Random post about random things:

Lots of news to comment, dear readers, and just a few free moments to talk about them. How annoying.
So, let's start from the saddest part ever: as you could understand from my last post, yesterday the Belgian city of Gand hosted the funeral of WW Special. I decided not to watch the vids from the funeral in these days because I know they would really bring me down - and right now I can't actually allow myself to spend a day crying.
However, I did risk to break into tears while reading today's Gazzetta and other reports from the funeral. Fabian Wegmann and the boys who carried the coffins looked so sad and An Sophie and her sister were really destroyed. Even Wouter's father, a firefighter who had always looked very controlled here in Italy, was a broken man. May his son rest in peace forever and ever.

As our dear blogmate Figbash has recently pointed out in one of her last comments, on http://www.roadid.com/Wouter/ there is a simple way to help the family of Wouter: you just need to buy a bracelet which costs 15 $ - all the money will go to An Sophie and to her daughter. So, what are we waiting for? Let's all get one!!

CALIFORNIA, HERE WE COME...
Talking about happier things, Andy Schleck was second in yesterday's ToC stage. He was outsprinted just by Horner and he was really satisfied with his result. "This is my first race back and I really didn't know where I would sit," Andy told Cyclingnews. "I knew that I was not lazy and that I was working hard. On the bottom when Chris Horner and Levi Leipheimer went, I was a little bit in the red zone. I wouldn't say that I took it easy, but I went a little slower and went in the group behind. Linus Gerdemann (the team leader) was just a little bit behind the group and I thought that he could catch up with us but, in the end, he didn't," he added. "The last kilometre I tried everything I had. I was surprised by second place. I feel confident for Mt Baldy." We're looking forward to it too! However, has Our Glorious Leader done something to his hair? They looked a bit longer in some recent photos...
Still talking about ToC, Jens Voigt had a bad crash the other day. "I survived today so that is a good sign", Voigt said yesterday. "The good thing is that I didn't lose much skin but my hand hurts and I can't really move it, also I can't really use it. I will go and have an x-ray tonight to see if anything is broken, at least I would know the recovery and what to do next. My shoulder is functioning and I have a contusion and hopefully my hand is not broken". Let's hope everything's alright with good old Jens!
(Little suggestion: to read more about ToC, visit http://eisenandy.blogspot.com/ ).

GIRO TIME!
Now, let's finally talk about the Giro. Yesterday's stage was very thrilling, while today's and Tuesday's ones weren't that great. Or, actually, they weren't that great if you, like me, were able to see just their last 3 kms (stupid school...).
The Teramo stage (that arrived after a rest day and after a long transfer by plane, after which an exhausted Pinotti could finally get in his hotel room at 1 am) was won by Cavendish after that Petacchi had actually worked as his lead-out man. Poor Alessandro in fact paid the bad day at the office of his friend Hondo, who wasn't that good the other day. Talking about helpers who haven't been that good lately, poor Szmyd has a bronchitis (you were wondering why he had disappeared, weren't you?), whereas Agnoli is on antibiotics. Oh, and talking about Liquigas and bad luck: Basso has had a very bad crash while training on Etna, he got 15 stitches in his face but now he's fine.
Back to Mark's victory, it wasn't very appreciated by Ventoso, who got second. 'The team cars helped him to remain in the time limit on Etna!', Francisco claimed right after the finish-line, together with other riders. Chicchi on the other hand said that 'Cavendish, the other gruppetto riders and I did everything on our own, we recuperated even 2 minutes from the leading group in the last kms of race!" (wait, are you telling me that Cav rode stronger than Contador and Nibali on Etna?!?). Mark instead said that 'Ventoso'd better shut up, I could tell many things about him too". A recent news, however, says that a supporter vid shows Chicchi and another gruppetto riders getting helped by their team cars on Etna. Will this be true?
Talking about another polemic, Mario Cipollini has said that, in his opinion, Cav doesn't lead 'the athlete life'. In fact, according to 'The Lion King' (which is Mario, and not Simba), Cannonball ate too many ice creams before the beginning of the Giro and so he is a bit fat.
Fat or not, Cavendish won even today's stage in Ravenna :P Today's stage actually had a very tricky finale and in fact at the last curve there was a little crash involving Sacha Modolo. However, it looks like no one got seriously hurt.
Second behind Cav was a great Appollonio, third was Petacchi.
Talking about riders who've recently got injured, poor Kristof Vandewalle is racing with very bad facial wounds after a crash on Wednesday. That stage was very exciting, although Scarponi didn't show us the attack he had promised.
At the beginning of the day Nibali had tried enter a breakaway in order to force Saxo Bank to work a bit and that was a very good move. Then other guys broke clear from the peloton and Vincenzo went back in the group.
The breakawayers du jour were all really good: Christophe Le Mevel, Daniel Moreno, Marco Manzano, Valerio Agnoli, Fabio Taborre,Carlos Alberto Betancourt, Simone Stortoni, Steven Kruijswijk, Ignatas Konovalovas,Tiago Machado and Lars Petter Nordhaug. Le Mevel was the virtual Maglia Rosa of the race for a lot of time (apropos: when was the last time that a French wore the pink jersey?), but then he had to give up to his dreams of glory.
Betancourt attacked bravely, but blew up on one of the last climbs, just like Stortoni. Moreno and Konovalovas (love this guy!!) instead were caught with less than 1 km to go (damn!!), on the Castelfidardo final climb. The victory there went to John Gadret, a peculiar Frenchman who prefers the Giro to the Tour and who worked in a grapewine until he was 23. All the GC riders ended the race together.
Talking about GC riders, Contador has recently said that: 'This Giro could be won in the hotel' (Evilness reminds me that Pinotti and I had already understood that thing in December 2010). Therefore the other day he decided to skip the pos-stage press conference with the Maglia Rosa. How nice.
Talking about Contador, I haven't replied to the comments that were left after my last post: don't worry, I'll do it as soon as I have enough time. Moreover, now Optimism is definitely leading the match against Pessimism, so I'm really looking forward to tomorrow's stage. Wir gehen nach Oesterreich, wie schoen!!!

Random post about Sorensen, Dominic (yay!), Voigt and more:

To everyone's joy, a week after her last post, miss Fede has finally come back writing again (*sounds of people singing happily while jumping joyfully around their computers*) :D

It's been another busy week me here in Italy and now I'm finally enjoying some moments of peace after an afternoon spent writing the so called 'tesina' ('little thesis') that I'll have to present at that cursed final high school exam. Actually, I think it will be the first thesis in the scholastic history to mention Leopard Trek (written in caps, the examiner might be an Italian relative of Nygaard!), Contador, Menchov, Vinokourov, Katiusha and Proudhomme in its introduction. Of course, this has been done in order to ensure that none of the examiners will realise what I'm talking about (come on, have you ever heard of an examiner who knows who the Schlecks are?).

Anyway. As well as being very busy, over the last days I've been also trapped by the atmosphere of sadness that is surrounding Bergamo in these days (if you're Italian, you'll understand what I mean). Moreover, this morning another teacher of mine spent some long minutes telling me strange things that have no connections with truth. According to said teacher, in fact, if I study languages at university, in 5 years time I'll end up being an unemployed person. And, still according to her, in 15 years time from now I'll become either a frustrated housewife with a child that weeps all day long, or a frustrated teacher who'll let it out on her students-if I'm lucky, of course. Perhaps I won't even be able to find a husband and I won't even manage to become a teacher, imagine what a crap. So, what does my teacher suggest to avoid those future possible problems of mine? Simple: abandon Bergamo, go to Trieste, try entering the only 'Translater School' of Italy and, after 5 years of hard sudies, pack your things and g working at the European Parliament. Simple, isn't it?

Anyway. Forget about that. Let's talk cycling and, most important, let's party all together because this afternoon our super-hero Dominic Klemme took the first Leopard Trek victory of the year! YAY FOR OUR BANANA-MAN!!! YEAAAH! (Girls, all together: *Yay!*)
"I'm super happy," our red haired boy told Cyclingnews after winning GP Le Samyn."I had cramps in the final kilometres, but I knew I had to hang in there because everyone was half dead back in the chase.I wasn't sure my attack was going to last until the finish line, but the top of the climb was visible, so I could see the finish all the time. I was super motivated to win this one for us". Well done boy!

Still talking about Leopard Trek team (sorry, I can't write it correctly three times in the same post!), it now has a new sponsor, Enovos. On http://www.tageblatt.lu/sport/story/%20Selbs%20tvertrauen-pur-12652985 you have some pictures of the new jersey (it's the same as before, don't worry) with the Enovos sponsor on and you also have some pictures of the brothers.

Talking about LT riders, here's an interview with Jens Voigt: http://velonews.competitor.com/%202011/02/news/jens-voigt-concedes-slim-shot-at-criterium-international-record-holds-off-on-retirement-announcement_161966 . Talking about his retirement, the Fucking Amazing Jens said: "I take it day by day, year after year. We’ll see. At the moment, maybe I am good enough to go one more year, but maybe my wife gets pregnant with baby number seven and I have no time to train at all anymore.I don’t know yet. I cannot really tell you.”

On to another Leopard news, here are two interviews with the Schleck brothers: http://www.lequotidien.lu/les-sports/20709.html and http://www.lequotidien.lu/les-sports/20708.html . Unfortunately, I don't have time to translate it now (they're in French), so you'll have to use our terrible Google Translater.

About Google Translater: Chris Aker Sorensen has made his seasonal debut (yay!) in Tour du Haut Var and has written two posts on his blog (geez, this year he writes almost as often as me!). The last one is a good entry and it talks about radio bans (http://blog.tv2.dk/chris.anker.ol/entry397658.html ): "In my last post I wrote about the Tour de Haut Var", Chris wrote, "but in it I completely forgot to comment on my first experience of racing without radios. The change wasn't actually that big. However, I still support the radios and I'd like to be able to put them back in my ears again during races. In fact, competitions go in the same way, with or without radios: at Tour du Haut Var, the morning breakawayers were caught as usual and the race finale was run as usual. The only changes I saw regarded security. Sometimes a team car had to enter the peloton to talk with its riders and this always created stress and anxiety, because it's never comfortable to ride in front of a car. Moreover, the always stressful "feed zone" was even more stressful than usual. With the radios, we are told where our soigneurs are standing with our feed bags and what team they are next to. Without radios, nobody really knows where their soigneurs are, so everyone moves to the right side of the road simultaneously to take their food bag. The intelligent reader now will probably think: 'Hey, why can't they tell you where your soigneurs are going to stay BEFORE of the race?' It could be a great idea, but if all teams say that their soigneur must be the last one, we'd be back at starting point. (...) Actually, I'm going to propose a system that will make us different from any other team: I will suggest our soigneurs to buy some blue little flares (ndr; the translater suggested using 'rockets', but I don't trust it). When we approach the feeding zone, the soigneurs light up the flares, so we can immediately know where they're standing. The problem with this idea is that of course every other team would adopt it as soon as possible too. Therefore we'd see the sky become purple, gray and blue and the effect would be the same that you get when you mix the 9 tempera colours of your palette during your art lesson at school'.
So, this was a part of Chris' latest entry. Fangirl compliments him on the clever idea and wonders herself how someone can avoid to like this boy.

Changing subject, let's now talk about Matteo Pelucchi's victory in Clasica de Almeria, which was the first victory for Geox-TMC. Matteo, being the boyfriend of Marina Romoli, dedicated the victory to his girlfriend. A good way to remind everyone about the fight that this girl is still carrying on. Well done Matteo- and hold on Marina!

Last topic of a day, a not very pleasing one. In fact, Matti Breschel is unlikely to race the Classics this year because of his annoying knee injury. Actually, even his Tour de France participation seems to be in danger right now. About his schedule for this season, poor Matti said: 'I think the positive thing is that now I will have the energy and mental strength for late in the season. It might be hard to get up there after a long, grueling season. Now I’m doing everything I can to build my way up to the world championships in September.” (news from: http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/breschel-set-to-miss-classics ).

Let's wish Matti a lot of luck and let's now close this post with a 'good night everyone'. And remember: don't study languages at school if you don't want to end up unemployed! -.-"

Giro di Sardegna, Rohregger and more:

23rd February 2011, 20.05. An Italian family is watching a cycling race on tv.

'Hey dad, did you hear what has recently happened to Tondo (ndr; whose name means 'circle' in Italian)?', one of the daughters asks the father. 'No, I don't', answers the father. The daughter is going to tell him the news of Tondo's tip to the Spanish police, when her young sister suddenly begins to speak: 'I know what happened to Tondo! He became Square!!'.

After reading these first lines of this post, I think you've finally understood why my mental condition is so bad: simply, it is in the family genes. However, that was just one of the little dialogues that I had with my familiars a hour ago, while we were watching Giro of Sardegna' second stage (one of said dialogues also included my sister screaming: 'Where the hell have the breakaway riders gone?' while Cunego was crossing the finish-line; in fact, in that moment she hadn't realised yet that the breakaway riders had ended their lonely adventure about 6 kms before of the finish-line).

Anyway, the most important thing about this post's beginning is that not only miss Fede's sense of humour could be even worse than it is, but the real great news is that she's finally managed to watch a cycling race on tv at a decent time of the day (allelujah!). Before of tonight in fact I had managed to watch just the first stage of TDU and a stage of Tour of Oman but unfortunately, in order to do so, I had to stay awake until 11.30 pm- not a very clever idea, if the following day you have to get up at 6.25 in order to go to the bus stop, where you'll find that disturbing, logorroic boy who stares at you during your whole journey to school.

By the way. I'm digressing again.

Talking about Giro di Sardegna, yesterday stage was won by Peter Sagan. Today stage, instead, was won by Damiano Cunego, who exulted in a great way after the finish-line. In fact, not only did he raise his arms: he even went towards a tv camera, shouted 'Evvai!' and started to shake it.
I was very happy for Damiano, because during last year Tour de France some people (*cough* journalists *cough*) were really terrible with him. Moreover, journalists had tried to eat him alive after Mendrisio Worlds. So, considering all the critics and pressure that Cunego has had to carry on his shoulder since May 2004 (and that have become even bigger over the last years), I always feel incredibly happy when he wins. When he wins, in fact, I always feel as if it's a deserved victory. I like Damiano, I can't help it.

Second in today's stage (which was very hilly and whose 7 final kms were completely uphill) was Serpa 'Zorro' Perez, whose moustache are much more stylish than Pozzato's ones. If you don't believe me, look at the pic above (by Sirotti). Third in the stage was the little Sella, José's teammate, while 4th was Peter Sagan. Unfortunately for him, Peter couldn't keep the leader jersey, which is now on Cunego's shoulders.

Amongst the riders who did a very good job today there are Hermans (the Radioshack rider was 4th), Capecchi (5th), Scarponi (who did an outstanding job for Cunego), Kiserlovski and Stortoni (Colnago riders are really brave, they always attack as soon as they can). Ballan was 15th (he was second in yesterday stage) and hopefully this means that he's back at the level that he had when he won the Varese Worlds. 25th was 40 year-old Noé, while a special mention must go to the breakaway riders du jour: Mikhail Ignatiev (who kept his knees in a very strange way while riding uphill), David Boily, Alessandro De Marchi, Elia Favilli and Alessandro Malaguti. De Marchi was the best breakawayer (?) du jour, since he abandoned the peloton after just 8 kms (18 if you consider the 10 kms between the start village and the true start of the race) and he was caught with just 6 kms to go. Therefore, chapeau to Alessandro!

RANDOM NEWS:
Talking about breakaways, you'll be happy to know that Andy Schleck was part of a breakaway during today's Ruta del Sol stage, wich was eventually won by Freire. Good to see our boy riding at the front of a race! :D
Still talking about Andy, he now has a new teammate: Thomas Rohregger, born on the 23rd December 1982, former Milram (and Pegasus) rider, winner of 2009 Tour of Austria. A good climber and another German speaker for Leopard Trek. All together now: *Herzlich Willkommen, Thomas*!!

On to another news, Jens Voigt has recently said that the riders should do something 'big', like boycotting this year Worlds, to show their disapproval of UCI's radio ban. Aren't we exaggerating a bit? (http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/voigt-calls-for-worlds-boycott-over-radio-ban ).

Still facing the news du jour, I've just read on Cyclingnews that Amstel Gold Race organisers have given their race's wild cards to the following teams: Topsport Vlaanderen (yay!), Landbouwkrediet (double yay!), Skill Shimano (we want Kenny Van Hummel!) and Verandas Willems.

I also wanted to put the link to a little Cyclingnews article in which Romain Feillu said that, perhaps, Vacansoleil shouldn't have given Riccò a contract, but unfortunately I couldn't find it anywhere. Well, it seems like someone was brave enough to say these things publicly.

Anyway, it is pretty late right now, so here I close this post (which isn't actually that great, but that was written in a big hurry). Have a good evening and a good night sleep!
(pic by Sirotti)

Picspam time 3: guys just wanna have fun :)

To everyone's joy, the picspam season here at My Blog isn't over yet.

The last 2 days have been a bit tense here in the Blogosphere, so I think it's better if we all relax ourselves and have a good laugh together. In order to do so, I suggest you taking a look at these pictures that Mar (thank you girl!) and I collected over the last days. Enjoy!

First of all, here you have Chris Anker Sorensen and Matti Breschel wearing funny viking helmets on the Champs Elysées. After 3 weeks of daily fatigue and stress, you're allowed to behave a bit in a strange way, aren't you? Here's another picture from Saxo Bank's celebrations on Champs Elysées. This time, the one behaving in a strange way is Stuart O'Grady :) Talking about funny guys, then, how can we forget about Fabian Cancellara? Here we can see him making horns to poor Andy. The skinny Luxembourgian (just notice how thin his arms are!) looks a bit annoyed, but Fabian doesn't seem to care about it :) This time instead the victim of Fabian's jokes was O'Grady, who probably ignored what Fabian was doing behind him. Luckily Tom Boonen knows how to take revenge on the Swiss rider :) Talking about other former Saxo Bankers, I think I'm almost obliged to put some pictures of Jens Voigt in a post like this. Here you can see him riding a very strange vehicle.Below instead you have Voigt-san having fun with a supporter in Japan. And here we have the FA Jens having a coffee-break at work.
Here instead we have Matti Breschel joking with a photographer. Let's now abandon our Sexy Bankers for a brief moment and let's watch 2 pics about the relationship between riders and animals. For example, take a look at this rider who wants to stay with his adorated penguin even while racing.
Here instead we have a guy showing us the perfect descent position for riders. I wonder what the bear thinks of it.
Back to the guys who raced for SB this season, here we have Chris Sorensen reading a foreign newspaper. Has he just read something about a defeat of his favourite football team, or is he just shocked by the language in which the newspaper is written?
To close this post, then, I couldn't avoid publishing 2 pics of the Schleck brothers. Andy, you cunny guy, what are you looking at?
And here's a classic picture of Frank and his concentration expression. Everything's ok dear?
So, that's all for now. Thank you again to Mar for the help and let's hope you enjoyed this picspam :)

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

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

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

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

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

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

RANDOM NEWS DU MIDWEEK:
BREAKOUT GESINK NEWS:

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

HUSHOVD HAS NEVER SEEN DRUGS IN CYCLEDOM:

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

RIDERS WITHOUT CONTRACTS:

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

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

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

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

Random Schleckly picture du midweek:

Frank, everything's ok?
(the picture above comes from the photographic album of a very amusing Facebook group called 'Spingere il 53x11'; unfortunately the name of the photographer who took it wasn't indicated anywhere so,if one you readers knows it, I'd be really thankful to you if you could write it in the comment area, so that I can indicate it in this post =).

RANDOM FANGIRLISTIC NEWS DU MIDWEEK:
http://blog.tv2.dk/chris.anker.ol/entry383516.html : According to Chris Anker Sorensen's latest blog entry, Jens Voigt is becoming father for the 6th time. Wow.

Andy gets another stage victory:

As Fangirl feared,Andy Schleck couldn't drop Contador this afternoon.And so,according to Logic,the Luxembourgian's going to lose this year Tour de France.
Surprisingly,although Logic inspires sad thoughts in her ("Contador let Andy win this stage,Contador was stronger than Andy this afternoon,Andy's going to lose this Tour..."),right now Fangirl is happy.In fact,although Andy couldn't drop Contador, this afternoon he raced in a very determined way,looked really strong,got another stage victory and showed to everyone that he's finally become a champion.A young,handsome champion.
To say the truth,even Fangirl has recently admitted that Contador probably gave Andy this victory as a present ("You get the Tourmalet stage,I get the Tour"),but in spite of this,one thing is sure: those who win on Tour de France's legendary climbs (and Tourmalet is one of them) enter the history of Cycledom.And this afternoon Andy Schleck definitely entered cycling history by winning on this famous mountain.
During the stage there were some amazing looks between Contador and Schleck and one of them,the one after Contador's impressive attack,almost gave me goosebumps.It was so intense and so meaningful!
After the stage then there were some very nice scenes.Firstly,Andy hugged Contador. Then,the Spaniard kidded with Andy by hitting him jokingly on the cheek.If I had been Andy,I wouldn't have reacted as kindly as he did ;)
Today also Andy's team was very good.Many have pointed out the disappointing performances of Saxo Bank,which was great during the first flat stages but then disappeared as soon as the Tour road started to become steeper.Today instead everyone did his work at the front.And,as usual,Chris Sorensen's facial expressions caused some chronists to joke about him.Actually,while Chris was pulling at the head of the peloton,even my mother felt worried about him and asked me whether the guy at the head of the bunch was dying."No mum,it's ok,it's Chris Sorensen.That's his style".At those words,she stopped feeling worried.
Then,after Fuglsang's work,Andy attacked.Before of that moment there had been a breakaway formed by some interesting guys (Kolobnev,Burghardt,Pauriol,Boasson Hagen,Flecha...) and Sastre had tried to join them with a little help from Konovalovas (and not 'Konolas' as someone on tv called him).But when Andy attacked,as I was saying,the last breakaway rider,Kolobnev,was caught after a few seconds (deciding to go on a breakaway the day of Tourmalet stage wasn't a very brilliant idea,unless those riders just wanted to try to survive in that way...).
At that point,with about 10 kms to go,the 'Andy and Alberto show' ('AS and AC show' sounds well too) began.The Luxembourgian,the blond,the blue-eyed young man versus the Spaniard,the dark-haired,the dark-eyed champion of 27.
It was also a psychological battle,the one between those champions.But then,when Contador realised that a sprint was going to decide the Tourmalet's winner,he let Andy win the stage.So,in that way,today both these boys have got their two tickets to Cycling History: Andy did so by winning on Tourmalet,while Contador did so by winning his 3rd TdF.Or,at least,that's what everyone thinks.But remember that there are still a lot of kms before of reaching Paris and that there are just 8 seconds between Conta and Schleck.As Andy said after the stage,'everything can still happen'.
Just like you can see one of your school marks going down from 9 to 8 on the penultimate day of school because your teacher is a b...,ehm,because your teacher didn't think you were as brilliant as usual in the last test of the year,well,in the same way Contador's yellow jersey could slip onto Andy' shoulders after the TT.Dreaming is possible,isn't it?
In spite of today's stage,in fact,I still think that Andy can win this Tour.Actually Fangirl thinks that Saxo Bank guys (supporters,riders,soigneurs,everyone) should try to cast a spell on Contador.Said spell should hit Conta on Saturday morning and make him enter the infamous "Michael Rasmussen's TT mood".In that way,Alberto should crash at least 3 times during the TT and Schleck should easily win the Tour.
Obviously Logic dislikes this idea,since she doesn't believe in spells and she also knows that,if Andy should won the Tour in that way,nor he nor the supporters would be totally happy.
Talking about the supporters,then,I have to say that some of the people who were on the Tourmalet this afternoon were idiots.I mean,you stay there for many hours and then,when the riders arrive,you begin to run behind them? You must be a fool to do that!
I was next to one of those incredible running creatures during Tonale's stage at the Giro and I can assure you that they don't care at all about riders.They just care about themselves.I'm particularly annoyed by those people not just because one of them ruined every picture of the riders that I tried to take on that day.No.I'm particularly annoyed by those people because on that day,every time they stopped after their runs,they asked someone things like "Has Pinotti already arrived?" or "Who was at the head of the race?" .In their own stupidity,in fact,those people had been running behind Pinotti a few seconds before,but were too stupid to realise it.
Luckily no one crashed because of a supporter (or because of a sheep...) and so we can say that everything went well this afternoon,the afternoon that gave Andy the joy of another victory,that allowed Contador to keep his yellow jersey and get closer to Paris,and that saw Vinokourov losing 8 positions in the GC (anyway,that's another story...).
Before of closing this post,btw,here's a great vid that you might enjoy:
http://www.saxobanktakingthelead.com/?p=3675 (yes,my 'good working computer' is finally back and so I can watch vids again).The main actor in this video is the fucking amazing Jens Voigt and I'm sure that many SB supporters will surely find it interesting.Btw I totally believe him when he says that it's good to share a room with Chris Sorensen.I mean,in that hotel room Chris basically slept on a couch (notice the book net to the pillow...) in order to leave the big comfortable bed to the injured Jens.And then,according to Jens,Chris even manages to get asleep before that his roomate starts to snore.What a great couple of men.

Random Post on the Rest Day of the Tour: marketing,history and the great Jens Voigt

The second rest day of 2010 Tour de France arrives right before of the crucial stage,the Tourmalet one.Unless Contador makes a disaster in the last TT,in fact,the winner of the race will be decided tomorrow by that famous climb,who a century ago was climbed by the Tour cyclists for the first time.I don't know if you've heard some of the histories regarding the discovery of Tourmalet.If you haven't,take a look at the last link of this post : it will shock you ;)

Yesterday's stage didn't see any change in the GC.Understandable,if you consider that the last climb was 60 kms far from the finish-line.A similar thing happened last year in the so-called 'Tourmalet stage'.The funny thing is that the man who won that stage (in which there were 50 kms between the last climb and the finish-line) is the same who won yesterday's stage. His name is Pierrick Fedrigo,but he's also known as 'the Frenchman with the big nose' or 'the punishers of the Italians'.In fact when he got his first Tour de France victory he outsprinted Totò Commesso, while last year he won by ousprinting Pellizotti.This year instead he got his victory after outsprinting different riders, between which there were also Damiano Cunego.
Obviously yesterday as soon as I noticed that Fedrigo was in a breakaway together with an Italian rider, I stated that he was surely going to win the stage.And,eventually,he did win.
Anyway,as mentioned today was the second rest day of this Tour; therefore me this evening had the time to collect some random links that will direct you to some random news/pictures/ marketing rumours/blogs/whatever else that me considers interesting.Here they are:
http://www.cyclingnews.com/features/contador-key-to-transfer-market :let's begin from the most hateful part: marketing rumours.This article states that Contador could renew contract for Astana or get a brand new team under the protection of Bjarne Riis.
I don't know what could happen if Alberto chose the latter option,since then Chris Anker Sorensen might become his new helper and Fangirl would definitely have to choose whether to support the Schleck brothers or Chris Anker Sorensen during Grand Tours.However,if Alberto does choose Saxo Bank,I'm sure that this time nothing will prevent Vino from taking his revenge on the Spaniard.
The article however also talks about Denis Menchov.LL Sanchez could join Rabobvank next year and so the Russian may end up riding for Katusha,aka the great (and only) Russian team of Pro Tour.Talking about Rabobank,it is said that also Matti Breschel could end up riding for the Dutch team next year.That would be pretty annoying for me because next year I'll already have enough problems with sharing my support between Chris Sorensen and the Schlecks.If also Matti changes team,well,Fangirl could take extreme decisions,like becoming a full-time supporter of Footon-Sevetto (she already supports that team every time Capelli is riding) and buying one of their horrible kits.
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/basso-finishes-in-the-gruppetto :Basso finished the race in the gruppetto yesterday.In spite of this,chapeau to him: he's trying to honour this Tour in spite of illnesses and bad luck and he's really giving it all although he's already won the Giro this year.

http://www.tdwsport.com/ :Tim De Waele spent the whole day taking nice pictures of the riders.However this time there aren't many pictures of Andy Schleck on his website and if you are a bit disappointed by that I suggest you checking the pictures from the first rest day of the Tour.
http://www.velonation.com/News/ID/4973/Tour-de-France-Schlecks-busy-rest-day-warms-up-his-motor-for-Tourmalet-offensive.aspx :Andy Schleck has said he will attack on Tourmalet tomorrow afternoon.Let's hope that climb will be long and hard enough to drop Contador and get back the yellow jersey!
http://blog.tv2.dk/chris.anker.ol/entry377335.html :yes,to everyone's surprise,the link to Chris Anker Sorensen's blog was included in today's random post.In it Chris talks about his roommate Jens Voigt,who the other day had a bad crash on the Peyresourde descent.Here are some part of this blog entry (thank you Google Translater for allowing me to understand Danish!).

"Yesterday",writes Chris,"I had my worst day so far in this TdF (...).I felt a bit more comfortable after the stage,when George Hincapie said: 'This is the toughest stage start that I've ever faced in a Tour'.He has taken part in the Tour a few times now,so he should know what he's talking about.
"Yesterday unfortunately Jens Voigt crashed on the first descent.I was riding behind him when it happened and he was really unlucky.In a curve,in fact,his front tyre exploded (...).Jens is in good spirits,although he has many bruises and has been given 5 stitches.After coming back to the hotel room (ndr; after having been given stitches?),he was moaning in the bathroom. Then,suddenly,he came up to me in the room and said 'This is just too much.I've got bruises all over my body and I even got sunburned.In such a situation,it is alright to complain a bit,isn't it?' (...) After the crash in fact Jens' jersey was torn up on his back,therefore he got sun on his back for 6 hours and found himself sunburnt at the end of the day.
"In spite of all these problems,however,Jens didn't lose his good humour.At the dinner table he told me about his problems after the crash.His bicycle was destroyed,so he needed a new one. Little problem,both our team cars were at the front of the race (...).Therefore Jens received a bike from a Mavic car (Mavic is the neutral mechanical service).However there was a problem with this bike,since it had been prepared for a 1.50 m tall man,while Jens is 1.90 m (...).Luckily Jens had to race with that small bike for 'just' 20 kms.
"I must admit that Jens yesterday was my hero.Getting through a stage like that in spite of all those problems was impressive.And yesterday evening he was even as good humoured as always and this was even more impressive".
Obviously the title of this entry is "Hat off for Jens Voigt" and I really can't avoid to subscirbe Chris' words.After all,there's a reason if he's been nicknamed 'Fucking Amazing Jens Voigt' (or 'Chuck Norris of Cycling') all around the Blogosphere...
http://www.sport1.de/de/radsport/artikel_265942.html :talking about Jens Voigt,here's another link (in German) about him.He said that "Contador doesn't look that strong",that before of crashing he had the time to think "Okay,this is gonna hurt" and confirms once again that he's going to race also next year.You gotta love this man!
http://paneegazzetta.gazzetta.it/ :here's the blog of one of La Gazzetta's best journalists,Marco Pastonesi.His style is very brilliant and entertaining and his posts talk about cyclists,climbs and also about how the life of a cycling journalist is during the TdF.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Col_du_Tourmalet : some information about Tourmalet (read the part 'Origins in the Tour' to have some fun).

So,that's all from me for the moment.The crucial moment is coming and tomorrow evening me could be totally happy or completely down.No half ways between those moods will be available.However,just remember that,even if Contador tomorrow should distance Andy, 'it ain't over 'til it's over'.After all everyone,even Contador,can have a problem with their chains...

Little news about Frank Schleck,TdF,Giro Donne and Random Link:

Before of beginning this post,let me say that Paul the Octopus is a myth,having predicted every single result of Germany Soccer Team in a flawless way during this edition of the World Championships.
Now that I've said this,we can begin.

SCHLECK NEWS:

First of all,I've pulled myself together after Frank's crash.Good old Televideo (the magic universe that every Italian can open by pushing a mysterious button on their tv control) yesterday highlighted Frank's crash and wrote at p.299 that Frank told Riis that he's already thinking of racing la Vuelta at the end of August.

Imo this is a very good information,since it shows that the morale of our boy hasn't been totally shattered by those fucking cobblestones and by his operation.The good thing about Frank's crash,at least,is that now he can spend a lot of time with Martine and Leea.

And about his chances to run la Vuelta: don't forget that Chris Sorensen broke his collarbone at the end of March and won a Giro stage at the beginning of May,without taking part in any race in the period of time that went from his crash to the Giro.Therefore me believes that there are good chances for Frank to find a good form during (if not before) the Spanish Grand Tour.Allez Frank!

TOUR DE FRANCE:

After this little Schleck news,let's now talk about how things went in the last 2 stages of the Tour.

Yesterday stage saw a group of brave riders (which included also De Greef) trying to break away from the peloton.As usual,their dreams of glory were shattered by the sprinters' teams,Columbia in particular.

Every best sprinter of the Tour could take part in the final sprint,which was very interesting.Farrar couldn't give his best because of a broken wrist,Cavendish was launched by Renshaw but then suddenly disappeared,Garmin did a very good job for Dean,Boasson Hagen tried to win,Turgot went to look for another placement,Hushovd did his best to get his second victory in a row,but the eventual stage winner was Petacchi.

Obviously this has caused a big euphoria here in Italy since Petacchi has already won 2 stages in 5 days and so everyone now is dreaming of watching Ale-Jet in green on the Champs Elysées,while Bettini is already thinking about bringing him to Melbourne this Autumn. Btw,didn't you have a deja-vu moment as well,when McEwen started his sprint right behind Petacchi? Me did.

On to today's stage,the victory was decided in a bunch sprint once again.The breakawayers du jour were Gutierrez,Van De Walle and El Fares and the last of them,Gutierrez,gave in with just 4 kms to go.Columbia really did a great job today and Cavendish eventually managed to win an important race this year.He's not the nicest person on Earth,but I have to admit that it was pretty moving to see him crying as a baby on the podium.Or,perhaps,I was moved by the delighted screams of the other women of the family ("Oh,he's crying! How cute!!").

Second was Ciolek,third was Boasson Hagen (Geraint Thomas helped him in a great way during the last meters of the race).Petacchi was out of Top 5 and complained (in a very kind way) that both Farrar and Dean had created him problems during the sprint.Watching the video of the sprint,I can't do nothing but agree with him.

The great shiver of the day was offered by Sylwester Szmyd,who during an interview with an Italian journalist finally revealed that the pronounciation of his name used by everyone here in Italy is wrong.Obviously the news shocked every single cycling supporter of this country.

Tomorrow's stage,anyway,is going to be hilly and may offer a great occasion to all the 'wanna go on a breakaway!" guys of the Tour.Oh,and still talking about tomorrow: perhaps you have heard something about a new law that the Italian Parliament is discussing in these days.Said law will restrict the press freedom here in Italy (at least,that's my opinion; if you have another one,tell me and we'll begin a polite debate) and so tomorrow there's going to be a big strike between the journalists. And because of this strike the Gazzetta journalists (also the ones who write on the website) won't work tomorrow.So if you check the website and don't notice any change,don't worry: it will be a consequence of this strike.

GIRO DONNE:

The 4th stage of Giro Donne was totally flat,so I think you can guess who won without my help. If you need some clues,well,I can tell you that the winner races for HTC Columbia,is German and,at the time,wore the pink jersey.Last clue: her surname begins with T and ends with 'eutenberg'.Understood?

After 4 stage wins in a row (3 sprints and a TT),we finally passed from Teutenberg's tiranny to Marianne Vos' reign (well,kind of).

The 5th stage of the race was very hilly and had an uphill finish after a 2.5 kms long climb (15% of difficulty in some points).Abbott set the pace at the beginning of the climb and just the best riders (Arndt,Guderzo,Pooley,Hausler,Vos and Zabelinskaya) could stay with her.With about 500 meters to go Guderzo attacked and was immediately followed by Vos,who outsprinted her and got the stage victory and the Maglia Rosa.

The following day,after a breakaway in which,once again,there was Silvia Valsecchi,the fight for the victory was still a question between the strongest riders of the race.On a hill Pooley seemed to have some problems,but then she quickly reached the group of the best riders and she even attacked.In the finale of the stage the strongest riders were divided in 2 groups.The first of them was formed by Vos,Arndt and Zabelinskaya,while the other one was pulled by Guderzo and included all the other GC contenders.In the sprint,Marianne Vos got her second victory in a row.

And here we arrive to today's stage,that ended in Albese con Cassano,the hometown of Fabio Casartelli.The stage began in Como,near to the village of Marina Romoli,a rider that had a very bad crash some weeks ago.Therefore,lots of riders and tifosi had some thoughts for her this afternoon.

This stage was pretty hard (it included the Ghisallo climb and a 13 kms long climb) and was won by Evelyn Stevens,American of team Columbia (they won 5 stages out of 7),who abandoned her race companions with a lot of kms to go and soloed to victory in Albese con Cassano.Second,with 42" of delay,was Marianne Vos,who outsprinted Arndt, Guderzo, Hausler,Abbott,Vysotska and Neben.Emma Pooley,just like Olga Zabelinskaya,arrived 5 minutes after the winner.Vos kept her Maglia Rosa.Here's the new GC top 10 :

1 Marianne Vos (Ned) Netherlands National Team
2 Judith Arndt (Ger) HTC Columbia Women 0:00:27
3 Tatiana Guderzo (Ita) Team Valdarno 0:01:09
4 Evelyn Stevens (USA) HTC Columbia Women 0:01:14
5 Claudia Häusler (Ger) Cervelo TestTeam 0:01:29
6 Mara Abbot (USA) US National Team 0:01:54
7 Amber Neben (USA) US National Team 0:03:02

8 Eivgenia Vysotska (Ukr) Team Valdarno 0:03:11
9 Olga Zabelinskaya (Rus) Safi - Pasta Zara 0:06:34
10 Emma Pooley (GBr) Cervelo TestTeam 0:06:45

RANDOM LINK:

http://blog.tv2.dk/chris.anker.ol/entry376054.html :this time Chris Anker Sorensen tells us that his roomie at the Tour is Jens Voigt and this seriously makes me think that,after Frank's crash,the title of 'Best TdF room' could go to this couple of riders.

As well as that,Chris also tells us how things are going for the TdF riders who love football.In the previous entry he wrote that Karsten Kroon watched Holland-Uruguay dressed in orange and wearing a pair of big orange sunglasses.As well as that,Kroon sweared that,if Holland becomes World Champion,he'll run a mountain stage with those glasses on.

In the last entry,instead,Chris talks about the disappointment of Jens Voigt and the other Germans on the team after that Germany went out from the Worlds (like Paul the Octopus had predicted).And he also informs us that,obviously,the Spanish mechanics of the team have already started to tease the Germans.

Der Jens ist immer der Best Teil 2:

Ja,der Jens ist immer der Best.Das ist sicher.Just take a look at the pic below: although he is almost 39 year-old,Jens still manages to rock races and get victories by riding past riders (like Rein Taramaae,for example) who are much younger than him.

Imo,this man should seriously be included in the list of "7 cyclistic wonders" because he's been one of the best riders out there for about 14 years now-and he still is.And as well as being a great rider,Jens is also a great person.I just tell you that,after a stressing stage like the Milano one at Giro 2009,he was the first one to arrive near to SB team bus and the last one to get on it.In fact,fans stopped him for autographs and pictures as soon as they say him arriving, and he kindly stopped to talk to everyone.Unfortunately,since I was in that state of mind known as "Fangirlistic trance",the only thing I could say to him in that moment was: "Jens,bitte...Ein Bild zusammen!",while showing him my little camera in order to give more power to my words.And although said words were pronounced with the worst German accent ever and with a terrible squeeky voice,Voigt didn't hesitate at all in front of my request and therefore I could have my pic with him taken.If I were him,I would have probaby ignored that fan who looked like a mole and got on the team bus without giving any signature-after all,I could have given the fans autographs and pictures after a good shower. And instead no,Jens made sure that everyone had his autograph aand/or picture before of getting on the bus and having a shower,because he's simply a great great great man.

DWARS DOOR VLAANDEREN:

Of course Jens' first place in today's stage is a nice sequel to Matti Breschel's victory in Dwars door Vlaanderen (Vlanderen or Vlaanderen? that is the question).

"To me,this victory is very important and for the team also",Matti said after the stage."We only have a few wins this season and the Classics have started.For me and for the team,we needed this for the morale.We knew that we had to stay in front there and we knew that it was me and Fabian-and then Fabian came to me and said he'd do this for me,just sit on my wheel.I didn't really attack,just went easy away,and I got the gap.I was dying at the end, had a little cramping, but I had Torsten [Schmidt, sports director] on the radio and he gave me the confidence to believe I could go all the way.I tried as hard as possible, and yeah - I won!"

As Breschel said,this victory was a nice morale boost to the team-especially if you consider that Danish ex rider Rolf Sorensen recently complained about the lack of SB victories so far in the year.Now,with 2 victories in 2 days,I think that even Rolf can be satisfied with the team's results.

SETTIMANA COPPI & BARTALI (PLUS MY OPINION ABOUT THE RICCO' SAGA):

In the last days Italian journalists are spending a lot of time reminding everyone that Riccò has come back in Cycledom.An interview with him yesterday,a page about him today...And the guy is still as arrogant as ever.Gosh. Considering all the interest that is given to the Cobra lately (and that I find completely undeserved),I had thought of avoiding watching Settimana Coppi & Bartali because I'm not able to read articles about Riccò and watch him racing on tv in just 3 hours after reading the newspaper.However,since I need to watch at least one cycling road race pro week to keep me going,today I gave up and therefore I was able to watch the race and to cheer for Przemyslaw Niemiec's victory.This Polish boy of 29 in fact is a really good cyclist and,although he's not very famous,he has already achieved many good results in his career.Second in the stage,and new leader of the GC,is Ivan Santaromita (whose surname was mispelled as "Santaromina" by the chronist).3rd was Riccò,who in the latest day is being seen like an hero by many Italian people."Go Riccò,you are the best,it's unfair that you can't race the Giro,Zomegnan is stupid,you're far better than everyone else,tifosi have to leave the past behind,we know you're clean,we trust you,we missed you,cycling missed you,etc.etc".Anyway,I'd like to give my little opinion about all this Italian euphoria:

1:ok,Zomegnan immediately welcomed Basso after his 2 yers ban,but Basso's case and Riccò's one imo were very different.In fact,Basso was never found positive at the anti-doping and was banned for more than 2 years.Riccò was caught positive at the Tour,denied having used doping,then changed his mind and apologised,then split up with his girlfriend because she resulted positive at the anti-doping as well,and he was banned from Cycledom for just 1 year and a half. Therefore,dear Cobra,don't go 'round the peloton crying "Zomegnan likes Basso and Sella more than me,booooh",because Zomegnan has a lot of reasons to like Basso more than you.And as far as Sella is concerned,his team hasn't been invited to the Giro yet.Therefore,shut up.

2: dear Riccò,please,don't pretend to be sad for your teammate's destiny by saying stupid things like "We should be invited at the Giro because we have guys like Noé who'd really deserve that". In fact,I believe that when you signed a contract with Flaminia you probably knew that you wouldn't have been invited to the Giro,so it's mainly your fault if Noé and the others won't be able to take part in the Corsa Rosa.Therefore,once again,I suggest you closing your mouth.

3: saying that a guy who was doped from his toes to his hair is the best rider ever is a bit an exaggeration imo,especially if you consider that in he peloton there are young guys who everyone ignores but that are much cleaner than Riccò. Unfortunately,some Italian tifosi think of Riccò as a hero (did they get brainwahsed,I wonder?).After reading this,I probably think you've understood why Italy has such a bad First Minister : as long as there are people who think that a doper is the best rider ever,no one should feel surprised about reading that a man with lots of problems with justice represents Italy in the World (oops,did I really type those things about our premier? If I did,ignore them...).

4: As a supporter,I don't leave the past behind.This worths for Riccò,for Sella,for Vinokourov,for Rasmussen and also for Basso.Everyone can get a second chance,but they have to deserve it.And if at the end it ends up with Riccò resulting positive again at the anti-doping,I'll be laughing as much as never before (you know how hysterical laughs sound,don't you?).

Der Jens ist immer der Best:

Yes,I know that I should have written "Beste" and not "Best" in the title,but since I've got a poetic licence (aka the freedom that poets and other artists have to ignore grammar rules because what they are making is poetry or art),don't get too shocked by it.Anyway,poetic licence or not,the message I wanted to give with that title is the following: the Fucking Amazing Jens Voigt,also known as His Amazingness,is the new race leader at the Paris-Nice.Of course me's very happy for Jens,since he's not just a great athlete,but also a great person.

Today stage of the race was shortened of 53 kms after that a lot of snow fell on the parcours (funny thing,if you consider that the nickname of the race is "Le course au Soleil").The stage was eventually won by the Slovakian rider Peter Sagan,20 year old.

The Liquigas rider arrived 2nd yesterday and rode a very good prologue on Sunday,so he's really showed very good skills in these days.And don't forget that he was born in 1990,therefore he is extremely young.Second in today's stage was Joaquim Rodriguez,while 3rd was Roche.Jens Voigt,Toni Martin and Contador crossed the finish-line 2 seconds after the winner.The previous leader,Lars Boom,got 27" of delay from Sagan and lost the jersey that,as already said,is now on the shoulders of His Amazingness Jens Voigt (who,whereas sir Lancelot,ehm,someone else starts to show his age,can still ride in a very great way).Congratulations Jens!

PS: Yesterday's stage of the P-N was won by William Bonnet,a Boygues Telecom rider.As already mentioned,Sagan came 2nd.Grega Bole,Lampre's rider,crashed with about 1 km to go and he decided to leave the race.Together with him,also Toni Martin,Jimmy Casper and Dan Martin fell.

Frank Schleck hasn't lost any second in the GC in the last 2 days and has now 1'06" of delay from Voigt.Tomorrow stage is supposed to be hard,with the riders arriving on the Col du Mende.

TIRRENO ADRIATICO:
Today's stage of the Italian race was characterised by a very bad weather.At the moment the weather conditions in Italy aren't normal at all,since in March the sun should start to shine and the rain should be the only "precipitazione atmosferica" allowed.Anyway it seems that not just Italy,but also other countries are experiencing strange weather conditions.For example,Robert Gesink had a lot of problems while trying to arrive in Italy because of the snow in Spain (more on http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/gesink-nearly-stranded-in-spanish-snow ).
Anyway,back to the race: Grabovskyy (whose surname was written as "Grabovsky" until last year) was the first brave rider to launch an attack,but he didn't have good luck.With about 12 kms to go,Urtasun Perez and Terpstra attacked as well.Again,they didn't have any luck.

On the descent of the climb that the riders had to face towards the end of the stage,Paolini, Breschel,Lastras and Gerdemann broke away from the group.Team Sky's men in black caught them with few hundreds of meters to go."It's over for these riders",one of the two Italian chronists said.And instead,Gerdemann managed to counter attack again and win the sprint,while Lastras came 2nd and Breschel was 3rd.

PS: Since writing the results of a race that ended more than 2 hours ago is apparently a very complicated thing,I haven't found any news about Andy's placement yet.Anyway Frank wrote on his Twitter that his brother is feeling good,so I believe he probably crossed the finish-line with the first group of riders.

Random Link:

http://blog.tv2.dk/chris.anker.ol/entry362372.html :In his last blog entry, Chris Anker Sorensen says that he thought it was spring,but that he changed his mind after starting the Paris-Nice prologue on Sunday.Then he talks about the riders pre-TTs routine and says something that my online translater translates as "Gustav Larsson is always very focused and during the warm up he always makes his way into his own little world".Then,talking about His Amazingness Jens Voigt,Chris says that,since there is a white jersey for young riders,there should be a special grey jersey also for over 35-year.Of course me completely approves this idea,because the grey jersey would probably belong to Jens Voigt for at least 11 months and 2 weeks pro years.

(Pic 2 and 2 by AFP,pic 3 by Scanferla)

Ruta del Sol stages 2 and 3:

The 2nd and the 3rd stage of the Ruta del Sol,also known as Vuelta a Andalucia,saw the Saxo Bank riders getting good results once again.

The second stage of the race (the first one was won by Pardilla) saw Jesus Rosendo (team Andalucia-CajaSur) getting away alone after forming part of an initial move with Johnny Hoogerland (me really likes this guy) and Garikoitz Bravo (CajaRural).The brave Rosendo was caught after 100 kms of race and no one attacked during the second half of the race because of the strong wind.

With few kms to go,every team began to prepare the path for their sprinters.

Lots of people were probably expecting a Cavendish's victory,but the Manx boy is still suffering for a teeth problem and therefore he arrived "just" 4th.Because of this problem with his teeth,Cav rode just 300 kms since January (lots of other riders have ridden more than 2000 kms since the New Year's beginning) and he lost weight because he couldn't eat.Now things seem to go slightly better for Cav,although he has to wear dental braces.Me wore dental braces for 4 years in the past (also because of the already mentioned gap between my front teeth,a gap that still exists nowadays in spite of all the pain caused by that terrible thing),so I feel a bit sorry for Cav whose name,after all,doesn't appear in the list of riders that I can't bear at all (not yet,at least).

Anyway,going on with the race report,the winner of yesterday's stage was Oscar Freire. Richard,ehm,Robert Wagner was going to be the first rider to cross the finish-line,but he started celebrating too early and so Freire managed to win the stage.Poor Robert Wagner-I believe that we can't even imagine how annoyed he was yesterday afternoon...

Third in the sprint was Alex Ramussen,Saxo Bank's track rider,who got a very good result .

"As we entered the streets of Córdoba,I moved to the front of the peloton and teammate Jens Voigt guided me the last meters to Cavendish's wheel where I stayed until 500 meters from the finish line.I felt there was nothing to lose so I opened the sprint immediately and was only passed by Freire and Wagner Of course,it's a pleasure for me to beat the best sprinter in the world as I am still not feeling in peak shape.For a while,I have found it hard to get my real breakthrough on the road but today,I showed myself that everything is possible for me.Now, I am looking very much forward to do the Spring classics and the World Cup on the track which are this season's biggest events for me”,said Alex after the race.

5th in yesterday's stage was Ventoso,whereas Jens Voigt got an amazing 9th place and Schleck was 38th.

The 2nd stage was also characterised by a crash with 500 meters to go.In fact a barrier near to the finish-line fell into the riders' path because of the wind and caused a crash in which 6 riders were involved.Laurens Ten Dam suffered a cracked pelvis (ouch!!) and Jelle Vanendert suffered head,facial and knee injuries,whereas Damiano Cunego had a severe pain in his right forehand, although it seems that nothing's broken for the Italian rider.None of these 3 riders took part in today's stage.

Gerdemann was the first rider to fall and received some bruises,just like Kiendzys and Janiszewsky,2 Polish riders who were also involved in the fall.Anyway,they were luckier than their colleagues and managed to race also today.

3RD STAGE:

Although it wasn't completely flat,today's stage of the race was supposed to suit sprinters. Anyway Brice Feillu and José Marchante attacked on the first climb of the stage and were caught with 25 kms to go,after gaining a maximum advantage of 4 minutes.

Luckily during the sprint nobody crashed and the victory went to Oscar Freire for the second time in a row.Second was young Lampre's Slovakian rider Grega Bole,while third was the "climbing sprinter" Simon Gerrans.6th was His Amazingness Jens Voigt,who punctured with 30 kms to go and had to make a great effort trying to get in the peloton again.

Frank Schleck was 14th.The race leader is still Pardilla.

Tomorrow stage of the race is a TT,in which hopefully some SB riders will get a good result. With "some SB riders" I don't mean just Gustav Larsson (who is a TT specialist),but also Jens Voigt.After today's stage,Jens said: “Man,I am glad I stayed on my bike this time.I had a puncture with 60 km/h but managed to keep the balance.Soon after,André Steensen,Alex Rasmussen and Jakob Fuglsang were there to help me back to the front.Fortunately,I had a few kilometers to catch my breath before the slight uphill finish which actually suited me perfectly. Who knows what might have happened if I didn't have to close the gap? I am looking forward to tomorrow's time trial which is five kilometers along the coastline and back.I'll keep my head down and go full power.I am feeling stronger every day".Allez Jens!

(Pics 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).

Personal hopes for the 2010 cycling season:

So,here's my very last post for today-and for the year 2009 in general.Don't worry,I didn't write the 3 posts I published today in just one day.Actually,this post was ready 3 days ago,but I preferred to wait before of publishing it on the blog.And then the 2 Quotidien articles were very nice,so I decided to translate them and to publish them today.To recuperate from this posting fever,I won't probably write anything for some days now.Anyway.

I've recently come down with this "last days of the year" fever (don't worry,everything will be over on the 1st day of 2010) and nothing now can prevent me from writing my personal cyclistic dreams for the 2010 season.I wrote something similar also last year,but that post was too much influenced by Fangirl.So,here are my hopes for the 2010 cycling season (of course I've got also lots of personal hopes who don't regard cycling,but I'm afraid you won't discover them-not on this blog,at least).
First of all,I'd like 2010 to be "cleaner" than 2009.Yes,cleaner.This means,no doping cases please.I know that this hope is unlikely to come true,but I write it here anyway.Who knows, perhaps someone in the peloton,as a personal wish for the 2010 season,will decide to stop cheating...
Another hope for the 2010 year is going to watch some live races,just like I've done this year.I already know that it will be hard to see as many live races as I've done this year (next year the Tour won't arrive in Italy and the Worlds will be in Australia),but anyway I hope I'll be able to go and see at least one stage of the Giro and the Tour of Lombardy.Then I may also go and see the Trittico Lombardo,the Settimana Bergamasca and the Giro dell'Emilia.Of course the big dream would be to go and see some Tour stages live like I did this year,but I still don't know whether it will possible.Anyway I take the occasion to say that,if Chris Anker Sorensen is in the top 3 of the Giro before of the last 3 stages of that race,I'll take the train and go to see all the last 3 stages and won't care about the school tests that will surely await me in the last week of May.I mean,teachers can make their damned tests also before of the last week of May,can't they?
Btw,I've got also some hopes that regard my favourite riders.For example,I'd be extremely happy if the Schleck plan for the Ardenne classics (Andy wins Amstel and Frank wins Liége) became true.And then I'd be simply overjoyed if both the brothers made it to next year's Tour podium (and I'd cry for happiness if the brothers ended up on the 2 highest spots of said podium).If that should happen,I invite the dear Tour organizers to put on the Luxembourgish anthem and not the Danish one like they did this year with Contador, please.
Of course I'd also love to see the brothers racing the Tour of Lombardy and the Giro dell'Emilia for the first time since 2007 (come on Frank,you once said it's one of your favourite races,why don't you try to win it in 2010?).Those results would make 2010 a great year for the brothers and also for their fans.
Talking about my other favourite rider,Chris Anker Sorensen,I hope he'll be able to run a good Giro.As I already wrote,Fangirl is convincted that he will win the Zoncolan stage and arrive in the top 3 of the race,but Logic would be happy with a good Giro and a good rest of the season.What do I mean with "good Giro"? Well,a Top 10 would be greatly appreciated,as well as a stage win.And I think that Chris has the skills to make at least one of these hopes come true.
I'd also love it if Chris won the Giro dell'Emilia.I've been having this idea in my mind since 2007,but every year,the day before of the race,Chris always comes down with something.He once wrote on his blog that perhaps there's a curse for him on this race,but I hope that this Emilian curse will stop following him in 2010.
Moving to another rider I really like,I'd love it if next year Voigt won the Criterium International for the 6th time in his career.And I'd be terribly entusiasthic if Jens won a stage at the Tour and perhaps even managed to wear the maillot jaune.
On to other 2 Saxo Bank riders that I've started to appreciate this season,I hope that Matti Breschel and Jakob Fuglsang will have a good year.They could both do well in the Classics in 2010 and they may also win some Grand Tour stages.
Talking about Grand Tour stages,I think Nicki Sorensen should be allowed to win another Tour stage next year.His celebration on the finish-line was probably one of the nicest of the season (as you've probably already understood,his stage victory was one of the best moment of this year Tour,at least for me).
Abandoning Saxo Bank team,I hope that Pinotti will arrive on the TT Worlds podium in 2010 and that Capelli and Possoni will manage to get some good results in important races.And then I also hope that no one will have bad crashes and that all the neo pro riders will have a good season.
So,these are my "good wishes" for next year.Then there are some other hopes who are a bit evil (for example I hope that some riders who doped in 2007 won't be able to get any good results in 2010),but I realize that in this period of the year everyone should be happy and nice towards other people,so here I stop.
Of course before of closing this very last post of the 2009 year I wish everyone (the few people who read this blog,all the cyclists and all the supporters out there) a very happy,healthful and nice new year! I hope your 2009 has been good and that your 2010 will be even better! Now I'm off to helping my mother with the party organisation...Have a good time tonight!