... Was the first thing I heard when I stumbled off the plane
at Milan airport last Sunday. I tried to
unscramble the words in my head, my first test to see how little Italian I
remembered since being here in 2009 - ‘Dairy eel ben vennouto a Italia’...
Nothing. I’m definitely screwed.
Bags successfully located and squashed onto a trolley, I
blindly manoeuvred the vehicle into a bollard causing my pile of luggage to
fall to the floor. Cr@p. Sure enough I did it in front of a man who turned out
to be my DS. ‘Great’ I thought, he’s probably thinking ‘so THIS is my newest
recruit? A non-italian speaking Australian life battler?’ – But no sooner than the thought crossed my mind, he grabbed my face, kissed me on both cheeks, gave
me a hug and relieved the trolley from my clutches. What a legend. This was my
first reassurance that things were probably going to turn out just fine.
For me it has pretty much been the same story every year – join
team, don’t know anyone on said team, make sure the team is in a country where
you don’t speak the language, don’t know where you’re living… It’s a big gamble
to say the least and you never know exactly what you’ve signed up for until you
have both feet firmly on the ground, and it’s starring straight back at you.
Needless to say the first impressions from my new team for 2012, Faren Honda
Women’s Team, were great. And they only got better from there :)
No less than 1hr from peeling my butt of the aeroplane
seat I was at the team hotel for the start of the Cittiglio World cup which was
being held that day, equipped with a new bike and loads of team swag.
It was like Christmas and I think the management staff had their fair share of
enjoyment watching me literally ‘squeal’ out loud each time they handed me a
new item. I am very excited to get my 2012 Euro season underway, and it
definitely showed. Next up was a quick photo shoot in the new kit with some of the
sponsors, where the fact that I hadn’t bathed for a day seemed to concern me
more than it did them. Meanwhile, cleats were being fitted to my sweet new Sidi
kicks and final touches were being done to my bike and by the time the cameras
stopped flashing I was taking my new Kuota KOM for its maiden spin. And it felt
amazing.
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| My machine for the season!! I picked it out from the line up because of the sweet name sticker! anddd the fact that it was 2 sizes smaller than the rest of them ;) |
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| New Sidi kicks :) |
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| Shot with the big boss at Kuota - they said showering and brushing your hair is overrated. Apparently |
Fast forward 30min and I was sitting with the team at
breakfast for their pre-race meals and it wasn’t until I saw food that I was
reminded how hungry I was. I looked at the buffet table, looked at my super fit
teammates and repeated. Looking around the table, I probably should’ve stopped
eating last year… So an espresso for breaky it was! Then it was time for the
team meeting, given in Italian, where I was suitably able to perfect the awkward
smile as I sat there basically only understanding every second word. I was
later reassured that they would translate for me when I started racing! Thank god.
Post meeting, the team scrambled in to the slick looking
team cars and we were on our way to the start of the World Cup – and it wasn’t
even 12pm yet. At the race, I politely smiled at and kissed no less than half
the Italian population as we waited for the race to roll out and from then it
was game on.
I was in a car with another local teammate who was not
racing, as well as the soigneur and another staff member and we trekked to
different vantage points on the loop before settling in at the feedzone and
waited for the girls to come past for their 1st of 4 laps of the
final circuit. After parking up on the hill, jetlag finally had a chance to
catch up with me and I have to admit, I was taking sneaky naps behind my
sunnies between passing’s. Each time the group went past I played ‘spot the
teammie’ whilst the rest of the staff located said teammie and fed/watered them
– it was great to see a number of our girls in the front bunch, I’m definitely
going to have to bring my A game to support these girls!
4th time past and we rushed to catch the finish
where we learnt that superhuman Marianne Vos had broken away from the field and
went on to win solo, leaving a small bunch to battle it out for the minor
placings. Someone jokingly said to me that the real winner of the race was
Tatiana Guderzo who came in 2nd, because Marianne Vos is in such a
different league to everyone else at the moment it doesn’t even seem fair. She’s
amazing. Or it could’ve been because of the fact that they were Italian, and so is Guderzo... But I’ll
go with the former.
Post-race, the team all gathered together for a debrief and
me and my freshly acquired swag were loaded up in to our DS’s schmick Honda CRV
and I was driven to my home for the next 6 months: Bellano, a small town on the waterfront at the
northern end of Lake Como. I opened the doors of my new home at 8:30pm – 13hrs
later. I was knackered. But as I layed in bed on that first night, I struggled to
get to sleep as I couldn’t stop thinking of everything that had happened that
day. As I mentioned earlier, you rarely ever know what you have gotten yourself
in to until its starring back at you in the face – but as I stared at my team
suitcase and all my gear I was liking what I saw… Finally proof that 2012 is
going to be my first year as a professional cyclist on a UCI team... I can’t
wait to pull on that team kit and get on the start line for the first time in
Europe.
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| First ride out on the road. Happy to say the least :) |
Until next time,
Ciao ciao, ciao ciao ciao ciao
M xx
p.s – more photos to come in next post :)
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