A post for Pete

My Top Trumps card, taken from Cycling Podium's 6 Riders Who Blog

This post is for Pete Lockett, to keep him amused and out of trouble. Pete rescued me 2 years ago in his trusty Subaru when I came off my bike training one morning before work and broke my collarbone. It had been a rough morning. My training mate Jacqui and I had gotten up way too early in the Melbourne winter, and had braved the cold out to do our regular morning session on Kew Boulevard. 10 minutes into our ride we saw a dead cyclist. The ambulance guys told us that he had had heart failure while riding, and it was a fair shock to see the poor guy, still in his kit, on the side of the road.

The emminently sensible Jacqui decided that that was enough for one morning and headed home, while I decided to keep going. Half an hour later I hit something on the road, went over the handlebars and that was it. Andy was up in north-east Victoria at the time, so I called Jacqui to drive me to hospital. Jacqui's car was at the mechanic's, so it was Pete to the rescue. Those guys were amazing. They drove me to the hospital, told me jokes while I was in triage, nursed me through my morphine-induced haze and then drove me an hour away to Monash to get surgery. And they never once complained that I had made them late for work.

So it's fair to say that I owe Pete one. I owe him and Jacqui especially for fast-talking their way into securing me Melbourne's best shoulder surgeon, but that's another story. So when Pete sent a text reminding me that it had been a while between blog posts, I thought this might cheer him up.

Onto today's blog. The highlight of my day today, without doubt, was discovering that I have made a Top Trumps card. For those of you who do not live in the UK, just be assured that not only is this hilarious, this is A Great And Special Honour. Podium Cafe did a special 4 part series entitled 'Women's Cycling Top Trumps'. Each of the parts profiled 5 or 6 riders and put each of them on a mock trading card (this is the Top Trumps bit). I got a guernsey for their Riders Who Blog section. Check out their other parts, The Sprinty Types, National Champions, and their Best Of... section.

A big high-five to 'Pigeons' who posted the article. Pigeons, today you made the 2 years I spent as an overworked trainee lawyer in the UK all worthwhile, because it meant that now I know what a Top Trumps card is, and you gave me a great laugh today. I am also impressed by your extensive knowledge of my background and I shall view my neighbours with more suspicion now. I am not sure if you are in cahoots with the crazy Greek guy who lives in the block next door and peers at me through his curtains, but if you do can you get me some baklava?

Ride happy

I am wearing streamers at Nationals

I received this communique on Saturday:

NOTICE OF 'MISJUDGEMENT'

Lisa Jacobs (#126) and Emma Mackie (#127) from Australia have been fined 100 Euro, 1x case of beer and the hummilation of starting the 2011 Road Race National Title with streamers attached to their bicycles.


This fine has occurred due to the actions of Kirsty Broun, Amanda Spratt and Carly Light..., who easily inhaled one balun pizza at Della Monte Pizza resturant on the evening of July 16. Photographic evidence was obtained and will be sent shortly. Along with the photos of the rich chocolate, pear and pistacchio birthday cake that was then eaten upon return to Castronno.


Sorry to inform you of this news,


Regards,
Chief Commisaires; Carlee Taylor, Lauren Kitchen and Shara Gillow 

I think the photos say it all. The girls definitely earned their win- RESPEKT! And, just to rub it in, they followed it up with cake afterwards! Impressif.

As well as the Ballun pictures, I also found some other pictures of the girls, taken post-Ballun Challenge:

I'll see you at nationals. At least, you'll see me, and Mackie...

Eat happy

The Wager

The Great Ballun Pizza Challenge of 2010

I've just arrived back in Melbourne, and I am due back at work tomorrow. I've got Donna's permission to lie low for a few weeks, and the only exercise I plan to do this weekend is some cross-country skiing up at Lake Mountain in Vic. I'll write a Euro wrap-up soon, but for the moment I'm looking forward to having a complete break from the bike.

I could not, however, let this week go past without a mention of The Wager. The night before I left for Australia, all the girls went out for pizza at Della Monte restaurant in Varese, to celebrate the end of the Giro. Della Monte is famous for its 'Ballun' pizzas (see above), and I have attempted 3 times now to finish one off. That night marked my 3rd attempt. I had been confident, after 10 days of racing the Giro, that a Ballun would be no match for me. I may or may not have expressed this confidence to the other girls. I was wrong.

The girls did not let this failure go unnoticed. In fact, I think the whole restaurant heard all about it. To cut a long story short, a gauntlet was thrown down and The Great Ballun Challenge of 2010 was born.

The challenge is thus:

• Madames Kirsty Broun, Amanda Spratt and Carly Light will attend Della Monte Pizza Restaurant at some date before the end of July 2010 (This date has been set as Sunday July 18);
• Each will order and receive one Ballun pizza;
• Each must consume said Ballun wholly, without interference or assistance from each other or any third party. There is no time limit for eating;
• If all 3 girls successfully finish their Ballun, they will receive, from Emma Mackie and myself
• 1x case of beer
• 100 euro
• and will have the pleasure of seeing Mackie and I ride the 2011 road nationals with streamers attached to our handlebars.
• If K.Bru, Spratty and Barky fail to complete their Balluns, it's reversed - i.e Mackie and I get 100E + a case of beer, and they have to put streamers on their bikes at nationals.

The trash-talking has started, and both teams are confident of winning. I have to say, I thought we were pretty safe until I saw that crazy look in Spratty's eyes. Now I'm not so sure. Either way, I'm disappointed to be missing the action - although I'm confident Chief Commissaires Carlee Taylor, Lauren Kitchen and Shara Gillow will oversee proceedings in our absence. It's not about the money, it's not about the beer, it's not even about the pizza... it's all about the streamers.

Stay tuned for results... or just rock up to Buninyong in January and see who's wearing the streamers.

Ride happy

Giro Donne - what really happened in stage 10

So I have just seen the stage report from yesterday's stage 10. It was so hilarious I had to share it. Check out this report from CJ Farquharson (http://www.womenscycling.net/) who was one of the moto photographers following the race. CJ's Italian is much better than mine and she managed to work out what the circus was all about:

What was expected to be a procession, turned out to be a race of immense activity and attacks. A number of teams wanted to win the final stage and launched attack after attack to try to break up the race and gain an advantage. Evelyn Stevens (HTC Columbia) was the most successful of the breaks. Stevens gained almost one minute advantage before being pulled back in. It was as the race started the last 10km that it got really interesting. The roundabout just before the 10km to go sign was incorrectly marked and sent the leading Police, cars and eventually the whole peloton ahead instead of left. While the race headed towards a housing estate and dead end, Lisa Jacobs (Australia) and Lusia Tamaini (ASC Chirio Forna D' Asolo) who had dropped back to get support from their team cars, correctly turned left and headed fore the finish.
There was a complete panic from the police and organisers to get the race back on track and the two lone riders were stopped before they could reach the finish. They were held and waited for the leading group to go by before joining the back of the peloton.

And this:

Photo courtesy cyclingnews.com

The peloton detoured from the parcours with around 10 km to go. Lisa Jacobs (Australia) and Irene Falorni (Vaiono) were behind the main group when they took the wrong turn and became the leaders on the road. With spirit of fair play, the pair stopped and took their rightful position despite technically being permitted to continue.

We've all had a good laugh here imagining the scene if the police had let us ride on. We were a good 10 minutes ahead of the bunch and even pedalling squares we probably would have won had we kept riding.

CJ is also being very generous in her report - she is right that we would have waited anyway, but I have to admit I had no idea what was going on at the time. But Macca, look, I got in a breakaway!

Giro Donne - well, we knocked the bastard off

The team at Livigno, smiling because we hadn't yet seen the 42 switchbacks to Stelvio

The Giro is over and crikey, we are wiped out. I have never been this written off, ever. We are now back at the team base and contemplating big issues like how many gelatis we could put away this evening.

Stage 10 today was on like Donkey Kong. 112km of very fast action and my legs just didn't work. I knew what I needed to do - it was be on the front and cover moves - but I just couldn't get up. Couldn't. The 5% gradients turned into bergs of Baw-Baw like proportions. How do these girls do this? I got dropped with 30km to go, then hitched a lift from a sympathetic policeman on a motorbike (for future reference, the flashing police lights that stick out on the back of the moto do not withstand the force of a desperate cyclist hanging on at 50kph), then stuck with an Italian rider in a similar predicament. Suddenly, we reached a police roadblock and were flagged down. Lots of Italian shouting and gesticulating. The word 'casino' was bandied around. Circus. What the? We were told to wait. I had no idea what was going on, but we were assured by the policeman that the race organisers had stopped the clock, and the bunch would be coming past in 10 minutes. We were to wait for them and then join back into the bunch. What the...?

As it turned out, the bunch had been inadvertently sent down a dead-end street and was made to wait for 10 minutes while the organisers sorted out where they were supposed to be going. They u-bolted, then came back past our way. Casino indeed. I didn't know this - I was busy wondering whether I would be allowed to finish, or whether my Giro had just ended, unglamorously, outside a petrol station somewhere near Monza. But I tacked on all the same, and then promptly got dropped again with 3km to go. But I got to finish.

So I've finished the Giro and in 2 days I fly back to Melbourne. In 3 days I will be back in my corporate suit, sitting in the office and contemplating Risk & Compliance issues for Australian lawyers. In 5 days I will see Andy again. No prizes for guessing which I am looking forward to most.

Giro Donne- stage 9

Stage 9, up Stelvio, I had nothing. No legs, no energy, and rapidly no will to live. The pace was on early and there were 2 significant climbs before we hit Stelvio.

There is something calming about having absolutely nothing left. It's not about position, it's not about missing opportunities, it's not about not eating or drinking enough. There just comes a point where your body has hit its limit.

I was disappointed that my limit came before Stelvio, so that I couldn't really see what climbing it at max effort was like. But climbing it in grupetto was pretty boring.

Stelvio is quite spectacular- 42 switchbacks over 23km or so. You pass the treeline, then you pass the cowline (a few hundred metres above the treeline), then you pass the snowline. At almost 2800m above sea level it's the highest pass in Italy.

Today is the final stage- some circuits of the Monza F1 racing circuit in Milano followed by a jaunt around Milano itself. 112km in all.

Giro Donne- Stage 8

Day 8 of the Giro and what we are losing in energy, we are gaining in altitude. Today's stage wound through Switzerland, past St Moritz and finished in Livigno. The last time I came through these parts was when I did a ski marathon 3 years ago. It was awesome to come back in the Summer, and even better to think that way back when I last came here, I would never have predicted that I would be here 3 years later, riding for Australia in the Giro d'Italia.

Today's stage was 90km of almost pure climbing. My day started well and on the first climb I was in the lead group of ~30 with Shara and Tiff. After yesterday I was keen to have a good stage and my legs felt good. Unfortunately, Tiff's legs weren't feeling the same way and I was called back to help her. I was more than happy to- that's what teammates are for!- but it effectively meant my day was over. On the plus side, it did mean I could enjoy the beautiful scenery a bit more!

I particularly liked seeing the Swiss cows along the route, tinkling the bells around their necks whenever they moved. I figure those cows have a pretty good life, living in the Alps with those views. But I'm glad I'm not a Swiss cow, because I would sure get sick of the constant ringing in my ears. And I'd probably have to learn German.

Tomorrow is the last mountain stage- a summit finish up the Stelvio. At almost 3000m it's going to be one big day in the saddle.