Apologies again for the delayed updates, who would have thought that the further south we go, the more stone age the motels and the less likelihood of the having internet? But success at last!
Stage 5:
Stage 5 was suppose to be a ‘flat’ stage, and I say ‘flat’ because my idea of a flat stage is one where there are NO HILLS. This ‘flat’ stage comprised of 2 rises of around about 3% which carried on for a good 5km each. Each lap of the course was 27km and for today’s stage we were to complete 4 laps, making it roughly 120km. So I started the stage feeling OK until we got to the first drag and someone (I think it may have been cervelo) decided to lay the smack down. I quickly discovered that my legs weren’t feeling quite as good as I thought/hoped and was struggling at the tail end of the main bunch at the second climb and the majority of the first lap. Coming into the second lap, I knew that in order to hang with the group I needed to position myself as close to the front as possible so I could drift back though the bunch up the climb. Easier said than done. My legs were missing their kick and so gaps in front of me were shut down before I could even get my legs to respond. So I got dropped going up the first ‘false flat’ again. Thankfully I was not the only one and after about 10km of riding solo, a bunch caught me and by the end of the lap we were back at the end of the bunch, where I had just enough time to say Hi to my teammates before being dagged at the bottom of the second climb. And this time I was by myself…(I didn’t know at the time that there was a grupetto about 10min behind me). Coming into the last lap I was thinking to myself ‘please just make time cut…’ when I thought I felt my rear Zipp going flat. I was struggling and thought it was simply my mind playing tricks on me however by the end of the first drag it was evident that my wheel was flat and by the top of the 2nd climb, I was riding on the rim just in time for the decent. Determined not to get pulled from the race and with no communication available through my radio and no spares vehicles in sight, I decended praying that I wouldn’t eat tarmac for the second day in a row. With just under 10km to the finish on the decent, grupetto passed me and the police motor bike told me to jump on and looked at me as if I was stupid going about 15kph on a decent. After finally getting through to him that I had a flat he was on the radio and I had 4 police motor bikes around me. 4km to go and still riding on the flat, a spares motor bike rolled up to me and I got a wheel change, better late than never I guess? I sprinted my butt off to the finish because the police escort and the sag wagon in tow meant that I was now officially the end of the race. I was relieved to finish and it took every bit of mental strength not to give up then and there. But I made it to the end and lived to fight another day… I just hope that I won’t be paying the price too badly after my close to 40km of TTing tomorrow!
Stage 6:
Rest day. That is what today’s stage was meant to be for me. After the ride yesterday, I was somewhat relieved to be told to look after myself and get through the race using as little energy as possible and this meant that as soon as we hit the climb, I was to go straight to grupetto. But as always nothing is quite as it seems and this whole stage is uphill from the word VAI. With the GC contenders firmly in position, today gave the opportunity for those riders lower on GC to get away. This was our team objective today, to try and send someone up the road. But the bunch had different ideas and the pace was on from the start and at some point a group of around about 6 (including Ina Tutenberg and Giorgia Bronzini) slipped away up the road. This group eventually stayed on for the win. The bunch was strung out up the climb before a lengthy decent and by that time for me it was basically game over. Riders were going backwards as the 6 prior days of racing were finally taking their toll. I lasted about 50km with the group before getting spat then spent a while in the convoy trying to drag my butt up to no avail. What hurts the most is seeing riders grabbing onto their team cars and being towed right up to the bunch…Pretty sure that is called cheating. Not long after, a group of about nearly 20 riders came up behind me and I had no choice except to just sit on and limit my losses. Next minute, police motor bikes rock up around us and before I knew it there were riders (from the dodgy Italian teams) grabbing onto the bikes and being towed up the road…Our bunch then dwindled to about 10 riders including Regina Schneider and Charlotte Becker from Nurenberg and Linda Villmanseun from Columbia. As long as those girls were staying there, so was I. I mean we weren’t even grupetto! So it was a long ride to the finish and my legs were counting down the K’s before we would hit the wall with about 800m to go of cobbles at an average gradient of 16%. It was similar to the finish of the Timetrial, except way longer. Girls were zigzagging everywhere and Regina Schneider decked it in front of me and I was thanking my lucky stars that I didn’t come down too. So I grovelled my way to the top of the climb and lived to fight yet another day.
Reading back on my reports you could say that I’m hating life, but you couldn’t be further from the truth. I’m loving the challenge and the invaluable knowledge I’m gaining each and every moment i‘m on the bike. Sure there have been tears but that’s all part of character building. I’m only growing as a bike rider and what doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger. If I come out of this in one piece I might as well be made of re-enforced steel.
Stage 7:
Lost: legs, if found please return.
When you get dropped within the first 30km of a 120km stage race, you start asking yourself why you do this sport. Today’s stage started at the base of a climb (over 10km in length) and needless to say it wasn’t long before mushroom clouds were seen exploding left right and centre. I made it to the top of the climb dagging between the peleton and one of many chase groups. The chase group of at least 10 riders caught me on the decent and we were joined about 20km down the road by grupetto. We were now a bunch of close to 25 riders and it was again just a case of getting to the finish in one piece. It wasn’t all bad, as it gave me a chance to have a chat to fellow Aussies Kate Bates, Rochelle Gilmore, Emma Mackie and team mate Belinda Goss. One rule of thumb is that you NEVER attack grupetto, unless you feel the need to race for about 140th on GC which most of the lesser teams feel the need to do. With a group the size of ours, you would think that there wuld be no need to get towed but at least 5 girls latched on the police motor bikes nd we never saw them again. Then there were the girls who grabbed on up theclimbs or who motor paced behind their team cars as comssaires turned a blind eye just wishing we’d hurry up and get to the finish. Apart from pissing the girls off, Kate made a good point in saying something similar to ‘these girls who keep on getting paced will be the ones who will always get dropped and never get any better’. Here’s to that. You might as well face the fact that you aren’t strong enough yet to hold onto the main pack and use the rest of the ride as a training ride so that you can learn and one day you will be able to stick with the big girls. It was a long ride to the finish but we made it there in one piece… Turns out it was a hard day in the office for all with no ‘distinctive’ peleton to be seen…
Off the bike, it’s been a ritual of eating, drinking, recovering and sleeping. Safe to say I never want to hear/see the word pasta ever again and I would never have thought I’d see the day where I dreaded having to eat and the very thought of it made me sick. But this is apparently what it’s like to be on tour and you force yourself to eat/drink not only to recover from the day’s race but to ensure you are properly fuelled for the next day. You got to put up with the rain in order to get to see the rainbow.
Our team of mechanics/soigneurs are working around the clock to make sure we have to do as little as possible and it is only by doing tours like these where you truly start to appreciate all the things that they do. On arrival at our motels, Dave has our bags up in our rooms and room allocations all sorted. Nico our mechanic pulls out the hose and cleans/fixes/adjusts our bikes and gets them ready for the next day’s race. Beth and Laura do our laundry, get us food (apparently we go through nearly 20 bananas a day!!), wash biddons, make race food and look after logistics. Then Beth gives up to 6 riders massages/treatments and changes dressings and makes sure we are fit to fight another day whilst Laura analyses files from the day’s race and calculates our hydration loss and asks us questions about each stage to get a better understanding things like if we feel good on the bike if our power is high, or if we feel bad but power still high and vice versa. So whilst we are resting and watching movies, everyone is working their butts off to make sure we can race the next day in the best conditions possible. I definitely feel privileged to be part of this team.
So 3 more days of racing and this means 3 more opportunities t try and make an impact/impression on the race. I came here to race, not to do a 120km training ride every day and I’m doing everything I possibly can to make sure that I can recover and get the form back which I had at the start of the tour so that I can finally fulfil my role for the team and help Tiff claim the white jersey. I’m sick of being a spectator in the game, I want to start being a player. Jens Voigt stated something along to lines of “when my legs start to burn I say to my body ‘shut up boy and do what I tell you to do’”. Tomorrow, I’m going to bring ear plugs.
The tour may be done and won by the time I next get a chance to update but until then, take care.
Ciao
Miffy xx
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