Random post about random randomness: RadioSchleck, Giro d'Italia and more

Good day everyone, dear readers! Exactly one week after the end of the Worlds, miss Fede is blogging again. Unfortunately there isn't much to blog about, apart from the RadioSchleck (nickname by Ania :))-related news. Bruyneel's equipe in fact has just signed Machado and Didier and this makes me wonder once again who is on the 2012 team and who isn't. So here's a little scheme that, hopefully, will help us understand what may happen to our favourite riders in the next few months.

RADIOSHACK:

In her last few posts miss Fede focused her attention just on Team Leopard's riders, whereas she never paid attention to the RS athletes who are losing their jobs. Therefore, here's a little scheme that will help us understand what may happen/has happened/is happening to the riders who have been racing for the Shack in 2011.

2011 roster (28 riders): The riders of the 2011 Radioshack team have beem: Beppu, Bewley, Brajkovic, Busche, Cardoso, Deignan, Hermans, Horner, Hunter, Irizar, King, Kloden, Kwiatowski, Leipheimer, Lequatre, Machado, McCartney, McEwen, Murayev, Oliveira, Paulinho, Popovych, Rast, Rosseler, Rovny, Selander, Sergent and Zubeldia.

Riders who are changing team (12): Many Shack riders decided to find a new team as soon as they found out about the merger with LT. These guys are  Cardoso (off to CajaRural), Brajkovic and Murayev (Astana), Rosseler, McEwen, Hunter and Beppu (GreenEdge), Leipheimer and Kwiatowski (Omega Pharma - Quickstep), Paulinho (Saxo Bank), McCartney and Deignan (Team United Health Care).

Riders who are not changing team (11): So far it seems that the riders who will keep on riding for Bruyneel  are: Horner, Rast, Zubeldia, Kloden, Hermans, Sergent, King, Machado, Busche, Irizar and Oliveira.

'Lost in the merger' riders (5 + 2): Right now, the 'lost in the merger' riders are Bewley, Lequatre, Popovych, Rovny and Selander. Moreover, Gianni Meersman and Toni Gallopin had signed a contract with RS before the merger was done, so that now they still don't know anything about their future.

LEOPARD TREK:

2011 roster (25 riders): Andy and Frank Schleck, O'Grady, Clarke, Denifl, Pires, Feillu, Klemme, Voigt, Wegmann, Cancellara, Wagner, Gerdemann, Stamsnijder, Posthuma, Zaugg, Lund, Fuglsang, Mortensen, Pedersen, Bennati, Viganò, Nizzolo, Rohregger, Monfort.

Changing team (1): As known, Stuart O'Grady has recently signed a contract with GreenEdge.

Riders whose contract is expiring (4): Right after everyone got to know about the merger, Becca said that the riders who had a 1 year contract with him would have been 'let free' (translation from Beccansense: 'be fired') at the end of the 2011 season. According to this statement, the guys who will surely be forced to change team at the end of the season will be Feillu, Pires, Pedersen and Rohregger.

Riders who are not changing team (16 + 1): The cyclists who are sure they'll be racing for Bruyneel in 2012 are los Schlecks, Cancellara, Voigt, Fuglsang and the new entry Laurent Didier.

Apart from these names, nothing is clear about the future of the other LT riders. In fact Radioshack will offer 11 new riders to Mr. Becca's new project, whereas 5 LT riders are 100% sure they'll be racing for Bruyneel next year. As well as these 5 lucky guys (plus Didier), also other 11 LT riders will keep on racing together with the most famous brothers of the peloton. However, now the question is: what are the names of these lucky cyclists? Unfortunately, no one can answer that question yet. Rumours say that Gerdemann and Wegmann were both offered a contract by Katiusha, but they refused the offer. As far as the other riders are concerned, nothing is known.

Riders 'lost in the merger': At the end of the day, the riders who will surely have to find a new team are Feillu, Rohregger, Pedersen and Pires plus other three athletes whose names are still unknown.

So, this is what we can say so far about the Radio Schleck affaire. This post is likely to be updated day after day in the next few weeks, so keep an eye on it.

Talking about the next few weeks: although the weather doesn't show it, autumn has already begun. In 2 weeks time the cycling season is over and, after the pics from Curaçao will be posted throughout the Blogosphere, every single cycling blogger will have to find ideas in order to keep themselves and their readers busy during the off-season. In the meanwhile, Cougar Girl has already had a wonderful idea: take a look at her new post at  http://eisenandy.blogspot.com/2011/10/andy-and-frankie-just-another-day-in.html and you won't be able to stop laughing out loud!

As far as me is concerned, I already have some winter-related ideas, which include a 'Pronounciation post!', perhaps featuring some Russian names - you can't imagine my surprise when I discovered the correct pronounciation of the surname 'Petrov'!!

Anyway, it's still a long way before the end of the cycling season, and I'm sure that interesting news will keep us busy until then. However, in the next 2 weeks don't bother wondering whether the Schleck brothers will take part in the Tour of Lombardy or in other races like that: in fact Andy and Frank have already ended their season which, according to themselves, was another great success. 'Two brothers on the TdF podium, we entered history!!' Two riders wasting so much talent, you've entered history! Ok, apologies for the bitchy moment.

Still talking about 'entering history': the new Giro d'Italia was said to be 'more human' than in the previous editions, but the new race director, Michele Acquarone, said that the penultimate stage will feature the Mortirolo and the Stelvio. Of course, said news was welcomed by a loud 'WTF?!?' from all over the world (and from mr. Jakob Fuglsang in particular :P). Of course, I agree with everyone who thinks that this penultimate stage is way too extreme. People want cycling races, not carnages!!

After writing a completely useless post which may include some big maths mistakes, miss Fede now salutes you and wishes you a good evening: it's time to study a few new Russian words and to get ready for the new academical year, which begins tomorrow. Hasta pronto!

Unstoppable Cavendish takes the rainbow jersey!!

First of all, let's say that I'm not in a very good mood right now. I couldn't see the Worlds 'live' (I've just finished watching the recordings), I didn't sleep enough last night and I must learn how to write every letter of the Cyrillic aphabet in corsive characters before tomorrow. Therefore, I hope you will forgive me for the bitchy moments that I'll have while writing this post.

So, the Copenhagen Worlds 2011 - also known as the only Tour de France flat stage that was raced at the wrong time of the year (today, 25th September 2011) and in the wrong part of Europe. Seriously,in my opinion the only difference between the Copenhagen Worlds and the boring flat stages of the Touris the fact that the winner of a TdF flat stage usually receives a yellow jersey, whereas the cyclist who won today's special stage received a special rainbow jersey.

To prove you that I'm not joking when I say that today's Worlds race was just like a TdF stage, I'll give you 3 proves:

First: HTC ruled the race, just like it usually does at the Tour.

Second: the last 2 kms of race featured 8 traffic islands, one roundabout and a curve with 800 meters to go - just like at the Tour.

Three: Thomas Voeckler attacked.

Anyway, back to 'seriousness'. During the whole race (which lasted 5 hours and 40 minutes) I counted three thrilling moments: the final sprint, the crash that destroyed Hushovd's hopes of winning another edition of the Worlds and the moment when they showed Bjarne Riis next to his super-hot son. Yes, these were the three top moments of the race. Every single breakaway in fact looked hopeless even before it was created, especially because the whole British team worked extremely hard in order to chase every man that managed to break clear from the peloton. The funny thing is that, since Great Britain didn't look strong enough, with 18 kms to go someone (the Irish rider Brammeier) decided to help Wiggo & Co. in their attempt of chasing the brave riders (Voeckler, Lodewyck, N. Sorensen and Hoogerland) who had just managed to create the last, desperate breakaway. Of course, the British/Irish poursuivants succeeded without problems.

The last 5 kms of race were the only exciting things of the day. Great Britain looked perfect, Australia was struggling to find a place in the sun for Goss, Italy and Spain were desperately trying to create a leadout train. Sagan was in the first part of the peloton, Boasson Hagen was invisible, the cameras still hadn't caught a glimpse of Farrar's face.

And in the end, after about 5'39" hours of race, the final sprint began: Cavendish ruled it, Goss arrived second, an amazing Greipel was third. Fourth was a super surprising Cancellara (well done to Barbara who yesterday evening included both him and Cav in his 'top favourites' list!!), 5th was Roelandts, 6th was Romain Feillu. The underestimated Bozic was 7th and he crossed the finish-line right before Boasson Hagen, Freire and Farrar. Sagan was 12th, Bennati was 14th. Frank Schleck didn't finish the race whereas his brother Andy didn't bother taking part in it because of some strange connections between his wisdom teeth problems and a possible heart muscle infection (his words, not mine!).

Anyway. The 2011 Worlds have come and gone and they'll always be remembered as the race with the easiest parcours of the last 10 years. Cipollini, who won the rainbow jersey in Zolder in 2002, said that this year the parcours was even easier than on that occasion. As an Italian chronist said, 'this year the roads of the Worlds Championship didn't choose the World Champion of cycling, they chose the World Champion of sprinters'. Of course we all know that Cavendish is a champion (he won Sanremo in 2009 and everyone knows that La Primavera isn't an easy race at all), but this parcours was simply too easy to be fun/good: not a hill, not a climb, not a slope. Nothing. I personally compared it to a TdF stage, but with a difference (as well as the 'colour of the jersey' one): in the TdF you need also a lot of luck to win a flat stage and, even if you fail winning the first bunch sprint of the race, you can give it another try about 24 hours later. This afternoon, instead, it was a matter of 'do or die': those who weren't lucky enough or who had problems with their leadout trains will never get a second chance.

Talking about 'having problems with your leadout train': Italy made a mess in the last kms of race, but I think everyone expected that. Bennati is a good rider, but not a champion, whereas Modolo and Viviani are still too young to win a World Championship. Criticising the boys is useless, because Bettini created the best possible team for this Worlds. And if you're disappointed because the Azzurri didn't win any medal, then go ask the Italian Cycling Federayion why they didn't allow us to bring Petacchi to Copenhagen.

So, the 2011 Worlds week is over. Now some riders will go on holiday, whereas some will keep on fighting until Tour of Lombardy. In the meanwhile, cycling market and polemics will surely keep us busy: Cancellara and Fuglsang in fact have recently announced that they've signed a contract with team RaNT (chorus of 'Nooooooo!!' coming from the fangirls of the whole world), whereas Teutenberg, Bronzini and Vos reacted openly to Pat McQuaid's words about the creation of a 'minimum wage rule' for women riders. The UCI president in fact has stated that the women's movement 'hasn't developed enough' to deserve a rule like that. Of course, these words are going to create a very hot debate in the next days.

PS: LeopardTrek's information system gave us another special moment this afternoon. In fact, right after the race, on their Facebook page they published an article called 'Cancellara takes the bronze medal also in the Road Race!' Amazing, isn't it?

Giorgia Bronzini does it again!!!! (post including random predictions for tomorrow):

6th July 2011:

The 5th stage of Giro Donne ends in Piacenza and Giorgia Bronzini (who wears the World Champion jersey and was born in that town) would love to win. In the finale she  does everything she can to get the victory, but an amazing Marianne Vos (who is wearing the Maglia Rosa) outsprints her right before the finish-line.

'I'll be honest: yes, I wanted to win this stage', the 27 year-old Italian said right after the finish-line. 'Piacenza is my hometown and winning a stage in front of my people, with this jersey on, would have been amazing. Still, right now Vos is the strongest rider of the field. Being outsprinted by a great champion like her is a honour'.

As if the defeat hadn't been enough hard to take, Giorgia's day got even worse when she was told about the death of Carly Hibberd, an Australian rider who was run over by a truck on the morning of that sunny summer day. A true hellish day for Giorgia, who didn't manage to get any victory during the Giro Donne and who has recently stated that the rainbow jersey so far has been a heavy burden for her, especially because since last October she's become one of the most 'marked' riders of the female peloton.

24th September 2011:

Almost three months after that sunny and sad Italian day, Giorgia Bronzini started the women road race in Copenhagen with a very good team surrounding her. The day before the race she had told Gazzetta that, in her opinion, Vos and Teutenberg were the main contenders for the rainbow jersey, 'but', she added, 'there are also other 4-5 girls who can do well in a bunch sprint and Monia Baccaille and I are amongst them'.

The day on the saddle flew away slowly and quickly at the same time. One hour of race and await, two hours of race and await, three hours of race and await, and all of a sudden you find yourself with 10 kms to go and you realise that the race is ending. A Canadian, Clara Hughes, is showing a lot of power and braveness by attacking on her own. The Dutch girls are already preparing their leadout train for Marianne Vos, who also this year has a lot of pressure on her shoulders. The 24 year-old in fact had won a lot of races this season and, on paper,  the Copenhagen parcours has always seemed perfect for her. Marianne this afternoon was as determined as never before because, in a certain way, the Worlds are a 'cursed' race for her. She won them in 2006 (her first year amongst the pros), but then she got the silver medal every year for the following 4 editions of the race. This afternoon she had the chance of ending this curse, and she wanted to grab it. She was ready.

Also Ina Yoko Teutenberg was determined to get a victory. The German rider in fact is already 37 and this morning she absolutely wanted to give her country another gold medal to be proud of. That's why Germany was working hard in the finale of the race, that's why everyone paid attention to the white jerseys at the front of the group.

With less than 6 kms to go, Clara Hughes was caught and an Italian, D'Ettorre, tried to create problems to the Dutch and to the German girls. A few meters later, a crash involved three Italian riders and that looked like the end of the rainbow ambitions of the Squadra Azzurra. Still, two girls were still up and running: Giorgia Bronzini and Monia Baccaille.

The Dutch women prepared a perfect sprint for Marianne Vos, but Monia Baccaille painted a true masterpiece in the last meters of race. In fact, she found a little hole between an athlete and the barriers and she went there without any fear. Bronzini followed her and she found herself at the head of the race. She was so cold-minded that she even managed to wait for the perfect moment to start her sprint and the perfect timing (just like Baccaille's perfect leadout) eventually paid off: Giorgia raised her arms happily, while Vos, second for the 5th time in a row, broke into tears. Third was Teutenberg, the rest didn't count.

Right after the finish-line the Italians started jumping and screaming. Their joy was impressive if compared to the sad looks on the faces of the Dutch girls. These are the names of the golden girls of Italian cycling: Scandolara, Guderzo, Cecchini (this girl was born in 1992!), Cantele, Bronzini, D'Ettorre (who comes from l'Aquila), Baccaille and Longo Borghini.

Right after the finish-line Bronzini was enthusiastic and she said that this victory is even better than the one she got last year. 'In Geelong Marianne Vos had made a big mistake in the final sprint, whereas this time she was perfect, just like Teutenberg. But still, I was faster than them'. The girls also had the chance of singing the national anthem for the Italian tv and they were extremely happy for their teammate's success. 4th victory in the last 5 Worlds for the Italians, 5th silver medals in the last 5 Worlds for Vos. Happiness on one hand, disappointment on the other one. That's life, that's sport, that's cycling. And that's an amazing edition of the Worlds. Bravissime ragazze!!!!

ELITE MEN ROAD RACE:

After talking about the Women Road Race, let's talk briefly about tomorrow's race. Unfortunately I may not be able to see it because I must go to my cousin's baptism. When I discovered about that, I started rabbiting on about people who plan important events on the day of the Worlds and at first my dad agreed with me. Then, however, he changed his mind. 'You don't remember the day when you were baptised, do you?', 'No, I don't', I obviously answered. 'Well, perhaps you should know that you were baptised on the day when Bugno won his second World title. Mum and her relatives were eating, you were sleeping, my four brothers, my father and I were in front of the restaurant's tv watching the race. And your uncles were screaming like mad'. How nice, isn't it? The day of my baptism, and everyone was celebrating Bugno. But still, I could take it as a divine sign, couldn't I? ;)

Anyway. Tomorrow's Worlds race will be 'attackers against sprinters'. The attackers will be the riders from Switzerland, Denmark,  Holland, Kazakhstan, Ireland, Luxembourg, Austria, Lithuania, Poland, Czech Republic, Canada, Croatia, Ukraine, Portugal, France (Feillu isn't in a good form yet), Colombia, Venezuela and Sweden. With respect talking, those who may actually try creating a dangerous breakaway are the Swiss, the Swedish, the Canadian, the Dutch, the Irish, the French and the Danish teams. Belgium, Belarus and Italy have some fast-but-not-too-fast riders (Van Avermaet, Hutarovich, Visconti, Oss, Viviani, Gilbert), so they'll probably attack too.

Unfortunately the attackers's chances aren't many. In fact the sprinters teams will be much more (and, if I can say it, much better) than the attacker's teams. Just read this list: Argentina (the Haedo brothers plus Richeze), Slovakia (Sagan), New Zealand (Henderson and Dean), Japan (Arahiro and Beppu), Russia (Galimzyanov), Slovenia (Bole and Bozic), USA (Farrar), Germany (Degenkolb, Greipel, Kittel), Great Britain (Cavendish), Australia (Cooke, Gerrans, Goss, Haussler), Spain (Hushovd, Boasson Hagen) and Spain (Freire, Rojs, Lastras). As you can see, all the strongest teams have at least one good sprinter. I think it will be difficult to create a winning breakaway, although many will try doing it: Hoogerland, Gilbert, Chavanel, Cancellara, Voeckler surely will try creating problems to the sprinters and, if they all go on a breakaway together, an Italian could join them too, thus making the action even more interesting. Unfortunately, tomorrow the important breakawayers will be chased by guys like Martin, Grabsch, Wiggins, Rogers, Martin / Peter Velits, Phinney and Talansky. Nice, isn't it? Therefore, miss Fede believes that tomorrow the race will end up in a bunch sprint. And, in particular, she thinks that tomorrow's finale may have the following podium: Boasson Hagen, Freire, Sagan. Still, she has to admit that also Farrar (who is veeery underestimated in these days), Goss, Bozic and Galimzyanov will be up there tomorrow.

As you can see, there isn't any Italian in my 'favourites list'  in case of bunch sprint. After all, everyone knows that we Italians are scaramantic people.... ;)

So, my top 3 for tomorrow is: Boasson Hagen, Freire, Sagan. What about you? ;)

Some thoughts about the Copenhagen Worlds and the start list for tomorrow's main race:

First road races at the Copenhagen Worlds and first medals for the French and the British riders. The junior road race was won by Lucy Garner, who outsprinted Belgium Druyts and Denmark Siggaard in a very powerful way. Best Italian rider was Beatrice Bartelloni, 8th, whereas Rossella Ratto was 11th.

The young Bergamask rider, who is one of the most talented athletes out there (no, I'm not saying that just because she goes to my former high school and knows some of my former teachers, absolutely not!), tried to break away from the group in the last part of the race, but was caught with 600 meters to go.

As far as the U23 road race is concerned, Arnaud Demare was the main favourite for the victory. That boy isn't just good-looking, he's also extremely fast: this year, for example, he managed to get a victory in the pro category by outsprinting Hutarovich. Not bad, is it?

Amongst the main contenders for the victory there were also Australia Michael Hepburn (who, however, this afternoon never looked as good as he did in the TT) and Italians Sonny Colbrelli and Filippo Fortin. This afternoon Italy did its best to make the race exciting, but unfortunately the Copenhagen parcours doesn't love attackers. In fact, it doesn't have any climb and nor does it have any little slope, so that it is impossible to create big gaps between attackers and chasers.

In spite of Italy's efforts, the U23 World champion was eventually decided by a bunch sprint. Filippo Fortin was in a great position with 500 meters to go, but then he made a timing mistake and he got just a 6th place (he was extremely disappointed after the finish-line). The victory went to Demare (who burst into tears on the podium, how cute!) and the silver medal went to another Frenchman, Adrien Petit. The French leadout train was simply perfect, also thanks to the fact that Petit is a pro rider, therefore he is used to the confusion typical of massive sprints. The bronze medal eventually went to a British rider, Andy Fenn. The British leadout train was very good as well, whereas the Aussies (who raced very well until the final km of race) had some problems in the last few hundreds of meters.

After the finish-line, Demare looked simply overjoyed, with all his team surrounding him. Italians, on the other hand, were extremely disappointed. Of course the fact that our athletes still haven't won any medal is creating a bad atmosphere amongst Italian supporters and journalists and this caused some people to start criticising the Danish parcours and the UCI rules regarding the U23 World Championships. Petit in fact is already a pro, just like some other riders who took part in this afternoon competition (Betancourt and Brandle, for example). The Italian Cycling Federation has never liked the rule that allows young pros to compete against their less mature colleagues, so that the Italian team for the U23 Worlds has always been formed just by 'true' U23 riders. A very noble choice, some might say. Still, right after the race a jounalist pointed out that, if Italy hadn't taken that ethical decision a long time ago, 4 of the the Azzurri racing in Copenhagen this afternoon could have been Andrea Guardini (10 victories this year, he outsprinted both Cavendish and Boonen in one stage at Tour of Oman), Elia Favilli (3rd both in GP Costa degli Etruschi and in one stage at Tour of Turkey), Matteo Pelucchi (who this year has won la Clasica de Almeria) and Fabio Felline (who is 20 and who has won a Brixia Tour stage this season). This of course really makes me wonder how the race would have unfolded if Italy hadn't been so 'noble' and had taken some pros to Copenhagen too.

As far as the critics to the parcours are concerned, instead, many Italian people think that it is too easy (a journalist even described it as 'insignificant') and too dangerous. Unfortunately, I must admit I agree with these critics. Of course no one is criticising the Danish organisation of the race or things like that, but in Italy this kind of parcours isn't actually really loved (yes, I know, we're not impartial critics at all). However, to me the Copenhagen parcours reminds me of the Tour de France stages for sprinters - you know those long, boring, sunny stages when nothing happens but the crashes, don't you? Actually, to say it even better, that parcours  would remind me a TdF stage for sprinters if only the TdF was raced in Holland. The Danish Worlds in fact have a very simple parcours, but the roads are often narrow and, most important, they are full of dangers. An Italian journalist counted 8 traffic islands along the parcours, I counted also a roundabout. Still talking about Italians, the national coach Bettini underlined the fact that the Danish barriers are very old-fashioned and dangerous, since their bases risk to make the riders crash if they ride too close to them.

A few months ago, while talking about this year Worlds, 'The Cricket' said that the Danish parcours is like a Northern Classic and that therefore the wind and the rain may have a very important role during the race. However, the weather forecasts say that the sun will shine on the Danish capital on Sunday, so that the weather won't help the Azzurri in making the race more exciting. Actually, I must mention that Bettini has recently stated that this year the Azzurri won't try to make the race exciting, but that they will just wait and see how things unfold. I don't really believe this fact, especially because unfortunately we don't have the fastest sprinter of the bunch, so on Sunday we'll be obliged to make the race become as difficult as possible. Moreover, an edition of the Worlds without la Squadra trying to take the race into its hand wouldn't be a true edition of the Worlds :P

Still talking about Sunday, Bettini also said that the race may actually be decided by crashes. These words sound really evil, but I'm afraid Paolo is right in saying that. In fact, amongst the athletes on Sunday there will be many unexperienced riders, who might have problems with all the curves and the traffic islands featured on the daily route. Moreover, the pressure and the nervousness will be almost unbearable, given that there are many teams who think they can win the race and that they will all try to be at the front of the peloton.

However. So far I've talked just about what will happen on Sunday. But still, we must remember that tomorrow there is also the women road race and that it will be a very exciting one. Will Giorgia Broizini manage to defend her rainbow jersey on a parcours that seems to suit her? Will Teutenberg show tht she's the fastest woman on Earth? And will Vos finally manage to win the rainbow jersey? Or will she get her sixth silver medal in a row? While waiting to know the answers to these questions, here you can find the start list of the road race. Enjoy!

WOMEN ROAD RACE:

Italy: Bronzini, Baccaille, Cantele, Cecchini, Guderzo, Longo Borghini, Scandolara, Tagliaferro. A good, solid team ready to defend Bronzini's rainbow jersey. Italians have won this race for three times in the last 4 years and the 2009 world champion, Tatiana Guderzo, will race also tomorrow (although the parcours doesn't actually suit her, she's a very good all-rounder). Longo Borghini and Scandolara are young, Cantele is experienced, Baccaille is fast: a very good team, let's hope they'll get a good result tomorrow!

Netherlands: Blaak, Brand, Bras, Gunnewijk, Van Vleuten, Vos, Wild. Vos is the eternal Worlds-favourite and she's never missed a podium spot in this race. Marianne is fast and experienced, Wild is another fast rider, Van Vleuten and Blaak are very solid athletes. Great team!

Germany: Arndt, Becker, Brennauer, Duester, Haeusler, Teutenberg, Worrack. The German team is very good as well and it has one of the main favourites for the race: Ina Yoko Teutenberg, who last year won every single flat stage at the Giro. Arndt and Hausler are very good Grand Tour riders, but tomorrow they'll work for Ina.

Sweden: Fahlin, Johansson, Lindberg, Mustonen, Olsson, Soederberg, Thomasson. A good team for Sweden, who will probably have Emma Johansson as a captain.

Great Britain: Armitstead, Colclough, Cooke, Laws, Martin, Pooley, Willianson. Another very good team, this one. Lizzy Armitstead is very fast (she is also a great pistard), Nicole Cooke is the Olympic champion, Pooley is an amazing climber who can work well for her team.

Russia: Bubnenkova, Burchenkova, Kozonchuk, Martisova, Zabelinskaya. A good team, but the Russian riders probably aren't as fast as some other ones.

USA: Cliff Ryan, Farina, Miller, Neven, Olds, Stevens. Olds, Steven and Neben are all pretty fast. The Americans can be dangerous, look out!

Belgium: De Vocht, Arys, De Vuyst, Henrion, Polspoel, Verbeke. Verbeke is an excellent Northern Classic rider and De Vocht is pretty fast.

Australia: Gillow, Gilmore, Hosking, Maclean, Ryan, Spratt, Whitelaw. Gillow, Gilmore, Hosking, Whitelaw: Australia doesn't lack of sprinters!

Canada: Hughes, Kirchmann, Numainville, Ramsden, Shaw, Whitten, Willock. Will the Canadians get a medal after their TT disappointment (they were 4th - for two seconds!! -, 5th and 7th)?

France: Biannic, Cordon, De Saint, Ferrier-Bruneau, Krasniak, Lesueur. For the first time since 1921, Jeannie Longo isn't part of the French team. Amazing, isn't it?

Lithuania: Cilvinaite, Janeliunaite, Juodvallkyte, Leleivyte, Sosenko, Sosna.

Luxembourg: Hoffman, Lamborelle, Schauss.

New Zealand: Villumsen.

Ukraine: Pavlukhina, Riabchenko, Vysotska.

Switzerland: Aubry, Hohl, Schwager, Schnider.

Poland: Jasinska, Brzezna, Kapusta,

Norway: Moberg, Nostvold, Thorsen.

Denmark: Jensen, Leth, Rasmussen.

Spain: Mazaga, Morales, Chafer.

Copenhagen Worlds, Time Trials: The Aussie and the Germans take it all

1921: a Swedish rider, Gunnar Skoeld, wins the first edition of the cycling world championships for amateurs.
1927: the first professional cycling world championships take place in Germany and they're won by an Italian, Alfredo Binda.
1931: Copenhagen hosts the cycling world championships for the first time. This year the road race actually consists in a 172 kms long individual time trial. The winner is Learco Guerra, also known as 'Human Locomotive'.
1958: female riders can take part in the Worlds for the first time. The first woman to be named 'World Champion' is a Luxembourgian, Elsy Jacobs.
1994: for the first time, the world championships host two races for each category of riders: the time trial and the road race.

The world championships have been one of the most important races of the cycling calendar for a very long time now. Every year they take place in a different city and every year they manage to thrill everyone: the few selected riders who get to represent their country in such an important competition, the national coaches who cross their fingers while hoping that one of their riders will cross the finish-line in first, the journalists who (once in a while) can afford themselves to support their compatriots openly, the supporters who follow the race (from their houses or from behind the barriers) in a very patriotic way. This is the magic of the Worlds, this is the reason why this race is so important.
In these days the whole world of cycling is focused on Copenhagen, the Danish city that is hosting the Worlds for the 5th time in their history. Copenhagen was actually the cradle of this competition, since the first edition of the race saw the light in the Danish city almost 100 years ago. Since then, many things have changed: the riders aren't amateur anymore, the bikes are much better than the ones of he 1920s and the race has become much more important.
The 2011 Copenhagen Worlds took off with the time trials. Those who had the honour of 'breaking the ice' were the young girls of the Junior category. Amongst these girls there was the European champion Rossella Ratto, from which Italy expected a good performance. The parcours was 13.9 kms long and it was completely flat and the fastest girl to complete it was Jessica Allen, who ended her successful ride towards the gold medal 19 minutes after starting the time trial. Allen is Australian (she comes from Perth) and she was the last rider in the time trial's start list. The third-to-last girl down the start ramp was Elinor Barker, British, who lost the gold medal (or, better, won the silver medal) for just two seconds. Third, with three seconds of delay from Allen, was a German, Mieke Kroeger. A very exciting race for the viewers, especially if we consider that the first and the third rider were eventually divided by just 3 seconds. However, it must be said that Jessica, Elinor and Mieke were clearly the strongest ones on Monday: The Dutch Thalita De Jong, for example, ended her race 15" down on Allen, whereas Ratto (5th) needed 31" more tha the Australian to finish her race.

On Monday afternoon, the actors on the Worlds stage were the U23 male riders. The race was exciting and Michael Hepburn's time was the best one for a lot of time. The Australian is a very talented rider, who was second in this year GP Liberazione and who is also an excellent pistard. Unfortunately, the 20 year-old wasn't careful enough in one of the last curves of the parcours, so that he crashed and he even had to change his bike. That caused him a time loss of about 35" - 40" which, however, didn't prevent him from getting a wonderful bronze medal as a reward for his efforts.
As the last riders started their races, Hepburn started to fear that his time wasn't good enough to get a victory. In particular, Rasmus Christian Quaade, a very strong Dane, looked determined to win the race in front of his people. Eventually, he managed to set the best time for just 10" and he lived the last moments of the time trial on the 'winner's chair'. Unfortunately for him, Rasmus was forced to leave that seat soon: Luke Durbridge in fact rode the time trial of his life and he won the race easily (he needed 36" less than Quaade to end his time trial). 'Durbo the Turbo' was born in Perth in 1991 and is one of the youngest riders that ever won the U23 time trial race at the Worlds. The first day of race at Copenhagen, therefore, ended with the Aussies getting two gold medals and a bronze one and with the Danes getting a good silver medal. Australia is great at finding new talents and the Australian way of creating little champions is great: first the young guns must race on track, then they can take up a career on the road. There is no doubt: the Australian way of time trialing really rocks.  Actually, over the last two days everyone had to admit that the German way of time trialing isn't that bad either - but let's go in order.

The second day of the Worlds took off with the Junior time trial for male riders. The winner was the surprising Dane Mads Wurtz Schmidt, who set the fastest time at all intermediate sprints. Mads, 17, was a debutant in the Worlds and he rode 4" faster than James Oram from New Zealand. An Australian, David Edwards, was third, thus showing everyone that the Aussies have a wonderful training ground.
In the afternoon, the task of thrilling the viewers was up to the female riders. Some of the favourites were Villumsen (who had been third in the race for two times), Arndt, Teutenberg, Hughes, Neben, Vos (of course...), Johansson and Cantele. Pooley, last year winner, was considered a favourite too, although the parcours actally didn't suit the small British athlete (she is 157 cms tall).
Clara Hughes, a 39 year-old rider from Canada, set a very good time halfway through the race, just like her compatriots Tara Whitten and Rhae Christie Shaw. Unfortunately, the Canadians weren't lucky at all: Whitten in fact ended the race in 4th (she missed the bronze medal for just 2"), Hughes was 5th and Shaw was 7th.
Noemi Cantele, one of the favourites, never found a good rhytm and even crashed on the slippery asphalt. Vos and Teutenberg never threatened Hughes' time and, in the end, the ones who could do better than the Canadian were three of the last riders to start: the former Dane (now she races for New Zealand) Linda Villumsen, the Engineer Emma Pooley and the great Judith Arndt. In the end, the German rider won the gold medal in front of Villumsen and Pooley, thus becoming one of the few riders to win both the Worlds road race and the Worlds time trial. Moreover, this athlete also won a world title in the individual pursuit back in 1997. A champion, isn't she?

As the second day of Worlds ended with Arndt's great performance, the Elite men were ready to face the flat parcours in the center of the Danish town. Italy expected a top 10 result by Malori, but Adriano couldn't find the rythm, whereas Pinotti got a good result, especially if we consider that he resumed racing in August after breaking his pelvis in May. After all, it is known that Italians give much more attention to creating climbers and Classic riders rather than time trialists... On the other hand, some countries (Australia, Germany, Denmark) focus also on training some good time trialists.
On the eve of the race, people talked a lot of the battle between Cancellara and Toni Martin: the Swiss hasn't won many races this year, whereas the German policeman has won many time trials. Some even thought that the Swiss rider wouldn't have taken part in the race in order to avoid being beaten by the German, but that eventually didn't happen: Fabian is a champion, not a coward.
One of the fastest riders halfway through the race was Dyachenko, who looked slightly uncomfortable on 'the winner's chair'. However, as the last group of riders started the race, things soon changed. Larsson never managed to find a good rythm, whereas Grabsch was using a very hard gear, thus managing to get a very fast time. The Danish support for Jakob Fuglsang gave everyone googlebumps, just like the look on Toni Martin's nervous face at the start. Cancellara, however, looked even more nervous than the German: he knew he wasn't at his best, but he wanted to defend his title of world champion. However, it soon looked obvious that Martin was much faster than the Swiss. The HTC rider didn't take a lot of risks in the last part of the time trial and always used a very hard gear. Cancellara, on the other hand, took some risks, made a few mistakes on some curves and, most important, he never looked in a great shape. Even his position looked bad, since he kept on moving his spine.
In spite of that (and in spite of the fact that he almost went down after a curve), Cancellara managed to take the bronze medal anyway. Second was a relaxed Bradley Wiggins, whereas first was an unbeatable Toni Martin.

After three days of race, he verdict is clear: Germans and Australians have some very good time trialists: Germany is the present, Australia (and Denmark) are the future. New Zealand has a good training ground too, whereas Italians and Spaniard lack of young guns and of trainers. But still, that's a problem of mentality and I don't think this will change anytime soon.
Tomorrow the Worlds will allow us a day of break, then we'll have three days full of emotions thanks to the road races. Forza azzurri!!!!

PS: Miss Fede is very busy with her Russian course in these days, so she can't blog very often. However, she promises she'll answer the comments on her last post as soon as she can: stay tuned.
Moreover, miss Fede thanks  http://pahope.tumblr.com/ for publishing on her great tumblr one of miss Fede's Schleck-related sentences, which was apparently reblogged by many other tumblritas (full list to follow, sorry but it's late and I need to sleeeeep!!): thank you girls, being quotated by you was a honour (but seriously, I don't think my sentences are actually that good)!
Anyway. It's late and I need to sleeep. This Russian course is killing me. I have 5 hours of it everyday and other 2/3 hours of study when I get home - it's not easy to study all those things, especially because they are written in cyrillic in one way and they are pronounced the other way around. However, I think I'll survive ;)
Hasta la vista, dear readers, and spokoĭnoĭ nochi to everyone!! (no, it's not an insult, it means: 'have a quiet night!')
PS2: After seeing Cancellara's result, I think that a bald Danish man was probably laughing out loud while looking like a mad scientist - and no, I'm not talking about Nygaard :P

Random post about the Worlds, Team RaNT, Wegelius and mr. Schleck:

After a very busy week, miss Fede is finally back with a new post (*chorus of 'yay!s' coming from all over the world*). Unfortunately she couldn't write anything earlier because in the last few days she's been very busy. In fact, on Tuesday miss Fede officially became a university student by attending her first Russian lesson at uni (*chorus of 'it was high time!!' coming from Denmark, Holland and many other countries*).

Before talking about that experience, let me tell you one important thing about Italian university: here in Italy, the academic year begins in October (*imagines the scandalised look on her readers' faces as they read this*). 'Why have you already started going to uni then?', I hear you wonder. Well, easy: the people who have decided to take up an unknown language at the 'Foreign Languages and Literatures' faculty of my university have to attend an intensive language course during the month of September. Let's make an example: a friend of mine (who has studied Spanish, French and English at high school) has decided to take up Chinese. Therefore, this month she has to attend an intensive Chinese course. On the other hand, given that I decided to take up Russian, this month I have to attend an intensive Russian course. Nice, isn't it?

So far I've attended just two lessons, which were both very interesting but also slightly frightening. One of our professors in fact is extremely kind and funny, whereas the other one is much stricter and, sometimes, she can also be a bit annoying. For example, she put on a scandalised look when a girl asked her what the word 'шоколад' ('schokolad') meant. 'I thought it was obvious that it means 'chocolate!' I mean, it is the same word as in German!'  Of course the girl didn't know a word of German, so she was pretty angry when the professor answered her in that way. But still, I must admit that, in comparison to the behaviours of some of my high school teachers, that wasn't a very rude reply at all.

Anyway, back to my first days at uni. One of the things I'm proud of is that I managed to find my way to the uni without problems on the first day of lessons. The Languages faculty of Bergamo in fact owns three different buildings in the Upper City and that's where the lessons take place. On the one hand, this is very good because the buildings are all very old and fascinating (a friend of mine said that 'going to school in the Upper City is a bit like going to Hogwarts', and I agree) and because they are all in a very quiet area. On the other hand, getting lost in the medieval streets of the city is terribly easy. That's why I was so happy when I didn't get lost on the first day of lesson.

The second day was actually a bit different. I went to the place where the lessons were supposed to take place but, 5 minutes before the beginning of the lesson, I understood I was in the wrong place (in fact there was just another person in the classroom with me :P). I asked for info and I was told that the lesson had been moved to another building. Of course that made me panick, but luckily a kind classmate helped me to find my way to the other building and we managed to arrive there on time.

Yesterday, on the other hand, I did get lost. The funny thing is that I didn't lose my way in the Upper City, but in the university building itself. In fact yesterday I had to take my first uni exam. This exam is called 'evaluation test' and every rookie has to take two of these tests: the first one regards the knowledge of a foreign language, the other one aims to test the rookie's knowledge of the Italian language. If someone doesn't pass one or two of these tests, they can start attending the lessons anyway. But still, they have to take these tests once again in May. If they pass these exams in May, everything is ok. Otherwise, they can retake these tests in September. If they fail them also on this occasion, they fail the whole year and they have to attend the first-year lessons and pay all the first-year taxes all over again. Quite frightening, isn't it?

Anyway. I had my German evaluation test yesterday (I think I've passed it, but I'm not sure yet) and the funny thing is that, after I got out of the classroom (we were on the second floor), I had problems finding my way to the exit. Seriously, it took me 15 minutes to get out of that cursed building! What an embarassing experience.

This morning instead I had my Italian evaluation test. I'll receive the results on next Friday, so I'm pretty nervous right now. In fact, the test looked ok to me, but everyone else found it extremely complicated. Now, was I so lucky to get 'the lucky sheet', or did I find it easy because I made everything wrong? I mean, even people who are good at Italian told me that they found it really difficult!

However, I realise I've been digressing way too much. So, let's talk cycling now ;) 

First topic du jour, the Worlds: the most important one-day race of the year takes place next Sunday in Copenhagen and, of course, everyone right now is in a very patriotic mood. The parcours looks easy on paper, but the Italian coach Paolo 'The Cricket' Bettini has said that it is actually more difficult than it seems.

One of the main contenders for the final victory is Cavendish, who has recently won a stage in Tour of Britain. Hushovd, who was reported to have come down with a bad cold, has recently won a ToB stage too, whereas Gilbert has won both GP de Wallonie and GP Québec. Sagan, on the other hand, won three Vuelta stages, while Bennati showed that he's in a good form too. Amongst the main contenders for the rainbow jersey then there are also Goss, Farrar, Greipel, Modolo and Kittel, not to mention good old Freire and Boasson Hagen. Amongst the riders who won't take part in the Worlds instead there are Tom Boonen (who had a bad crash at la Vuelta) and Matti Breschel. The Copenhagen parcours would perfectly suit the Danish rider, but unfortunately he won't be able to take part in the race because of two broken fingers. Heal fast, Matti: we're all hoping bad luck soon stops following you!

Talking about the Danish team, it must be taid hat they're having a tough time in these days: first, in their Worlds leader broke two bones; then, they discovered that Alex Rasmussen has been fired by Garmin-Cervélo for missing three doping controls. As a consequence, Denmark has now become one of the few teams that will try to avoid a final bunch sprint. In fact, the Danish riders for the Worlds will be Michael Morkov, Chris Anker Sørensen, Nicki Sørensen, Jakob Fuglsang, Anders Lund and Lars Bak - they're all great riders, no doubts about that, but unfortunately none of them is as fast as Cavendish or Farrar. Therefore, I think the Danes will try to create a winning breakaway - or, at least, they'll try to avoid a massive bunch sprint.

As far as other teams are concerned, the Canadian riders will be Dominique Rollin, Svein Tuft (who will take part in the TT race as well) and David Veilleux. The Spaniards will have a good team formed by Oscar Freire (who has said he'll retire if he doesn't win in Copenhagen), Barredo, Garate, LL Sanchez, Erviti, Lastras, Rojas, Flecha and Reynes.

Talking about Spanish riders and retirements: Carlos Sastre has recently announced he'll retire. After the 2009 Giro Carlos has been struggling with getting good results and I think he's right in retiring now. After all, he will always be remembered as the man who won the 2008 TdF against the odds.

On to another team, the Swiss team will be formed by Cancellara, Albasini, Kohler and Rast. The Aussie team instead will be formed by Clarke, Cooke, Gerrans, Haussler, Goss, O'Grady, Hayman, Sutton and Rogers. A remarkable exclusion is Mark Renshaw's one, since the Aussie is a great leadout man and he's recently showed that he can win sprints as well.

As far as Germany is concerned, the national team will be formed by Burghardt, Ciolek, Degenkolb, Hondo, Kittel, Sieberg, Wegmann and Greipel. A great roster, isn't it?

Belgium will have Phil Gilbert, Roelandts, Kaisen, Lodewyck, Van Summeren, Van Avermaet, De Weert and Leukemans. A good team, which will hopefully give Italy a hand in making the race harder than expected.

Holland will have a good team too and will hopefully help Switzerland, Belgium, Denmark and Italy in their attempt of creating some problems to the fastest men of the peloton (Cav, I'm thinking of you). The Dutchies will be Gesink, Mollema, Boom, Hoogerland, Ligthart, Poels, Terpstra, Weening and Tjallingii.

Russia will bring Galimzyanov, Isaichev, Porsev, Ignatiev and Gusev to Copenhagen, whereas the French team will be formed by Voeckler, Chavanel, Dumoulin, Offredo, Kadri, Gallopin, Ravard, Roux and Romain Feillu.

Italy will have Bennati, Modolo, Belletti, Gatto, Visconti, Viviani, Gavazzi, Oss, Paolini and Tosatto: a great team,  in my (partial) point of view. Bennati and Modolo in fact can play their cards in case of a bunch sprint, whereas Viviani, Visconti, Gatto and Belletti are fast and solid riders, just like Gavazzi and Oss. Paolini is a fast man too and he and Tosatto will have to use their experience in order to decide the team's strategy during the race (in fact, the riders aren't allowed to use radios at the Worlds). Personally, I'm very happy with the Italian team, although I can understand Ponzi's disappointment in learning that he had been excluded from the roster. But still, I think Bettini preferred the experienced Gavazzi to the young Ponzi, who is one of the most talented Italian riders anyway.

On to other teams, the Americans will have Farrar, Bookwalter, Busche, Duggan, King, Louder, Phinney and Talansky; Great Britain instead will have a team formed by Cavendish, Cummings, Froome, Hunt, Millar, Stannard, Thomas and Wiggins.

As far as other teams are concerned, I'm going to write a start list including all the teams in the next days. Therefore, stay tuned - the Worlds fever is taking over ;)

After talking briefly about the Worlds, let's talk about a rider who is retiring at the end of this year - and that rider is Charles Wegelius, one of the most hilarious men who ever joined Twitter. The 33 year-old rider (who has always been a great helper) became a pro in 1999 and since then he's worked for many important riders,. But still, Charly has never got an individual victory. “One of the big regrets is that I never won a race. I was part of three team time trial winning teams but that is not like winning alone. I went very close this year at the Vuelta Asturias on a mountain finish but finished third after Constantino Zaballa passed me in the final kilometre", Charly has recently told Cyclingnews. Best wishes for your future, Charly!!

Let's now talk about another rider who is apparently doing everything he can to become one of the least loved riders in Cycledom. Unfortunately, I'm talking about Andy Schleck. As we (and poor Figgy in particular) know, our boy had a wisdom tooth removed on the 5th of September. That operation forced him to skip GP Québec and Tour of Wallonie - and now our boy has announced that he won't be able to take part in the Worlds either.  And all because of that wisdom tooth. I know that wisdom teeth are very annoying, but unfortunately the only feeling that people get from all this tooth-thing is that Andy is making up excuses because he wants to go on holiday as soon as possible. Or, at least, that's the feeling I get. I don't know if it's a problem of mine, but I have the feeling that Andy is self-destroying himself with some of his behaviours. Amongst the French journalist he's known as 'Andyfferent', amongst his colleagues his nickname is 'Torcicollis', some supporters think he's the worst guy of the peloton as far as creating race strategies is concerned. Moreover, the owner of his team thinks that he can't win a Tour unless he has a super ds telling him what to do. Personally, if I were him, I'd ask myself a few questions...

Anyway, end of the bitchy moment du post. On to another topic, let's talk a bit about Team RaNT. First news, Fuglsang has stated that he was disappointed by the way the merger was done. Second news, Didier is joining this new team. This of course means that another LT rider will soon find himself without a team. Now, we all know that O'Grady is going to GreenEdge (perfect timing, Stuey!), that Voigt has already signed a contract with Team Rant and that, apparently, those whose contract won't be renewed will be Pires, Feillu, Rohregger and Pedersen. Add Fuglsang (given his latest comments about the merger, I think he'll soon change team) and you have 5 riders from LT without a contract. Add Didier to Team RaNT, and another LT rider loses his contract. Now we just need to guess who. Luckily, news are expected to arrive within 24 hours. I'm looking forward to them!

Oh, and apropos: am I the only one who thinks that Rohregger terribly deserves having his contract renewed? :P

Vuelta, Padania and the Leopard Trek / Radioshack affaire:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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