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.

Giro Donne - stage 7

The view from our hotel

Today was the first of the grand mountain stages in the Giro, which made it an inopportune day for me to have no legs. But that's bike racing. The stage started in Como and hit a 12km climb early before descending, winding around Lake Como, climbing up the second mountain (Ghisello, home of the Madonna del Ghisello which I wrote about before) and heading to the finish. Because the first 15km leading into the first climb were narrow and quite hilly too, it was on like Donkey Kong from the start. USA got to the front and drove it, and no matter how much I screamed at my legs, they just didn't behave and I ended up in a piano group of 5. Some parts of it were quite cool, like when the ambulance drove up to our group on the climb and gave us some ice cold water and a can of coke. Problem was, there was only 1 bottle of water and 1can of coke, so we were passing it around from rider to rider, each savouring a couple of mouthfuls. I had just assumed I would miss out, until Bronzini (ex world champ on the track) passed me the can and immediately became my favourite person in the world. Happiness is a can of coke on a mountain climb in the summer.

Also in my group was a lady from Fenix who kept going to the front and driving it. I have no idea why. Our day was clearly over, but she just kept wanting to bridge the 15 minute gap to the leaders. I asked her whether she spoke English, so I could find out what she was thinking, but she said no. I assumed she was a hack who had no idea how to ride piano. Later I found out she was a former world champion on the road, which may have explained those little rainbow loops on her kit. And she was Russian, which may have explained the rest.

Shara, Tiff and Carlee all had good days, hurrah! Tomorrow we ride to Livigno, which means around 90km of almost pure climbing. And with that, I am off to bed.

Ride happy.

Giro Donne- stage 6

Today's stage was special for the Aussies because it went through Castronno, the home town of the AIS cycling base. For a few brief exciting moments we thought the intermediate sprint fell right outside the house, but it turned out that it didn't. Even so, though, it was very cool to race through our training roads and to hear some familiar voices on the side of the road cheering (thanks to Elsa, Dave and the junior men's Aussie team who lined the road!).

The route was 116km through some fairly hilly territory, starting in Gallarate and finishing in Arcisate. Lauren Kitchen made the EB (Early Break) her own, winning the intermediate sprint and pushing out the gap to over 2mins for over 60km. If she keeps this up she's going to have to copyright that move- 2 days in a row now.

The Aussies did well, with 4 of us finishing in the top bunch of 25- Carlee Taylor, Shara Gillow, Tiffany Cromwell and myself. The group contained all the GC hopefuls so it was good for so many of the team to be in it, esp Shara, Carlee and Tiff who are all now top 20 on GC leading into the mtns.

I was happy to have a better day on the bike than yesterday. It was also good to be there to help our GC riders on the final circuit around Arcisate. Those girls have looked after me a lot on the road and it's good to feel I can give something back.

Tomorrow we hit the first of 3 mountain stages, around Lake Como. Stage 8 takes us up to Livigno (last time I visited Livigno I had skis on), then stage 9 goes up the infamous Stelvio pass.

Giro Donne - stage 5

Photo courtesy of CJ Farquharson @ womenscycling.net

  

Today's stage was a 122km jaunt around Lake Orta, which is definitely one of the most beautiful places I've ridden around. I'd love to go back one day when I am not sweating spinal fluid or sucking in the big ones in between mouthfuls of gel. Which is what happened today. The stage was our first foray into hilly territory, and all the hill climbers and GC riders in the bunch were itching to stretch their legs after 4 days of flat stages.

I sucked today. I say that modestly. To borrow a term I learned while I was over here, I blew like a porn star. After being dropped from the lead bunch, my day was over when the group I was in called 'piano' (Italian for 'go slow'), which basically means the group has declared their racing for the day to be over and soft pedals to the finish, way behind the lead group. Rookies like me do not call piano. This honour is generally given to the more senior members of the group, which in my case was an elderly looking Italian rider who then chose to yell at me for daring to ride next to her up the final climb to the finish. 'You're stupid,' she told me. I wanted to reply that I wasn't stupid, that stupid was doing this for a living when you're 35, but we have 5 days of racing still to go and I didn't want to make enemies. Particularly not enemies of people like her who had clearly been around a while and probably had mafia cronies waiting in the wings. Instead, I asked her whether she was afraid. My teammate Emma Mackie and I spent the rest of the stage comparing which one of us was cramping up more (OH_THE_PAIN) and then, just before the finish line, Em grabbed the cranky Italian and pushed her over the line first ahead of us, so that she would get her wish of not being passed on the final climb. I hadn't laughed so much all day. Em is a star.

Tiff, Shara and Carlee all did well today. Lauren went on a solo break at the start and blew the gap out to over a minute at one point. Vai Australia!

Stage 3 ITT photo courtesy of CJ Farquharson @ womenscycling.net

I forgot to mention in yesterday's post a couple of things from stages 3 + 4. First, our TT skinsuits (as seen above at the TT start). These are new high-tech additions to the Cycling Australia armoury. We used the same suits as they use for the track team, and they are so tight you actually need a helper to help get them on. When I put mine on (or, to be more accurate, when Beth levered me into it), I couldn't actually stand upright because it was so tight (or 'aero', as we like to call it). Apparently this is a good thing - when you are on the bike you are hunched over, so to minimise drag the suit needs to be skintight in that position. Oh boy. I have huge empathy for all those ladies in Victorian England who endured corsets for all those years in the name of beauty. I now know how you feel.

Post stage 4 doping control. Photo courtesy of CJ Farquharson @ womenscycling.net

The othe thing I forgot to mention was that the highlight of yesterday's stage 4 was the protest at the start by the local worker's union. A local factory had closed down and the union decided the best way to get media attention was to protest on our start line. Our start was delayed by 30 mins, which was hot and annoying but quite entertaining (once we worked out what was going on) and gave us a chance to hide Emma Pooley's race bike while she went to the toilet. Hehehe.

There are some more CJ Farquharson pics at http://www.carnegiecycling.com.au/ - check them out.  Or see http://www.womenscycling.net/ for pics of the rest of the race.

Ride Happy

Giro Donne- stages 3+4

Almost halfway through!

Stage 3 yesterday was a 16.9km TT on a pancake flat course. I always look forward to time trials about as much as I used to look forward to exams at uni. At uni I had what I used to call my 'cleaning lady' moment, which would generally occur as I left home for the exam hall. I'd look at the cleaning ladies working away in the college grounds and wish I were one of them. They never had exams. Life was good for a cleaning lady in November. Whenever I came back from my exam, though, I'd see the same ladies, toiling away to clean up the filth left by 300 20-year-olds, and think, man, I'm so glad I'm not a cleaning lady.

Now that I don't have exams to do, I tend to have my cleaning lady moments before time trials. Yesterday was no exception. People call time trials the 'race of truth' but I reckon it's just time triallers who like to say that. The rest of us just suffer and try not to get too much spit on the handlebars.

I was happy with my TT, the more so because it was such a flat course, which suited me about as much as budgie smugglers suit Tony Abbott. I was 28th (out of 156 Giro starters), and given we are riding with so many of the world's best, I am stoked. Tiff Cromwell and Shara Gillow smoked it in at 22nd and 23rd respectively, which puts them in good GC position and bodes well for the team leading into the mountain stages (both Tiff and Shara eat hard mtn climbs for breakfast).

Ina Teutenberg won - again. That girl is a certified freakshow.

Stage 4 today was 94km of sprinters' delight (flat), ending in a bunch kick. After the stage I had the privilege of being drug tested, which I took as a great compliment.

Tomorrow the tour starts hitting some hills- it's playtime!

If you have any good luck left in your kitties, please send them to Sharon Laws, TE's other peleton representative in the Giro. Sharon broke her collarbone in stage 2's epic pile up. Hopefully this will mark the end of her bad luck run and tour des hospitals. Get well soon mate.

Ride happy

Giro Donne - Stages 1 & 2

Raring to go!

We have just finished stage 2 of the Giro and WOW. Today, especially, was epic (but more on that later).

Stage 1 was 58km from Trieste to somewhere 58km away (ok, so I could check the race book, but before you start calling me lazy, why don't you look it up on the race website? THERE. Not so important now, is it?). Trieste is right next to the Slovenian border so the race hotel was actually in Slovenia. This caused a few problems in that no one in the team knew how to say 'thank you' in Slovenian. In the end we just said 'Get a dog up ya!' with a smile and no one seemed to mind.

The course comprised 4 laps of a circuit around Trieste and the Pasta Zara factory, then a short transition to the finish town where we did another 3 laps of the finishing circuit. It was pretty flat and came down to a bunch sprint, won by Ina Yoko Teutenberg of HTC Columbia. Kirsty Broun, our star sprinter, was first Aussie at 11th. The first stage of any tour is always dicey - everyone is nervous, GC hasn't settled, people are twitchy - and the finishing circuit yesterday was diabolical. Crashes, near misses, hairpin bends and, for Vicki Whitelaw, a missing front wheel around 400m from the finish. As I passed Vicki she was picking herself off the road and retrieving her wheel. Characteristically tough, when we ran into her the next day she just said, 'Yeah, it's the first time I've lost a wheel... literally. Guess they ARE quick release!' Man, I've said it before but bike riders are TOUGH.

My race yesterday was a bit frustrating. I had good position going into the finishing circuit, but couldn't hold it and when the hammer went down with 2 laps to go I was caught too far back and copped all the whiplash from the crashes and near misses. I needed to be at the front to support Kirsty going into the final sprint but just couldn't get up. It's these sorts of situations that really show how much of a difference experience makes in the peleton. I guess that is what I am here for, but it is frustrating all the same.

Today's 2nd stage was 130km, the longest stage of the tour. Today was an eventful day for the Aussies. It came down to a bunch sprint and 500m from the finish there was a massive pile-up, involving most of the sprinters and their lead-outs. Kirsty was in an awesome position and had Emma Mackie and Tiff Cromwell looking after her, and they all hit the deck. They are OK - no broken bones, but will be pretty sore and sorry tomorrow. I haven't heard about the rest of the casualties from other teams yet. Then, to make matters worse, our soigneur Beth was involved in a car accident on the way to race finish and ended up in hospital. She is back at the hotel and also OK, although we suspect the car is a write-off. So it was a subdued team this arvo - hopefully we have gotten all our bad luck out of the way in one hit.

Not much else to report - the temperatures have been HOT - 37deg today - which has made hydration a challenge but nothing a bunch of hardened Aussies can't handle. The food has been good so far - although I am told after 10 days the novelty of having pasta 3 meals a day will wear off. Speaking of which, I had better go, because it's dinner time. I started cramping up today towards the end in the heat, which means tonight I have a golden excuse to eat even more salt! Mmmmm.

Tomorrow is the TT. Nico, our mechanic, has decked us out in some awesome TT rigs, I am EXCITED!

Ride Happy
Gunz

Giro Donne!

Tomorrow marks the start of the Giro d'Italia Donne, the women's version of the tour of Italy. This year it is being talked up as the hardest women's tour in the world for 2010. Looking at the course profile, I can see why... A mountain-top finish on the Stelvio, the day after a stage finish in Livigno (a town so high up in the mountains that it has duty-free shopping, no kidding)... And more.

The Giro runs for 10 stages, over 10 days. No rest day (they are for wimps and men). Team Australia comprises Emma Mackie, Tiff Cromwell, Shara Gillow, Kirsty Broun, Lauren Kitchen, Carlee Taylor and myself.

I'll do my best to keep you posted.