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.