Contador's ban, Gazzetta's rumour and an interview with Andy:

Good day everyone girls! Lots of things to talk about in this post, and they all come from good old Gazzetta. Btw, do you know that my teacher eventually examined me on Kierkegaard yesterday morning? Unfortuntely I entered a philosophical trance during the test and totally forgot about the correct pronounciation of Soren's surname. Btw, I got myself a good mark anyway. Mwhahahaha.
Another interesting thing is that my Italian teacher has recently lent me a book about sport that should give me inspiration for the research that I have to take to my final high school exam. Said book has a lot of things about cycling and this morning this fact caused me to scream: 'Poulidor!!! Anquetil!!! Ganna!!! Izoard!!! Desgrange!!!' for the whole school break (15 minutes), causing my friends to wonder what the problem with me was.
Anyway, these two things aren't the reasons why I'm writing this entry. Simply, the reason is the following: Gazzetta has published some very interesting things over the last two days and here you have some of them.

CONTADOR'S BAN:
First of all, you probably know that Alberto Contador is likely to get a 1 year ban for his clenbuterol positivity.
Personally, I'm not that happy with that. In fact there are many cycists who, over the last years, resulted positive at the anti-doping because they had made mistakes with food or so, but they all received a 2 year ban.
That was the case of Radioshack's chinese rider Fuyu Li, who resulted positive at Clenbuterol last year and was banned for 2 years. And it was also the case of Marta Bastianelli, 2007 World Champion. She asked her doctor to prepare her some pills because she wanted to lose weight, he made a mistake and she was found positive. Although everyone believed that she had resulted positive because her doctor had made a mistake, poor Marta was banned for two years anyway.
However, this is not the point about Contador's ban. Or, at least, it's not the main point I want to discuss with you right now. In fact, I'm writing this part of this post in order to inform you that, if he gets a one year ban, Contador will be able to come back racing already on the 24th of August 2011. In fact, cycling bans apparently start on the day when a rider gets suspended by UCI (and no matter if supporters find out about this suspension a month later than the rider). Therefore, since Contador was suspended on the 24th of August 2010, he'll be able to come back racing already on the 24th of August 2011. Which, imo, transforms his 1 year ban in a 9 months one. 'Are you kidding me?', I hear some of you ask me in despair. 'I'd love to, but I'm not', I'm obliged to answer you.
The funny thing then is that 2011 Vuelta begins on the 20th of August. I think we can agree about the fact that Spanish judges aren't always that impartial as far as doping fight is concerned, so I'm afraid they might give Contador a 4 days discount on his ban. If it happens, I think I may take a plane to Spain and kill someone. In fact I believe it's not fair to make Contador come back racing already this year. I mean, if he comes back in August, then he might be able to win some hard Italian classics in October (Tour of Lombardy and Giro dell'Emilia, for example) and I don't think it would be fair.

MENCHOV ENDING UP RIDING FOR RIIS?
This is a theory that Francesca expressed on this blog some days ago. Now, also Gazzetta guys report it as a rumour. Considering that the last marketing rumour published by Gazzetta said that the Schlecks would have created a new team and that Contador would have ended up riding for Riis, I think we should be pretty careful about this news.

INTERVIEW WITH ANDY SCHLECK:
Finally, here's the Schleck-friendly part of this post. As you know, Andy was in Pinerolo some days ago, together with his beloved Fugl-scarf and with Marco Pastonesi, one of the best Gazzetta journalists (unfortunately his articles lose a lot of their charme when translated in another language). Pastonesi interviewed Andy and here you have the translation of said interview:

THE DUEL: SCHLECK VERSUS BASSO:
After Contador's ban, Andy Schleck is the best rider of the world as far as Grand Tours are concerned.
And so, Andy, the Tour 2010 has become yours.
Contador was stronger than me during the race, he was the strongest of the peloton. If his lack of respect for the rules is demonstrated clearly, I will be able to consider myself as the Tour winner. Otherwise, I'll remain second.
6 months after the end of the Tour, we don't have the official final classification yet.
The amount of time that sportive (and cycling) justice need to take a decision is often unbearable.
Leopard, new team. How is life without Riis going?
Even in the last years, if you don't consider races, my life was a life without Riis. Now I have a new team, new ds, some new teammates like Bennati. And the same will of winning as before.
How has your preparation changed?
I spent less time on the bike and more time in the gym. I took care of making my body become stronger and more flexible. More strentgh doesn't mean 'more weight', it means 'more watts while climbing'. In fact, my weight has remained the same. The exercises I did for my spine should help me in time trials. I still can improve. We'll see the results of this preparation just during the season. It's a long work.
Tour 2010: would you repeat everything that you did during it, or would you change something?
If you're talking about the stop in Spa stage, when half of the riders had fallen, I'd do it again. If you're talking about the stage when my chain popped, you should ask this question to Contador. If you're talking about our hug on the Tourmalet, it was Contador who exaggerated it, he wanted to make spectacle, cinema.
Vuelta 2010: Riis sent you home because you didn't behave well.
I say it again: I made a mistake on that occasion.
Goal 2011: Tour?
Before of that I have the Classics: Fleche, Amstel and Liége. Then I have the Tour.
Races in Italy?
The first one is on the 5th of March, it is 'Strade Bianche'. Antique atmosphere, special effects.
Without Contador...
The worst adversary for the Tour will be Basso. He's got legs, head and experience and this time he'll focus completely on the French race. Gesink is my second adversary. Nibali is strong, but he'll try winning the Giro this year.
Is it possible to win Giro and Tour in the same year?
It's hard. There is just a little period of rest between those races. Moreover, winning those two Grand Tours in the same year also depends on parcourses and weather. If it is cold and rainy at the Giro, you pay for it in the Tour.
Differences between Giro and Tour?
The Giro is hard because of its parcours, the Tour because of pressure and adversaries. But, sooner or later, I'll come back to the Giro.
If you had a magic wand...
I'd solve the problems connected with the radio ban during races. It seems a little problem, but in reality radios are extremely important for riders'safety. In some Tour stages, without radio, we would have had carnages. We mustn't go back in time.
Biologic passport?
It is an important instrument, but it isn't perfect yet.
How many doping controls did you have last year?
Just for the biologic passport, I had 56 controls over the last 3 years. Add the controls in and out of competition, that are about 40 pro year. Cycling is the cleanest and most controlled sport. If someone still results positive at the anti-doping, and that someone is a champion, it means that doping controls work. In other sports it doesn't.
Suggestions?
Now we can communicate our whereabout changes also via sms. It makes our life easier.
Andy, how do you see yourself in 10 years time?
In Luxembourg, married, with 2 children. I won't be riding anymore, but perhaps I'll still be in the cycling world.

EDIT: BLOGOSPHERE NEWS:
Latest news regarding the pronounciation issue: Leela has just published an amazing voice post containing some English names on her great tumblr 'Spokes and Racquets'. To hear it, click on
http://spokesandracquets.tumblr.com/post/2983428167/voice-post-for-the-lovely-miss-fede-and-co .

Thank you very much for it Leela, it solved all my remaining doubts about some English names! And don't worry if you've never heard of Froome and Impey, they're not very famous (I actually remembered about them a few days ago, when I came across their names on Cyclingnews by chance :P). And don't worry about 'FeeDee' either: at least, it is cuter than Fede :)

Pronounciation post!

Finally, miss Fede has managed to publish her famous 'pronounciation post' here on her blog. You're happy, aren't you? ;) Unfortunately I couldn't publish it before of today because I've been very busy with school over the last days, so I couldn't write this post any earlier.
Before starting our pronounciation class, however, I'd like to say some brief things about TDU, which ended on Sunday. The stages of this race were won by Goss (24 year old), Swift (he's just 23 and got two victories), Michael Matthews (born in 1990), Cameron Meyer (22, he won a stage and the GC) and Ventoso (29). As you can see, all those guys (with the little exception of Ventoso) are really young and they all showed their great talent in the Australian race. Matthews, in particular, was born two years before of me and he has already proved to cycling lovers that people born in the 1990s are the best ones in the world ;)
Talking about young guys, a special mention must go also to Andrea Guardini, Italian rider of Farnese-Vini. He's 21 and this is his first year as a pro. He had his first race on Monday and he won it; he had his second pro race yesterday afternoon and he won it too. I think it's still too early to start screaming 'We have a new cycling star!' all over the blogosphere, especially because there are some little differences between Tour de Langwaki and Tour de France, but however I think that starting your professional career with 2 victories in 2 races is simply great. So, chapeau to Andrea.

Together with this explosion of young talents, however, we must remember that TDU also saw the second (and last) cycling retire of Lance Armstrong. I've never liked Armstrong as a rider (although I must admit that I don't remember much from his 7 Tour de France victories), but I've always admired him because he managed to defeat cancer and is now a symbol of the world fight against this horrible disease.

Anyway, either you like him or hate him as a rider, you can't deny that Armstrong marked cycling history for the last 19 years, from his first Tour de France stage victory in 1993 to his retire, a few days ago. So, it's with a strange mix of relief (I hated the Armstrong fever!) and respect that I say 'bye bye' to this Texan rider.

However. After being so nice to read the usual random reflections of mine, I think you completely deserve to read the 'pronounciation post' that I've just finished to write. Before of beginning, anyway, let me say three things:

Firstly, I can't guarantee you that this post is mistake-free. I tried my best to avoid mistakes, but I might have made some of them anyway. After all, no one is perfect. In case you notice a pronounciation mistake, I'd really appreciate it if you could kindly let me know about it. The goal of this post in fact is to improve our pronounciation of difficult riders' names and everyone who can help us to reach this goal with advices, corrections or so will be warmly welcomed.

Second thing I wanted to say, in this post I've talked about some of the names that I don't find easy to pronounce. If you would like to know the correct pronounciation of names that I didn't include in this post, don't be shy and feel free to ask for the correct pronounciation in the comment area. You may not be the only one who has problems with a certain name, so your request could be useful for everyone.

Third and last thing, I looked for some names but couldn't find any video with their pronounciation. If someone can help me, they're welcome.

After these boring advices, let's enjoy the class now!

CANADA:
We never mentioned Canadian riders in the comment area, but I must admit that, imo, two of the most difficult names to pronounce correctly in the peloton are 'Ryder Hesjedal' and 'Svein Tuft'.

To know the correct pronounciation of Hesjedal, click on: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18mR3JypOdU . They say Ryder's name already at the beginning, so you don't have to watch the whole video.
As far as Svein Tuft is concerned, you can find the pronounciation of his surname here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOto7BxfHns (0:14).

UNITED STATES:
Remaining in America, the only American name about which I have horrible doubts is 'Levi Leipheimer'. I've already mentioned that the pronounciation of Levi's name changed completely over the last 2 years here in Italy, but now we're finally going to discover what the correct pronounciation of said name is. Fasten your seatbelts, ladies and gentlemen, because we Italians are finally going to discover the truth about this name! Aaaand the correct pronounciation of this name is...Livai Laipaimar!!!! (or something similar ;)

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8-o8HwhNgU&feature=related , 0:06).

SPAIN AND SOUTH AMERICA:
I've decided to dedicate just one chapter to names of Spanish origins because I actually don't have problems with them. If someone would like to know the correct pronounciation of some Spanish names, let me know: I speak Spanish, so I might be able to help you.

GERMANY:
The only tricky German name I can think of right now is 'Jens Voigt'. This rider's surname in fact seems to be very difficult for everyone, journalists and supporters included. If you've always pronounced it as 'Voyt', I'll tell you that you're wrong. The correct pronounciation of Jens' name in fact is 'Fokt'. To listen to the correct pronounciation, read the 'Holland' part of this post ;)

POLAND:
Ah, Polish names! Who doesn't love them? Some months ago, our dear blogmate Ania was so kind to write me the correct pronounciation of the Polish name 'Przemysław' in the phonetic alphabet. If you can read it, here it is: pʃemɪswʌv . Nice, isn't it? I know that you're now going to name 'Przemyslaw' your gold-fish, your son, your dog, whatever else, but do you actually know who Przemysław ('Przemek' for friends) is? If you don't, write the name 'Przemysław Niemiec' somewhere. According to my predictions, you're going to hear about him pretty often this year.
Other tricky Polish names are Sylwester Szmyd and Jaroslaw Marycz. To hear the correct pronounciation of those names (and also the correct pronounciation of 'Przemyslaw Niemiec'), go on http://translate.google.it/#plen and have fun with the 'Listen' button.

DENMARK:
As far as Danish names are concerned, I think that the most of us know how to pronounce 'Sorensen' and are therefore able to indicate the surname of half of the Danish population in a correct way. The problems begin when poor fangirls come across Danish names like Jakob Fuglsang or Matti Breschel. As far as the first name is concerned, I admit that I've always pronounced it as 'Foogle-sang', before that Susanne enlightened me by saying that the correct pronounciation of the name of the hero of many fangirls is 'Ya'cobb Fool-sang'.
As far as Matti Breschel is concerned, Susanne kindly gave me the link to this vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CypDAWtD_Vc (Matti's name is said at the beginning of it and after 38"). It is a very nice vid and I'm sure that some of us will really appreciate it (nice blue eyes on the horizon, girls, nice blue eyes!)
PS: I know that it has nothing to do with cycling, but on Thursday I have a philosophy test about Kierkegaard. How do you pronounce that?

OCEANIA:
My doubts about Oceanian names were kindly resolved by Cougar Girl. Here you have her answers to my doubts:
Cameron Wurf = Kammer-on Wuhrr-f. Travis Meyer = Tra-viss My-ehrr (not May-ehrr). Hayden Roulston = Hay-D'n Rahl-st'n. Richie Porte = Ree-chee Por-turr.

HOLLAND and BELGIUM:
Ah, Dutch names! Apparently, names like 'Boom', 'Mollema' and 'Gesink' seem very easy to pronounce, don't they? Unfortunately for us, not every Dutch name is that simple. For example, amongst Dutch riders we can find Tom Stamsnijder and Steven Kruijswijk. 'How do you pronounce that?', I hear you wonder in despair. Well, the answer is simple and it comes from an amazing vid that our blogmate Mar (http://whatmarlikes.tumblr.com/) prepared for us last week. Here you have it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lx6q3DiUCzk . In it, Mar says the following names: Steven Kruijswijk (I'l never be able to say it correctly!), Robert Gesink, Bauke Mollema, Tom Stamsnijder, Lars Boom, Koos Moerenhout.
Moreover, Mar also gave us the pronounciation of two Belgian names, Wouter Weylandts and Jurgen Van Den Broeck. Dulcis in fundo, she also pronounces 'Jens Voigt' in a perfect way towards the very end of the video (1:36). Once again, great work Mar!

SWEDEN:
No one ever mentions them, but Swedish names can be tricky too. Just think about the name 'Thomas Lovkvist'. Luckily, you can hear Tom's name pronounced by himself on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MW82TsrGyAg .

RUSSIA:
Russian names can be difficult too, especially because accents rule the Russian world and accents are never written on the names of Russian riders. Anyway. I did try to look for Russian videos of YouTube, but my quest wasn't actually that successful.

As far as Denis Menchov is concerned, I found a nice video on http://diaadiano.blogspot.com/2010/10/blog-post_18.html . It is in Russian and the only things I could understand from it were: 'skandali', 'Tour de France', 'na ulitza' and 'Alberta Contadora' (yes, AlbertA ContadorA). Btw, when I was already losing hope, I finally heard it: 'Denis Menchov', at 2:28. The journalist actually seems to say 'Menchova' and it does so in a very unusual (for me at least) way.
Unfortunately trying to understand Russian in that vid was a hard task for me, and it was even harder to find Russian videos with the correct pronounciation of 'Kolobnev' and 'Ignatiev'. So, I'm waiting for a volunteer to help me in my research.

LITUANIA, BELARUS AND UKRAINE:
Unfortunately this evening I didn't have time to look for the correct pronounciation of 'Grivko' and 'Konovalovas'. If there is someone from Lithuania and Ukraine reading this blog, I'd really appreciate it if they could help us all with the pronounciation of these names.
To make you forgive me for this lack of information about Ukrainian and Lituanian name, however, I'll tell you what the correct pronounciation of 'Siutsou' is (*drums rolling*). It is 'Sizzov' and not 'Siutsu' (Italian chronists used to say 'Siutsu' some years ago, then they corrected themselves on time).

ITALY:
Dulcis in fundo, here we arrive at pronounciation of Italian names. As I already said, accent is important in Italian names. It is Nìbali and Cùnego, not Cunégo and Nibàli. It is Viganò and it is Ballàn, it is Bàsso and it is Riccò.

To hear some of these names, go on http://translate.google.it/#ititchicchi%0D%0A and write Chicchi, Riccò, Visconti, Viganò, Petacchi, Basso, Cheula and Agnoli . If you want to have a little clue about how to pronounce Italian names, remember those things:
1) double letters and accents, when present, aren't there just for beauty.
2) 'Che' and 'Chi' are pronounced as if they were German: 'ke' and 'ki'. In English, the 'chi' sounds like the 'ki' in 'kickey' (listen to 'Chicchi' and Cheula' to get a pratice example).
3) To listen to the correct pronounciation of the 'GN' sound, go on Google Translate and write 'Agnoli'.
4) Italian double 'z' is pretty difficult to pronounce. To listen to its correct pronounciation, you can hear the name 'Pellizotti' being pronounced in this video, right after the commercial: http://video.gazzetta.it/ciclismo-franco-pellizotti/4e99e29a-786f-11de-a581-00144f02aabc . Instead, to hear Pozzato's correct pronounciation (which I dedicate to miss Sansen), go on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-bKX0YNhb4 and wait 14 seconds.

Unfortunately it's already very late for me, so I'm forced to close this post here. I hope you enjoyed it. If you did, I might make a new pronounciation post in the next weeks/months/ years ;)

EDIT: For those of you who are too lazy to read the comment section, here I'm going to list the videos/ voice posts/ suggestions/ whatever else that some dear blogmates have wrote me in their comments over the last days (unfortuntely I couldn't do it before because I was too busy).

First of all, let's talk about RUSSLAND AND LITUANIA:

Our kind blogmate Ania sent us a video with the correct pronounciation of Konovalovas (0: 10) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjFWDqOT7Hw . She also sent me another vid about Menchov (0:07) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ee-idgG32IY , one about Kolobnev (0: 57 and also earlier) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x04vp805Xd4 and one about Ignatiev (4:02) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MA_97E_MUGA . Nice work, isn't it? Now, all together: 'Thank you miss Ania!!'

NORWEGY AND SWEDEN:

Another dear blogmate, Susanne, sent me two very good videos in which you can hear the names 'Hushovd' and 'Ljungqvist' being pronounced correctly. The Hushovd one is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbYgmBonYaE (go at its beginning), the other one is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXmFsijkCVg (0:14). If you want to have fun, look for the other Hushovd video that she posted in one of her comments. In it, you can hear the Norwegian chronists clearly going bananas because of a Norwegian victory at the Tour!

Back to the pronounciation issue, dear Ingrid kindly told us that Hushovd should be pronounced as 'Hus-hovd', and not as 'Hush-vod' like I've been saying it for the last 5 years or so. Instead, Ljungvist should be pronounced as 'Jongkvist'. Thank you for your help, Susanne and Ingrid!

Last but not least, OCEANIA, SOUTH AFRICA AND WALES:

Leela kindly recorded a voice post on her tumblr in order to make us listen the correct pronounciation of some English sounding names. In it she shows us how to pronounce Cameron Wurf, Travis and Cameron Meyer, Hayden Roulston, Richie Porte, Chris Froome, Daril Impey and Geraint Thomas' names in the correct way. Here is the link to her great voice post: http://spokesandracquets.tumblr.com/post/2983428167/voice-post-for-the-lovely-miss-fede-and-co . Thank you a lot for it, Leela!

So, this seems to be the real end of this post. Thank you to all those who heped me writing it and let's hope that you all had fun while reading it and that you found it useful!

Menchov not invited at Tour de France:

As you probably know, today ASO has published the list of teams invited to this year edition of Tour de France. To my horror, the name of Geox team didn't appear on said list. The teams that were invited to the prestigious French race in fact were Cofidis, FDJ, Team Europcar and, dulcis in fundo, the super famous Saur-Sojasun team. After all, why should ASO have invited Menchov and Sastre's team when they knew they could have Casper and Coppel's equipe? It would have been a non-sense choice! Moreover, Saur-Sojasun team kits perfectly match the colour of Movistar's ones and this fact may cause some confusion between supporters. What a joy! And, perhaps, after being invited to the Tour this team will assume such a 'grandeuristic' attitude that they'll start to send mails to the journalists and tell them to write the team's name in capitals. That would be great for French cycling, wouldn't it? And then, Saur-Sojasun is a French team, so its riders will surely enter a breakaway on the Bastille Day, won't dope during the race and they won't force French journalists to speak English. And then, in this team there are so many unknown riders! I mean, Geox has Sastre and Menchov, ok, but none of them is a great beauty, right? And then, those guys have been racing for about 10 years now, we supporters are fed up with them! So, let's give space to French teams, they deserve it so much! And then, let's not forget that Geox kit may look like Footon-Servetto's old one and ASO guys don't want naked-looking guys riding on the French roads in July, right? It would damage tourism!!
I'm trying to be funny while writing this post but, believe me, I am scandalised, I mean, 's-c-a-n-d-a-l-i-s-e-d-', by ASO's decision. Ok, Carlos Sastre was pretty disappointing in the last 2 seasons, but you can't decide not to invite Menchov at the Tour! How can a person without mental problems consciounsly decide not to invite him there? Denis is the most complete Grand Tour rider of the world (Andy Schleck is better than him on the climbs, but the Russian is better in time trials) and was 3rd in the last Tour; moreover, in the last years he won two Vueltas and a Giro. Why not inviting him then? What kind of illegal substance damaged the brain of ASO's guys so much to make them take this decision? Did they sniff clenbuterol?
'Contador has damaged cycling', McQuaid has recently said in an interview. Well, in my opinion ASO organisers have just joined the Spaniard in his attempt of trying to disgust cycling supporters once again.
As a supporter, every time I watch a Grand Tour I hope that, in the end, its winner will be a rider that has deserved that victory. A rider that isn't doped, a rider that has made me feel strong emotions, a rider that has beated all the other strongest riders of the world. This happens to be particularly true for the Tour de France, the most important cycling Grand Tour of the world. All the best riders of the world should be able to take part in it, no matter the Pro Tour systems or b******** like that. Then it's true that it's almost impossible to have all the best riders of the world in the same race, because unfortunately there is always someone who is injured or has had health problems or so on. But still, I think that the best riders of the world shouldn't be excluded by the most important race of the world because of the organisers' stupidity. Because, when a team as Geox is excluded from a race like the Tour, then it means that we're not talking cycling anymore. It means that we're talking politics, patriotism, revenge or things like that. But we're not talking sport. And sport, when I watch cycling races, is the only thing I actually care about.
Talking about cycling races, the Tour is considered the best Grand Tour of the world. Therefore, from the theoric point of view, the rider who wins it should be the best Grand Tour rider of the world. Now, me wonders: how can we know if 2011 TdF winner would have beaten Menchov if he had had the chance to race? Personally, if right now I were a Tour de France's possible contender, I wouldn't be happy to know about Denis' exclusion from the race. In my opinion, in fact, a Tour without all the best riders of the world is a Tour without value.
Talking about Menchov, I really don't know how he must be feeling right now and I wouldn't like to be in his shoes tonight. I mean, Denis was born in 1978 (on the 25th of January), isn't a 'young gun' anymore and, perhaps, he won't have many other years at this level in front of him. If I were him, I would be terribly angry at ASO right now. Perhaps they didn't realise it, but with their decision the ASO guys might have just destroyed Menchov's sportive dream. It's easy for us to say 'He can always try to win the race next year', but there are many things that can change in 365 days time- everything can change in 365 days time.
Now of course Menchov and Sastre hope that their team will be invited to Giro and the Corsa Rosa will become their main goal of the season. Hopefully mr. Zomegnan cares about cycling more than his colleagues at ASO and so he will invite Geox to his race.
It will surely take me some time to get used to the idea that Menchov won't race the Tour, but perhaps the most disgusting thing about this story is that supporters can't do nothing about it. Riders are said to count nothing in the cycling world, but supporters count even less than them. 'It's another defeat for cycling, it's another delusion for the tifosi, it's another blow for cycling's credibility!', that's what Very Important People say every time a rider is caught positive at the anti-doping. Too bad that, imo, also not inviting the best riders to the most important race of the world is a loss of credibility for cycling, another defeat for the sport and, most important, another delusion for the tifosi. Personally, I've rarely felt so disappointed because of cycling. People always believe there's justice in this world, too bad that it's not true... Btw, I realise that I'm slipping into cliché, moralism and all those kind of things, so it's better if I stop this post here. The lack of solutions for this situation leaves me disappointed and disgusted, powerless and worried.
Unfortunately there is nothing we can do about it, apart from thinking that, of course, there are more important things in the world (and I'm perfectly aware of this, don't worry). For example, HTC Columbia rider Carla Swart, 23 year-old, died the other day while training. My deepest condolences go to her familiars and friends.

PS1: I wrote this post as soon as I got the news of ASO's decision, when I was even angrier than now at the Tour organisers, therefore anger might have caused me to make more mistakes than usual int. If so, I apology.

PS2: in the first part of this post I wrote about Saur-Sojasun. I want to make it clear that I don't have nothing against that team and that I perfectly know that it's not their fault if Menchov's team was excluded from the Tour.

The start of the season, interview with Frank Schleck, Sorensen's blog and more:

After a busy week in which we reflected more than usual about the pronounciation of the riders' names, miss Fede is back with another super-random post and is glad to announce that, finally, the 2011 cycling season has officially begun! Yayyyyy!
The first race of the year (apart from the Australian Championships) was Cancer Council Helpline Classic in Adelaide. The race ended in a sprint, which was won by the Tasmanian Matthew Goss for HTC Columbia.

2010 is over, but HTC Columbia keeps on getting great results in the sprints! Cavendish didn't have a good day, he eventually came 108th, but his teammates managed to get the Top 2 of the race anyway. Impressive, isn't it?
Talking about Cavendish, however, it must be said that Henderson crashed at the end of the race and his crash probably caused some problems also to other riders.
3rd in the sprint was Robbie McEwen (hope he'll win some races this year!), while 4th was a great Elia Viviani. 5th was Chris Sutton, while 6th was a very good Davide Viganò. Imo that was the best reply he could give to a Gazzetta journalist, who some days ago wrote: 'It's amazing how Viganò can manage to ride for such good teams although he has never got good results'.

Unfortunately I can't add anything new to what has already been said about the race, since I couldn't see it because of the time zone. Anyway, here you have some random randomness collected by me this afternoon.

INTERVIEW WITH FRANK SCHLECK:
http://www.tageblatt.lu/sport/radsport/story/21130532 : First of all, as you probably know, team Leopard Trek is having a training camp in Mallorca in these days. Photos are available almost everywhere and on the link above you can find some nice ones.

A Luxembourgian newspaper, Tageblatt (check link above again), is giving a lot of attention to Leopard Trek's training camp and is reporting the activities of every single day of training on its website.

On http://www.tageblatt.lu/sport/story/30253999 you can also find a great interview with Frank Schleck that was done by Tageblatt's Cristophe Junker. I found it very nice, so here you have a translation of some of its parts (I had to translate it from German, so I already apology for the eventual mistakes):
'Andy and I came here in Mallorca two, three days before of the other riders and I'm very happy about this. In this way we could ride our bikes for three days. You just need to look at the weather in Luxembourg to understand that it's very complicated to train outside in this period. Moreover, in December it snowed a lot in Luxembourg, so we had to catch up a bit with training before of the training camp (...). So far the time here at the camp has passed really fast. Our days are full of training, massages, interviews, photos...'
Journalist: the team has received a lot of attention from the press. Is it because it is the n.1 team of the world? Or is it a normal thing for a new team?
Frank: I think it's a combination of these 2 factors (...). Of course the 'new team' factor has been important. Moreover, in these team there are many strong riders and this creates a lot of interest in the team. We try to present us as very open people, we also try to be always very puntual at the interviews, not like I've done with you today (grins and looks at his wristwatch, ndr)'
(...)
Journalist: In March 2010 the Italian newspaper 'Gazzetta dello Sport' reported the first rumours about the creation of a Luxembourgian team.
'I will not deny that at the time we had heard something about the possible creation of a Luxembourgian team. People talked a lot about it, but these talks weren't interesting for us.
J: Why?
'Because there was nothing of concrete behind them'.
J: When did they become concrete?
'We had lots of talks and contacts going on with other teams, because many people were interested in making us sign a contract with them. What is happening right now, at the time it was just a dream, a dream that now has come true. After the Tour of Luxembourg we received a concrete offer. We were more than happy when we accepted it. 4 days later, we went to a training camp in Switzerland and we informed Bjarne about the offer we had received. We were 100% sincere with him and we informed him as soon as we could. Bjarne couldn't make us any offer, because at the time he didn't have any sponsor for 2011.
J: When did you hear the first rumours about Alberto Contador joining Riis?
'During the Tour de France, like everyone else. However, in the small article that appeared on la Gazzetta in March 2010, not only did they report many things about Luxembourg; they also wrote that Contador would have gone to Riis' team.
J: How is the relationship between you and Bjarne nowadays?
'There isn't any problem between us. Of course Andy and I were disappointed when Riis said that we had lied to him. In the meanwhile, however, we've got over it. (...)

'I still firmly believe that Andy and I are a bit late on our preparation. We miss kilometers. In the team, I actually feel like a captain. If there is a problem, the young guys come to talk to me. People respect me and I feel very well in this situation. This also derives from the fact that I feel very well in this team. I was surprised after today's test, it was very good. Andy and I were a bit afraid of it. However, during the winter I didn't put on weight, although I didn't pay attention to it'. (not: I'm not very sure about the translation of this part, if it's wrong please let me know)
J: What are the team's goals for the first weeks of the season?
A team is already 'down under'. Will Clark, who is a neo pro, won 5 races in 6weeks last year. And to win those races, you really need to be a good rider. I've seen him riding and I'm sure he has a bright future in front of himself. At Paris-Nice, Jakob Fuglsang and I will try to have good results, but we don't want to have pressure on us. If I get a good result there, good. If I don't, it won't be a problem.
J: What about Flavio Becca?
'My father has known him for a lot of time. He had the idea of creating this team. We owe him a lot.
J: How did you come to the team's creation? Did he phone you all of a sudden to tell you that he wanted to create a team?
'Yes, it was something like that. Like his father Aldo, he had always been a great cycling fan. His passion has become bigger and bigger over the years, and now it has brought him at this point. One day he gave us his word and, since he's a 'homme de parole', he respected it. This season we want to pay him back for what he did for us by creating this team'.
(Interview by Cristophe Junker)

NEWS FROM LEOPARD TREK TEAM:
Still talking about team Leopard Trek, the other day our blogmate Leela pointed out on her blog(http://justfuglen.tumblr.com/ ) a letter that Leopard Trek has apparently sent to the people who work in the cycling media. In said letter (read it on:
http://www.cyclesportmag.com/news-and-comment/cs-blog-an-open-letter-to-leopard-trek/ ) Leopard Trek guys pointed out that:
- you should never write Team Leopard Trek, but 'Leopard Trek team';
- you should pronounce 'Leopard' as LAY-oh-pard;
- you should never write Leopard-Trek.
- you should always write Leopard Trek in caps (LEOPARD TREK).
After noticing that I've made every single possible mistake while writing the name of this team, me thinks that I won't be following any of these rules on this blog. After all, I didn't receive any mail from LeOpArD TREK, did I? ;)

CHRIS SORENSEN'S BLOG:
Let's now talk about another team, Saxo Bank Sungard. Or, better, let's talk about one of its riders, Chris Anker Sorensen. Since the beginning of the new year, in fact, Chris updated his blog twice and his first 2011 post was really good. In it Chris talked about his 2010 achievements and here you have a partial translation of of it:
(achievements of the 2010 year):
'Won a stage in the Giro (...). Helped Matti B. to get a silver medal. Rode the Tour for the second year, this time without writing a book. I had 89 days of race and rode 33000 kms. I stayed in 80 different hotels during the year and had 193 travel days'.
'Changed Luxembourg with Lucca and Moyenne with Ciao' (...)
'Speaking of Bangkok, during the year I've often been told this joke by Richie Porte. "What is the capital of Thailand?", he asks. Then he yells "Bang Kok" and hits a certain part of his body (only Richie, who is a gentleman, actually does so)'.
'I broke a collarbone in Barcelona and slid into a wall on a descent towards Como'.
'I was in New York shouting "Deefence" in Madison Square Garden. It was during a basketball match and together with thousands other people, so I didn't do it because I'm mad (...)'
'I became really good at making risotto and got a good knowledge of Italian wine. Found out that I am completely hopeless to make cappuccino after visiting the real king of cappuccinos in Monsummano Terme'.

2011 KITS:
Last link for today, here's an artice by Cyclingnews about the teams' new kits: http://www.cyclingnews.com/features/the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly-2011-team-kits . I don't agree with saying that Radioshack's kit is the best one of 2011. Actually, I find it pretty unoriginal. Talking about other teams, I really like Quick Step kit and I'm pretty keen on Katusha's new one too. On the other hand, I think Lampre's jerseys are too flashy and I don't really like Liquigas' new ones. Btw, remember one thing: the day we're all awaiting, aka the presentation of Geox (former Fuji-Servetto), is the 31st of January. Will Geox guys shock the world with their kits for the second year in a row or will they improve? Me (together with Denis Menchov and Carlos Sastre) can't wait to know the answer.

PRONOUNCIATION ISSUE:
As I could see from the waterfall of comments that followed my last post, the pronounciation issue is a topic that interest everyone of us. Perhaps we could really have pronounciation classes, and now I'll explain you how.
Mar has said that she'll kindly do voice posts about the names of Dutch riders on her blog. If you want to ask her what the correct pronounciation of some names is, write her on her Tumblr (see 'my favourite blog' list at your right) and she'll surely help you.
As far as non-Dutch names are concerned, I think we could make a list of the most complicated names to pronounce (in our opinion) and divide those names in categories, according to their nationality. Then it would be great if a person from every country could tell us if the pronounciation of those names on Google Translater is right or not. If it isn't, those people could make us a big favour by posting a YouTube video in which the name of the rider is correctly pronounced. Anyone agrees?

(Pic 1 by AFP, Pic 2 by Jeff Lahr)

Team Leopard-Trek presentation:

To everyone's joy, miss Fede is back on her blog after an entertaining (and devasting) short holiday in Vienna. Many things have happened in the cycling world and in the Blogosphere over the last days, so let's start talking about them.
First of all, I want to say that I'm very sorry for the disappearance of the Schleckland blog. However, I'm sure that Cougar Girl had her good reasons to stop writing it and I think that she's not obliged to tell us what happened. Btw, I'd like to thank her here for the good time I had while reading her hilarious posts. I'm going to miss them a lot, CG, and I wish you all of the best for your future.

On to another issue, someone has recently come across my blog by writing 'radom' in Google. I'm astonished.
Anyway, let's now talk about some important events that happened last week. Or, better, let's talk about THE event that took place last week, aka Team Luxembourg's presentation. During it, we poor supporters finally discovered that the official name of the team is Team Leopard-Trek and we could finally see the team's kits. It was high time (and the guys in the pic below completely agree with me)!!

First of all, let's say that the presentation was attended by about 4000 fans and by Pat McQuaid in person. At the beginning the riders were wearing black suits and white shirts. None of them wore a tie, a thing that surprised me a bit. In fact, miss Fede has always loved men with suits and ties, mainly because that's what John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd were wearing in the Blues Brothers movie (my favourite film ever). Anyway, the Leopard riders accompanied their suits with some scarves. Talking about scarves, here you have a nice picture of Fuglsang, looking as lovely as usual at the presentation.
If you, like me, couldn't watch it live, on http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/team-leopard-trek-presentation-video there's a video of the presentation, which made me notice Kim Andersen's good German. From the vid the presentation looked very exciting, no doubts that the organisers did a very good job with it. However, why did the guy playing with the circle wear a zebra kit? It should have been a leopard kit, shouldn't it?
Anyway. Talking about the part of the show in which the riders were presented, it was very nice to see the new guys, especially the young 'unknown' ones.
Stefan Denifl looked really handsome, although I had the impression he was a bit embarassed. Martin Pedersen looked very nice too, although he looked short next to the woman who was presenting (she was wearing very high heels and that didn't help at all).
When the woman had to present Bennati and Viganò, she obviously pronounced those names in a pretty wrong way. Italian names aren't easy to pronounce, but here's a clue for everyone of you who'd like to say them correctly. First of all, the double 'n' in Bennati's name and the accent on Viganò's last 'o' aren't there just because they look good. They're there because you should stress the last 'o' of Davide's surname and because you should double the 'n' in Daniele's one. Oh, and since I'm talking about this boring subject, let me remind you that you should say Nìbali (and not Nibàli) and Cùnego (and not Cunégo). Ok?
Talking about Bello Benna, he looked very nice on the stage and the man who was presenting told him (in Italian) that he was a very handsome boy. What a funny man. Still talking about the riders on the stage, Brice Feillu looked taller than ever, while Fuglsang was incredibly lovely and made many fangirls melt (right Leela and Mar?).
The Schleck brothers were the last guys to be presented, together with Fabian Cancellara. The brothers received great applauses, that were completely deserved. They got on the stage with their new bikes and I must say that I really do like them (although light blue isn't actually one of my favourite colours).Let's now talk briefly about the team kits. I'm not that keen on classic looks, therefore I find the new jerseys boring and unoriginal. Moreover, I don't like the national champions jerseys at all (how are we supposed to recognise those riders during the races?). But still, the designers were intelligent enough to use black shorts and they didn't make a complete disaster. So, I think we can all have a sigh of relief now that we've seen the new kit, which isn't as horrible as Footon Servetto's 2010 one. In addition, I predict we'll get used to it in few weeks time.My last thought about the team presentation is that it looked as if there was a very thrilling atmosphere in Luxembourg that night. It was pretty strange to realise this, because it doesn't happen often to feel such strong emotions while watching a video on the computer. Actually, while watching the replay of the presentation I had the feeling that a big new adventure has begun. If I feel this way and I'm just a supporter, I can't imagine how the guys on the team must feel now...
So, this was the long awaited presentation of team Leopard-Trek. My post doesn't probably add anything new to what has already been said/written/thought about it over the last days, also because I've come back in contact with the cycling world just today. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it anyway. As I said, a new big adventure has just begun- and now, finally, it is true racing time.

(pictures from Bettini and Cyclingnews)

Random post about Davide Viganò plus Random Randomness:

The moment has almost come. The moment when we'll finally discover the name of Team Luxembourg, the colour of its kits and the type of cars that the ds are driving this year. I can't wait. Too bad that, on the day of the presentation, me will be in Austria, with no Internet connection. Therefore, this poor girl who has been waiting since August to know the name of her favourite riders' new team will have to wait until the 10th of January before being able to find out more about it. Anger. Actually, right now Fangirl can imagine herself wandering in Vienna, desperately looking for a Gazzetta. Then she can imagine herself finding that Gazzetta and opening it with eagerness, just to find a big pic of Pozzatolocks on the cycling page. That would be shocking.
On the other hand, Logic doesn't care at all about the presentation of the Schleck's team. 'Come on', she told Fangirl, 'the most important thing is to know which riders are going to race for a team. Therefore, you shouldn't care at all about what the team's name will be, or about what the team's kits will look like. You don't get victories just because of your team's name and because of your kits, do you? So, stop complaining about the damned presentation and answer these questions: how will we manage to go from Bratislava to Vienna on Wednesday? Will we manage not to get lost in the airport? Why does our luggage weight just 7 kgs? These are the things about which you should worry right now, you irresponsible Fangirl. And instead, here you are complaining about missing the presentation of a cycling team. We're going to Vienna in 48 hours time, and all you can think about is that team presentation. I wonder what you have in your head, Fangirl!!'. As you can see, Logic is pretty bitter right now and she'd like me to do something useful rather than staying here writing this post.
Therefore, let's write something that can be defined as 'useful' also according to Logic. So, ladies and gentlemen, here's the random profile of Davide Viganò, one of the less known Team Lux's riders, written by me!

First of all, Davide was born in Carate Brianza on the 12th of June 1984.
He became a pro rider with Androni Giocattoli-3 C Casalinghi in 2005 and in the same year he signed a contract for Quick Step. He rode for this team until 2008, when he started riding for Fuji-Servetto (which, at the time, still had a decent jersey). In 2010 instead Viganò went to team Sky, which he abandoned this year in order to join team Lux.
Davide is 182 cms tall and has a weight of 66 kgs. He is on Twitter too and his profile is on http://twitter.com/volaviga .
In 2005, as soon as he became a pro, Viganò managed to arrive 2nd in a race called 'Criterium dei Campioni'. The following year, with Quick Step, he was 12th in a Vuelta's stage. In 2007 he got his only pro victory so far, a stage at the Tour of Qatar. Said stage was a team time trial and in it Davide rode to victory together with Boonen, De Jongh, Tosatto, Steegmans and others. In the same year he was third in Veenendal-Veenendal (Dutch Food Valley Classic). That year the race ended in a sprint and Viganò did better than a guy like Weylandts, who won a Giro stage last year. Still in 2007, Davide was 4th in a Vuelta stage won by Petacchi (he did better than Greipel, Duque, Zabel and many others) and was 5th in the last Vuelta stage (the one ending in Madrid). As you can tell from these results, Viganò is a very good sprinter who can get good results also at the end of Grand Tours.
The finish-line in Madrid really seems to appeal to Davide, who was 3rd in the last Vuelta stage of 2008. In the same year, he was 4th in GP Beghelli (an important Italian race) and 5th in Giro del Piemonte.
In 2009 Viganò got many good placements with Fuji-Servetto. He was 7th in a Tour Down Under stage, 4th in a stage at Tour de Langwaki, 3rd in a stage of Vuelta Ciclistica Asturias. He also took part in that year Giro and got good results also there: an 8th placement in the third stage, a 4th in Chiavenna's one, an 8th in Milan's one and a 9th in Florence one. As you can see, Davide has often been close to grabbing an important victory, but has never been lucky enough.

In 2009 Davide was also 4th in a Vuelta stage, 6th in Hamburg Classic and got some good placements also at Tour de Suisse.
Last year Viganò raced for Sky, but he didn't take part in any Grand Tour. His best results were a 4th place in Vuelta a Catalunya , two 5th placements in Bayern Rundfahrt and a 6th placement in Vuelta a Burgos.
On team Sky website there is a little biography of Davide, that I've partially copied here:

Davide Viganò hails from Carate Brianza, near Milan, and among his neighbours, when he was growing up, was Gianni Bugno. Bugno was the top Italian cyclist of the early 1990s: a double world champion, and winner of the country's national tour, the Giro d'Italia, in which he wore the famous 'maglia rosa' (pink jersey) of race leader from start to finish.
It is no wonder, then, that he was a hero to the young Viganò, who began cycling when he was eight years old (...). Viganò is a good all-round rider with a strong finish. As he puts it: "I'm fast in the sprints, and okay on the climbs" (...).
Viganò is unusual, for an Italian, in preferring the Tour de France to his country's national tour. "I would prefer to ride the Tour because my condition is better in July than in May, when the Giro is on," he admits.

In another interview, talking about his youth, Davide says that his heroes were Bugno and Ullrich. Talking to Cicloweb (a great Italian website), Viganò also said: 'In my first 3 years as a young racer, I was terribly strong. When I didn't win, I arrived on the podium anyway'. Talking about becoming a pro, Viganò said: 'I must admit that becoming a pro wasn't hard, in fact in my first year I changed team in the middle of the season because I had got many good placements. In August 2005 in fact I went to Quick Step, but unfortunately I broke my wrist in that period and so I couldn't take part in many races. Then I started to have some problems: diseases (ndr; mononucleosis in 2009), familiar problems (ndr; his father died in 2007), injuries... All these things didn't allow me to get very good results during my first years as a pro. However, at Quick Step I could help Steegmans and Boonen during the sprints and I could help Bettini in harder races'.
Talking about himself, Davide said: 'I think I'm a very sincere boy. My only passion is cycling, so I don't usually talk about other things in the interviews...I like riding my bike and relaxing with my family and my girlfriend Emanuela'.

So, this is my short introduction to Davide Viganò.If you want to find out more about him, take a look at http://www.teamsky.com/profile/0,27291,17543_5771654,00.html (there is also a video), http://ilnuovociclismo.forumfree.it/?t=22632081 and at http://www.cicloweb.it/articolo/2010/01/12/hai-voluto-la-bicicletta-scopriamo-il-mondo-di-davide-vigano.html (please don't be shocked by the pictures).
Let's hope Davide will finally stop being cursed by bad luck and let's hope that this year he'll finally get his first professional victory. Good luck Davide!!

PS: as you know, I won't be writing anything about team Schleck's presentation and I'm not going to write anything new before of next week. However, if you want, you can use the comment area to express your ideas about the team's presentation- I'm sure that, even without my control, you'll behave well ;)
Let's hope that the kit won't be horrible and have a good time watching the presentation! Auf wiedersehen!

New jerseys: Saxo Bank and Garmin

Dear readers, miss Fede is proud to present you, in her first post of 2011, the new jersey of team Saxo Bank.
Ok, I know that the most of you only cares about the kit of the Schleck's new team, but we mustn't forget that in SB there are still some great guys like Porte or Chris Anker Sorensen or Laurent Didier and so on. Therefore, here you have it, the new Saxo Bank jersey!

The thing that striked me most when I first looked at it was the black eagle at your right. As you probably know, Riis Cycling's logo has always been an eagle, and Riis himself was nicknamed 'Eagle from Herning' during his career. But still, I don't like it very much.
The other thing that striked my attention was the fact that the jersey background is not white, but light blue. This is an original choice and I hope it will make the jersey easier to see during races.
If you want to take a better look to the kit, on http://www.team-saxobank.com/ny_news.asp?n_id=3016 there is a picture of Morkov (if my eyes don't fail me...) wearing the kit. I like the shorts and also the back of it while, as I already said, I don't like the eagle on the right that much. Logic, who adored last year's kit, is a bit skeptical about the eagle, while Fangirl seems to love the new jersey. 'It is original and I think it will also be easy to spot in the peloton. Moreover, the trousers are black!', she said in an unofficial interview.
Talking about the new kit, Riis said: "I really think we have created a cool jersey, and I can't wait to see it on my riders in the first races of the season. Both the light blue background and the eagle are also reflected on our cars, trucks and buses as they form the leitmotif of our entire design.In many ways, I'm now the leader of a new team after a turbulent year, that measured on the sporting outcome was so successful, that we once again finished as the world's best team. But 2010 was also a season characterized by the fact, that a number of our riders and staff wanted new challenges elsewhere. Therefore, we have welcomed many new faces in our organization. But at the same time, the philosophy of the team and our values remains the same". In an article that appeared on Cyclingnews, Bjarne also wished all of the best to those who abandoned his team in 2010. Moreover,he thanked the sponsors and the fans for their support and he wished everyone a happy new year.

Still talking about jerseys, also Garmin Cervélo has recently presented the new team's kit. Said kit looks a bit shocking to me, since it is a fusion of Garmin and Cervélo's old kits, with one big difference: I can't see the argyle pattern anywhere. What a shock. However, Cervélo's 'è' has remained on the back of the jerseys.
I predict it won't be easy to get used to this kit (I just hope Sky won't adopt black jerseys too!), but it seems pretty nice to me. Anyway, I have a question: how are the riders supposed to ride in the Tour's hot weather with a completely black kit on? Mistery.

(Picture 1 by Tim De Waele, picture 2 by Cyclingnews)