Vuelta, Padania and the Leopard Trek / Radioshack affaire:

Ladies and gentlemen, miss Fede is happy to announce you that she's finally come back from her great holiday in Senigallia, a seaside town located in 'shitty Italy' - as someone called it a few days ago.

My holiday was excellent, although reading the newspapers everyday caused me to get very angry almost daily - and not just because of political / economical reasons. Anyway, let's go in order and talk about cycling.

First of all I must say that, as predictable, I won the virtual bet that I had made with my father: in fact, the tv in our little flat in Senigallia didn't broadcast the Vuelta. As a consequence, no cycling races for me in the last two weeks. However, I did manage to keep myself in touch with the cycling world thanks to 'la Gazzetta dello Sport' and, in this way, I soon realised that my Vuelta predictions were terribly wrong. In fact Antòn was dropped during the first mountain stage, whereas Rodriguez and Menchov couldn't get any good result. Nibali was the most active rider in the first 10 days of race, but then he couldn't keep the pace of Wiggins on the hardest Spanish climbs. Nevertheless, I really loved his racng style in that first week of competition. Vincenzo in fact always manages to make races become exciting and he attacks whenever he has the chance. He probably isn't the best climber out there (nor is he the best time trialist), but the boy has passion and determination. Moreover, when I watch him racing I have the feeling that he wants the race to be exciting and entertaining for the supporters - a thing that I completely approve. So, Vincenzo: don't get angry because of your final GC result because you've made us dream sweet dreams anyway ;)

Unfortunately for us Italians, Nibali wasn't the only 'azzurro' who had problems during the Spanish race: Scarponi in fact abandoned the race after a few stages ('I don't know what's going on, I feel tired', he told la Gazzetta) and Petacchi and Bennati still haven't won anything. The young Gavazzi, on the other hand, shone two days ago, when he won the Nojas stage ahead of Vandewalle.

So far, however, the riders who have had the best results in this Vuelta are Chris Froome and Juan José Cobo: in fact the Kenyan rider won a mountain stage and is now second in the GC, whereas JJ 'Buffalo' Cobo is the race leader with just two stages to go. Wiggins, instead, is 3rd: hadn't he broken his collarbone in July, I believe he would have been on the TdF podium.

Talking about other races: the Tour of Colorado saw some good victories by Viviani and Oss and an interesting breakaway by Schleck the Younger, whereas Gilbert has recently won GP Quebec. That man is a monster, no doubts about that!

Another competition who's receiving a lot of attention in these days is the so-called 'Giro di Padania', which is a stage race organised by the Northern League, an Italian right-winged party which would like to cut Italy in two parts: Padania and the South. The people who are part of this party are a bit, well, odd and they show their peculiarities even during this race: after every stage in fact the daily winner gets a 'golem' which represents a cyclist riding in front of the Cervino, whereas the second rider to cross the finish-line receives a shield which, if necessary, can become a spade (everyone would love to own one, right?); the third rider instead receives a M-shaped pyramid (no, I'm not drunk, it's written on the website of the race) with some runes on. As if this wasn't enough, the race started from the Monviso, where the son of the leader of the party, Renzo 'The Trout' Bossi, took some water from the 'Holy River Po' and put it in a little bottle. Some of you may think that the Northern League is just a little party formed by strange people who read too many medieval books, but unfortunately some Italian ministers belong to it and even make some laws. One of the most important members of the party, the above-mentioned 'Trout' (son of the party lader Umberto), had to take the Matura exam three times before being able to pass it. Nevertheless, he earns 12.000 euros pro month because he's a politician. And guess what? The money of his wage obviously derive from the taxes that we poor stupid people pay. Yes, sometimes I need to quote our beloved first Minister: Italy is a really shitty country. 

Anyway, after explaining what the Northern League is, let's go back to the Giro di Padania: given its political origin, this race has recently been sharply criticised. The Italian Cycling Federation couldn't change its name and many riders decided to take part in it because, all in all, this race offers an interesting parcours and takes place right before the Worlds. Unfortunately for these riders, in the last days they had to bear lots of insults ('Sons of b****es', 'Betrayers' and 'Bastards' were the most popular ones), they had to be careful not to ride over people laid down in the middle of the roads and  a neo pro, Sonny Colbrelli, was even punched on the eye by a 'supporter'. Unfortunately, as usual the ones who take the worst consequences of others' actions are the riders, whereas the politicians simply hide themselves in their big cars with a private chauffeur. Oh, and by the way: so far the race has seen victories by Modolo, Viviani and Basso.

Anyway. After talking about Giro di Padania and Vuelta, let's face a news that really shocked me when I first read it on la Gazzetta. Said news regards the merge between Leopard Trek and Radioshack.

Now, the few people who have been reading this blog since it was created on a cold afternoon back in 2008 may have noticed that, year after year, my attitude towards the Schleck brothers has changed. At first I was the usual Fangirl who just cares about her heroes, but then (luckily!!!) I slowly became a true cycling supporter and I soon learned to criticise even my favourite riders. As I faced these changes, my favourite cyclists grew older and, last year, they changed team. And, as some of you might have noticed it, I never really accepted this change. At first in fact I thought that everything was too secret, then the team PRs started to blow their own trumpets and in the end the ds often seemed unable to make the riders work as a team. Apparently I wasn't the only one who noticed these things, so that the owner of the team, mr. Flavio Becca, recently chose to change things in order to make things better. So, what did our man do? Simple: he had Leopard Trek merged with Team Radioshack.

Now, first question raised by this move: if Becca wanted to improve his team, why merging Leopard with Radioshack when he could have merged it with HTC Columbia? Wait a moment and you'll have a possible answer to this question.

According to la Gazzetta (also known as 'The queen of the rumours which later turn out to be oh so true'), Becca wanted the Shack and Leopard to merge because he was disappointed by the lack of good results that his team had during this season. In particular, at the end of theTdF the disappointed Becca referred to his team by saying: 'I feel like the owner of an excellent airplane with a great crew but without a commander'. Moreover, mr. B was reported to believe that Andy Schleck can't win a Grand Tour without a great ds on his team car. Therefore our man started to look for a great ds who could create a good race strategy for his little Luxembourgian jewel. And whom did he find? Johan Bruyneel, who has always liked Andy and who probably promoted 'Merge-Gate'. In fact, by merging RS and LT los Schlecks got a great ds (a cunning man like Bruyneel) and Becca got the chance of improving his team and sharing the team's costs with an important sponsor.

Unfortunately, there's a little problem in this great economical move: LT in fact has about 25 riders, whereas RS has about 9 riders. And, according to UCI, one single team can have just 28 riders plus 2 neopros pro year. This means that, halfway through September, about 6 former riders from Leopard Trek or Radioshack will find themselves without a contract - and I don't even want to talk about all the bus drivers, soigneurs and so on that will lose their jobs because of this merge (amongst the guys who were fired by LT there is also Brian Nygaard).

Talking about the riders, it is already known that nor Leipheimer nor O'Grady will join this new team (which is called 'Radioshack Nissan Trek' or something like that) because they are heading towards other teams. Apparently, the former Radioshack guys who will be racing for this new team in 2012 may be: the evergreen Chris Horner; ol' Armstrong's helper Kloeden; Janez Brajkovic; Matt Bussche; Markel Irizar; Ben King; Nelson Oliveira; Jesse Sergent; Haimar Zubeldia.

Personally, I would have avoided keeping Horner, Kloden and Brajkovic: can you imagine next year TdF team? Schleck, Schleck, Kloden, Horner, Brajkovic, Kloden, Cancellara, Zubeldia and Voigt. On paper it looks great, but who will sacrifice himself for the others?

Anyway, back to the riders' contracts. The part related to Leopard Trek former athletes looks really tragic: in fact Bruno Pires, Thomas Rohregger and Martin Pedersen are likely to be fired because they all signed a one-year contract. Other riders, instead, found out about the merge just thanks to the media. Amongst those guys there are strong riders like Brice Feillu, Tom Stamsnijder, Joost Posthuma and Jakob Fuglsang. In particular, la Gazzetta claims that the Danish rider may leave Leopard next year. In my opinion, if this happened, it would be a shame: Jakob in fact is one of the best young riders out there, so I think that giving a contract to Horner and not to him would be a very stupid move.

Still talking about Leopard former riders, it is said that even Cancellara might leave los Schlecks. In this way, the Leopards who would end up racing for RNT would be: Daniele Bennati, William Clarke, Stefan Denifl, Linus Gerdemann, Dominik Klemme, Anders Lund, Maxime Monfort, Giacomo Nizzolo, Andy Schleck, Frank Schleck, Davide Viganò, Robert Wagner, Fabian Wegmann, Oliver Zaugg and Jens Voigt. That would leave 3 free spots for some new riders. Given that this summer RS already signed Galoppin, Kruopis and Meersman, and that LT signed Rast and Hermans, now I really wonder who amongst these 5 riders will see his new contract disappear all of a sudden.

As you can understand, this new super team already seems to have lots of problems. Moreover, as if this wasn't enough, I'll add another problem myself. And that problem is: all the team's sponsors are American. Therefore, I think I can already say 'farewell' to the chance of seeing the Schleck brothers racing the Giro or la Vuelta next year. And talking about the Schleck brothers: they often talk about values like friendship and loyalty, but the way they're abandoning the people who last year believed in their new team project (and risked their career because of that) really lets me down. Kim Andersen, Nygaard, Fuglsang, the soigneurs, even the bus driver... They all abandoned their safe jobs in order to start a new adventure, but now they've been let down. I don't know if the brothers are actually involved in this merge but, to be honest, this whole story leaves me angry. Cycling isn't about love, friendship and loyalty, it's about money and success. Too bad that people often pretend to ignore this fact and even manage to take in other people by doing so.

Luckily, there is at least one happy news to cheer us up in this strange month of September: a few days ago in fact An-Sophie De Graeve, girlfriend of the unforgettable Wouter Weylandt, gave birth to the couple's first child. The baby girl was named Alizée, measures 51 centimetres and weighs 3.6 kg . I really wish a lot of strength to her mum and I wish Alizée a long, happy and serene life: little one, your father (and every single cycling supporter on Earh) will always be with you  <3

La Vuelta: crashes, victories and heat

Spain is a hot country, everyone knows that. And that is the reason why Spaniards are known in the world for their very particular daily routines. For example, they have lunch at 2 pm, they dine at 10 pm and their shops are usually closed from 2.30 pm to 5.30 pm. These three hours of the afternoon are usually dedicated to the so called 'siesta', aka the moment of the day during which people can relax and defend themselves from the hot temperatures outside their houses. Unfortunately, the three hours of the siesta are also the hours in which cycling races usually take place. Now: take the wonderful Spanish cities, take some of the best riders of the world and have them racing in Spain in the warmest afternoons of the year. To make this recipe even better, add a few climbs and shake everything with energy. Then, serve this dish to all the cycling supporters you know: they'll surely approve. Oh, and if they ask you the name of this tasty dish, tell them that it's called 'Vuelta a España' and that they can have a free sample of it every day for three weeks between the end of August and the first half of September.

So far the 2011 edition of la Vuelta has been very exciting and also very moving. Drama, excitement, sufference, joy: this is cycling, this is la Vuelta.

The third stage of the race was a very exciting one: whereas in other competitions you must wait at least one week before you can start experiencing some emotions not connected to riders crashing and retiring, the Spanish competition is known for its exciting and always thrilling parcours. On Monday, for example, people expected the race to end with a bunch sprint. Instead, 5 brave and strong riders (Irizar, Lastras, Chavanel, Pydgornyy and Edet) attacked after 6 kms of race and successfuly exploited the hilly terrain of the stage in order to stay out of the peloton's reach for the rest of the day. 

After 90 kms of race, the unlucky Edet was dropped by his companions because he had been stung by an insect. In the meanwhile, Cavendish and Kittel were having problems too and they soon got dropped by the peloton. They eventually crossed the finish-line 12 minutes after the winner (and together with tough guys like Taylor Phinney, Toni Martin and Nick Nuyens). This sudden defaillance obviously caused the alarm-level in the heads of Cannonball' supporters to raise. The Manx rider in fact showed he's not in a very good form already in the TTT, when he got dropped from his teammates. Will Mark manage to get back into shape before the Worlds? That is the question everyone would like to answer.

As Cav and Kittel were struggling, Team Leopard tried to defend Bennati's leader jersey. On the last climb of the day, however, the peloton lead was taken by team Sky, which did their best in order to set a good pace at the front.

With about 13 kms to go, the breakaway still had an advantage of about 1' 30" on the main peloton and Chavanel, Irizar, Pydgornyy and Lastras all started to dream of the stage victory. The Movistar rider was particularly keen on getting this victory, especially because his last victory before Monday dated back to 2008. Not a flattering thing for a rider who has improved a lot in the last few years and who has often been close to getting prestigious results... Lastras was aware of that and, right before the end of the last climb, he laucnhed a strong attack, thuis dropping Chavanel & Co. Pablo gave it all in the last kms of race and he eventually managed to cross the finish-line in triumph. Even in this great moment of joy, however, the Spaniard had a thought for some colleagues of his who aren't in the peloton anymore. In particular, Pablo dedicated his victory to his teammates Xavier Tondo and Mauricio Soler and to the Belgian rider Wouter Weylandt. "I think that I won today because of the expertise that I've built up as a veteran rider, I think it was a good win", the Movistar rider told Cyclingnews after his victory. "I really wanted to raise my arms at the finish today and I dedicate the win to Xavi Tondo and to my teammate Soler who is very ill, as well as to all the friends who have been lost this year". As well as winning the stage, Lastras also managed to get the leader jersey. In fact the former owner of the red jersey, Daniele Bennati, ended his day on the saddle 3' 06" after Lastras. However, 'The Panther' was in good company: also Denis Menchov, Steven Kruijswijk and Robert Kiserlovski finished the stage with him, 23" later than the other GC contenders.

On the following day, the riders had to face the Sierra Nevada climb. A tough day for the riders, not just because of the heat and of the toughness of the final climb, but also because of the memories.

Exactly three months before, in fact, the Movistar rider Xavier Tondo lost his life in a garage atop of Sierra Nevada, a few meters far from the finish-line of Tuesday stage.

Benoit Inxausti, who was with Xavier on that day, finished the stage 18' after the winner. 'I still remember a lot of what happened on that day. I would prefer not to remember it, but I can't help it. And tomorrow, I'll remember that moment in an even worse way', the young rider said at the end of Monday's stage.

The first uphill finish of the Vuelta wasn't clement with the riders who weren't in a good form. With 10 kms to go, halfway up the final climb, Igor Antòn (one of the main contenders for the overall victory) lost contact from the rest of the peloton and ended the stage 1' 38" after the winner. Mark Cavendish, on the other hand, got retired with 40 kms to go. 'I'm tired and I want to sleep', he said as he hopped on his team car, before hiding his head with a towel in order to get shelter from the photographers.

As the last climb began, the breakawayers du jour were caught and Liquigas took the lead. With 5 kms to go, however, Chris Anker Sorensen managed to escape from the peloton. The Danish rider was followed just by Daniel Moreno and really gave it all in order to get a victory for his newborn daughter Laerke. Unfortunately, in the end the stage winner was Moreno, who got the victory by outsprinting Chris  in the last few meters of race. In spite of that, Sorensen was pretty happy after the stage. 'It’s huge to finish second on Sierra Nevada and I’m naturally proud of the result. The team put me in a great position at the foot of the climb. Rafa Majka was close to me and his attack created the opportunity for me to launch a counter-attack. Moreno was simply stronger than me. I tried to drop him with 1.5 kilometers to go, but he remained with me and maybe he was even fresher than me. However, I have no regrets and I will try winning again'.

As most of the GC contenders seemed to ride on the climb without many problems, the race leader Lastras ended the stage 18 minutes after Moreno and 17 minutes after Chavanel, who became the new leader of the race.

On the following afternoon, another tough climb was waiting for the riders: the Valdepenas de Jaén wall, which is 2 kms long and whose central slopes have an average of 24%. With about 8 kms to go, David Moncoutié went on a solo attack. He got caught with 2 kms to go, after that Liquigas had chased him at a very fast pace. When Dani Moreno attacked in the steepest part of the wall, the only ones who could follow him were his captain (and favourite du jour) Joaquin Rodriguez, the surprising Wout Poels and Vincenzo Nibali. Unfortunately the Liquigas rider isn't as good as Rodriguez at riding on extremely steep climbs, so he soon had to abandon the rear wheel of the Spaniard who, led by Moreno, managed to get a prestigious victory on one of the hardest short climbs of Europe.

Bauke Mollema was a great 4th, whereas Scarponi was 5th, Fuglsang was 7th, Roche 8th and Menchov (who usually prefers longer climbs) was 14th. Sylvain Chavanel grit his teeth and managed to keep the leader jersey for another day.

Today's stage saw the peloton riding towards the amazing city of Còrdoba and losing some important riders. Kurt - Asle Arvesen's retire was caused by the consequences of his surreal crash of the day before, when he hit a child who was picking up a water bidon in the middle of the road. At that point the riders were riding at 75 kmph and, as a consequence of the crash, Arvesen's bike got shattered and Kurt-Asle suffered some bruises. The child suffered some bruises as well, but he didn't break any bone. The Sky rider managed to finish yesterday's stage, but this afternoon he decided to retire from the competition. The Norwegian has no broken bones and has promised that he would do his best to make it to the Norwegian line-up for Copenhagen Worlds. That in fact would surely be the perfect way to end his amazing career.

Unfortunately, Arvesen wasn't the only one who crashed badly in the last few hours and who had a lot of bad luck during the whole season. In fact, a breakout news says that Matti Breschel (who crashed during today's stage) has two broken fingers and isn't likely to take part in the Worlds.

Talking about crashes, however, it must be underlined that la Vuelta isn't experiencing the same amount of crashes as the Tour. Of course this is a consequence of the fact that the riders are  less nervous and stressful in the Spanish race, but the hilly terrain of the first few stages surely helped the peloton to avoid the dangerous situations that supporters had to witness during the first week of the Tour de France 2011.

As some riders abandoned the race and some other ones tried their luck by going on a breakaway (Taylor Phinney was amongst them), some sprinters (Haussler, Farrar, Petacchi, Haedo) lost contact from the main group. As a consequence, Bennati's team started to set the pace in the final kms, but the situation changed when, with about 20 kms to go, David Moncoutié attacked on on the 'Alto del catorce por ciento' ('Mountain of the 14%'). The Frenchman was soon joined by Toni Martin, Kevin Seeldrayers and David De La Fuente, whereas Liquigas took control of the main peloton. In the last few kms, the whole Liquigas team set a hellish pace on a downhill road and this caused a split in the peloton. Four Liquigas riders (the team leader Nibali, Peter Sagan, Valerio Agnoli and Eros Capecchi) found themselves at the head of the peloton together with an intruder, Pablo Lastras. Behind them, Chavanel understood that his leadership in the race was in danger and gave it all to limit his time loss. With him there were Rodriguez and Toni Martin, one of the best time trialists of the world.

Liquigas rode a superb TTT towards Cordoba, whereas the chasers couldn't get any closer. When the final sprint was launched, Sagan easily won in front of Lastras, whereas Agnoli made a big mistake. In fact he crossed the finish-line in third, thus stealing the bonus of 8" from his captain. Nibali looked slightly angry at that but, after all, everyone knows that it's hard to think things through when you're riding at 75 kmph and adrenaline is running through your body. However, at the end of the day, Liquigas can surely be happy with what they've achieved. So far Nibali has raced like a true champion, since he attacked whenever he could and he had his team working really well. Antòn has already got a big delay in the GC, but it's still too early to count him out of the race for the podium. Scarponi has hidden himself while waiting for the stepper climbs, whereas Rodriguez has showed a lot of strength. Moreover, Joaquin has a very good helper, Daniel Moreno. Denis Menchov, on the other hand, doesn't seem to have a good team behind him, but I'm sure he'll slowly start gaining time in the GC. The Russian in fact usually improves his form in the second / third week of a GT, so Nibali should paying a lot of attention to him in a few days time.

As far as the Worlds-favourites are concerned, this Vuelta seems to bring bad luck to them. Haussler and Farrar haven't got any good result yet, Cavendish, Goss and Breschel all retired. Kittel hasn't had any reat gresult either, whereas the only sprinter who really did shine was Peter Sagan. This Vuelta is his first GT and, although he's the youngest rider of the Spanish peloton, he's already won a stage. If he's improved his resistance in the longest races, it will be hard to defeat him in Copenhagen.

As far as other races are concerned, GP Industria e Commercio was won by Giovanni Visconti. Second was the exceptional Simone Ponzi, whereas third was  Manuel Belletti.

As far as the Tour of Colorado is concerned, instead, the prologue was won by Gretsch. Fifth was an amazing Jens Voigt, whereas Basso received very harsh critics for his 52nd placement. Imo Gazzetta was pretty disrespectful towards him and Juraj Sagan, since that newspaper began the (little) article about ToC by saying: 'Ivan Basso is as good as Juraj Sagan. It sounds like a heresy, but it's true. Ivan isn't better than Sagan (...) and we're not talking about Peter, but about Juraj, who is much less talented than his brother'. It's always so nice when people are respectful towards the riders!

The second stage of ToC, however, was won by Levi Leipheimer. Second was the strong Henao, third was Frank Schleck. Given the condition of Schleck and Leipheimer, perhaps someone should remind these guys that at this time of the year there is another race going on, that it's called Vuelta a Espana and that is one of the most important races of the world. If someone is interested, I'll tell them a secret: a victory in the Vuelta is something that people can use to get a better reputation amongst European journalists and it is something that people can write in their CV in caps. Ah, but I was forgetting: the sponsors seem to care more about the American money than about the Spanish traditions.

The third stage of ToC saw the victory of George Hincapie, whereas an excited Van Garderen got the leader jersey from Leipheimer.

 

 

So, that's all from me for the moment - and, perhaps, for the month. I'm leaving on Saturday and I won't be back before September the 9th. In the meanwhile, enjoy la Vuelta and use the comment area as you please - and don't forget to take a look at Figbash's reports from the Tour on Bananas about Bikes!!!

PS: who has just come across this webpage by writing 'Menchov, hugs' in Google? And, more important: were they satisfied with what they found?

Vuelta, Hamburg, Cycling Market, Worlds and more:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

La Vuelta: parcours and start list (plus other randomness)

Lots of things going on in Cycledom in the last few days, my dear readers.

First of all, Rebellin won the Tre Valli Varesine at the tender age of 40. This makes me wonder: if he goes so fast now that he's 40 and that he's not doping, how come that he didn't win the 2008 Olympics? Secondly, one recent news says that just four Swiss and Norwegian riders will have the chance of taking part in the Worlds this year. In my opinion this is absurd, especially if you consider that Iran and Morocco will have the chance of bringing 6 riders each to Copenhagen. Now, does anyone know at least one rider from Iran or Morocco? Personally, I don't. On the other hand, instead, I do know more than 4 riders from Switzerland (or from Norwegy). Cancellara, Bertogliati, Albasini, Frank, Morabito, Schaer, Tschopp Zaugg... It will be hard to pick just 3 of them, won't it?

Another hot topic in these days is cycling market. Talking about that: Langeveld has recently announced he'll join GreenEdge next year, whereas Degenkolb has officially said that he's joining Skil. The Pozzato-saga, on the other hand, has a new coup-de-scene, since Pippo has recently stated that Katiusha is trying to prolong his contract. Was Tchmil brainwashed, me wonders?

Fourth (and penultimate) interesting thing to say, in the last few days some interesting facts took place in the Blogosphere. First of all, our blogmate and Banana-reporter Susanne has recently decided to open her own tumblr. What are you waiting for? Check it out at http://themagicalpen.tumblr.com/ ! For other blog-related fun, take a look also at the last two posts on 'Bananas About Bikes' ( http://bananasaboutbikes.blogspot.com/ ): our banana-reporters Lee and Mar have been to Eneco Tour and to Post Denmark Rundt, so you now have the chance of enjoying their hilarious tales!

Fifth topic du jour (and main topic of this post) is la Vuelta. Oh yes. The last GT of the season starts on Saturday and it features a very nice parcours and a wonderful start list. Let's now take a look at the parcours and at the start - list - and let's also make some random predictions.

PARCOURS:

The 2011 Vuelta takes off with a 16 kms long TTT in Benidorm. The following stage is likely to suit sprinters, who may battle for victory after racing along the Spanish coast for a lot of kms. The second stage features a little climb with 10 kms to go, whereas the third one ends on the top of Sierra Nevada. This will be a pretty important stage, because some riders may have problems due to the fact that the first uphill finish arrives after just 4 days of race. Moreover, the Sierra Nevada isn't an easy climb: in fact it is 23 kms long and has an average of 5.7 %. In addition, at the top of the climb the riders will find themselves at an altitude of 2000 meters. Tough stage, isn't it?

On the following day, the wind may play tricks on the riders. However, the main obstacle du jour arrives in the last 3 kms of race, when the cyclists will have to face the Valdepeñas de Jaén wall, whose ramps' average is (fasten your seatbelt) up to 23%. Joaquim Rodriguez, Igor Anton, get ready for that - Nibali, Menchov, do whatever you can to stay glued to the wheels of the Spaniards.

After these two hellish days, the riders will face a stage ending in the astonishing city of Còrdoba, where the sprinters are likely to fight for the stage victory. That area of Spain is usually very hot and some riders may have problems because of that. The following stage will suit sprinters as well, although the fastest rider will have to sweat a lot in order to resist on the hilly terrain and in the windy and hot heart of Spain.

Next Saturday the riders will face a hilly terrain and one of the steepest walls of the world. The final 3 kms of the San Lorenzo de El Escorial stage in fact have ramps of up to 28 % - guys, be careful not to fall backwards while riding up that wall!

On the following day, some other pain is on the riders' menu: in fact they'll have to face another uphill finish. The last climb, La Covatilla, is 10 kms long and its average is 7.4%. Ouch, my legs are hurting - and I'm not even a rider!

On Monday, the GC riders will have another tough day ahead: a 40 kms long TT in the heart of Salamanca, a wonderful city. Nibali and Menchov will have the chance of gaining some time on their adversaries here, and they should really give their best in this stage: in fact, it is the only TT featured in this year race.

After a well-deserved rest day on Tuesday, the peloton (which, by now, might have lost many riders because of the upcoming Worlds) will head towards Galicia, where the cyclists will face another uphill finish. El Alto de la Manzaneda is 19 kms long and has an average of 6%. The GC riders who don't use their rest day properly will risk to blow up on this climb, so this stage may give us some surprises.

On the following day, the sprinters who have survived the first week of race will be able to show their skills in the stage to Pontevedra. 24 hours later, they'll have to face the Spanish version of Galibier, which is called Puerto de Ancares. Unfortunatey on this occasion the organisers have decided to create a stage 'a la Tour': the toughest climb du jour in fact is placed with more than 60 kms to go.

On the following afternoon, however, the supporters will be able to enjoy the show of the Lagos de Somiedo stage, which features lots of climbs and an uphill finish.

24 hours later, the riders are likely to see mirages as they face one of the toughest climb of Europe: the Angliru. The last 6.5 kms of this climb have an average of 13% and this should be enough to make you understand the difficulties that the riders will face on that day. Luckily the boys will have the chance of resting on the following day. The GC riders will start battling again after two days, when (after the flat stage to Haro) they'll have to face a 212 kms long stage to Pena Cabarga. The boys will have to use everything that's left in their tank in order to survive this long stage, which ends on a climb that isn't particularly steep but that, at this point of the race, may offer us a very interesting show.

The three following stages are likely to award the brave riders who'll choose to go on a breakaway. In particular, the Bilbao and Vitoria stages will be a Basque delirium, since thanks to them la Vuelta comes back in the Basque Country for the first time since 1978.

On the 11th September, in the end, the Spanish GT will be over with the usual parade in Madrid. Bennati won there in 2008 and, if he doesn't abandon the race because of the Worlds, he may win there also this year. Finally, after 3 weeks of pain the riders will be able to get off their bikes. Some will be rejoicing, other ones will be disappointed, but everyone will be happy to have concluded one of the most brutal GTs of the year. And then, the attention of the cycling world will immediately move to Copenhagen.

START LIST:

This year the battle for the overall victory in the Vuelta will be very tough and some of the best riders of the world will all be at the start of the race on Saturday. Here are the line-ups of the teams with some little remarks about them:

AG2R: Roche, Bonnafond, Champion, Dessel, Houanard, Le Lay, Mondory, Montaguti, Perget.

The hilarious Irishman Nicolas Roche is back racing after his knee problems in the Tour. Will he manage to race better than his cousin Daniel Martin? Time will tell. His team is formed by attackers like Dessel and nice guys like Houanard, who'll go looking for stage victories even in the TTT.

Andalucia Caja Granada: Bernabeu, Benitez, Cabello, Lobato, Palomares, Piedra, Ramirez, Roldan, Rosendo.

The Frenchmen offer their wild cards to the French teams, the Italians offer them to the Italian teams, the Spaniards give them to the Spanish equipos. The question is: what team does Bernabeu support?

BMC: Burghardt, Frank, Kohler, Phinney, Quinziato, Santambrogio, Santaromita, Tschopp, Van Avermaet.

A very good team for BMC: attention to them for the TTT! Phinney will be under special observation in the first days of race, whereas the other guys will battle for a stage victory.

Cofidis: Bagot, Edet, Mate, Moncoutie, Monier, Saramotins, Sijmens, Taaramae, Vogondy.

The French team has a good line-up: Moncoutié is a good climber who doesn't fear tough climbs, Taaramae has a very impulsive racing style, Vogondy was born to attack. Monier, on the other hand, is still astonished by his victory in the 2009 Giro ;)

Euskaltel:  Anton, Isasi, Martinez, Oroz, Perez Lezaun, Txurruka, Velasco, Verdugo, Nieve.

This will be a very important edition of the Vuelta for the Basque team. Anton wants to win the race after he had to abandon it because of a crash last year, whereas Nieve has showed us his skills during the Giro. The rest of the team will help the team leaders and will attack a lot in the Bilbao and Vitoria stages.

Geox-TMC: Cobo, Blanco, De La Fuente, Duarte, Duran, Florencio, Menchov, Sastre, Valls.

A good team of climbers for Geox. Cobo, De La Fuente, Duarte, the promising Valls... And I still haven't mentioned Carlos 'Carlito' Sastre and Denis 'Smiley' Menchov. Of course I'll be supporting the Russian in the next three weeks and I'm sure he'll do his best to win his third Vuelta. Allez Denis!

HTC - Highroad: Albasini, Cavendish, Degenkolb, Goss, Grabsch, Howard, Martin, Sivstov, M. Velits.

Ok readers: read these names carefully and read the name of the team with respect. This is the last GT for HTC Highroad and this is extremely sad for every cycling lover. Let's enjoy every single action made by the boys in yellow and let's enjoy the stage wins that they're really likely to get. Cavendish, Degenkolb and Goss will use the Vuelta as a preparation for the Worlds, whereas Martin will pay attention to the GC. Look out for this team during the TTT, they're dangerous!

Katiusha: Rodriguez, Horrach, Kuchynski, Losada, Moreno, Paolini, Pliuschin, Trofimov, Vorganov.

A very good line-up for the Russian team. Joaquin Rodriguez is already looking forward to the toughest stages, whereas Pliuschin will surely show us his talent in some breakaways. Moreno is a talented climber too and I'm sure he'll do his best to help his captain. Paolini is extremely likely to take part in the Worlds and in the 2012 Olympics and he'll do his best in this race in order to show that he deserves his place in the sun in the Italian team.

Lampre: Scarponi, Kvachuk, Marzano, Mori, Niemiec, Arrieta, Petacchi, Righi, Spezialetti.

A very good team that can win stages and that can also go for the overall victory with Scarponi. Michele is determined to win this race and to defeat his eternal rival Nibali, whereas Petacchi, if he's had his motivation back, may win some flat stages. Niemiec will surely rock the climbs, the other ones will help him in supporting Scarponi as well as they can.

Leopard Trek: Bennati, Cancellara, Fuglsang, Monfort, O'Grady, Pires, Viganò, Wagner, Zaugg.

The hottest team of the Vuelta is ready to rock the stages and the overall. Fuglsang really shone in his first Vuelta and this year he'd like to repeat himself. The magic couple Viganò / Bennati will rock the sprints (in Daniele we trust!), whereas all the other guys have the skills to go for a stage win. This is the last LT GT for Big Old Stuey and hopefully he'll say 'adieu!' to his teammates with a victory - what about the TTT?

Liquigas: Nibali, Capecchi, Caruso, Da Dalto, Dall'Antonia, Marangoni, Nerz, Sagan, Wurf.

Great, great team. Vincenzo won this race last year, but everything will be tougher this time. I'll obviously support him during the next 3 weeks (the Worlds are approaching, so my sportif patriotism has started to show itself off :P), just like I will support the young and brave Marangoni, the nice Wurf and all the other promising guys on this team. I like Capecchi because I was there when he first won a GT stage at the Giro and I have great expectations for Peter Sagan. Moreover, Fangirl will be watching Dominique Nerz in a very careful way - the boy broke his collarbone earlier in the season and I hope that by now he has fully recovered.

Movistar: Erviti, Vicente, Intxausti, Konovalovas, Lastras, Lopez, Pardilla, Plaza Molina, Samoilau.

While reading the line-up of this team, I couldn't help but think of Xavier Tondo - Vuelta was his home- race and Intxausti was with him on that cursed morning of May. The boys will surely do their best also for him, just like the LT guys will be racing also for WW Special in the next three weeks. Movistar has a good-line up, with a good climber (Pardilla), some good all rounders (Samoilau), a strong sprinter (Lastras) and a great time trialist (Konovalovas).

Omega: Bakelandts, De Greef, De Haes, Dockx, Hansen, Pujol, Reynes, Van De Walle, Van Den Broeck.

When I read that Bakelandts was taking part in this race, I had a sigh of relief. In fact, I was worried by Hoogerland and Roy's absences and I was already wondering who would have taken their place as 'most attacking rider du Grand Tour' during the Vuelta. Well, now the answer is simple: Jan is going to do it. The boy's got a lot of strength, too bad that he's never that lucky with breakaways. Together with him, Omega offer us a good line-up formed by a sprinter like Hansen, an old crush of mine  like De Greef and one of the comeback boys du GT: Jurgen Van Den Broeck (right now I'm wondering why I've just typed his name as 'Van Den Brown' :P).

Astana: Kessiakoff, Gasparotto, Kangert, Kashechkin, Kiserlovski, Mizurov, Petrov, Renev.

For the first time, Astana will face a GT while knowing that his founder, Vinokourov, won't race anymore (*girls of the AAVL mourn*). However, Vino leaves behind him a strong team. Petrov knows how to win GT stages, Kessiakoff is a great climber, Kashechkin was Vino's faithful helper back in 2007, Gasparotto is one of my favourite riders and Kiserlovski is the team's hope for the GC. Allez Robert!

Quickstep: Bandiera, Boonen, Cataldo, Chavanel, De Maar, De Weert, Maes, Malacarne, Seeldrayers.

Seeldrayers is back in action after the Giro and is ready to show off his talent. Boonen will use la Vuelta as a preparation for the Worlds, whereas Chavanel will fight with Bakelandts for the 'most combative rider' award.

Rabobank: Barredo, Breschel, Freire, Garate, Kruijswijk, Martens, Mollema, LL Sanchez, Slagter.

A very good line-up for Rabo. Breschel and Freire will rock the sprints, Mollema and Kruijswijk will help each other in the GC (go go guys!), Barredo and Garate are great attackers, LL Sanchez is a victory-addicted in the Tour and Slagter is back in a GT after scaring us all during the Giro 'strade bianche' stage.

Saxo Bank: CA Sorensen, Christensen, Gustov, Haedo, Jorgensen, Majka, Marycz, Nuyens, N.Sorensen.

You've gotta love this team when it features two Sorensens in its line up!! Good old Bjarne offer us an interesting team for this Vuelta. Chris Anker is ready for his first GT as a daddy and he'll surely try to get a prestigious victory in order to dedicate it to Laerke and Michelle. Nicki will help him, Haedo will sprint, Jorgensen will show us his talent (and his cuteness), Nuyens is back from his post-Flanders holiday, Marycz will enter every single breakaway of the race. I really like Jaroslaw and I really hope that he and Chris will manage to win a stage each. Will it be possible?

Skil: Geniez, Doi, Frohlinger, Geschke, Hupond, Kittel, Sprick, Timmer, Veelers.

Will Kittel rule the sprints as he did in Poland? That is the question that everyone wants to answer.

Sky: Arvesen, Cioni, Froome, Lovkvist, Possoni, Stannard, Sutton, Wiggins, Zandio.

Wiggo is another rider who comes back racing after breaking a bone in the Tour. His team is really good: Cioni and Possoni are good climbers, Froome is an all-rounder, Arvesen is one of my favourite riders - too bad that he's ending his career at the end of the season. Lovely Lovkist is back in a GT for the joy of every woman in the world, whereas Sutton and Stannard will try to find a place in the sun during the Spanish sprints.

Garmin: Farrar, Fischer, Haussler, Hushovd, Klier, Le Mevel, Martin, Talansky, Van Summeren. Cyclingnews says that Hushovd will race la Vuelta, but I don't know if they're right. Thor, Haussler, Fischer and Farrar will prepare the Worlds in Spain and it'll be hard to name a captain amongst them. Le Mevel is a strong climber, just like Daniel Martin, who is riding really well in these days. Van Summeren is the boy we've all learned to love in Paris - Roubaix, whereas Talansky is a promising time trialist. Look out for this team in the TTT!

Radioshack: Brajkovic, Busche, Irizar, Kloeden, Lequatre, Machado, Oliveira, Paulinho, Zubeldia. Kloeden and Brajkovic are back after their terrible Tour and, hopefully, after a little pilgrimage to Lourdes (or to Santiago de Compostela). Machado will hopefully race better than he did during the Giro and Oliveira (a promising neo pro) may show us something interesting.

Vacansoleil: Carrara, Devolder, Golas, Keizer, Lagutin, Lighthart, Mosquera, Poels, Van Leiken.

Once again, Cyclingnews tells me that Mosquera will be racing - too bad that I remember reading an article in which Vacansoleil said that Ezequiel wouldn't have taken part in the Spanish race. Mystery! Apart from Mosquera, Vacansoleil has a good line-up: Poels is a strong rider, just like Lagutin. Carrara is fast, Devolder is an all rounder, Lighthart is the Dutch national champion. I'm looking forward to seeing him racing!

So, this was my little intro to Vuelta a Espana. My pick for the final podium is: Antòn, Nibali, Menchov - I'm sure that also Scarponi and Rodriguez will do a great job, too bad that a podium has just 3 spots...

Grande Vincenzo!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(Pic by Bettini)

The TT of the surprises and other random links:

In this nice evening I've decided to break my scholastic isolation by writing another post on this blog. After all, I don't mean to study the 25 pages that my philosophy teachers sent me via e-mail the other evening at all and then I'm too excited to get down to some serious studying right now. The reason of my excitement, if someone cares about it, is that I've managed to pass the written exam of the Italian driving license. Everyone here in Italy considers it a very easy thing to do, but me was unlucky and received the most difficult test (everyone in the exam gets a different test, so that they can't copy each other) between those available for the exam. In spite of this, I passed, so I've even watched today's Vuelta stage since 4 pm as 'a celebration gift to myself'.
Today's Vuelta stage, as you probably know, was a TT and had a very surprising end. The winner in fact wasn't Cancellara (and that's already a news), but one of the Velits twin, Peter. He really looked surprised after the finish-line and I found him very tender during the post-race interview. When the journalist asked him whether he thought of reaching a podium in the Vuelta,in fact, Peter almost excused himself by saying 'Sorry but I'm not thinking about that now'. He looked so surprised!
Second in the stage was a very good Menchov, while third was Cancellara. Eurosport's Italian expert, however, had the impression that the Swiss didn't give it all to win the TT and perhaps he's right.
Anyway the ones regarding the eventual stage winner weren't the only surprises that this TT gave to the supporters. In fact this stage also brought some changes in the GC. As predictable, Nibali got the red jersey, but he probably felt a cold shiver running down his spine when he suddenly punctured and noticed that his mechanics were really confused and didn't know whether to change his bike or his wheel. Btw I think the mechanics were even more shocked and terrified than Nibali on that occasion, since I clearly heard one of them scream 'Corriiiii!!' ('Go!') in a very nervous way after helping Nibali.
Talking about punctures, a poor rider (sorry but I can't remember who he was) punctured after the first 10 meters of his TT. Not the perfect way to start such a hard stage,isn't it?
Anyway, Nibali's puncture wasn't the only surprise that has regarded the GC contenders today. In fact Rodriguez lost about 4 minutes from Nibali and is now 5th in the GC. Then, Frank Schleck clearly did his best but couldn't improve his 4th position in the GC, as I had hoped, because both Velits and Mosquera raced amazingly well. In particular, me was terribly amazed by Mosquera's stage. Not just did he manage to keep his 2nd place, but he also gained time on Nibali!!! And with La Bola del Mundo waiting to be climbed by the riders on Saturday, a 39" gap between Nibali and Mosquera isn't big at all. So we can say that, with less than 5 stages before of Madrid, the Vuelta's victory and its podium are still to be decided. Therefore, let's stay glued to the screen in the next days!!

MARKETING NEWS: Fedrigo is joining Français des Jeux next year, while Mosquera has received an offer from Movistar. Hopefully he'll accept it, since he can always make races exciting and it'd be great to see him racing also in the classics or in races like the Tour and the Giro.

WORLDS: Italian team will be formed by Pozzato (who'll be the captain of the squadra), Nibali, Paolini, Gavazzi, Oss, Bruseghin, Tosatto, Pinotti (yay!) and Visconti. The team seems very good to me and I hope they'll race well in Melbourne.
As far as the women team is concerned, Italy probably has one of the strongest team between the ones that will be at the start of Melbourne's race. In fact the national team will be formed by Guderzo (who is world champion right now), Baccaille, Bastianelli (world champion in 2007), Berlato, Bronzini (world champion on the track), Callovi and Cantele.

ABSOLUTELY SAD MOMENT DU POST:
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/head-injuries-claim-casarottos-life : I know that it sounds rhetorical, but I really don't feel like ignoring this bad story. Poor Tomas Casarotto, an Italian 20 year-old rider, died yesterday after crashing against a car 4 days ago, during Giro del Friuli. Words fail me in front of a tragedy like this.

Great stage Frank!

Frank Schleck rode an amazing Vuelta stage this afternoon and is now 4th in the GC of the race.
Athough school in Italy has begun today,miss Fede is already drowning in a sea of sh...,ehm, homeworks, so she could see just the last 3 kms of the race, a thing she really regrets.
The victory went to Mikael Nieve, while second was a super Frankie. Nibali lost the jersey to Rodriguez and seemed a bit 'blocked' on the last part of the climb towards Cotobello. Btw I think he can get back the jersey on Wednesday, when the riders will face a 46 kms long TT.
Talking about wednesday, I hope that Frank Schleck will run the TT of his life that day. We know he's improved a lot in races against the clock and, on paper, he seems stronger than guys like Rodriguez or Mosquera. Therefore, I think we can be very confident for a good TT performance of Frankie.
"I tried to attack and I've succeeded," said Frank Schleck after today's stage. "Unfortunately there was one rider who remained ahead and he was too far to be caught. I would have liked the stage win but I've re-gained some time over all the other GC contenders, so it's a positive day after all." In my opinion, by the way, this wasn't just a 'positive' day for Frankie: it was a very positive day, in which he showed to everyone that he can still fight for the Vuelta podium and, why not, also for the Vuelta victory. After all,the penultimate stage of the race ends on Bola del Mundo-and everything could still happen there.So, let's cross our fingers and hope for the best.

PS: I know that my posts are usually much longer than this, but believe me, right now I'm a very busy person... ;)

'Andy, what have you done?': my personal opinion about the case du jour

Andy, what have you done? Did you really stay out until 5 am on the eve of a pretty hard Vuelta stage? Were you really drunk yesterday morning? Or did you just have a single drink after dinner?
These are some of the questions that Fangirl would like to ask Andy Schleck right now.
In fact, as everyone in Cycledom knows, yesterday Andy Schleck and Stuart O'Grady were kicked out from la Vuelta because they broke the internal rules of team Saxo Bank. In other words, they drank after dinner.
The problem is: Andy and Stuart said that they had just 1 drink after dinner, but they didn't mention at what time they came back to the hotel.
Bjarne Riis instead said that Andy and Stuey came back at the team's hotel at 5 am, after a night spent in a bar, but didn't say whether they were drunk or not. He simply said that he didn't care about how many beers Stuey and Andy had during the night, because '1 beer or 10 beers, it doesn't make any difference. It was 5 am'.
Then, obviously, there are the journalists. The journalists who, right now, are divided in two teams. Some wrote headlines like 'Andy Schleck ejected from la Vuelta just because he had a drink after dinner' and made the reader understand that, according to them, Riis was too harsh with the Luxembourgian. Others, instead, came up with sensational headlines like 'Schleck ejected from la Vuelta: he came back at his hotel, drunk, at 5am'. This, in particular, was the headline of La Gazzetta dello Sport.
I've already mentioned that, imo, someone who works for La Gazzetta doesn't like the Schlecks very much. Today, I think I had the official confirm of my suspect. "Andy Schleck, also known as 'the little brother', 'the angel-faced rider', the 'good' that was defeated by the 'bad' Contador during this year Tour... was ejected from la Vuelta after that he came back at his hotel, drunk, at 5 am yesterday morning (...) Together with him there was O'Grady, who already had an experience like that during the 2006 Vuelta, the night before of the last stage. On that occasion O'Grady spent the night in a disco, but then rode the day's stage in a spectacular way". At a certain point even Cancellara was mentioned in the article, since it seems that he had been out drinking with Schleck and O'Grady, too.

In this big information chaos, we obviously can't know who's telling the truth and who isn't.
Or, perhaps, both Andy and Riis are telling the truth. I mean, perhaps Andy really had just one drink after dinner and he really came back at 5 am in the morning. Who knows? Perhaps Andy went out and ordered a beer in a little bar. The beer eventually arrived, but it was very disgusting. Andy's a well-educated boy, so he probably thought it was unpolite to leave a full glass of beer on the bar table, without drinking it. So, he decided to finish that damned beer up. Too bad that, when he finally finished it, it was 5 am and his team ds was waiting for him and Stuey in the hall of the hotel. Perhaps, that's what happened.

Anyway. More seriously, I think that the other evening Andy made a mistake. In other words, he was imprudent and unwise.

I mean: you're a rider who's going to change team next year and you're 'stealing' many riders from your (almost) former team. Imo, in a situation like that, you should be prudent and know that your ds won't lose any occasion to create damages to your image. After all, that's part of the game too.

In such a delicate situation, me thinks that going out for a drink with just one teammate (who is also going to join you at your new team) on the eve of a pretty hard stage of a Grand Tour, without telling your ds about it, when you already have a heavy delay in the GC, well, me thinks that doing all these things in a certain situation isn't wise at all.

If then Andy really came back at 5 am, well, I think that then we can't say that he was just unwise and imprudent. If he really did so, he also lacked of professionality and of respect towards the team's sponsor, towards the race, towards his Spanish supporters and, more important, towards his teammates. That's my opinion.

As far as Riis is concerned, then, just try to put yourself in his shoes. You are a ds, your best riders are leaving your team and so are some of your 'historic' riders. The Vuelta is the last GT that you're facing with the boys that have been your best athletes for the last years. One of these boys, Andy, loses 37 minutes in one week time and this creates bad publicity to your sponsor. Then, on the eve of a pretty hard stage, Andy and another rider go out drinking after dinner, although they know it is prohibited.

Personally, I would have been a little fed up too, no matter when they actually came back to the hotel. The rules are rules. If then they came back at a decent time, I could have closed an eye. But if they really came back at 5 am, well, I think I would have sent them away from the race as well.

That was a very tricky move, I agree, but Riis had the right to do so. After all, if Andy hadn't broken that rule, Riis wouldn't have the chance of sending him out of the race. So, in the end, I think that the only ones to blame for what happened are Andy and Stuart.

But still, there is one thing I want to say: Andy is 25. Everyone makes mistakes, the problem is that when that 'everyone' is a famous person, well, the mistakes seem bigger and get a lot more of attention. So I think that Andy should reflect about what he's done, talk a lot with Frank ( he's the one who's going to suffer more for Andy's exclusion from the Vuelta) and try to focus on the last races of the season. Then, in less than two months, he'll be able to change team and forget about Riis and this story.

In the meanwhile, I hope he can have a bit of peace and relax in Luxembourg and support his brother Frank as much as he can- the boy needs all our support now.

Andy Schleck and Stuart O'Grady didn't start today's stage of Vuelta:

According to http://www.sporten.dk/cykling/chok-riis-smider-schleck-ud-af-vueltaen , Andy and Stuart were forced to abandon la Vuelta because they broke some internal rules of the team. Luckily, it seems that this hasn't got anything to do with doping.
More details later.

Vuelta rest day: little random post

PERSONAL RANDOMNESS:
To your incredible joy Miss Fede is back on this blog, ready to write her last bullshits before of the beginning of the school year.

There is just one week left before of the school's beginning, but in spite of this I still have to study 'Dubliners' by James Joyce (every single story of that damned book) and finish my homework. As predictable, however, me is actually doing everything I can to enjoy my last days of holiday and avoid thinking about school. To Logic's horror, this will also involve me taking the 3 pm bus from my town dressed up like one of the Blues Brothers tomorrow afternoon (yes, I'm a brave girl) in order to go to a masked party. Ah, if I had that cursed driving license!!

Btw, over the last days miss Fede also thought a bit about cycling ;) Actually,the other day she even went to see a little exhibition about Fausto Coppi. It was really good, there was a track bike that was about 70 year-old (and that looked terribly uncomfortable), an 80 year-old Bianchi, a 50 year-old page of La Gazzetta (I wanted to steal it), an old yellow jersey and other interesting things. I had a lot of fun there and thought a bit about how important the Coppi-Bartali fight must have been for the Italians in the past. Talking about this, here's a story that may help you to understand this Italian rivalry.
Recently,I've often asked to an old relative of mine whether he wanted to come to the Coppi's exhibition with me and he always answered 'No, I can't come because I'm busy'.

A few hours ago, he finally revealed me why he didn't want to come: "D'you know one thing? When I was young...Well, I didn't like Coppi. In this village, there were just 3 people who supported Fausto. Everyone else supported Bartali. A man even bought a bike like Bartali's one and he kept it in his bedroom until he died. He never rode it, he bought it just because he loved Bartali. I know that Coppi was the strongest but...I've always looked at the person behind the athlete. And I didn't like the person behind Coppi. We really loved Bartali here'. So, in a few seconds time, I've got to know many new things about my relative, my village and cycling passion. Wonderful, isn't it?

VUELTA NEWS:
Ok, I admit it: over the last days I have been distracted in my cycling's observations by many facts regarding my offline life. Anyway I'm not living on another planet (not yet,at least), so I know what happened during the Xorret del Calì stage. Both Menchov and Frank Schleck lost time there, while Anton got the leader jersey. I was really surprised by Menchov's defaillance, but I still think that Frank Schleck can get a place in the top 3 at la Vuelta. In the meanwhile, the silent shark Vincenzo Nibali is getting closer and closer to red, while Petacchi has left the race after a crash.
On this link ( http://www.velonation.com/News/ID/5557/Vuelta-a-Espana-Schleck-hoping-to-ride-better-from-this-point-on.aspx ) you can find an article in which Frank Schleck talks about how the race has been for him so far. Imo, however, he shouldn't be disappointed with his results. I mean, he broke his collarbone less than two months ago,it's obvious that he can't have the form of his life! Think positive, Frankie!

MARKETING NEWS:
http://www.velonation.com/News/ID/5554/Vandborg-to-leave-Liquigas-signs-contract-with-Team-Saxo-Bank.aspx : to Chris Sorensen's joy, Brian Vandborg is joining team Saxo Bank. Talking about New Luxembourg, instead, it seems that Stamsnijder is ready to join los Schlecks there. Talking about NL,let me say one thing: I can understand the love for secrets and so on, but is it so dangerous to reveal the name of this new team to the supporters? All these secrets about the riders and the sponsors are definitely irritating this Fangirl!

GIRO DI LOMBARDIA NEWS:
http://www.velonation.com/News/ID/5562/25-teams-for-the-Giro-di-Lombardia-RadioShack-Vacansoleil-and-Footon-Servetto-not-invited.aspx : Vacansoleil hasn't been invited to Tour of Lombardy either. Something suggests me that we can't imagine how pissed off Riccardo Riccò was right after receiving the news.

Primeras etapas de la Vuelta a España y otras noticias:

My offline life is keeping me very busy in this period, so don't expect a big number of posts from me in these days. Unfortunately for those of you who enjoy reading the bullshits I write, this busy period of mine will probably go on until Christmas, especially if you consider that in two weeks time my last year of high school begins.

Anyway, let's enjoy the last days in which I can write bullshits without worrying about my duties and write another useless post.

VUELTA VUELTA VUELTA:
La Vuelta a España empezò en Sevilla el sabado pasado. 'Sevilla qué maravilla!', some people usually say. Unfortunately I couldn't watch the TTT live because, I admit it, I was out with my friends, getting depressed about...well, you can guess it ;) Anyway I know that HTC Columbia won (I could actually see the last part of Andalucia Caja Sur's performance and get updates about how the TTT went) and that Cav got the red jersey.

Liquigas got the second place in the TTT and this confirms that the Italian team really knows how to get good results in this kind of races.

The second stage of the race was won by Yahueni Hutarovich, who outsprinted Cavendish, Farrar and Petacchi. I couldn't see this stage either and this is a thing I pretty regret. In fact I would have loved to see Hutarovich winning in front of the best sprinters of the world, since I think that was probably a very exciting (and surprising) moment. However Yahueni really deserved a big victory and I'm glad that he finally got it.

The third stage was the first one that I could see live (it was high time!). During it Ben Swift, a promising British sprinter, abandoned the race. He was the second Sky rider to do so, since John Lee Augustyn had previously got retired as well. Apparently, a lot of guys at team Sky have come down with a virus who makes them vomit very often and that's why 2 of them have already got retired. In such a bad situation it's hard to stay in your own bed, so I think we can just guess how hard it must be to ride a bike in a very hot weather with a virus like that in your body.
Btw, the stage had an uphill finish and there was a pretty long climb with a few kms to go. Andy Schleck was dropped there and finished the stage 14' after the winner.

On that long ascent Katusha set the pace with riders like Karpets, Caruso and Pozzato. Apropos: when I saw Pippo, I thought his new look was a bad joke. Moustache and that horrible pair of glasses...And his tattoo on the arm! Gosh, what will happen to the World Champion jersey if Pippo really becomes World Champion in Melbourne?
Btw, after a long and narrow descent (was it an impression of mine, or did Frank Schleck have some problems there?) the riders arrived on the last km climb. The last 'escapado', the unlucky Serafin Martinez, was caught there.

Gilbert easily took the lead of the peloton at the beginning of the climb and won in an apparently easy way. If he flies this way also in Australia, I think the Belgian will be a hard contender for the Worlds' victory-in fact,he isn't just fast: he's also resistant.And, according to many, the parcours of this year Worlds doesn't suit pure sprinters, but suits those who are fast and don't have problems with keeping a high tempo on little climbs. In fewer words, Melbourne parcours perfectly suits guys like Philippe Gilbert.
Second in the stage came J.Rodriguez, third was Anton, 4th Nibali (the 'Nibalite' is causing many victims here in Italy right now),5th a great Grega Bole (I like him), 6th was Roche, 7th a surprising Menchov (the climb didn't suit him too much but still he managed to get a 7th placement), 8th was Mosquera, 9th Arroyo and 10th Vichot. Frank Schleck came in 13th, behind Pozzato and Tondo, with 19" of delay from the winner. Gilbert also got the red jersey, since Cavendish crossed the finish-line 25 minutes behind him.

Yesterday's stage ended on a very steep climb (it hit 23% at one point), which has been defined 'the Spanish version of Mur de Huy' by many. On such a hard climb I expected something good from Rodriguez, and instead the victory went to Igor Anton.
On the penultimate climb of the day a group of 23 men was formed at the head of the race. All the main GC contenders were there-or, at least, almost all the GC contenders were there. In fact, Sastre had some troubles on that climb and eventually crossed the finish-line with 1'34" of delay from the stage winner. Still on the penultimate climb, Andy Schleck had a mechanical problem (again!!!) and quietly crossed the finish-line 14' 36" after Anton.
The Basque rider won in front of Nibali and Peter Velits (who made a very good performance). 4th was JR (Joaquin Rodriguez), 5th an exhausted Gilbert, 6th an excellent Van Garderen (look out for him, since he might be the surprise of this year race), 7th was Mosquera, 8th Roche, 9th Ruben Plaza, 10th Uran, 11th Menchov, 12th Arroyo, 13th Frank Schleck. 14th was Marzio Bruseghin, a rider who I ignored in my Vuelta's predictions - and that might have been a mistake, since Marzio is a very good GC rider.

Today's stage suited sprinters and, in fact, the victory went to Farrar in front of Koldo Fernandez and Cavendish. Cav started the sprint too early this afternoon and so he was easily passed by Tyler in the last meters. 4th was a surprising Tosatto, 5th was Petacchi, 6th was Sebastien Chavanel.
The red jersey is still on Gilbert's shoulders.

FANGIRL'S CONSPIRACY THEORY:
Talking about la Vuelta, Fangirl believes that La Gazzetta's journalists are a bit against the Schleck brothers. In today's paper edition of the newspaper in fact they pointed out Andy's poor performances in the last stages and then they also claimed that Frank Schleck disappointed them in the last days. Is Fangirl exaggerating things (as Logic suggests) or not? That is the question.

LUXEMBOURG TEAM NEWS:
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/phinney-considering-his-career-options-for-2011 : the Taylor Phinney-mania hasn't taken off in Italy yet, but I've heard many people talking about this young American in a totally delighted way. And now it seems that Taylor has received a job offer from the famous unnamed Luxembourgian team of the Schleck brothers.

The 20 year-old rider also received offers from BMC and RadioShack, but said he hasn't decided yet what his new team will be.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/trek-to-supply-bikes-to-new-luxembourg-team : It's official: the Schleck brothers are going to ride Trek bikes next year. 'Hopefully', Evil Logic whispers, 'Trek's chains will be better than Specialized's ones...'

SAD MOMENT DU POST:
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/laurent-fignon-passes-away : Laurent Fignon lost his battle against cancer yesterday and passed away at the age of 50.

In his career he won 2 Tour de France (the first of which was won when Laurent was just 23) and 1 Giro. He also lost a Tour de France for just 8" and lost a Giro d'Italia during the last TT of the race. Called 'the Professor' for his looking glasses and for his passion for books, Laurent also won 2 Milano-Sanremo and a Fleche Wallonne.

During the last Tour de France he found the strength of working for the French tv in spite of his illness. He had bad words for Andy Schleck, but now this doesn't matter anymore.

Rest in peace, Laurent.

Vuelta start list:

To everyone's joy,La Vuelta begins tomorrow evening with a TTT in Sevilla.Here's the start list of the race.

AG2R LA MONDIALE: Kadri, Riblon, Bonnafond, Dupont, Arrieta, Turpin, Roche, Nocentini, Hinault. The French team begins la Vuelta with a decent squad. Turpin is pretty fast, while Riblon has won a stage at the last Tour de France. Nocentini is motivated because he's in Bettini's long-list for the Australian Worlds, while Roche is a rider who can go both for the GC and for the stage victories.
ANDALUCIA CAJA SUR: Marchante, Corbas, Garcia, Ruiz, Bazan, Ocana, Perez, Abeja, Alcolea. Ok,I admit it: the only Andalucia's rider I know is Marchante, who came 5th in La Vuelta's GC in 2006. Actually, the only thing I know about this team is that their website, imo, is a bit too...pink.
ASTANA: Bazayev, Davis, Dyachenko, Fofonov, Gasparotto, V.Iglinsky, Jufre, Renev, Zeits. Astana's squad for la Vuelta doesn't include nor Vinokourov,nor Contador,but is pretty good anyway. Gasparotto is fast and will surely try to go for a stage victory, while Davis is good sprinter. All the Kazakhs on the team then will probably be very motivated because each of them probably wants to be in Melbourne on the 3rd of October.

Anyway, reading the names in Astana's squad, a little silly question has popped into my mind: how can those riders talk between each other? Do Gasparotto and Davis talk Russian, or do the Kazakhs speak English better than their chief Vinokourov does?

BOUYGUES TELECOM: Bichot, Bonnet, Gene, Pichot, Quemeneur, Rolland, Sprick, Vogondy. First thing to notice, in this team there are two guys (Bichot and Pichot) whose surnames are almost the same. Therefore, get ready to confuse them for the next 3 weeks. Bouygues (when will I learn to write this word without looking it up somewhere?) ' team is pretty good, too. Bonnet is pretty fast, Rolland is an interesting young rider, while guys like Vogondy and Sprick are breakaway lovers.
CAISSE D'EPARGNE: Arroyo, Bruseghin, Erviti, Garcia Acosta, Lopez Garcia, Pasamontes Rodriguez, Molina, LL Sanchez, Uran. You must know that, in order to write this start-list, I had to check the websites of every team who's taking part in the race becaue I couldn't find any recently updated start list anywhere. On some websites it was simply impossible for a person of my intelligence to find the Vuelta squad of the teams, so you can imagine my joy when, as soon as I clicked on CDE's website,the words 'Composition du Team Caisse d'Epargne pour le Tour d'Espagne' appeared in front of me. Too bad that those words sent you to a picture of the riders,and not to a decent list of names.

Anyway, CdE's squad is very good. Bruseghin had a lot of bad luck this year, but I think he can show something good in Spain (also because he's in the famous Bettini's long-list as well). LL Sanchez is very strong, although perhaps he'll be a bit tired after the Tour. Arroyo is a solid GC rider, while Uran is one of the strongest young climbers out there.
CERVELO: Bos, Cuesta, Deignan, Denifl, Florencio, Hushovd, Pujol, Tondo, Sastre. This is the last GT for Cervélo test team, who won't continue his activity next year (read Deignan's astonishing explanation of when he was told about the problem on http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/deignan-the-riders-are-always-the-last-to-know ).

Anyway, the team squad for la Vuelta is very good. Bos is very fast,just like Hushovd. Deignan is a strong rider too, while Tondo is a very good climber and will be Sastre's main helper. Talking about Sastre, I must admit I'm a bit sceptical about his podium chances at la Vuelta, although he looks really motivated.

NB: does the end of team Cervélo mean that next year the Schleck brothers will probably have the chance of riding that brand of bike?
COFIDIS: Dumoulin, Gallopin, Kern, Labbe, Minard, Moncoutie, Pauriol, Sijmens, Zingle. The team could have been better with Taaramae, but the Estonian had some health problems and was forced to skip la Vuelta. Moncoutié will be the team leader and on his side there will be breakaway guys like Pauriol, Kern, Sijmens and Dumoulin.
EUSKALTEL: Igor Antón, Intxausti, Koldo Fernandez, Gorka Verdugo, Egoi Martínez, Amets Txurruka, Mikel Nieve, Juanjo Oroz, Pablo Urtasun. In spite of Samuel Sanchez's absence, Euskaltel has a good team. Anton is a good rider, Fernandez is fast,the other guys are breakaway experts.
FOOTON-SERVETTO: Benitez, Cardoso, Cheula, Duràn, Gutierrez, Mata, Pedersen, Valls, Vitoria. Cardoso is a very good climber, Cheula is an all-rounder and Valls demonstrated that he's a very promising rider at this year Tour.Talking about Valls, me wonders: isn't it too much, for a 23 year-old rider, to ride 2 Grand Tours in just 2 months time?
FRANCAIS DE JEUX: Bonnaire, Cazaux, Chavanel, Cherel, Hutarovich, Le Mevel, Meersman, Offredo, Vichot. Le Mevel is a good climber,Hutarovich is fast (and has recently got his first pro Tour victory),Offredo was 3rd in Plouay,Vichot is a promising rider,all the other team riders are breakawayers.
GARMIN: Danielson, Dean, Farrar, Kreder, Millar, Peterson, Vandevelde, Wilson, Zabriskie. Very good team that has high chances of winning tomorrow's TTT. Millar, Zabriskie and Vandevelde (welcome back Christian!) are TT specialist, Farrar is one of the strongest sprinters of the world, while Kreder and Peterson are two young riders.
HTC COLUMBIA: Bak, Cavendish, Eisel, Goss, Roulston, Siutsou, Van Garderen, M. & P. Velits. As usual, the whole team will work hard in order to bring Cavendish to victory. Siutsou is a good climber, while Van Garderen is one of my favourite young riders and is in a very good shape.
KATUSHA: Joaquim Rodriguez, Karpets, Pozzato, Caruso, Galimzyanov, Gusev, Horrach, Ignatiev, Kolobnev. Katusha has a very complete and good team. Pozzato is already dreaming of becoming World Championship and get a new commemorative tattoo,Rodriguez will be up there with the best riders on la Bola del Mundo and on the other climbs (imo, if he's recovered from the Tour,he will be a strong GC contender),Gusev is back after a ban (and I remember that he was strong,some years ago), Karpets is a good climber, Ignatiev is a very good all-rounder, just like Kolobnev.Apropos: will Kolo finally get a stage victory in a GT? He would surely deserve it.
LAMPRE: Bole, Furlan, Hondo, Kasheckin, Marzano, Mori, Petacchi, Pietropolli, Righi. Lampre has a very good team, although CONI's judgement about Petacchi's affaire is threatening the race of the Italian sprinter. Everyone knows who Petacchi is, but on this team there are also other fast guys (Hondo and Furlan), good all-rounders, and Vinokourov's secret brother Kasheckin, back after a 2 year ban.
LIQUIGAS: Bennati, Finetto, Guarnieri, Kreuziger, Nibali, Paterski, Santaromita, Willems, Zaugg. Excellent team, this one. Nibali has a lot of pressure because, after the Giro, he's official become the Savior of the Clean Italian Cycling.He said he doesn't like pressure, but he'll have a teammate, Kreuziger, with which he'll share it in the next 3 weeks. Zaugg and Willems are excellent helpers, Santaromita is in good form, Finetto, Guarnieri and Paterski are very young riders. Guarnieri,in particular,is very fast,just like Bennati, who is the eternal promise of the Italian sprint.What health problem is going to trouble Daniele in the next 3 weeks? The survey is open.
MILRAM: Eichler, Foerster, M.Fothen, Roels, Froehlinger, Schroeder, Sentjens, Terpstra, Voss. Foerster is fast, Terpstra is a breakaway expert.
OMEGA PHARMA LOTTO: Bakelandts, Delage, Gilbert, Hoste, Kaisen, Jean-Christophe, Van Avermaet, Van Goolen, Vanendert. Good team this one. Gilbert finally honours with his presence a Grand Tour, Van Avermaet, a few years ago, got some really good results in the Spanish race, everyone knows who Hoste is, and Van Goolen finally gets his GT chance.
QUICK STEP: Barredo, Cataldo, De Weert, Maes, Malacarne, Samoilau, Stauff, Tosatto, Weylandt. Samoilau is a good GC rider, Malacarne is a very promising rider, just like Cataldo, and Barredo is one of my favourite Spanish riders.Too ba that Boonen is still having health problems.
RABOBANK: Ardila Cano, Freire, Garate, Kozontchuk, Langeveld, Martens, Menchov, Ten Dam,Weening. After many years of Rabo-love, Menchov finally decided to change team and so this is his last GT with Rabobank. The chance of saying 'goodbye' with a last victory are high, although I haven't seen many smiley photos of the Russian lately (every time there are too many pics of him smiling during race presentations and so on, it means that Menchov is going to win something important-it's true!). Freire is back after his operation, Langeveld is a very good rider, just like Garate and the other guys on the team,who will surely sacrifice themselves for Menchov once again.
SAXO BANK: Cancellara, Haedo, Klemme, Klostegaard, Larsson, Lund, O'Grady, los Schlecks. Just like this Vuelta will be the last chapter of the Menchov-Rabobank saga, it will also be the last chapter of the Schlecks-Saxo Bank story. I'm obviously sad for that and I hope that the guys will be able to say 'farewell' to each other with a last victory.

Tomorrow's TTT clearly suits this team,which has guys like Cancellara, Larsson and O'Grady. Haedo is the team's sprinter, Klemme and Klostegaard are all-rounders,Lund will help the Schlecks on the climbs. Then, last but not least, the Schleck brothers. Frank has recovered from his TdF's crash, while Andy is always Andy,aka 'the guy who lost this Tour just because of a fucking chain'.Otherwise, he would have won, no doubts about that.
SKY: John-Lee Augustyn, Carlstrom, Gerrans, Kennaugh, Lovkvist,Nordhaug, Stannard, Swift. Augustyn is a good rider, Gerrans is one of my favourites climbing sprinters (he's considered a sprinter but won stages with an uphill finish both in the Tour and in the Giro), Nordhaug is a former mtb rider, Swift is one of the most promising young sprinters of the peloton, Stannard is just 23 and is a track rider just like the 21 year-old (!) Peter Kennaugh (look out for him!).As far as Lovely Lovkvist is concerned, well, I just hope he'll get better stage results than in the Tour.
XACOBEO GALICIA: Mosquera, Veloso, Cruz, Dapena, Fernandez, Isaichez, Serafin Martinez, Rabunal, Rodriguez Iglesias. This unknown team (whose website isn't in Spanish, but in Galician) features my favourite Spanish rider, Ezequiel Mosquera. The man can climb and,imo, it's a pity that he can take part just in la Vuelta but not in other GTs.

So,these are the Vuelta riders.It's been hard to find the most recent start list, but finally I made it. Now,it's time of podium predictions!

According to miss Fede's magic powers, the 2010 Vuelta's podium will be formed by Frank Schleck, Menchov and Nibali (the order has been chosen by Fangirl, read it the other way and you get Logic's prediction).Anyway,look out also for Mosquera, Kreuziger and,if he races as he used to do 2 years ago,also to Sastre. As far as Andy Schleck is concerned, don't cut him out of your prediction either.

PS: looking at the quality of some of the teams teams taking part in the race, a little question appeared into my mind: why didn't Vacansoleil get invited? If someone has an answer,please tell me.