I flew to Pisa, Italy on Thursday of last week and was met at the airport by three Italian men who spoke little to no English. I had been invited to come and experience Italy from a bike rider’s perspective. An opportunity to train and live with a small Italian team based in Lucca for a couple of weeks.
My three weeks in the dead flat terrain of the Netherlands had left me severely confused and as we drove from Pisa to Lucca through and over mountain passes I found myself itching to get out of the car and onto the bike…I wanted to climb some hills! I was later to find out that ‘hills’ do not exist in this beautiful part of the world, only 10km mountains.
My first full day in Italy saw me attempt to navigate myself around Lucca and its surrounds while trying to fit in my training session. One trip down the wrong way of a motorway, a visit to the police station and a $30 taxi fair later I was finally back at the team house, only 2 hours later than expected. I thought it wise the next day to do my entire session with the other girls in the house.
The surrounds of Lucca are this year not only playing host to a stage of the men’s Giro d’Italia but also the Women’s. After having only learnt a few days ago that I would be riding with the Australian team for the Women’s Giro I thought it the perfect opportunity to do a reconnaissance of the courses which I would soon be racing over.
Foolishly, I asked the girls to show me the major climbs of the hardest stage of the Giro, they willingly agreed. I quickly found myself and my trusty Merida on a 9 percent gradient climb which lasted for 2km, only to be broken up by 5km at 6 percent and then to kick back up to 8 percent for the last 2kms. (Okay, I’m guessing the gradients, but it felt like that). The climb wound up and through a beautiful Tuscan village which no words could do justice. However, as a sprinter, while it was lovely, the thought of riding it again when the best cyclists in the world are driving the pace and I’ve ridden 140km everyday for the last 5 days does leave me with mixed feelings. Even worse, I later found out that that climb was the ‘warm up’ climb for one of the stages, and was followed by another 10km climb which the girls described as ‘harder’.
The next day all the team lined up along with another of Lucca’s best twelve hundred cyclists to participate in a mass start race. Despite the girl’s best efforts to use my lack of Italian as an excuse to get to the front of the massive peloton we managed to be no better positioned than 250th wheel as the gun was fired. While positioning was not such an issue as it was a mass participation event rather than a race, it is always daunting to find yourself in a bunch surrounded by too much testosterone, a foreign language and below par bike skills. Luckily I got through the race without incident and was able to see some more of the beautiful landscapes which Tuscany has to offer.
Every cyclist, in fact everyone who has anything to do with cycling- whether it be a parent, partner or a friend of a cyclist- knows the risks and dangers cyclists face as soon as they swing their leg over the bike and head out on the road. Generally these risks are limited to cars, the cyclists themselves and the people they are riding with.
In Lucca, probably in Europe generally, this list can be expanded to include the risk a young female cyclist faces when encountering Lampre and Liquigas riders, or any pro cyclist for this matter. While at the best of times it is dangerous to get distracted by shiny, attractive things (pro cyclists for women, new cars for men) and lose concentration on what you’re doing, it is extremely dangerous while descending at 70km/hr on a descent which has its fair share of switchback corners. Something I’ll have to remember in the future.
Next week will see me continue to train up a storm, soak up the sunlight and explore all that Tuscany has to offer. I’ll be standing on the roadside cheering on Mick Rogers and all the other Australians racing this years Giro as the best male riders in the world fly past my eyes.
Stay tuned for my flash interviews with Cavendish and Di Luca. Who knows, maybe Mick will get me into the Columbia team bus?
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