Giro di Sardegna, Rohregger and more:

23rd February 2011, 20.05. An Italian family is watching a cycling race on tv.

'Hey dad, did you hear what has recently happened to Tondo (ndr; whose name means 'circle' in Italian)?', one of the daughters asks the father. 'No, I don't', answers the father. The daughter is going to tell him the news of Tondo's tip to the Spanish police, when her young sister suddenly begins to speak: 'I know what happened to Tondo! He became Square!!'.

After reading these first lines of this post, I think you've finally understood why my mental condition is so bad: simply, it is in the family genes. However, that was just one of the little dialogues that I had with my familiars a hour ago, while we were watching Giro of Sardegna' second stage (one of said dialogues also included my sister screaming: 'Where the hell have the breakaway riders gone?' while Cunego was crossing the finish-line; in fact, in that moment she hadn't realised yet that the breakaway riders had ended their lonely adventure about 6 kms before of the finish-line).

Anyway, the most important thing about this post's beginning is that not only miss Fede's sense of humour could be even worse than it is, but the real great news is that she's finally managed to watch a cycling race on tv at a decent time of the day (allelujah!). Before of tonight in fact I had managed to watch just the first stage of TDU and a stage of Tour of Oman but unfortunately, in order to do so, I had to stay awake until 11.30 pm- not a very clever idea, if the following day you have to get up at 6.25 in order to go to the bus stop, where you'll find that disturbing, logorroic boy who stares at you during your whole journey to school.

By the way. I'm digressing again.

Talking about Giro di Sardegna, yesterday stage was won by Peter Sagan. Today stage, instead, was won by Damiano Cunego, who exulted in a great way after the finish-line. In fact, not only did he raise his arms: he even went towards a tv camera, shouted 'Evvai!' and started to shake it.
I was very happy for Damiano, because during last year Tour de France some people (*cough* journalists *cough*) were really terrible with him. Moreover, journalists had tried to eat him alive after Mendrisio Worlds. So, considering all the critics and pressure that Cunego has had to carry on his shoulder since May 2004 (and that have become even bigger over the last years), I always feel incredibly happy when he wins. When he wins, in fact, I always feel as if it's a deserved victory. I like Damiano, I can't help it.

Second in today's stage (which was very hilly and whose 7 final kms were completely uphill) was Serpa 'Zorro' Perez, whose moustache are much more stylish than Pozzato's ones. If you don't believe me, look at the pic above (by Sirotti). Third in the stage was the little Sella, José's teammate, while 4th was Peter Sagan. Unfortunately for him, Peter couldn't keep the leader jersey, which is now on Cunego's shoulders.

Amongst the riders who did a very good job today there are Hermans (the Radioshack rider was 4th), Capecchi (5th), Scarponi (who did an outstanding job for Cunego), Kiserlovski and Stortoni (Colnago riders are really brave, they always attack as soon as they can). Ballan was 15th (he was second in yesterday stage) and hopefully this means that he's back at the level that he had when he won the Varese Worlds. 25th was 40 year-old Noé, while a special mention must go to the breakaway riders du jour: Mikhail Ignatiev (who kept his knees in a very strange way while riding uphill), David Boily, Alessandro De Marchi, Elia Favilli and Alessandro Malaguti. De Marchi was the best breakawayer (?) du jour, since he abandoned the peloton after just 8 kms (18 if you consider the 10 kms between the start village and the true start of the race) and he was caught with just 6 kms to go. Therefore, chapeau to Alessandro!

RANDOM NEWS:
Talking about breakaways, you'll be happy to know that Andy Schleck was part of a breakaway during today's Ruta del Sol stage, wich was eventually won by Freire. Good to see our boy riding at the front of a race! :D
Still talking about Andy, he now has a new teammate: Thomas Rohregger, born on the 23rd December 1982, former Milram (and Pegasus) rider, winner of 2009 Tour of Austria. A good climber and another German speaker for Leopard Trek. All together now: *Herzlich Willkommen, Thomas*!!

On to another news, Jens Voigt has recently said that the riders should do something 'big', like boycotting this year Worlds, to show their disapproval of UCI's radio ban. Aren't we exaggerating a bit? (http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/voigt-calls-for-worlds-boycott-over-radio-ban ).

Still facing the news du jour, I've just read on Cyclingnews that Amstel Gold Race organisers have given their race's wild cards to the following teams: Topsport Vlaanderen (yay!), Landbouwkrediet (double yay!), Skill Shimano (we want Kenny Van Hummel!) and Verandas Willems.

I also wanted to put the link to a little Cyclingnews article in which Romain Feillu said that, perhaps, Vacansoleil shouldn't have given Riccò a contract, but unfortunately I couldn't find it anywhere. Well, it seems like someone was brave enough to say these things publicly.

Anyway, it is pretty late right now, so here I close this post (which isn't actually that great, but that was written in a big hurry). Have a good evening and a good night sleep!
(pic by Sirotti)

Random Post about Martin Pedersen:

More than one week after my last post, here I am again, to everyone's joy (and mine in particular).
The last 7 days have been pretty tough for me. For example, I've recently shocked my English teacher by telling her that in her books Jane Austen complains about the conditions of women in the 19th century (the fact that they depended on men from the financial point of view and so on). Unfortunately, Teacher didn't agree with me and she spent half of the oral test repeating that my interpretation wasn't correct because 'Jane Austen wasn't a revolutionary, really. I mean... she wasn't a revolutionary. Did you understand? She wasn't a revolutionary!". She was so shocked about what I said that, during the examination (that lasted 40 minutes), she just asked me about Jane Austen and W. Blake. And who cares if I spent hours studying also Shelley, Coleridge, Wordsworth, the Victorian age, Dickens, Byron, the Industrial Revolution, the Corn Laws and the Bronte's sisters: The only important thing is that Jane Austen wasn't a revolutionary. Apparently, my interpretation of J. Austen's work was the biggest bullshit I've ever said in my scholastic career. But luckily, it didn't prevent me from getting a good mark in the tests :D
Anyway. Enough about me for today. Let's now talk about cycling.

Over the last days, Contador has been cleared of his doping accusation by the Spanish Cycling Federation. This matter has already been analysed by our dear Cougar Girl, so I think it's useless to write about it also here. Moreover, the name 'Alberto Contador' can cause me strong headaches and irrational anger in these days, so the less I pronounce it/write it/read it/ hear it, the better.
Still talking about news related doping, Riccò has been fired by Vacansoleil.

Another important news is that Spanish police has recently discovered an illegal commerce of doping thanks to Xavier Tondo. 'Oh gosh, was he found positive at the anti-doping too?', I hear you ask in a worried way. 'Oh no!', I answer you. In fact, Xavier received an email last December, which offered several doping products at special low prices. Tondo immediately passed it along to the police, who's now investigating this case carefully. Finally, a good news that shows us that not every cyclist is a doper.
On to a Schlecknews, it has been said that Frank Schleck may have to change his national jersey. http://www.velonation.com/News/ID/7432/Frank-Schlecks-Luxembourg-champions-jersey-may-have-to-be-redesigned.aspx talks about jersey changes of the recent years, mentioning Pozzato. As you may remember, Pozzato changed about 324567 different national kits when he was Italian national champion. And everything began because his first 'champion jersey' had the skyline of Moscow designed on the Italian Tricolore. And guys at the Italian Cycling Federation didn't like it, oh no. Hopefully Frank and LT designers won't have to change as many kits as Pozzato and will come up with a good solution to this problem.
As far as the races that are going on right now are concerned, Gesink has won two stages of the Tour of Oman in the last two days. Unfortunately, Leopard Trek guys haven't won anything yet.
Talking about Leopard Trek guys, here you can find a short introduction to Martin Pedersen, one of the least known guys on the team.

Martin P. (not to confuse with Martin M.) was born on the 15th April 1983 in Brondby, Denmark. As you can see, Martin's birthday is on the same day as Frank and Leea Schleck. He isn't the tallest guy of the peloton (170 cms) and he weights 62 kgs.
His first U23 team was Team PH, for which he raced in 2004, when he won the Danish National RR Championship for young riders for the third time (he had already won it in 2002 and 2003). Martin also has a past as a track rider, since he was Madison National Champion together with Michael Smith Larsen in 2003.
The following year Pedersen moved to team GLS and he won Liége-Bastogne-Liége for U23, Gran Premio San Giuseppe, a stage at Tour of Tuscany for U23, a stage at GP Veckan, a stage at Horsens, 2 stages at the Olympia's Tour and three stages at the Ringerike GP. Moreover, Martin was 16th in the Madrid RR Worlds for U23 riders.
In 2006 Pedersen became a pro rider and started to ride for Team CSC (oh my, is this enough to make him another 'bye bye Bjarne, hello Leopard' guy?). Frank and Andy were already racing for Riis at the time, so they probably got to know each other already 5 years ago. That year, Martin won the first stage and the GC of Tour of Britain. The following year instead he won the Mountains Classification at the Eneco Tour.
In 2008 Pedersen went back to Team GLS, for which he won Omloop van het Houtland, a stage of Circuit des Ardennes (see pic below) and a stage of Kreiz Breizh.
The following year Martin raced for team Capinordic together with Jonas Aaen Jorgensen, who's now a Saxo Bank rider. That year he won Rund um Koeln, Grand Prix Cristal Energie and GP de la Ville de Nogent-sur-Oise.
Last year instead Pedersen rode for Footon-Servetto (yes, he was one of the men with the ugly kits) and he won Aalborg-Aalborg, a Danish race. However, Martin took part in 2010 Giro d'Italia (he got retired after the 10th stage) and he also came 131st at Vuelta.

As soon as he joined Leopard Trek, Martin said: 'Although it is a super team, it's also a place where it will get very hard. It might not be there right now, but there will be a lot of pressure for us to deliver. I'm looking forward to that though'.
According to www.velonation.com , Martin is a fast finishing strong man who can do well both in one day races and in sprints. Talking about himself, Pedersen said: "I'm a rider that can work hard for the team, but I can also take the opportunity if it presents itself. It's probably going to be hard to get into the Tour de France squad, because in its current form, we could field two teams for the race and still be sharp. I could also ride the Vuelta, but I'll take it as it comes. My priority right now is to be fit to fight and be there for the team, then the the rest will follow". In another interview, he added: “I think my strengths rest in my ability to do well in many different terrains which will mean that I can be a service to the team in multiple situations.I also have a snappy sprint, so that I can take advantage of that when given the chance in breakaways, for instance".
During Leopard Trek presentation, Martin (who was presented with the young riders) was asked if he was superstitious: “No, I’m not that superstitious. I used to have a lucky charm, but it seems like it was better without it. Since then, I haven’t been that superstitious.I know it’s a dangerous sport sometimes ,but if you get too superstitious, maybe it’s a little bit bad for you.I try to stay calm and relaxed and just hope for the best".

Unfortunately, that's all I could find about Martin Pedersen. I didn't have a lot of time to look for information about him, so if you have more information and want to share, do it! And feel free to correct the mistakes that you may find in my post.
Now, to close this blog entry, here you have a picture of Martin (he was still racing for Capinordic at the time). The pic comes from http://www.cyclingstars.dk/ , where you have an impressive list of Danish cyclists. Amongst them there are 21 Pedersen, 19 Petersen and just 17 Sorensen :O

For more pictures/results of Martin, go on: http://www.cyclingstars.dk/Rider.aspx?id={d11c2b0a-6dfa-491a-9725-02f88617ac57}

Have a good weekend!

Random Post about Giacomo Nizzolo plus interview with Frank Schleck and Brice Feillu:

Surprisingly, miss Fede is already here, just 3 days after her last post, to write another entry on her blog. What a joy!
In this post I'm going to try talking about Giacomo Nizzolo, a neo pro of Team Leopard Trek.
Before of that, however, I'd like to congratulate Andrea Guardini for his Tour of Qatar victory. When he won all those stages at Tour of Malaysia, many people commented by saying 'Well, it's Tour of Malaysia, it isn't the Tour de France!'. Ok, Tour of Qatar isn't the Tour de France either, but the adversaries beaten by Andrea this afternoon were tough guys like Renshaw (GC winner), Haussler, Bennati (a good race for him), Boonen and so on. Therefore, chapeau to Andrea.
I must admit that I didn't follow the race live, I just saw the results on the Internet. However don't worry: March is finally approaching and in that month miss Fede will watch lots of cycling races live and will give you her boring opinions about them. I bet you're looking forward to that, aren't you? ;)
Before I start talking seriously about Giacomo Nizzolo, who was 5th in yesterday race at Mallorca Challenge (race that was won by Fischer), let me tell you a funny thing about this blog: the other day, someone came across it by typing 'Denis and Carlos naked' in Google. I'm shocked. Someone else instead has recently bumped into this webpage lost in the Blogosphere by looking for 'Stefan Denifl operation'. You're curious about that operation, eh? Well, I once read an interview in which Stefan mentioned it, but I'm not going to tell you where he needed to be operated...Mwhahahaha!

Anyway. Giacomo Nizzolo. Italian, born in Milan on the 30th January 1989, 184 cms of height for 72 kgs of weight.
This young rider is considered a good sprinter who can do well in long races. He got his first important results as a track rider. In 2007 in fact he was 2nd in the Italian National Championship of Keirin. In the very same year he was 3rd in the Team Pursuit at the Track World Championships for young riders. On that occasion Giacomo rode with Paolo Locatelli, Luca Pirini and the promising sprinter Elia Viviani. For your curiosity, the team who won the team pursuit at that edition of the Wolds was formed by Jack Bobridge, Leigh Howard, Glenn O'Shea and Travis Meyer.
The following year Nizzolo kept on racing on the track and he was 3rd in the Tre Giorni di Pordenone. He also won Trofeo Sc Marcallo, Memorial Crescenzo and a race in Magnago (race roads). As you can see, our boy got 3 good victories in his first year as a U23 rider and he did so in spite of a serious injury he got at the beginning of the 2008 season (I looked for more information about it, but I couldn't find any*).
In 2009 Giacomo got 9 victories (all together: 'Woooow!'). In fact that year he won Trofeo Papà Cervi, Gp dell'Industria, Coppa san Bernardino, Coppa Città di Melzo, Coppa Caduti Buscatesi, Circuito de Termen, Gp San Virgilio, Medaglia d'Oro Nino Ronco and Targa Libero Ferrario. Moreover, he was 4th in the Mediterranean Games, where he was beaten, amongst others, also by the above-mentioned Andrea Guardini.
The following year Giacomo got even better results. For example,he was 2nd in the Popolarissima di Treviso (beaten by Viviani), 9th in the GP Liberazione for U23 (one of the most important Italian races for young riders, which last year was won by the Slovenian rider Jan Tratnik), was 2nd in a stage of Giro Baby (beaten- again- by Guardini) and 5th in the European U23 Championship. Moreover, he won Coppa del Mobilio, Circuito San Donà di Piave, Coppa Quagliotti, Gp Ceda, Il Gandolfi, Circuito S.Urbano, Gp Fiera dell Possenta, Premio Rinascita, Trofeo Artigianato e Commercio Piombino Dese, Medaglia d'Oro Nino Ronco, Circuito dell'Assunta and Medaglia d'Oro Città Villanova (12 victories).
Last year Giacomo rode for Trevigiani Dynamon Bottoli together with Manuele Boaro, who became a pro with Saxo Bank this year. In 2009 instead he rode for Bottoli Nordelettrica Ramondi, while the previous year his team was Filmop Sorelle Ramonda Bottoli Parolin*.
Nizzolo took up cycling when he was 6, 'as a birthday gift'. Talking about his relationship with the track world, he says he's recently abandoned track racing, although he thinks that riding on a cycling track is very important for sprinters.
Talking about his hobbies, Nizzolo likes riding his motorbike, skiing, going out with friends and going dancing. Talking about his qualities, Giacomo says he's generous and honest. On the other hand, he's stubborn, he's often late and he 'sleeps too much'.
Speaking of his climbing abilities, Nizolo says he can resist on mid-difficult climb when he's in a good condition. His dream race is Milan-Sanremo and his model as far as cycling is concerned is Tom Boonen. He's got a girlfriend and, talking about Team Leopard, he said: 'The official language in the team is English, I'm getting better at it!'.

Talking about 2011, Giacomo says he's not going to take part in any Big Classic, but he's likely to race in a Grand Tour.

Speaking of his Leopard Trek captains, the Italian rider says that they've impressed him because of their confidence and because they seem to do everything in a very easy way. He likes the atmosphere of the team and he says that he's become a good friend of Bennati.
In the picture below, you can see Guardini and Nizzolo (the rider at your right) joking together before of a race. So, this was my little introduction to Giacomo Nizzolo. It's not very long, but I hope you enjoyed it anyway. Let's wish this boy a nice season!

Still talking about Leopard Trek riders, on http://www.lequotidien.lu/les-sports/20036.html there is a nice 'double' interview with Frank Schleck and Brice Feillu.
Here is a little translation of some parts of it.
Journalist: Do you remember your first conversation?
Brice Feillu: First conversation? Uhm...
Frank Schleck: I think it was after his victory at the Tour, in Arcalis. I went to congratulate him. Then we saw each other in Curaçao, where we both spent about 10 days of holidays.
J: (joking) And that was when Brice said: 'One day, I'd like to race with the Schlecks'. Right?
BF: Well, I've always thought that they're nice people, but now I've got to know them even better because we're part of the same team and I realise that they're really great guys. They're the ones who came up to me to talk. (Watching Frank) Frank, I'll pay you a beer later...
FS: Ok, thank you.
J: Do you have something in common?
BF: The weight. 67, 68 kgs.
FS: Oh no! I weight 64 kgs, you're a bit fatter than me and also a bit taller (ndr; they laugh).
(...) J: Brice, what does Frank represent for you?
BF: If someone asked me if I wanted to have the same career as Frank's, I would immediately sign a contract with that person. Frank's career isn't over yet, but I'd be happy to win as many races as he did in those last years. Frank is an example for many people. Frank, you realise this, don't you?
FS: No! But I'm proud to know that other riders take me as example. I'm proud of this. Brice was able of winning a Tour stage and now he says he'd like to have the same career, the same results as me. It makes me feel proud. And it makes me aware of the responsabilities I have in this team.
J: Frank, what do you think of Brice?
FS: He's a pure climber. When I had to think about this new team, I immediately thought about him. We know he'll help us in hard races and he's also got a very big potential. He's also in a very good team now, where he can develop his full potential (...).
(...)
J: Brice, when did you hear the names of the Schleck brothers for the first time?
BF: It must have been at a Liége-Bastogne-Liége. When they were amateurs, I used to take part in thriatlon competitions, so I didn't have a big bike culture...
FS: Attention to him, he's not bad at swimming. When we had a competition in Curaçao, he fucked me up. And I'm not that bad at swimming...
BF: It's true (he laughs). I love swimming, I think it is good for your body, especially during the winter. It was my first sport.
J: You can't remember when you first heard the names of the Schleck brothers.
BF: No, although I like cycling, I watch tv and read newspapers I can't remember exactly when I heard their names for the first time. Romain (ndr; Brice's brother, Vacansoleil's rider) and I couldn't avoid to pay attention to them, because they are brothers, just like us.
J: Do you remember Frank winning Amstel 2006?
BF: No, I know he's won it but I can't remember watching that race. I remember an open jersey. He once won an important race and he kept his jersey open. Was it at the Giro?
FS: No no, it was Alpe d'Huez, in 2006...
BF: It's funny, I remember about the open jersey...
FS: The open jersey, and you dare talking about that! When you won in Arcalis, your jersey was even more open than mine!
BF: Yes, that's true.
J: The sponsor complained about it...
BF: Yes, I was scolded. Well, on occasions like that, you're young and you don't always think about everything. It's true that, if I won an important race today, I would surely zip my jersey before of crossing the finish-line. But still, I didn't think about it that day. It is that kind of stupid things that young people do and that sponsors dislike.
J: Frank, when Brice won his Tour de France stage, Andy was fighting against Contador. Do you remember Brice's victory?
FS: After that stage, inside the bus, I watched the arrival of Brice. I's true that, however, we were more focused on Contador. Brice had got in a small breakaway and we didn't get worried about him. We focused on our race. On Contador, Evans and Armstrong. Brice got a brave victory.
(...)
Talking about racing for a non-French team, Feillu says: 'It widens your horizons. For example, I'm starting to understand English, although I don't speak it well. For me, it's a barrier to destroy.
FS: He doesn't always understand the orders from the radio. In Mallorca there were no radios, so everything was fine with him (laughs).
BF: Great thing, races without radios! Actually, cycling language isn't that complicated, but I have problems with more complicated discussions. It's a common problem for French riders. They ask me for advice, they have the same problem as me with the language. Racing for a non-French team allows you to discover a new universe, it isn't easy for everyone.
(...)

As you can see, I didn't translate the whole interview. I suggest you reading it in French because it's very nice. Moreover, I'm not sure about my translation: I did my best, but there may be some mistakes in it.
So, that's all for tonight, have a good weekend!

UPDATE*: 15 February 2011
A very kind reader, Bru, has told me that Nizzolo broke his right hand in a nasty crash at the beginning of the 2008 season. Moreover, in that crash the poor boy lost 3 front teeth and got a nasty wound on his face.
Moreover, Bru has told me that Trevigiani Dynamon Bottoli, Bottoli Nordelettrica Ramondi an Filmop Sorelle Ramonda Bottoli Parolin are all names for the same team.
Thank you very much for these information!!

Riccò's horrible news, latest races, radio bans and other random issues:

At 4.47 pm of the 8th of February 2010, aka today, miss Fede had just decided to write a new post on her blog. She was going to post a pic of Hippi and Hoppi (the new friends of Cougar Girl's Itsy and Bitsy, see pic at http://eisenandy.blogspot.com/ ), she was going to give her opinion about the latest protests against UCI's radio ban and, if she had had enough time, she would have liked to write the personal profile of Giacomo Nizzolo, Leopard Trek's rider.
At 4.49 pm, instead, miss Fede had already changed her mind, because she had just been shocked by the following 'Gazzetta dello Sport's article: http://www.gazzetta.it/Ciclismo/08-02-2011/ricco-nottata-tranquilla-8084685384.shtml . Protagonist of said article is Riccardo Riccò, the Vacansoleil's rider who was banned for doping in 2008. This year should have marked Riccò's return to the most important races of the world, since last year he couldn't take part in any Grand Tour and he didn't actually have the chance of taking part in any important ProTour race. But, as I was saying, this year Riccò was riding for a ProTour team and he already had the Giro d'Italia as his main goal.
I never liked Riccò, I'll be honest about it. I couldn't stand him in 2007, I couldn't stand him in 2008 (even before he resulted positive at the Tour) and I couldn't stand him last year, when he came back racing after helping cycling justice and getting a discount on his ban. Towards the end of last year, however, he started to cooperate with Aldo Sassi, 'a living biological passport', as Pastonesi called him in his necrology on Gazzetta dello Sport. I believed that that could make a difference in Riccò's life and I was ready to give him a bit of trust this year.

Trust is important in cycling because, if you lose trust in the riders, there's no point in following cycling races. So, although it wasn't easy, some weeks ago I had decided to give a bit of trust to Riccò.

Then, two days ago, Riccardo was rushed to hospital, officially because of a kidney ailment. There was an article about it on today's Gazzetta, which I found pretty strange. In it in fact there were the words of Riccardo's father, Rubino, who didn't seem to know a lot about the conditions of his son. He often said: 'I think...I believe... It seems...' . I don't know why, but I smelled a rat about that article. There was something wrong with it. And there was also something wrong in Riccò's problem. It didn't seem normal to me.

A few minutes ago, then, I went on Cyclingnews to read the latest news and there I could read that Italian police is ready to investigate Riccò for blood doping. 'What did I miss?', I asked myself. Somehow, the answer was already in my mind. I had thought about doping when I had read Gazzetta's article this morning, but then I sent that suspect away from my mind. 'Come on, the boy already has enough problems. Why do you always think of him as a doper?', I told myself.
And instead, according to Cyclingnews and Gazzetta, my suspect was completely right: in fact, Riccò apparently started to feel sick after practising blood doping. When he called the ambulance, in fact, Riccò told a doctor that he had done a blood transfusion and that he was worried about the poor conservation of the blood he had put back in his veins after having kept it in his home fridge for 25 days.
Personally, right now I'm waiting for someone to come and tell me that what I've just read on la Gazzetta's webite is a big joke. Come on, it can't be true. I had just started to trust Riccò, he had started to work his Aldo Sassi, 'a living biological passport'... And now, once again, I find myself disappointed by a doper. For the thousandth time in the last 5 years. It can't be true. Come on, it's impossible.
Right now, the evil part of me is in her 'I had told you that this would have happened!' mood. But still, this can't help me at all at the moment. Especially because, right now, I'm thinking about those who really trusted Riccò, who had always trusted him and who had always backed him, even while he was suspended.
And then, I'm thinking about Riccò's family. His fiancé, a cyclocross rider, was found positive at the anti-doping too last year, but the counter-analysis on her urine later resulted negative. If Riccardo has really practised doping again, her career is pretty much destroyed.

And then, we mustn't forget that Riccò has a 2 year-old child who will have to deal with such a heavy surname during his whole life. Riccò still had the chance to cancel his past, but he threw it away because of a stupid blood transfusion.
I'm disappointed, that's it. But perhaps, the best thing to do now is to shut up and think in silence about Riccò. Hopefully he'll be able to create himself a new life after this last news. Personally, I wish him to recover from his problem soon. And that's it.

RADIO PROTEST, SCHLECK'S NEWS:

On to another topic, let's now talk about radios and cycling. You all know that the results of the first stage of Mallorca Challenge were nullified because the riders protested against UCI's radio ban.

Personally, I completely agree with the athletes' protest. In fact, I think that radios are important for riders' security and I don't believe that races will become more exciting if radios are banned. I mean: according to UCI, nowadays riders are always controlled by their ds during races and therefore UCI guys think that modern cyclists lack of originality. Btw: If you take away the radios and the ds, don't you think that perhaps the riders' (supposed) lack of originality will become even worse? If someone isn't brave enough to attack if his ds doesn't tell him to attack, do you really think he'll attack as soon as he can if he finds himself without a radio? Personally, I think that that rider would become even more unsure and unoriginal, because he would probably be afraid of being scolded by his ds at the end of the stage. Or, at least, that's what I would do if I was an unoriginal rider forced to ride without radios.

On the other hand, I think that original riders can show their talent even if they race with radios. Therefore, I think there's no point in banning race radios (just my opinion, of course).

Talking about Mallorca Challenge, Frank Schleck apparently didn't take part in today's part of the race because he decided to take a day off. Andy instead didn't take part in the first race of the Challenge because he didn't feel fine. Things that happen, especially if you consider that half of Europe right now is suffering from flu or things like that.

Talking about the brothers, sweet daddy Frank has told Cyclismactu(http://www.cyclismactu.net/news-trofeo_cala_millor_les_schleck_debutent_leur_saison-12372.html ) that he has recently made a vow to his wife Martine and his daughter Leea. 'It regards cycling, of course. However, I can't tell you what it is about'. Isn't he incredibly sweet? :)

Still talking about the brothers: you all probably know that Jakob Fuglsang has just moved to the apartment under Andy's one. As predictable, I've already applied to work as a servant in that block of apartments. Anyone wants to join me?

TOUR OF QATAR:

Talking about Tour of Qatar, the prologue was won by Lars Boom. Cancellara was second and imo this shouldn't be considered a surprise. The TT percours in fact was just 2 kms long and this isn't the best race length for Fabian. 3rd was a surprising Tom Veelers, while Jack Bobridge was 'just' 13th. But still, I can imagine he had a good amount of parties after his world record in the individual pursuit, so I don't blame him for his result ;)

The second stage was won by Boonen. I'm very happy about this, because Boonen's previous victory dated back to March 2010. Boonen also got the leader jersey, since Boom had some stomach problems during the stage won by Tom and lost a lot of time from the other riders.

Today stage instead has been won by Barbie Barbie, aka Heinrich Haussler. I was happy for his victory too, since it arrived after a very difficult period for Heinrich. I'm ready to bet on you for Sanremo, boy! ;)

However, I think it's important to notice that Haussler got his victory in front of Leopard Trek's Bennati. Considering that also Bennati hasn't won anything over the last months, I think there are high chances for him to win one of the next stages. We'll all be looking forward to that, you can bet on it! It is nice to see Bennati up there, especially because he's likely to be one of Italy's captain at Copenhagen 2011 worlds.

Talking about today stage, third in the sprint was the Russian rider Denis Galimzyanov. Note down this name, because this is a very interesting rider!

RANDOM SLIPPERS DU JOUR:

Before of closing this post, here are Hippo and Hippi, friends of the above-mentioned Itsy and Bitsy (I admit it: I was wearing my pijama when I took this picture): Here instead you have Hippi, who looks sad (and sleepy) because he needs to be sewed to his white slipper once again:
So, this is all for today. Waiting for further news about Riccò, I close this post and wish you all a good evening. Bye bye from me, Hippo and Hippi!!
(Schleck's picture by Reuters)

Totally random Thursday post about a few different things:

Good day everyone, dear blogmates! Unfortunately miss Fede (or FeeDee, or Féd or however else you call her ;) has been very busy over the last days, so she didn't find the time to update her blog. Sorry for that, dear readers.
Between the things I had to do over the last days there was a lot of studying, especially for my philosophy test about Schopenhauer and Kierkegaard (again!). To my shock, when I first read it this morning, I didn't even understand what I had to do in the first exercise. If I couldn't understand that part, just imagine how well I could understand the extracts from 'Aut-Aut' and 'The world as will and representation' (I'm making up the English names of the books, I wouldn't swear they're correct!). Moreover, over the last days I've been preparing myself to the approaching end of my favourite tv series by watching many times the second episode of it. 'What is your favourite tv series?', I hear you ask. 'Whitechapel!', I reply proudly while thinking about the main character. 'What?', I imagine you asking. 'Whitechapel! Come on, you've never heard of Whitechapel? Think about it more carefully, I'm sure you've heard about it somewhere...Come on, Whitechapel! Whitechapel I say! What? You don't know what it is? No? Well, you're not the only one', I answer you. In fact, over the last 2 weeks I've found just one (one!) person in my class who watches that series and likes it. However, she doesn't find it as exciting as me and this morning she told me that my favourite character is very likely to end up in a mental hospital in the next (and last) episode of the series. And to say that this is the only police-series that has ever managed to thrill me in the last 18 years... What a sad possible end for it :(

However, let's talk cycling. First of all, congratulations to Jack Bobridge on the new world record in the individual pursuit. The former record had been made by Chris Boardman 15 years ago and to do it Boardman rode a very strange bike which was later prohibited by the UCI. Now, Bobridge has broken that record with a 'normal' bike. Chapeau to him then!

On to another news, the Ladies Tour of Qatar began yesterday with Rochelle Gilmore's victory. The Australian rider outsprinted world champion Giorgia Bronzini and Chloe Hosking.
This year I'm going to talk about women cycling more often than usual, because I think that becoming a professional cyclist and making a living out of it is much more difficult for a woman than for a man. Therefore, here there's a video with the highlights of stage 1: http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/video-stage-1-highlights-of-the-ladies-tour-of-qatar . You can't see the finish very well in it, but it's always better than nothing. Bronzini complained about another rider creating her problems in the sprint, but the video doesn't allow me to tell whether she's right or not. By THE way, the funny thing is that, when Giorgia won the Worlds in Geelong, Gilmore was working for Australian tv and she was the first one to interview the Italian rider. Yesterday, instead, the interviewed one was her.

On to another news, Menchov has recently declared that he's not going to leave Geox for Saxo Bank (I've always said that Denis is a great person ;)
Talking about Geox, the team presentation should have been held 4 days ago, but it was postponed to the 12th of February. However, UCI has published the list of Geox riders on its website (or at least, that's what I understood from an Italian unclear article I've just read) and it has accompanied the list with a picture of how the new team's jersey should look like: http://tribunatreviso.gelocal.it/sport/2011/01/27/news/geox-il-giallo-della-maglia-svelata-3291209 . Someone has already said that it isn't the true official jersey and I hope that those people are right. Geox' kit is better than Footon-Servetto's one, but what about the 'breathing shoe' on the front of it? Dreadful, isn't it?

Talking about another team, Saxo Bank has put the pictures of the riders wearing their new kits on http://www.riis-cycling.com/person_profiles.asp . Watcing those pics, I must admit it, my eye always fell on the eagle. I did try to fight that instict, but I couldn't: that animal is a real eye catcher (better if I stop here, otherwise someone may take this blog as a naughty one!). Anyway, has anyone else noticed David Tanner? ;)

Penultimate thing to say for today, I've recently got the news of the opening of Leopard Trek official website. I must admit I was pretty confused when I typed its name in Google and saw a picture of Giacomo Leopardi appear on my computer screen as I was writing, but luckily it soon disappeared and left me free of wandering around http://www.leopardtrek.lu/ . I must say I pretty like this website, although I find its design too classy. Moeover, the black and white style doesn't appeal too much to me. But hey, it is a good website anyway.

BTw, am I the only one who has confused Brian Nygaard with Bjarne Riis as I entered the 'Riders' section of the website? :S

RANDOM LINK OF THE DAY:

http://blog.tv2.dk/chris.anker.ol/entry395538.html : as you can imagine, this is the link to Chris Sorensen's latest blog entry, in which he talks about his first approach to track riding by saying that he stayed at the bottom of the steep track, 'looking like Bambi walking on the thin ice'. What a poetic similry!

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!