Random randomness, Fiuggi Terme and Tropea's stages of the Giro, Agnoli proposes to his girlfriend and Leopard Trek remembers WW Special:

Given the horrible weather, I'm not going out this evening, so I have some time to rewrite that post of mine that Blogger deleted two days ago and to talk a bit also about today's stage. However, feel free to leave comments also in the comment areas of my previous entries: I'll take a look at my old posts regularly during this month!

SAPRI-TROPEA:
NB: Today's stage of the Giro was dedicated to the memory of 8 amateur cyclist who were killed by a car last December. The car's driver was on drugs and he ran over this group of men as they rode outside Lamezia Terme. 7 riders immediately died, whereas the 8th one perished in hospital a few weeks after the accident.

Sapri - Tropea offered us another exciting final sprint and some jawdropping sea landscapes.
The two breakawayers du jour were Leonardo Giordani (U23 world champion in 1999) and Mirko Selvaggi, who were caught by the peloton with 9.5 kms to go. Those two athletes train together whenever they can and that's why, at the end of their adventure, they embraced each other in a very friendly way.
Today's stage had a very particular finale. In fact, the last kms of race were full of curves and presented a very peculiar climb. Said climb in fact was short and easy, but it presented two hairpin turns which forced many riders to slow down and brake, causing them to lose some seconds from the riders who were at the front of the peloton. Saxo Bank guys knew this and that's why they worked hard at the front of the group in the last kms of race.
With about 2 kms to go, when the riders still hadn't got over the last climb, Farnese's Oscar Gatto launched an attack. Right after Gatto attacked, another rider escaped from the peloton and started to chase him. Said rider was Alberto Contador and I had to check his face twice before I could finally believe what I was seeing.
No one else managed to follow the Spaniard, who was reducing his gap from Gatto in a very fast way.
Eventually, luckily for him, Gatto managed to get the stage victory, while Contador (second in the stage) received a time bonus of 12". Add these 12" to the 5" he gained on the rest of the peloton and you'll discover that, on a simple stage like this one, Contador managed to steal 17" from his main contenders. A bad morale blow for the other Gc contenders, isn't it?
Third in the stage was Petacchi, whereas Kristoff was a surprising 4th.
As a consequence of his great team work, Richie Porte lost 1'43" from Gatto in today's stage, whereas Fabio Duarte got retired during the stage (does anyone know why?).

I must say that I was very happy for Oscar Gatto's victory. In fact you must know that he was considered a great cycling promise as he turned pro, but then he seemed to have lost his sprinting abilities. This year, finally, Oscar has finally returned back to his good old level and he's already got many good victories. As they say, today's victory in the Giro can be considered 'the icing on the cake' - now, what about adding a participation in the Copenhagen's Worlds to that delicious cake? ;)

This afternoon I was also very surprised by Contador's attack, which I didn't expect at all. But still, I think he wanted to send a psychological message to Scarponi (who attacked and almost dropped the Spaniard yesterday) and to Nibali.
Actually, my surprise for Contador's attack made me behave in a very bitter way. In fact, when he escaped from the peloton, my dad said: 'Contador?!? Why is he attacking? I mean, this climb doesn't suit him!!'. Insensitive to my father's excitement, I went: 'Well, it's actually very simple, dad: everyone else's chain must have popped, otherwise Contador would have never attacked. D'you remember le Tour?' Sorry, but at times I really can't handle my bitterness.
Talking about something different, after the stage poor Fabrizio Piacente (RAI's unexperienced journalist) didn't manage to interview Contador for the second time in a week. Dear Fabrizio, I just want you to know that you have all my support.
Moreover, after the stage I was reminded that Kreuziger isn't Italian (he speaks better than me, but this afternoon he failed to understand a question during an interview) and I discovered that Andrea De Luca and Paolo Savoldelli (RAI's journalists) are very good friends. In fact, they watched a post-stage vid together with other journalists and, in the end, they both started to laugh. Asked about this fact, De Luca said that he was laughing because of the vid, whereas Savoldelli said that 'watching De Luca makes me laugh'. What a couple of hilarious boys.

RANDOM LINK TO JOUR:
On http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/schleck-hopes-for-a-strong-performance-at-the-amgen-tour-of-california there's an interview with Andy schleck about Tour of California. I won't be covering this race in the next days (I prefer the Giro to ToC), but I'm sure you'll find regular updates on other blogs ('Eisen Andy', for example). However, if you have tales coming up from ToC, I remind you to send them to Bananas About Bikes: you'll see them published in no time :D

FIUGGI TERME STAGE:
Let's now go back in time talk a bit about Fiuggi Terme's stage, which was won by Ventoso. That was the first 'normal' stage that the riders faced since Special WW's disappearance and I welcomed it with pleasure. Actually, the atmosphere on that day was still pretty tense because of the polemics caused by Orvieto's gravel roads. In particular, after ending that stage Contador declared that the cyclists had to ride on 'roads for goats' (I wonder, why didn't he say the same about Tour's cobblestones?), whereas Ongarato asked: 'Who else has died?' as soon as he crossed the finish-line. That was a terrible comment, to which Zomegnan answered by saying that he doesn't even know who Ongarato is.
However, it was Contador himself who put a stop to all the polemics ('The past has gone, now let's focus on the present), whereas Nibali told the viewers that: 'I'm a Sicilian and I know Etna: everything will be perfect on Sunday because Etna usually stops erupting after 48 hours'.

Fiuggi's stage saw Jussi Veikkanen (first virtual Maglia Rosa of the Giro 2011), Kristof Vandewalle, Yaroslav Popovych, Sacha Modolo and Frederik Veuchelen attacking after a few kms after the beginning. The last breakawayer, Vandewalle, was caught with about 4 kms to go.
Amongst the other attackers du jour there were Kiserlovski (yay!) and Pirazzi, who attacked twice.
The riders had to face a little climb in the last kms of race and the finish itself was slightly uphill. The peloton faced the final climb with a very high pace and many sprinters got dropped.
With 1.5 km to go, Di Luca attacked. He was chased by Petacchi, who then had to start another sprint in order to win the stage. However, Alessandro was so tired that he suddenly stopped pedalling with 5 meters to go, leaving the stage victory to an astonished Ventoso. After crossing the finish-line, Petacchi sat down and said that he had 'just lost 10 years of life'.
In the meanwhile, Garzelli was arguing with Marzoli, who hadn't helped him in the sprint. 'I'm the captain, did you get it?', he told his teammate.

After the finish-line, there were some very nice scenes at 'Il Processo alla Tappa', a very popular Italian transmission related to the Giro. Valerio Agnoli was amongst the 'guests of the day', together with Ongarato and Contador.
While answering the question of a journalist, Agnoli said that right now he's in a very particular moment of his life. Then he looked his girlfriend Giovanna (who was on the stage of the transmission too), took a ring out of his pocket, and asked her to marry him. The girl was really embarassed, but she obviously said 'yes' and she sat down next to her future husband. The couple whispered for some minutes, before we eventually discovered a few things about the proposal. First, Valerio had kept that ring in his suitcase, waiting for the perfect moment, for 6 days. Secondly, Giovanna was very surprised because she 'didn't think that Valerio was in favour of marriages'. Thirdly, she herself had chosen the ring, thinking that it was a present for the mum of Nibali's girlfriend, who is a great friend of hers. And instead she was taken in, since the ring didn't go to mrs. Nibali, but to the future mrs. Agnoli. How nice! (this makes me ask to my readers: which 'cyclistic' proposals did you prefer so far? Frank Schleck, Van Summeren or Agnoli's one?)

As said, one of the other guests of 'Il Processo alla Tappa' on that day was Alberto Contador, who surprised me by saying that Saxo Bank produces everything the riders eat, 'bread included', in order to avoi problems with clenbuterol. Shocking, isn't it?

REMEMBERING WW SPECIAL...
As you all already know, Wouter Weylandt's funeral (I can't believe I'm typing these words...) will take place in Gand on Wednesday morning.
Leopard Trek riders are remembering WW Special with some messages written on their website (link: http://www.leopardtrek.lu/remembering-wouter ) in their own mother tongues. Here's the translation of what Davide Viganò and Luca Guercilena wrote:
Davide Viganò: 'In this moment I’d like to say you a thousand things and, at the same time, I would like to remain silent. I would like to share with you other serene moments, with the smile on our faces, together with the team, in the peloton.
I would like to relive the successes of the past in an even better way, because in this moment I feel as if I haven’t lived them intensely enough.
Ciao WW Special, I’ll miss you…'
Luca Guercilena: "'What do you think man?' That's how you started our conversations every time you wanted some advice, an idea or even just an opinion about your life as a rider.
"I'll miss being able to give you an answer, I'll miss your serene smile every time we found a solution, I'll miss the times when you said 'Grinta' in Italian to make me understand that everything was clear.
"Now nothing is clear anymore. I say goodbye to you and I'm sure that you'll give us the Grinta and a smile to make us go straight towards the finish-line".

Still talking about Wouter, a little anedocte regarding the stage that his colleagues dedicated to him. While riding, Gorazd Stangelj saw a child who had written 'Wouter froever in our hearts' on a cartel. Moved, he tried to give the kid his water bottle, but the kid didn't see it on time and failed to grab it. Therefore Peter Stetina, who saw the scene, solved the problem by giving his own water bottle to the child. Cyclists can be such nice people...

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

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

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

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

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