And then,one day,Andy Schleck's white jersey became yellow...

As predictable,right now Fangirl is crazy.She's euphoric.Entusiastic.Super happy.She's been screaming: "Dài dài Andy!" for the last 10 minutes and now she's making me think seriously about not going to my driving license lesson this evening.The excuse? 'Maillot jaune celebration'.

Yes,as I had predicted,Andy Schleck is finally wearing yellow.And now,the Tour seems a question between 2 riders: the 25 year old Luxembourgian and Alberto Contador.Alberto Contador who,after a week of race and a rest day,hasn't dropped Andy yet.Actually,it's Andy who gained some seconds on him in the last days.So,go go Andy!!!!

Obviously the yellow jersey is something that requests a lot of work from the team of the man who wears it.As well as that,having the yellow jersey is stressful: interviews everyday,anti doping everyday,a lot of attention from fans and medias,a lot of pressure on your team...But still,wearing it is the dream of every rider of the world.Because wearing that jersey means that,for a day or more,you're better than anyone else.Because it makes you feel closer to cycling legends who wore it in the past.It gives you a lot of motivation and you can even get some energy from it in the hardest moment.And then,talking about the amount of work that this symbol involves,Chris Sorensen has recently written on his blog that having the yellow jersey is good because it allows you to stay at the head of the peloton without making efforts and,at the same time,it allows you to avoid crashes.And Chris Sorensen in this Tour is a helper,so he knows what he's talking about.And if he says that having the yellow jersey isn't bad for the team,I think we must trust him.Even Contador last year got the jersey after just one week,but he and his team didn't have problems in keeping it.

A man who has always had problems with keeping his leader jerseys instead is Cadel Evans.Today he went through sportive hell,since he got dropped with 8 kms to the top of Col de la Madeleine and crossed the finish-line almost 10 minutes after the day's winner,Sandy Casar.His tears after the finish-line,together with Santambrogio's hug,have created one of the most moving moments of this year Tour.

Also Lance Armstrong struggled a lot the other day,on the road towards Morzine-Avoriaz.I didn't think he could have ended up on this year's podium,so that wasn't a big surprise to me. Still,it was sad to see him crossing the finish-line 11 minutes after Andy Schleck.In that moment,he really looked old.Contador said that,after Sunday,his admiration for Armstrong has grown.The same worths for me,since sir Lancelot refused to retire and said that now he'll ride just to have fun.

As far as today's stage is concerned,it was won by Sandy Casar.In the last meters I was supporting Damiano Cunego,but he threw away all his work by coming 3rd.

Some GC riders, then,simply disappeared on the last climb.Between them there were Wiggins, Hesjedal, Kreuziger and Rogers.Samuel Sanchez instead rode very well,even if in the finale he had some problems with his right thigh.As far as Contador is concerned,then,he looked much stronger than the other day.And his team is amazing: Vinokourov,Navarro, Tiralongo...3 helpers that on tough climbs can set an infernal pace.However,also Saxo Bank's guys were amazing this afternoon: Chris Sorensen,Jakob Fuglsang and the fucking amazing Jens Voigt simply rocked the climbs.

Talking about Saxo Bank: Riis has finally found 2 sponsors and so his team will exist for other 2 years.Things now are much more complicated for the Schleck brothers' team.For example,Chris Sorensen is going to stay with Riis,since he had extended his contract with him already some months ago.And I think that Jens,Fabian,Nicki,Stuart and some of the team young guns will stay with Bjarne as well.Also Breschel and Fuglsang are probably going to stay with Riis,since they have recently said that they would have preferred to remain with Riis rather than change team.In particular,Jakob would love to race a Tour as team leader one day,and that wouldn't be possible in the team of the Schleck brothers.

Anyway,let's just forget about this for a while.Our boy's got the yellow jersey right now,and that's what matters the most.He and the Saxo Bank boys still have to face half of the long and winding road to Paris and so they need to focus completely about that.Then,it will be time of explanations,contracts and,perhaps,for the riders and the supporters it will be time to become very emotional.But what counts now is that so far,after more than a week of race,Andy Schleck has been the best Tour rider.Allez man!

(Pic by Reuters)

Yeeeaaaaah!

(*singing*) Happy,sha la la,it's time to be happy,sha la la,Schleck won the sta-age,sha la la,and on Wednesday he's wearing yellow,sha la la... Ok,sorry for that,but right now I'm still too excited to realise I'm looking ridiculous...Logic obviously dislikes the stupid song above but hey,who the hell cares? ANDY SCHLECK WON TODAY'S TOUR STAGE AND ON TUESDAY HE'S SO GOING TO GET THE YELLOW JERSEY!!! Yeeeaaah!!! Let's go an celebrate! Yeeeah! (yes,our boy's grown up )!

And now,after making myself look ridiculous,on the notes of the song above,this Fangirl stops writing and finally faints in peace... (*smiles and faints*) Hear from you later (if I can...) :D
(pic by Reuters)

Chavanel gets the yellow jersey while Andy gets the white one (and Mara Abbott is winning the Giro):

Yes,it's time of changes in the Tour de France's general classification.

Waiting for Morzine stage to create a bigger selection,today we supporters could enjoy an amusing stage in the Jura mountains. In fact,although none of the GC contenders (Schleck, Contador, Arnmstrong) attacked, watching Sylvain Chavanel winning his second stage victory at this year Tour was really nice.

At its beginning,today stage saw some men (Knees,Pineau,Hondo,Ruben Perez and the little Dumoulin) breaking free from the peloton.At a certain point the attackers du jour had a time gap of 8 minutes on the peloton,but then on the penultimate climb Boygues Telecom Team started to pull hard and the advantage of the breakaway guys soon started to decrease.

Boygues' move was (and still is) a mistery to me.I mean,are you trying to tell me that Boygues guys really believed that Voeckler could have won today's stage without problems? Ok, Voeckler is a good rider, but it was predictable that some strong guys would have jumped on his wheel as soon as he had attacked.Some even said that,perhaps,the Boygues guys were being punished by their ds for not entering a breakaway.Logic doesn't believe this explanation, since she's always been told that the only way to survive a Tour is trying to recover as much as possible.So,if she was a ds and had to punish her riders because they didn't enter a breakaway,she would never make them pull at the head of a Tour stage for so many kms,with the risk of making them become too tired or the risk of causing herself enemies inside the peloton.

Anyway,leaving my personal opinion apart and getting back to the race,the first guy to get dropped after Boygues' move was McEwen,who yesterday crashed against a man after crossing the finish-line.

Talking about yesterday (victory by Cav),the most interesting part of the day probably began after the finish-line.In fact,behind the white finish-line of Gueugnon,not just a man made McEwen crash,but Barredo and Rui Costa even started a fist fight.And,after this episode,I think we can officialy declare that 'fist fighting' is the latest Cycledom fashion ('Break you collarbone!' instead is an 'evergreen').In fact,Righi and Evans had a fight in the Giro, Hunter and Fuglsang had a little argument on the road to Arenberg the other day, Barredo and Rui Costa fought yesterday...Me wonders,who will be the next fighters?

Anyway,as soon as McEwen got dropped I thought that he wasn't going to make it to the finish-line in the time-limit and so I thought that,probably,his Tour was over.Luckily Robbie proved I was wrong by coming 175th,in the middle of the gruppetto and on perfect time.Chapeau!

Back to the race,the most important victim of Boygues' move was the yellow jersey,Fabian Cancellara.In fact he got dropped on the penultimate climb,but luckily managed to join the main group again after a few kms.

Towards the top of the penultimate climb then the attack of the Boygues captain Voeckler arrived.T-Blanc and Gauthier ('Where is Fedrigo?',Fangirl went) in fact abandoned the main group of riders together with other riders like Perget (who was in a breakaway also yesterday),Valls Ferri, Lloyd, Garate, Chavanel and Cunego.Also Gerdemann,Nocentini and Gutierrez tried to escape from the peloton,but they didn't succeed.

On the last climb of the day Chavanel attacked,dropped all the other attackers of the day,reached his teammate Pineau (who had been at the head of the race with Hondo since the penultimate climb and who had dropped the German rider on the last climb) and started his lonely race towards success.

In the meanwhile Cancellara had got dropped again and it soon became clear that his yellow jersey was going to end up on Chavanel's shoulders again.With a few kms to the end of the climb also Geraint Thomas gave in and so the white jersey went to Andy Schleck (yay!!).
As mentioned,Chavanel soloed to victory for the second time in 5 days and also got the yellow jersey.Second was 23 year old Valls Ferri,3rd was Garate,4th was Voeckler,5th was Perget,6th was Moreno.Then,all the GC men arrived.

As said,there were no attacks between the GC contenders today,but Kloden lost 4 minutes and Toni Martin crossed the finish-line 19 minutes after a super happy Sylvain Chavanel. Btw,talking about Kloden: on http://sport.rsi.ch/home/channels/sport/%20sport_on_line/2010/07/10-Signori-si-nasce-ed-io-lo-nacqui it is written that the other night he had to sleep in a 'castle bed'.Personally I think you have to be very brave to sleep in a castle bed at the tender age of 35,so chapeau to Kloden for that.

Back to the 'GC group',together with the strongest climbers in it there were also Hesjedal, Nicolas Roche, Eros Capecchi and Chris Sorensen.Hopefully the Dane hasn't spent too much energy today,since Logic believes that he and Jakob Fuglsang will be key helpers for Andy Schleck in the next days.
Cancellara instead crossed the finish line with a 14 minutes delay,together with Breschel and Voigt.

Me wasn't surprised by the lack of attacks in the GC group,although at a certain point,on the penultimate climb,Vinokourov went at the head of the peloton and a chronist said: "Attention to Vinokourov,he's stretching his legs in a very threatening way! Perhaps he's going to attack!".Eventually,Vino didn't attack,but those words gave me occasion of reflecting about the fact that,imo,Vino would look threatening even if he should go to buy an ice cream while on holiday. "Give me the chocolate flavour or I call the Kazakhistani goverment". Gosh,what a frightening vision.
On to a nicer vision,I remind you that Andy Schleck is the new white jersey.To say it with O'Grady,"The white knight is back" (source: Chris Sorensen's last blog entry). And,obviously,Fangirl is very happy about that.

According to http://www.ideal.es/agencias/20100710/deportes/mas-deportes/anadido-declaraciones-protagonistas-septima-etapa_201007101920.html ,after the stage Andy said: "It's been a very hot and hard day.I hadn't seen this stage before of the Tour and its difficulty surprised me.I'm very happy for the white jersey,but my target is a jersey of another colour.Fabian Cancellara didn't have a good day and so now it's up to me.I'm fine".

Here's the new top 10 of the race:
1 Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) Quick Step
2 Cadel Evans (Aus) BMC Racing Team 0:01:25
3 Ryder Hesjedal (Can) Garmin - Transitions 0:01:32
4 Andy Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank 0:01:55
5 Alexander Vinokourov (Kaz) Astana 0:02:17
6 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Astana 0:02:26
7 Jurgen Van Den Broeck (Bel) Omega Pharma-Lotto 0:02:28
8 Nicolas Roche (Irl) AG2R La Mondiale

9 Johan Van Summeren (Bel) Garmin - Transitions 0:02:33
10 Denis Menchov (Rus) Rabobank 0:02:35
Waiting for tomorrow's hard stage to Morzine,let's hope that Andy Schleck will leave all the other riders behind and get the first maillot jaune of his career.

GIRO DONNE:

The Giro Donne over the last 3 days faced its hardest stages,the one with the Ghisallo,the one with the trio Maloja/Bernina/Forcola and,dulcis in fundo,the one with the Stelvio.This is a very long (21 kms and 36 hairpin turns) and hard (7,1% is the average steep,9,5%is the maximum) climb and its top is about 2700 meters high.

As mentioned in the last post,the Ghisallo stage was won by Evelyn Stevens after a long breakaway.The queen of the 2 last mountain stages of the race instead was Mara Abbott. Yesterday she attacked on Maloja (the first climb of the day) and was followed just by Emma Pooley,who however got dropped before of the Bernina.The young American eventually won the stage with 1'07" of advantage on Pooley,while 3rd was Arndt and 4th was Guderzo. Marianne Vos crossed the finish-line 3 minutes after the winner and so the maglia rosa went to Abbott.Second in the GC was Arndt,with just 19" of delay.

Today,however,Abbott proved (once again) to be the strongest climber of this Giro.At the base of Stelvio in fact she attacked and only Pooley could follow her.Then,with 2 kms to go,Mara dropped the British champion and soloed to victory for the second stage in a row.3rd was Arndt,4th was Guderzo.

Tomorrow's stage will be flat and will be the last day of race for the girls.Here's the top 10 of the race:

1 Mara Abbot (USA) US National Team
2 Judith Arndt (Ger) HTC Columbia Women 0:02:08
3 Tatiana Guderzo (Ita) Team Valdarno 0:03:05
4 Claudia Häusler (Ger) Cervelo TestTeam 0:05:29
5 Emma Pooley (GBr) Cervelo TestTeam 0:06:53
6 Eivgenia Vysotska (Ukr) Team Valdarno 0:08:26
7 Marianne Vos (Ned) Netherlands National Team 0:09:32
8 Tatiana Antoshina (Rus) Team Valdarno 0:12:05
9 Olga Zabelinskaya (Rus) Safi - Pasta Zara 0:23:03
10 Elena Berlato (Ita) Top Girls Fassa Bortolo - Ghezzi 0:25:47

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

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

SCHLECK NEWS:

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

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

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

TOUR DE FRANCE:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

GIRO DONNE:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

RANDOM LINK:

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

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

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

Game over for Frank Schleck:

Frank Schleck broke his collarbone during today's stage of the Tour de France and is now out of the race.“To be or not to be? That is the question”. After today’s TdF stage,well,I think that mr. Shakespeare won’t mind if I borrow this sentence from his masterpiece Hamlet.In fact I believe that the main question that this stage has left unanswered (especially for the Schleck fans) is:to be or not to be (satisfied with today's stage results)? So,let's try to give an answer.
Already yesterday evening,as you may have noticed from my last post,me was terribly afraid of today’s stage.In fact the thought of guys like Basso,Frank Schleck and Menchov (a man who can crash also while riding uphill) riding on cobblestones,together with other 188 riders,each of them trying to stay at the front,simply terrified me.

This morning Basso said: “During the cobblestons sections I’m going to close my eyes and open them just when I come back on the asphalt”.Of course he was just joking,but he gave a very good idea to this Fangirl.But since Fangirl can’t recognise what is dangerous for her mental health and what isn’t,she kept her eyes as open as never before during today’s stage,so that she could enjoy the riders approaching the cobblestones sections in a great hurry and notice how frightened some of them (Menchov and Basso,to say two names) looked.

With about 40 kms to go,then,Frank Schleck crashed.The helicopter showed us some riders touching each other on the cobblestones and me began to whisper: “What the fuck are they doing?” I stopped my whisper after the 'fuck' part because of Cassani’s scream: "Frank Schleck has crashed!". I was in panick.Pure cyclistic panick. Two SB riders stopped next to Frankie and tried to check his conditions.However,it was evident that Frank was in pain.

You can have bad crashes in races like Amstel Gold Race and be ready to take part in the following races,but you can’t crash like that in a Grand Tour and hope to be at the start the following day.So,as soon as I saw Frank in that situation,I understood that his Tour was over and that the collarbone curse had probably striked again.
The cameras soon abandoned Frank in order to follow the race that,after the crash (it’s sad to say,but it’s true) had become much more exciting.

At the head of the race,after Hesjedal,there were now Fabian Cancellara,Hushovd,Geraint Thomas (I had told you the boy is good!!),Evans (after all,he was a mountain bike rider) and Andy Schleck.Although Frank had crashed,in fact,little Bro was there,ready to save us from a total desaster.And,with him,there was the greatest Roubaix rider of the world.At least, something was spinning in the right side for SB tifosi.
Behind the blonde Luxembourg rider,with about 30” of delay,there was a group including Armstrong and Contador.But then,all of a sudden,Cancellara started to ride faster,Armstrong punctured and the time gaps became bigger.Soon the men at the front reached Ryder Hesjedal,the last of the breakawayers (and former mountain bike rider as well).Behind them Menchov (to Logic's surprise,he hadn’t crashed) and Vinokourov were pulling hard at the front of Contador's group.Behind them,then,sir Lancelot was fighting hard to come back on another group of riders,helped by Popovych and by some team cars.Eventually Armstrong managed to join the other riders with about 4 kms to go.
In the meanwhile the first group of riders was arriving in Arenberg.Cancellara could have attacked in the last kms,but decided to look after Andy until the very end of the stage (what a champion!).Hushovd easily won the stage,while second was Thomas and third was Evans.Andy was 5th.
The following riders (the ones who formed the ‘Contador’s group’) arrived pulled by Vinokourov.He was really giving it all and someone underlined that he had worked as a super helper for Contador and that he was still trying to help him in the last km.Little detail: Contador had lost the wheel of the guys pulled by Vinokourov, and so with his effort the Kazakhistani allowed Van Summeren,Wiggins,Van Den Broeck,Menchov and Roche to gain 20 seconds of advantage on the Spaniard.

Did Vinokourov did it intentionally? Did he make a mistake? Did he pull so hard because he wanted to help Contador and convince him that Astana is the best team for him? Or was he trying to help,say,Menchov? Conspiracy theories are open.Anyway the stage classification says that Contador crossed the finish-line 1’13 after Andy Schleck,while Kreuziger and LL Sanchez arrived 1’46 after the Luxembourgian,Armstrong arrived after 2’08”, Gesink, Sastre, Leipheimer, Kloden after 2’25”.Basso lost more than 2 minutes as well.Also Chavanel lost some minutes and so the yellow jersey went back to Cancellara.

So,this was today's stage.Cancellara is back in yellow and Andy is now 6th in the GC (Evans is 3rd),while Contador is 9th and Armstrong 18th.As well as that,Team Saxo Bank is now the best team of the race (*ah ah ah to Radioshack!*).In a virtual trade,on the 'good things o the day' plate Saxo Bank fans have a big jump in the GC by Andy Schleck and the yellow jersey for Fabian.On the 'negative things of the day' plate instead there is Frank's broken collarbone.

Personally I believe that things could have gone much worse for the Schleck fans.But still,I'm terribly sorry for Frank.This time in fact he really had a great form and even Logic thought that he could have ended up on the Paris podium.Then,Andy will probably miss him a lot in the next days and this may influence a bit his morale.Last but not least,it's always hard to see a GC contender crash,because these guys organise their whole year in order to be at their best in July and win the Tour.Unfortunately,Frank's Tour finished at the edge of a cobblestone section,in the stage that he probably feared the most.Wishing him a good recovery,that's all from me now.

(Pic by Cor Vos)

All's well that ends well:

On this blog,today's TdF stage will be known from now on as the "All's well that ends well" stage.Firstly,because the stage winner (Sylvain Chavanel) fractured his skull during Liége 3 months ago but managed to win a stage of the Tour anyway.Secondly,because the Schleck brothers didn't lose time in the GC in spite of crashing.Thirdly,because the title of 'Day of the many crashes' is no longer available.Fourthly,because miss Fede wants so.

I understood that it was going to be a dangerous day early in the stage, when a crash involved Cunego,Van den Broeck and Mickel Delage.Poor Delage,who really looked in pain and had a bad cut under his eye,was forced to abandon the race.
Then,with about 30 kms to go,Gavazzi crashed.The Lampre rider had a gap of a few seconds of the rest group (he was part of an early breakaway together with Chavanel and other riders) and he crashed during a wet,narrow descent.A tv motorbike avoided the Lampre’s rider (the wheel of the motorbike passed incredibly near to his feet) and crashed a few meters after the Italian. Gavazzi immediately went on the edge of the road, but his bike remained in the middle of it.So,when the peloton arrived after a few seconds,almost everyone crashed in order to avoid the bike and the motorbike.And,between the guys who crashed,there was also Andy Schleck,who really looked in pain.My heart skipped a beat when I saw him touching his arm and Logic immediately thought ‘He’s broken his collarbone’.Fangirl was desperate.A few seconds later,the tv showed Petacchi (he had crashed as well) and guess who was there,behind Ale-Jet? Frank Schleck,who had crashed as well.Fuck.
Luckily Matti Breschel had stopped (or crashed?) together with Andy and was ready to give him his bike. Suddenly,I found myself on the couch,with the eyes glued to the television,and I started to scream “Thank you Matti,thank you thank you thank you!”. At first Andy didn’t look good (he was riding very slowly and still looked in pain),but then things started to look better.
In the meanwhile Cancellara (who hadn’t crashed) began to talk with the other riders who were with him and they agreed to wait for the riders who had crashed.Gutierrez made a movement with his hand to indicate that the few people who hadn't crashed were going to wait for the other guys.Then,suddenly,Cervélo’s Hunt began to pull the little group of those who had survived the crash.At that point,Fangirl exploded (”What the hell is he doing?!?”) and started to scream "Stop pulling! Stp pulling! Stop! Now!" to her own tv,believing that Hunt could hear her.How embarassing.Btw Fangirl's attitude can be understood if you consider that she couldn’t see Sastre anywhere in the front group,so Hunt’s move was a mistery to her.Luckily (did he hear me?) Hunt soon stopped pulling and,in the same moment,the tv showed Nicki Sorensen and Jens Voigt helping Andy and Frank.I have to admit that I was very surprised by Frank's appearance.In fact,after hopping on Matti’s bike,Andy had begun his ‘peloton chase’ on his own,so it was very nice to see him there with Nicki,Frank and Jens.
In the meanwhile Chavanel was riding towards success.His advantage now was of 2’ on the yellow jersey group and this meant that Cancellara was going to lose the overall lead.But still,Fabian didn’t even think about chasing the Frenchman and defending the jersey,but decided to wait for his teammates.What a champion.
With about 20 kms to go a super group including Wiggins,Contador and Armstrong joined the head of the race.At that point Fangirl had a big doubt: in fact,what could have happened if,after that the majority of the GC contenders had joined the group,they had started to pull in order to leave the Schlecks behind? In front of that eventuality,Fangirl mentally repeated her vocabolary of international insults understandable to everyone who speaks English,German,Spanish and/or Italian,and got ready to support Cancellara in a possible boxing match against,say,sir Lancelot.Luckily I wasn’t forced to do these things because no GC contender started to pull after they had joined Cancellara’s group and,with 15 kms to go,the Schlecks could finally come back in the main peloton.What a relief!

The peloton then rolled quietly to the finish-line and Cancellara scolded off a rider (Bouet) that had sprinted in order to get the second placement in the stage.
So,this was today’s stage.A big protest (or,at least,something that looked like a protest),some frightening moments,a lot of crashes,and Chavanel’s victory.
As far as I know,immediately after the stage 2 ‘parties’ were born: the one of the ‘Stopping to wait for the others was a lack of respect towards cycling!’ party and the ‘fair play’ party.Some riders said that they weren't protesting,but that they decided not to take risks because the parcours was dangerous. Mr.Chris Horner however later said that,with the riders rolling slowly and united towards the finish-line, 'the Tour organisers got what they deserved' (http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/horner-tour-organisers-got-what-they-deserved ).Now,if mr.Horner complaints about today,I can imagine what will happen tomorrow.Surprisingly,Horner is a Radioshack rider and it's known to everyone that during 2009 Giro Lance Armstrong (who,in case you don't know it,is Radioshack's captain) tried to hickjack about 3 stages because he considered the parcours 'crazy and dangerous'.As you may know,this team wasn't invited to this year Giro (Mwhahaha).

Anyway,back to today,I’d like to point out the attitude of SB riders during the stage.Breschel was always next to Andy and made a super job,like O’Grady and Voigt. Matti and Chris Sorensen crossed the finish-line 19 minutes after Chavanel because they had lent their bikes to the Schleck brothers.Both Voigt and Nicki Sorensen gave it all to help the Schlecks.Fuglsang was glued to Cancellara after the crash in order to keep an eye on Spartacus ('And help him in a possible boxing match against Radioshack guys',Fangirl adds).And,more important,Cancellara gave up the yellow jersey in order to save the Tour of his teammates.Too bad that the team is going to disappear at the end of the year (*sniffs her nose and cries*).

Anyway,let's not think about the future of the team and let's just enjoy this TdF.And,in order to do so,I recommend you reading Chris Sorensen's latest blog entry http://blog.tv2.dk/chris.anker.ol/entry375763.html (what else?).

So,that's all for today.Let's hope that no one will have to abandon the race this evening and let's also hope that tomorrow there won't be too many crashes (and let's cross our fingers and pray for sun!).My fingers are already crossed.

Ale Jet gets his win:

Yes,Petacchi got a stunning victory in today's TdF stage that ended in Brussels.
The stage,however,was characterised by many crashes,especially during its last part.With about 1,5 km to go,in fact,Mark Cavendish (and not Jeremy Hunt,as I first thought) didn't see a curve (that's the only possible explanation for what he did) and crashed.Cavendish involved in his crash also 3 other riders and between them there was also Oscar Freire,who at the moment of the crash was in a perfect position (right behind Petacchi,my personal favourite of the day).Also Lorenzetto (he's an important man for Petacchi's sprints) crashed. Cavendish however soon hopped on his bike again and tried to chase the peloton alone.At a certain point he made a sign to a cameraman,that someone kindly intertpreted as 'What a pity!' but that I personally interpreted as 'An asshole ruined my race!!! Grrrrr!!".Considering Cavendish' personality,and considering that he blamed Lorenzetto for the crash,I think I can declare that my interpretation was probably better than the other one.
With 700 meters to go,everything was ready for the sprint but,suddenly,the peloton broke into 2 parts because of a crash.A bike flew,someone (Rogers?) crawled on the asphalt,while someone else was trying to take his bike away from the other ones.Morale of the crash: just 20 riders (more or less) could take part in the sprint.Amongst them however there were still some fast guys like Petacchi, Farrar, McEwen and Lancaster. But then,after an attack by Lancaster,also Farrar was involved in a crash.Or,better,his bicycle was.In fact Mondory fell and his bike found itself attached to Farrar's rear wheel.The Frenchman kindly sent Farrar to that land,and the American did the same with the Frenchman.In fact,since none of them could take part in the sprint,the boys probably prefered to demonstrate their love for each other in this way. After all,men have particular ways of showing their love for other men.
Eventually Petacchi finally emerged as a winner from this waterfall of crashes.He was really strong today and his sprint was very long.Therefore,chapeau to him.After all,we Italians may not be the best footballers of the world (South Africa tragically demonstrated it),but we do know how to sprint.Or,at least,some of us (not me) do.Therefore,look out for us also in Melbourne this September (I've warned you...).
Back to the race,second came Mark Renshaw (the best sprinting helper of the world),third was Hushovd,4th McEwen (who lives in Belgium and wanted to win this stage),5th was Ladagnous and 6th was the great Daniel Oss.7th was Rojas,8th Knees,9th Perez Moreno,10th Roelandts.
As said,the stage was characterised by a lot of crashes.Those crashes however occurred not just in the finale,but also in the first part of the stage.Poor and brave Adam Hansen was very unlucky,since he broke his collarbone in an early crash.In spite of this he managed to finish the race anyway and,in a moment of great braveness,he even smiled at the camera.What a hero.
Another crash instead was the one starring David Millar,Ivan Basso and a dog.Yes,a dog.It ran happily through the peloton for a while,but then it met Basso and Millar.Anyway don't worry: both Ivan and David didn't have any problems after the crash,while I have no news about the dog.The thing that had the worst consequence after the crash was one of Basso's shoes.Ivan was in fact forced to change it while riding and,believe me,that really scared me.So I'm asking a little favour to Frank Schleck: if you ever have to change a shoe during a race,could you please change it after you've stopped your bike? We'd be really thankful for that.
As far as the GC is concerned,things have remained the same.Aka,Fabian is still in yellow.The green jersey instead is now on Petacchi's shoulders and,hopefully,it will remain there for a lot of time.
The first attackers of this year Tour (I think it's correct to mention them) were Lars Boom,Perez Lezaun and Wynants.In the last kms of their brekaway they were also joined by the promising young champion of Moldovia,Alexander Pliuschin.Talking about him,his white plastic watch caused me to nickname him 'mr.Plastic chic' (yes,that's how those watches are called in Italy; and yes,I'm very childish as far as nicknames are concerned).
Talking about the Schleck brothers,I saw them riding quietly to the finish-line with the other team guys,so I guess that everything's okay for them.I don't know whether some of them crashed,but Chris Sorensen has told TV2 reporters that 'today was a fine,although stressful,day',so I suppose that no one in the team got injured this afternoon (if you have more news,free to tell me).Oh,and talking about Saxo Bank team: am I the only one who has noticed (and approves) Matti Breschel's new glasses?

GIRO D'ITALIA FEMMINILE:
Today's stage,a 16.9 kms long TT,was won by-guess who?-Ina-Yoko Teutenberg (19 victories this year).And,considering that tomorrow's stage is flat,Ina could win her 4th stage in a row.Impressive,isn't it?
Here's the top 12 of the stage:
1 Ina Yoko Teutenberg (Ger) HTC Columbia Women 0:21:50
2 Kirsten Wild (Ned) Cervelo TestTeam 0:00:21
3 Judith Arndt (Ger) HTC Columbia Women 0:00:22
4 Linda Villumsen (NZl) HTC Columbia Women 0:00:23
5 Marianne Vos (Ned) Netherlands National Team 0:00:24
6 Shelley Evans (USA) US National Team 0:00:43
7 Annemiek Van Vleuten (Ned) Netherlands National Team 0:00:51
8 Amber Neben (USA) US National Team 0:00:52
9 Alison Starnes (USA) US National Team 0:00:54
10 Iris Slappendel (Ned) Cervelo TestTeam
11 Evelyn Stevens (USA) HTC Columbia Women 0:00:55
12 Tatiana Guderzo (Ita) Team Valdarno

Unfortunately I just have the top 12 because that's what cyclingnews offers me right now.And,since they don't appear in the top 12,unfortunately I don't have any news about the results of important riders like Hausler,Cantele and Pooley.So,I suggest you taking a look at cyclingnews later in order to know more.