, tough climbs and pain.

When the gap between Schleck the Younger and the group of the yellow jersey became an abyss made of 4 minutes, his rivals started to react. Evans, the tough Aussie who's lost two Tours de France in the last 5 years, decided to fight back as soon as he saw that also this time the Tour was slippng out of his reach. Without receiving any help from Voeckler, Cadel pulled and pulled. The comparison between him and Schleck was unfair: Evans in fact started pulling with 20 kms to go, when Andy had been on the move  already for 40 kms. However, Galibier is a Giant who likes braveness and that knows how to reward it: Andy the Brave (yes, this time he really deserves this nickname) was the first rider in the history of cycling to triumph on its peaks, he was the first one to come out of the mist and raise a rageous fist to the sky, from which his former teammate Wouter probably looked down and smiled.

Frank Schleck, brother of Andy (and, this time, their brotherhood was something to be proud of, and not an obstacle to their chances of winning the Tour), crossed the finish-line in 2nd, thus entering in the history of cycling and in the history of his country: two Luxembourgian at the start of the Tour, two Luxembourgians on the top of Galibier.

Evans, worn out but still full of grit and rage, was 3rd, whereas a super Voeckler gave it all once again and managed to hold on to his yellow jersey (which becomes even more yellow day after day) for just 15". This afternoon the whole France applauded that boy - but the whole cycling worlds applauded also the lanky Luxembourgian who found the braveness to attack with 60 kms to go, thus trying to change the story of this Tour with a deed that would perfectly suit someone like Coppi.

As Thomas Voeckler rejoiced, Evans chased his breathe and his rage and Schleck couldn't believe what he had done, Ivan Basso and Damiano Cunego crossed the finish-line, making a whole country proud of them. In the meantime, others were struggling: Samuel Sanchez broke his tank of energy with a few kms to go, whereas the king Alberto Contador lost 4'. Galibier wanted a hero to win on his top and he was a severe judge for the Spanish champion, who had faced the French roads after his Giro.

Right now, Its Majesty the Galibier is moved by what the riders did in order to reach its top. Tomorrow, however, it'll be ready to pass on the baton to Her Majesty Alpe d'Huez. But first, the riders will have to give their hommage to the Giant once again, before the rocks of that mountain will finally be able to fall asleep once again, helped by the silence of the altitude.

Norway takes possession of the cycling world as the Schlecks defend themselves:

Finally, a good day for the Schleck brothers. I had said that Italy brings good luck to them!

Today's stage had a very fast start, given that many riders wanted to go on a breakaway. In fact this afternoon the riders had to face climbs like Sestriere, Monginevro and Pramartino, but between the last two climbs there were 40 kms of descent. Therefore, many people decided to look for glory on this afternoon's parcours. One of the riders who, unfortunately, couldn't take part in this quest was Paolo Tiralongo who, after suffering from gastritis for a whole week, abandoned the Tour after 70 kms of race.

The final breakaway was formed after  60 kms and it included 14 riders: Amador (the last rider in the GC), Casar, Mollema, Boasson Hagen, Hivert, El Fares, Chavanel, Fofonov, Murayev, Perez Moreno, Paterski, Bozic, Leukemans and Tjallingi. Moreno attacked on the Sestriere and got a minute of advantage on his former companions. On that very same climb, Roche, De Weert and Hoogerland escaped from the peloton and tried to bridge up to the breakaway.

At the beginning of the last climb du jour, Moreno was caught by Hivert, Mollema, Casar and Boasson Hagen. Then Edvald attacked and his former companions could see him again just after the finish-line. This afternoon in fact Edvald manage to win his second stage of this Tour, thus making the Norwegian chronists dance in their studios. He crossed the finish-line 40" before a climber like Mollema and 50" earlier than Casar.

On the final descent, supporters risked 3 heart attacks because of Hivert. The French rider (9th on the stage) firstly risked to end up in a woods, then he did end up in a woods because of a crash and he eventually ended up in the private parking lot of a house. Luckily he didn't hurt himself and, also because of this fact, people could immediately start joking about his riding skills.

'Hivert would like to go looking for mushrooms in the woods rather than ending this Tour de France!', an Italian journalist said at first. Then, when Hivert crashed, the joke was simple: 'He's seen a mushroom!' In the end, when the Saur-Sojasun rider ended up in the parking lot, the journalist thanked the owners of the house for leaving the gate to their parking lot open.

As Hivert was rolling to the finish-line, the GC riders faced the last climb. Contador attacked twice but, luckily, this time the Schleck brothers (and Andy in particular) could follow him in an apparent easy way. When the descent began, I was very worried about the downhill skills of los Schlecks, especially because Voeckler immediately attacked. Unfortunately, the Frenchman had some problems while riding downhill and he ended up in the same parking lot as Hivert. A child dressed up like a savage could have closed the gate of that parking lot and could have started to scream: 'I've imprisoned one!' right after Voeckler found himself in his house, but luckily this didn't happen and Thomas could launch himself in the tricky descent again.

Voeckler's attack however had a big consequence: in fact, Contador and Samu Sanchez (who were following him) found themselves in front of everyone else and, given that they have a similar goal and that they're good friends, the Spaniards immediately started riding 'à bloc' towards the finish-line. Behind them, los Schlecks were doing their best and, with 150 meters to go, they finally annihilated the gap that separated them from the two Spanish riders. Finally, a stage ends well for the brothers. Poor Voeckler and Basso, instead, both lost 27" from their GC adversaries. Thomas wasn't really happy with his result especially because, if he hadn't attacked, he wouldn't have lost time from guys like Evans and Contador. Moreover, this afternoon we had the first hot day of Tour de France. Voeckler, who doesn't like the heat, suffered from that, as we could see by looking at his face during the podium ceremony. It was sunburnt!

After the stage, Contador was really happy and he told Italian tv that he attacked 'because of the Italian supporters. They deserve to see the Contador of the Giro on these roads, so I did my best'. Once again, Alberto, thank you for brightening up this race.

The Schleck brothers were really good at chasing Alberto and Samuel and, once in a while, LT website is right in celebrating the deeds of the two brothers. However, I'd like to point out two little things about los Schlecks:

1. After Contador's attack, Andy turned his head 5 times in 200 meters.

2. The brothers this afternoon were perfect, no doubts about that. But still, I've seen an interview with Frank that was made by Italian tv yesterday evening. And it left me a bit shocked. In it, in fact, Frankie said: 'We did our best on the Pyrenées. If someone doesn't agree, they can tell what else we could have done'. Cyclists often use this kind of sentences, but I've always found them hateful. In a certain way, it corresponds to saying: 'Ok guys, you're incompetent and you don't really know what you're talking about, so shut the hell up'. Unfortunately, since I do know what I'm talking about, I can just say that, imo, the brothers should have attacked on the stage towards Plateau de Beille, even if one of them didn't feel fine. As I already said, if you always want to be together during races, buy yourself a tandem. One can't say that the attacks of the brothers in that stage were serious, because it was clearly evident that they weren't. In fact, on that day Andy would attack and then he would turn his head after less than 3 seconds. Contador, when he attacks, doesn't turn his head for about 5" - and this happens when he's not feeling fine. So, dear boys, today you've been perfect: but please, abandon the 'We are right, the rest of the world is wrong and incompetent' attitude. It's hateful and it won't bring you any good.

On to tomorrow, Colle dell'Agnello, Izoard, Lautaret and Holy Galibier may save the Tour of Contador and, hopefully, of the Schleck brothers. Voeckler is likely to lose the jersey, a thing that will really sadden me. In fact I've learned to like T Blanc in the last days and it will be hard to see him losing the maillot jaune. Although, actually, Thomas may find an ally in the snow. In fact it has been said that, if tomorrow on the Galibier there will be too much snow and too cold, the stage may end on Lautaret. And, of course, that would be perfect for the Europcar rider.

Mors tua, vita mea:

Mors tua, vita mea: the old Latins had already understood that, in life, one's defeat often corresponds to the victory of someone else. And, considering that cycling is a metaphor of life, this old rule applies also to it, just like we could see this afternoon at the Tour de France.

13th stage of the TdF 2011, from Pau to Lourdes. The riders started the stage from one of the most visited towns of the history of the race and arrived in a city that was visited by the Grande Boucle just once, in 1948 (on that occasion the winner was Gino 'the Pius' Bartali). Between the two cities, a giant called Aubisque was ready to create problems to the athletes.

In the morning the atmosphere around the buses of the riders who did well yesterday was euphoric and relaxed at the same time. Basso was describing how his son Santiago had told him off for not having won on Luz Ardiden, Cunego looked as happy as in the Giro 2004 and Voeckler was smiling while wearing the yellow jersey.

However, at the start of the race there were also people who weren't that relaxed. Some adventurers on wheels for example were already focused on entering the breakaway du jour, whereas Alberto Contador refused to give interviews to the non-Spanish journalists and Andreas Kloeden was ready to another day of sufference. The German rider eventually decided to end his Tour shortly after the beginning of the stage and even had problems in getting into the team car.

As soon as the stage began, the riders started to fight in order to enter the breakaway du jour. Everyone wanted to break free from the peloton because today's stage looked too difficult for the sprinters and too easy for the climbers. Therefore, those who wanted to win a stage thanks to a breakaway knew that this afternoon they would have had good chances of making it to the finish-line without being absorbed by the peloton.

After 56 kms faced at a very fast pace, the names of the lucky riders who formed the daily break were decided. And, between those names, there were also some surprises. Sprinters like Petacchi and Hushovd, strong all rounders like Pineau, Boasson Hagen, Fofonov and Tjallingii, time trialists like Bak and Gusev, a climber like Moncoutié and a brave engineer like Jeremy Roy: these were the 9 lucky men who rode peacefully towards Aubisque.

As the 9 men approached the climb, Lars Boom got retired, just like Isaichev and the already mentioned Kloden. Steegmans, instead, hadn't even started the stage because, after 10 days of pain, this morning he finally discovered that he has a broken bone in his hand. Therefore the Belgian decided to say 'Adieu!' to the French race, which so far has been extremely painful for most of the Quick Step riders.

When the Aubisque began, Thor Hushovd was the first rider to try and gain some time on his adversaries. But still, he was soon overtaken by Moncoutié and by Roy, who are less heavier than the Norwegian. The first rider to arrive at the top of the climb was Jeremy Roy who, at the time, had 2 minutes of advantage on Hushovd and Moncoutié. The other breakawayers instead had a bigger delay and therefore they had to say adieu to their dreams of glory with more than 40 kms to go. Dreams of glory which, at the time, had already started to dance in the head of Jeremy Roy.
Now, let's look at Jeremy Roy more carefully: his cycling-ID says that he's 28 year-old, that he's French and that he's been riding for Française des Jeux since he turned pro at the age of 20, although he could actually start racing in a professional way just when he ended his university studies 3 years ago.
Since the beginning of this year Tour from Passage du Gois, Roy has been looking for glory almost daily. Flat stages, mountains, hills, valleys: the Française des Jeux rider gave his best on many occasions and on many terrains. Until this morning, however, the rewards for his efforts had been just the most combative rider award and a decent amount of money (2000 euros), which he earned yesterday by becoming the first rider to ride atop of Tourmalet. As predictable, Jeremy wasn't satisfied by these prizes. In fact he wanted (and he still wants) a stage victory, which he would like to dedicate to his 1 month old baby.

While riding to Lourdes, Jeremy gave everything he had. He ordered his legs to shut up, he tried to catch his breathe several times and he tried to ignore the pain and the fatigue in his muscles. He was on his way to a stage victory in Lourdes, the city of miracles, the city where Bartali won more than 60 years ago: he couldn't believe it and he tried to make his dream last as long as possible. That's why he kept on giving it all, although he knew that two strong guys like Moncoutié and Hushovd were chasing hard behind him.

The World champion this afternoon was as determined as always - or, perhaps, even more determined than usual. Last week he had the honour of covering his rainbow jersey with a yellow one and he lived a great afternoon on Super Besse, as he managed to remain with the best grimpeurs of the world on a difficult climb. Then, on the following day, when he had to abandon the leader jersey, Thor probably realised that he still wasn't fully satisfied with his Tour de France: in fact, the icing on the cake was still missing. And for a guy like Thor (who has won at least one stage of the Tour every year since 2006), the icing on the cake could be just a great stage victory. His will to get a stage win made him enter today's breakaway and it forced him to chase Jeremy Roy with just one thing on his mind: the finish-line in Lourdes, where he could have won in front of thousandth of people, thus making all the Norwegians (and the Norwegian chronists in particular) go crazy once again. But still, in order to win Thor needed to annihilate his delay from Jeremy Roy.

With 20 kms to go, Roy still had a gap of 1 minute on his chasers. His ds was trying his best to encourage him, to make him grit his teeth once again because, in that way, he could have become the first Frenchman to win a stage in this year Tour. Jeremy grit his teeth and kept on pushing hard on his pedals, but the fatigue of the previous days soon started to claim its tribute. While Hushovd kept on pulling hard, Roy started to lose seconds. With 7 kms to go, he had just 20" of advantage on the Norwegian.

The final kms were extremely exciting - and heartbreaking. Hushovd was pulling and gaining time, whereas Jeremy was just losing seconds. 'Come on Jeremy, you still have a chance! Oh no, Thor is getting closer and closer and now even the wind has started to bother you! Poor Jeremy, come on! You deserve this victory and you can stil get it! David is not pulling, so it's a one-against-one battle! Come on boy, you can make it!', people were screaming from behind the barriers, from behind their televisions, from behind their computer screens. Unfortunately, those screams were in vain. With about 1 km to go, in fact, Hushovd overtook Roy with ease. Moncoutié followed the Norwegian, who soon dropped him as well, thus being able to cross the finish-line quietly, with his hands raised above the sky.

A few seconds after him, Moncoutié crossed the finish-line, whereas Roy was the third one to end the stage. Everyone's eyes were fixed on the brave French rider, which started to cry and which didn't feel better in spite of getting the polka dots jersey and the 'red number' as awards for his efforts. "Jerseys are only temporary", FDJ's ds said while talking about Jeremy's disappointment.

As Roy's sportive drama moved half of the cycling world, the other half was amazed by Thor's triumph in a stage between the mountains. By winning today's stage, Hushovd demonstrated that he's a perfect all rounder: this year he won the TdF stage featuring Aubisque, last year he won the cobblestones stage which cost a collarbone to Frank Schleck, two years ago he won on the little climb of Montjuic and a few years ago instead he triumphed on Champs Elysées. Calling Thor 'a sprinter' is unfair and we had a demonstration of that also this afternoon. 'We own the cycling world!', the Norwegian chronists screamed after Boasson Hagen's victory a few days ago. Well, with a rider like Thor, owing the cycling world doesn't even seem that difficult.

While the 'mors tua, vita mea' way of saying found another demonstration of its value in the battle between Hushovd and Roy, the Europcar team led the group on the narrow roads inside Lourdes. Voeckler looked a bit nervous this afternoon, especially when he asked Andy Schleck to help his team in the chase of Gilbert, who had escaped from the group at the end of Aubisque together with Bauke Mollema. In spite of that (and of the fact that the Belgian rider gained 2 minutes in the overall), Thomas managed to keep the yellow jersey in an easy way. Now the question is: will he manage to keep it also tomorrow? The question is difficult to answer, since Voeckler had one of the best days of his career on Plateau de Beille and is determined not to abandon the leader jersey. 'It's incredible how this jersey can transform a rider', Thomas said yesterday evening.
Unfortunately for him, tomorrow Voeckler will have to stand the attacks of the other GC riders, each of which hopes to win the stage and continue the tradition according to which, so far, all the riders who have won a stage ending on Plateau de Beille managed to be on the top spot of Paris podium a few days later. Will the tradition continue also this year? In case of a Schleck's victory, I really do hope so.

PS: Remember the 5 euros I betted on Hushovd yesterday? Well, unfortunately they were 5 imaginary euros. That means, no prize for me (just a big disappointment because I supported Roy in the last kms of race)!

(Pic by Bettini)

Fireworks towards Luz-Ardiden:

Ok, I admit it: I didn't watch yesterday's stage of the Tour because I preferred watching Harry Potter 7 in 3D. And, apparently, I made the right choice.

However, dear readers, the important stage was today's one: in fact this afternoon the Tour officially started also for the serious GC contenders - or, at least, it started for the GC contenders who are still up and running (and they aren't a lot).

So: 12th stage of the Tour de France 2011, from Cugnaux to Luz-Ardiden, on the 14th of July. A big day for Thomas Voeckler, a French rider who rides for a French team and who could wear the yellow jersey on one of the most important days for the French people. And, to my surprise, Thomas managed to keep the leader jersey without problems, so that he'll be able to wear it also tomorrow.

Actually, Logic thought that Voeckler could have been able to keep the leadership in the race, but she would have never imagined that he could have made it in such a brilliant way. In fact, the Frenchman managed to remain with the best climbers of the world for the whole day, showing his determination and his love for the French race to the whole world. Therefore, miss Fede takes the chance to send a big chapeau to monsieur Thomas Voeckler, also known as 'Give me a yellow t-shirt and I'll smash the world'.

Anyway, let's go back to the start of the stage. This morning the riders had three difficult climbs on their menu: Hourquette d'Ancizan, Tourmalet (aaah, sweet memories!) and Luz Ardiden, where Ullrich once waited for Armstrong, who had crashed because of a young supporter who had accidentally hit him with his rucksack. Since Lance was wearing the yellow jersey, the German rider decided to wait for him, thus becoming the protagonist of a good action that is still remembered nowadays.

Apparently, the stages to Luz Ardiden never bring good luck to the riders who wear the yellow jersey during them. This afternoon in fact also Voeckler crashed at the beginning of the descent towards Tourmalet. However, the Frenchman could immediately hop back on his bike and get back in the peloton, which waited for him. 'When the yellow jersey crashes, the peloton must wait for it', the Italian chronist said. Apparently, last year no one had informed Contador about that (or, perhaps, that rule doesn't apply if the yellow jersey has a mechanical).

Unfortunately, Voeckler wasn't the only one who crashed. In fact the athletes who were involved in his crash were a few and amongst them there were also important guys like Peter Velits and Andreas Kloeden. Luckily for Radioshack, tomorrow's stage ends in Lourdes, so that they'll be able to make a pilgrimage there in order to ask Virgin Mary for some good luck.

Also Geraint Thomas, who was one of the breakawayers du jour, had previously crashed in the very same point as Voeckler. The Welsh rider this afternoon showed us that his biking skills aren't actually that good, since in the descent towards Tourmalet he lost 40" from his companions of adventure (Kadri, Roy, Gutierrez, Mangel and Ruben Perez). However, the Sky rider could use his good uphill skills to catch his companions on Tourmalet and he was one of the last riders to get caught by the best climbers.

Talking about breakaways, this afternoon there were many guys who tried their luck. Amongst them there were also Chavanel and Kreuziger, who escaped from the peloton at the beginning of the first climb. I think that Chavanel attacked especially because he wanted to show off his jersey of National French Champion on the Bastille Day, whereas Roman probably hoped to win the stage. Kreuziger gave it all, but he never managed to reach the other breakawayers (the ones who had abandoned the company of the group after a few kms of race), so that his attack was in vain.

Johnny Hoogerland tried to break free from the peloton too this afternoon, probably because in that way he thought he had more chances to finish the stage within the time cut . Considering that our boy ended the stage 21 minutes after the winner and 12 minutes before the gruppetto, I think he can say 'Mission accomplished!' as he goes to bed tonight.

Talking about time cut and gruppetto: poor Denis Galimzyanov won't start tomorrow's stage because he didn't make it to the finish-line within the time cut. The gruppetto itself ended the stage 33' after the winner, which means that today's stage was really hard. Still talking about the gruppetto, this afternoon it was formed by a great amount of riders: 79 riders out of 175 ended the race all together, a few minutes before Galimzyanov. The other riders instead crossed the finish-line slowly, one after the other.

The toughness of the race was also a consequence of Leopard Trek's great efforts at the front. In fact, at the beginning of Tourmalet the whole Luxembourgian team got ready to set the pace at the head of the peloton. Unfortunately, I think that things didn't actually go as planned. Let me explain you why.

The first one to set a high pace at the front was Cancellara, whose efforts were followed by those of O'Grady and Voigt. The German engine made an amazing job and he managed to pull until the end of Tourmalet (and he even remained with the brothers until the beginning of the last climb). 'What's the problem then?', I hear some of you ask. Well, the problem is that, if Jens hadn't felt as good as he actually felt this afternoon, the brothers would have remained without helpers even before the end of the Tourmalet. In fact halfway through the climb guys like Gerdemann, Monfort and Fuglsang had already got dropped. So, what if one of the brothers had had a serious mechanical? Would have they remained all alone because they had run out of teammates?  I can understand that some riders can have a day off, but apparently this afternoon half of the Luxembourgian team didn't feel well. And, considering that this should be the strongest team of the world, I don't think they can be satisfied with that - or, at least, I think they can't be satisfied.

Anyway. End of the first bitchy moment du jour. Let's go on.

On the Tourmalet some important riders (Toni Martin, Robert Gesink, Ryder Hesjedal, Peter Velits, Andreas Kloeden and Christian Vandevelde) were dropped, whereas an amazing Gilbert kept the wheels of the best riders until the end of the climb. Then the wonderful Belgian champion attacked. His move was a bit suicidal, since it didn't bring him any benefit - but still, it was nice to see a Classic rider giving it all in one of the hardest mountain stages of the Tour.

Shortly after the beginning of the ascent towards Luz Ardiden, Kreuziger was caught by the group of the yellow jersey, whereas Roy and Thomas still had a little gap on the best climbers.

With 8 kms to go, Jelle Vanendert and Samuel Sanchez attacked. They found a good pace and they kept on riding together until the finish-line, when Samu managed to get the victory ahead of the 26 year old Belgian. Samu was really happy to win in front of his people (Pyrenées = Basque Country) and to be back in the top spots of the GC, whereas Jelle confirmed his great talent once again. Finally, after getting over some injuries of the past, this young man is ready to give his best - not only in the Classics but, as he showed us this afternoon, also in the GTs.

While Sanchez and Vanendert were riding happily to the finish-line, thus overtaking all the guys who had gone on a breakaway earlier, the battle between the giants of the Tour began. Andy and Frank Schleck, Contador and Evans were all there, but the one who started the duel was Basso, who ordered to his teammate Szmyd to start riding full gas. Sylwester is an excellent and loyal helper, who couldn't do well in the Giro because of a bad bronchitis. But now he's recovered and everyone could see that this afternoon.

While Szmyd was pulling, some talks were going on in the group of the best climbers. Frank and Andy talked to each other, whereas Contador talked to his teammates. Unfortunately, the magic trio of Saxo Bankers formed by Jesus Hernandez, Richie Porte and Chris Sorensen (it was strange to see him riding against my favourite brothers!) soon got dropped together with Nicolas 'Finding Nemo' Roche. The Irish rider soon started to suffer because of Szmyd's hellish pace (the poor thing has a sore knee right now) and it was touching to see him being helped by some teammates who, if only had they been allowed to, would have immediately hopped off their bikes in order to push Nicolas.

When Szmyd ended his turn at the front, just a few riders remained in the group of the yellow jersey, so that the Schleck brothers thought it was time to do something. The first one to attack was Frank, followed by Andy. Then the older brother attacked again until he finally managed to disappear from the sight of the other riders. Frank's attack was really impressive and, in about 3 kms, he almost managed to get back on Sanchez and Vanendert, who crossed the finish-line a few seconds ahead of the Luxembourgian.

In the meanwhile, Ivan Basso tried to attack twice, whereas Andy kept on paying attention to Contador. 'Attack!', I screamed. 'Attack!', I screamed again. 'ATTACK!!!', I shouted. And instead no, the one who attacked was Evans. Our Glorious Leader followed him together with Basso and the magic trio managed to cross the finish-line 13" ahead of Contador (and 20" after Frank Schleck). Cunego lost 5" to these three riders, whereas Voeckler arrived 7" after the Giro winner and thanked his teammate Rolland as they crossed the finish-line. Andy Schleck looked extremely tired as he crossed the finish-line, whereas Basso used some of his energy to turn his head and watch where Contador was.

So, this was today's stage. What can we say about the big GC contenders?

First of all I think that, although this afternoon Contador got dropped, no one should underestimate him. As Basso keeps on saying, 'one can win a Tour with just one attack'. And Alberto, if he's on a good day, can gain lots of seconds with just one attack made at the right moment.

Talking about the other riders, I must say that I loved Frank's attitude during today's race. But still, I think Andy should have tried to attack Evans. Cadel in fact is a very strong rider and, if bad luck doesn't hit him, he can make it to the top spot of Paris podium without many problems. He has the final TT on his side and, considering that he seems very solid also in the mountains, I think that Andy (and all those who want to win this Tour) should try to attack him as much as they can. In about 10 days the race will be over and, until there, the tough stages aren't that many. We're not in the Giro, where everyday there's at least one tough climb. We're at the Tour, a race in which a historical climb like Aubisque will be faced more than 40 kms far from the finish-line. Perhaps Andy had a bad day this afternoon or he was afraid to be worse than Contador, but I hope that in the next days he'll try to get some seconds of advantage on the Aussie. Because, unless he has some serious problems, it seems that this year it'll be hard to take the victory away from Evans.

Anyway, here's the GC after today's stage:

1	Thomas Voeckler (Fra)	51:54:44
2	Fränk Schleck (Lux)	0:01:49
3	Cadel Evans (Aus)	0:02:06
4	Andy Schleck (Lux)	0:02:17
5	Ivan Basso (Ita)	0:03:16
6	Damiano Cunego (Ita)	0:03:22
7	Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa)	0:04:00
8	Samuel Sanchez Gonzalez (Spa)	0:04:11
9	Thomas Danielson (USA)	0:04:35
10	Nicolas Roche (Irl)	0:04:57

I'm very happy about Cunego and Roche's placements and I hope that they'll keep the good stuff coming also in the next days. In the meanwhile, let's enjoy Frank and Andy's placements and let's hope they'll improve again in the next days.

As far as tomorrow is concerned, I'm going to bet 5 euros on Hushovd and 5 on Gilbert. Although, to say the truth, I think we shouldn't rule Cavendish and Farrar out of the 'possible winners list' either.

(Pic 1 by Sirotti, pic 2 by Bettini)

Some topics of discussion and Greipel's great victory:

Breakout news: Today at the Tour there were no crashes involving GC leaders. I'm so happy I could cry.

Finally, the Tour went back to what it's supposed to be about: a cycling race without cars knocking the riders down and without athletes ending up in hospital because of crashes.

This morning the Grande Boucle was still shocked by what happened to Hoogerland and Flecha the other day.

Many people feared that Johnny (who got 33 stitches and who couldn't sleep properly because of some dreadful nightmares) would have had to abandon the race, instead he grit his teeth once again and he managed to finish the stage and wear the polka dots jersey for the second day in a row. Also Flecha managed to end the stage in spite of the injuries caused by the infamous crash.

Juan Antonio has recently released an interview to Cyclingnews, in which he criticises not only the driver who knocked him down, but also the behaviour of Thomas Voeckler. The fact that that stupid driver (who didn't ask for permission to overtake the riders and who shouldn't even had been behind them at that point of the race) didn't even sound his horn before trying to drive past the athletes is simply shocking and it really disgusts me. There are no apologies for something like that, especially if you consider that that man didn't even stop to check if he had badly injured the riders he had hit.

As far as Flecha's critics of Voeckler are concerned, I don't think the Frenchman accelerated after his crash. I was actually very surprised when I saw the breakawayers riding on in spite of that accident but, actually, I must admit that I don't think that they could have done something different.

Still talking about Saturday' stage, la Gazzetta claims that Vinokourov is already thinking about coming back racing. Girls of the AAVL, I hope this makes you feel a bit better.

Talking about the rest day, instead, the topics of discussion were 3:

1. Will Contador retire before the end of the Tour?

2. Is Gilbert going to try to get a good placement in the GC?

3. What really happened between Contador and Karpets the other day?

So, let's go in order.

Topic 1: we all know that Contador has hurt his knee in two of his three crashes. This morning many people (according to Italian tv) feared that he wouldn't have started the stage, instead he took part in it and finished the race with all the main GC leaders. But still, Alberto might decide to retire if things don't go well for him on Thursday, in the Luz-Ardiden stage. 'I know Alberto', Tiralongo told Ialian tv this morning. 'And he's not here to get dropped on the climbs. If his form isn't good enough, I think he'll retire'.

Personally, I agree with Tiralongo. In fact, I believe that Alberto will retire if he realises his shape isn't good enough in the mountains. However, I don't know whether Conti is trying to bluff a bit with his condition (making it seem a bit worse than it actually is) or not.

Topic 2: apparently, after VDB's retire Gilbert has told a few Belgian journalists that now he'd like to focus on the GC. Eddy Mercx approves the idea of the Omega rider and so do I. In fact it'd be great to see someone like Philippe giving it all even in the hardest stages. Especially because, with nowadays GC, many riders have good chances to make it to the top 5 or to the top 10 of the race. Cunego, Martin, Vandevelde, Taaramae, Roche, S. Sanchez, Velits... All guys that can still fight for a position in the top 10, especially now that there are so many spaces left empty by the crashes of guys like Vinokourov, VDB and Wiggins. Will Gilbert enter in that fight too? The fact that he's thinking about it makes me really happy, but this doesn't mean that I believe he can make it. Unfortunately, in fact, so far Philippe has exploited his team on every single stage of the race. Moreover, long climbs don't seem to suit him. But still, I'd like to see Philippe giving it a try.

Topic 3: Take a look at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKuJCGV8m-w and pay attention to Vladimir Karpets, the rider with the half white/half red jersey. It took me a lifetime to realise what that video is about, but then I saw that Karpets made a strange movement which caused Contador to crash. Someone thinks that Vladimir did it intentionally, someone else (me) doesn't. I think Karpets made that movement at random, not because he really knew that Alberto was behind him. But still, there are many guys who disagree with me.

After mentioning these topics of discussion, let's talk about the stage du jour. As said, this afternoon no one crashed seriously and this is a very good news.

The breakaway of the day was formed by Delaplace, Marcato, El Fares, Minard and Vichot. They started their adventure after 14 kms and ended it with about 20 kms to go. At that point, on the last little climb du jour, the fireworks began: Toni Gallopin in fact attacked and he was followed by great riders like Voeckler, Gilbert, Martin and Devenyns. The 5 men worked well until they reached the 8 kms to go mark, where they gave it in. Actually, 4 of them did: Gilbert in fact kept on riding until he was caught with 7 kms to go. Once again, the Belgian showed us all his class.

The stage ended with a sprint in the town of Carmaux. Said sprint was very particular, since HTC couldn't form its leadout train and because there was a curve with just 350 meters to go.

Sieberg (a rider that I really do like) abandoned its place at the head of the peloton right before that curve, so that Daniel Oss fund himself leading the group. Cavendish was behind the Liquigas rider and Greipel was behind Cannonball. Cav began his sprint when he saw that Oss' speed was decreasing. In that way, unluckily for him, he spent too many energy, so that Greipel could overtake him in the last 10 meters of race. A great victory for André, who wins his first Tour stage in his first TdF right in front of his old nemesis Mark Cavendish. Someone must be very pissed off right now...

Johnny Hoogerland managed to finish the stage (just like Flecha) and this is a very good news. Farrar didn't look that great, whereas the GC leaders hid themselves.

Another day at the Tour is over, now we're waiting for tomorrow's flat stage, the last one before the riders reach the mountains.