Giro! Giro! Giro!...ouch!

My second week in Tuscany ushered in more mid to high twenty degree days, training rides through beautiful Italian countryside and pro cyclist spotting. Warning, for those of you whose body clocks get switched back eight hours every July to watch Cadel and Lance battle it out for overall honours live at the Tour de France this blog may leave you reeling with jealousy, read on with caution.

For those of you who are sane enough to maintain regular sleeping patterns I apologise for the name dropping which is about to occur.

Friday the 22nd saw stage thirteen of the Giro d’Italia, one of the three major European professional cycling stage races, pass directly through Lucca. As with all Grand Tours, the Giro draws the best male cyclists in the world, massive crowds and casts a cycling frenzy across the country in which it is being held.

Remember that Italian movie you watched a while ago? The one where the male main character knows everyone and everything that is happening? It’s not just in movies. The president of the team I had come to train with is that main character, just without the mafia bit. So, when the girls and I cruised up to the gate dividing the media, people with special passes and girls with very short skirts, very brown skin and very nice hair from the general public, we were ushered through without a second glance. But don’t worry, all this didn’t go down without some Italian man hugs and two handed grasps of the face as seen in the Godfather.

As we walked towards the fenced off area where riders sign on, interviews are conducted and the media congregate I was left thinking, am I about to watch the beginning of the Giro from the VIP section? The answer-Yes.

An hour later I joined the other ‘little’ people as we lined the path where all the riders rode past to sign on for the day’s stage. I’ve never been one to get over excited about seeing celebrities and getting their photos, but I found my inner star crazed teenage girl seeping out as I stood camera aimed, ready to pounce. Pro cyclist after pro cyclist cruised past me, helmet hanging on the handle bars and hair appropriately gelled, I mean you have to look good for a 200km road race right?

Lampre, Liquigas, LPR, Columbia, Cervelo Test Team, Rabobank. Cavendish, Sastre, Basso, Menchov, Di Luca, Armstrong. They were all there. However, despite seeing all these cyclists, who are unquestionably the best riders in the world, it was seeing Cameron Meyer ride past me in his Garmin Slip-Stream team colours that was the best part. Riding his first ever Giro, Cam had been racing in the junior ranks with me only 3 or so years before. Now competing, and holding his own against the best cyclists in the world Cam really is someone all up and coming Australian riders can look at and think, it’s possible.

After run

Afert Running my camera battery dead and filling my memory card we watched as all the riders rode away for their 176km relatively flat road race through Tuscany. We jumped back in the car and sped back to Lucca and were able to watch the peloton once again. This time speeding through the streets of Lucca at an unbelievable pace. Cameron Meyer and his Garmin team were on the front, working for their team sprinter, Tyler Farrar. Cavendish ended up winning the stage, taking out his third stage of the Giro with Tyler finishing in fifth.

Motivated and still buzzing from my first ever Grand Tour experience I headed out on the bike that afternoon for my second training session of the day. The training session was to end with me in an ambulance and my bike in pieces after being hit by a car.

I got to enjoy another sleep-over in a European hospital where communication may be difficult but good health care is provided. After numerous x-rays and scans I was discharged, apart from a fair bit of skin off my face I had emerged from the crash unscathed. When I arrived back at the team house and saw my bike, I realised how lucky I was.

My front Ksyrium wheel was in two pieces, my rear derailleur had snapped off and was hanging limply and my shifters were pointing in unnatural directions. My bike was truly a mess and my head began to spin. The next few days saw a mad frenzy begin as myself and my family tried to source out a bike that I could ride as soon as possible so as to continue with my preparation for all my up coming races.

The immediate response from everyone was fantastic. Two small Canberra company’s, Providence Consulting Group and Jennifer Angelatos Designs kindly offered a helping hand and are now two very valued sponsors of mine. Scott from OnYa Bike and Tim from RideShop and Marcel Bengston, my team manager from China all jumped in to help and all had Andrew, the national sales manager from Merida on the phone. (I felt a little sorry for him having to hear about me and my incident so many times, but at least he now knew who I was!)

On top of all these people, Martin Barras, the Australian National Women’s Road coach, Rene Groot, a friend I met while over here and also the sales and marketing representative for the luxury cycling clothing brand Rapha and Allan Sieper, the manager of Canberra Cycling team Velo Canberra were all seeing what they could do in regards to finding me a bike.

In the end, Merida Australia packaged up a brand new 2009 Merida Scultura Evo Team bike and sent it my way. Both my father and I have been ogling this bike for a long time, I think if I were not 2ft shorter than him I’d have to watch that he didn’t take the bike hostage in October when I return home after my season of racing.

I cannot thank everyone who came to my aid enough. It’s a great feeling when you realise that you’ve got a lot of people who are willing to look after you and help you out, especially when you’re on the other side of the world and have limited options.

The coming weekend sees me return to racing after a two week training block. Hopefully my forced break off the bike has only freshened the legs after my, what was probably futile, attempt to become a mountain climber in Italy.

One again, a massive thankyou to everyone who went to the trouble of helping me out, but especially my Dad, who acted as my link to everything and everyone in Australia and even made an early morning trip to Sydney only hours after hearing about my crash to put my old bike on a plane.

CAUTION: Pro Cyclists Ahead

Imagine a beautiful little Tuscan town, surrounded by massively thick 16th-century brick walls, picturesque landscapes, rolling hills and endless beaches. Imagine roads which wind through medieval and renaissance villages, warm temperatures made bearable by cool sea breezes and all the vibrant colours one associates with Tuscany, Italy. Have I caught your attention? Welcome to Lucca, Italy.

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?

Crash, Win...is a pattern emerging?

The weekend just past saw another two typical Dutch races come and go. Fast pace, aggressive, technical courses and flat. The races are addictive and I look forward to the next one even more eagerly than the last. The Omloop Middag Humsterland held on Saturday in the village of Aduard was a UCI 1.2 ranked event and the Omloop der Kempen held in Veldhoven, Noord Barbant on Sunday was a big race however it doesn’t carry a UCI ranking. The weekend was almost a mirror image to last weekend, but similar to when Karen puts her ‘K’ on the right way in the mirror in Mean Girls, in real life it was reversed.

Nicki Harris, Emma Trott, MirtheWagenaar, Linda Ringlever, Trix Mulder, Ellen Hermens and I made up the Moving Ladies team for the weekend of racing and together we joined the mass of riders at the start line on Saturday, once again at the back. The world cup, being held in Bern, Switzerland the next day meant that the start list of Saturday’s race wasn’t quite as impressive as it had been at Borsele and Roeselare, with only three full UCI teams signing on; Lotto-Belisol, Leontien, and DSB Bank. Possibly because of this fact or because I’d become complacent in my, nearing three weeks here, I underestimated the difficulty of getting to the front in races like this and my race started and ended at the back.

Less than 10 minutes and 10 km into the race I was still at the back when a crash happened in front of me and I came tumbling down for the second time in as many weeks. My bike was rendered unrideable and my race was over. Emma, Trix and Mirthe all got caught behind the crash and also saw their races cut short. Linda and Nicki dodged the crash and went on to do quite well. Both were quite aggressive throughout the race, with Linda breaking away at 50km to go and being caught with 30km to go. Nicki finished well, in the top 25.

It was frustrating to watch the race from the sidelines and see the mass bunch sprint fly past my eyes with Rochelle Gilmore narrowly taking it from Claudia Wittereen. I was left wondering what could have been had my race not ended 120kms earlier.

If anything, watching the race unfold only made me more determined and focused on Sunday’s race, resolute that I would redeem myself and prove to myself and everyone watching that I wasn’t going to make a habit of not finishing races due to crashes.

After going our separate ways on Saturday the Moving Ladies team met again on Sunday in Veldhoven ready and raring to go. The day was beautiful. With the temperature in the 20s and barely any wind, conditions were perfect for a bike race. Today there was also a men’s race being held at the same place, carrying a UCI 1.2 ranking. It was pretty cool to see all the teams and riders and the absolutely huge bunch ride away for their 212km race. Theo Bos, riding for the Rabobank Pro Continental team ended up taking out the race.

Everyone in Moving Ladies decided today we would cut our usual pre race roll of the legs short and attempt to get closer to the front. Yesterday’s race had demonstrated that sometimes its just not possible to get to the front no matter how hard you try. Despite this show of initiative I still managed to end up closer to the back than the front and again had to gradually work my way to the front in the initial stages of the race.

The atmosphere in the team was really good, with everyone going into the race with a positive attitude and eager to do well. We were all communicating really well, riding at the front, letting each other know when there was a sudden left or right turn over the radios and making sure there was always at least one Moving Ladies girl in anything that went up the road.

The race was to be 112km, made up of one large 100km lap and one smaller 10km lap which saw the bunch pass the finish line once before coming in for the final sprint. Winding its way through numerous villages the race had lots of sections where ‘furniture’ as Chris the team manager calls it, or traffic islands were scattered over the road. I was obviously very mindful of these after my incident with the gutter the week before. The race also had a 10km stretch of cobbled road which began at the 60km mark, with 50cms on either side of the road being the slightly less harsh to ride on bricked road which was certain to be a defining section of the race.

When we hit the cobbles I was about 30 riders back and the bunch split into two single files, one driving it on the left hand side of the road and one on the right, avoiding the harsh cobbles which paved the whole middle section of the road. At times I could see gaps opening up in front of me with girls struggling to put the pressure down and ride efficiently on the stones. To bridge these gaps you were forced to brave the cobbles, accelerate past and tuck yourself back in. After experiencing cobbles just a few times now I can appreciate how difficult it is for someone who has never ridden them to grasp just what it is like to ride on them. They are draining and punishing on the body. Cobbles add a completely different element to bike racing and, despite how much I complain, I love it!

Less than a kilometre into the cobbled section and the front of the race was being blown to pieces. Two girls had a slight gap on the main bunch. I watched another three girls jump across to this break and knew that this move could be the move. I jumped on the wheel of a Leontien girl as she attacked to jump across to the break, together we closed the gap quickly and began rolling through and working turns immediately.

I’m forever being told off for riding too big a gear, grinding my pedalling action rather than spinning. This is one of the few points where cobbles and I agree. The best way to ride them is to throw it in the big chain ring, in a small cog and power over them, rolling rather than spinning.

The break continued to work well, quickly establishing a gap of 25seconds which the bunch held for over 15kms. The Ton van Bemmelen Sports team attempted to pull us back as they were the only major team which missed the break. The rest of my team did a great job in breaking up the chase, sitting at the front blocking and neutralising any attacks. After the 80km mark the chase in the bunch seemed to fall apart with the gap growing to 40seconds, then 50seconds and then one minute and 20 seconds. I continued to work hard in the break, pulling strong turns mindful that if we stopped working and got caught any sprinter left in the bunch would have done a lot less work than me throughout the race. Coming into the final kilometres, Lianne Wagtho from Leontien tried to attack the bunch a few times but each time I was straight on her wheel. I came into the final 500ms in third wheel, and opened up my sprint with 150m to go winning convincingly from Danielle Bickering (Hitech Products) and Elise van Hage (RedSun Cycling Team).

All I could hear when I crossed the line was “Ch-lue Hosking, Ch-lue Hosking” and some other very rushed Dutch. (Yes you read right, I have been renamed Clue over here. I find myself getting increasingly bitter with my parents many failures when it came to naming me. Firstly, having the wrong middle name written on my birth certificate and then neglecting to give the ‘e’ on the end of Chloe an accent, meaning that my name doesn’t get pronounced correctly in countries that actually use accents. Could they not have foreseen that I would be racing around the world?)

The whole Moving Ladies team got up on the podium to celebrate what had been a very enjoyable race and one which every member of the team was happy with. My next race with the team isn’t until the end of this month. I leave for Italy on Thursday and cannot wait for some hills and solid training! (Did I just say that?)

Keep posted for more blog’s on the happenings in Tuscany!

Yellow for a while then way too much gutter action.

Firstly, let me apologise for not keeping you updated more regularly. I have for the last few days been rather indisposed, for reasons you will soon discover.

The 2nd and 3rd of May saw the Moving Ladies team head to Medemblik, a town in the north of the Netherlands, for a two day mini tour consisting of a 70km Omloop and 100km Road Race. (Omloop, as I have come to learn is a circuit race which is longer than a criterium.) The tour was not quite at the same level as the UCI races I competed in the weekend before but with 150 girls all looking to try and add a win or two to their palmares I knew it was going to be another fast, aggressive and exhausting weekend of racing…I was right, but maybe not in the exact same sense I had prepared myself for.

The 70km Omloop began at 6:30 on Saturday evening, and was 10laps of a 7km course with a 1km stretch of Kwelderwej thrown in, which (almost) literally translates to “torture road”. With strong winds and a very chilly temperature I was eager to get the race underway, as were the other 149 competitors. As my five teammates and I rolled up to the start line we found the road already blocked by the majority of the field. Getting to the front and staying there is key to races in Europe, and on narrow, technical roads this can quite often be the greatest challenge you’ll face throughout the race. It’s not uncommon to see teams claiming their position on the starting line up to forty minutes before the race is due to start. As the race rolled away, (after numerous delays such as the lead motor bike having a flat tire and a rider dropping a chain which then took three people to put back on ), myself and the rest of the Moving Ladies team found ourselves at the very back of the bunch. As Emma had said “I might have to do some cyclo-cross”, we found ourselves darting through the smallest gap and occasionally acquainting ourselves with the grass in our quest to get to the front.

Once again the race didn’t let my expectations of Dutch racing down. The strong winds meant there was plenty of gutter action as people attempted to split the bunch apart. There was constant attacking and the 1km “torture road” stretch saw gaps open up and girls scramble to close them. This uneven brick section of road also made sure any loose water bottles would be punished, and I found myself not only having to pick the smoothest path of road but also dodging wild bottles in the process. Emma, who has had an incredible streak of bad luck in the last couple of weeks was unlucky enough to hit one of the stray bottles, crashing out of the race. Luckily she did no major damage to herself.

I got into a number of small breaks, I tried to drive the break to establish a decent gap, but I think with the combination of the riders in the race, team race plans and me not being a known rider yet no-one was willing to work to keep the break away. Coming into the final lap the bunch was together and it was clear it was going to be a mass sprint. The finish was very interesting, with a sharp left hand turn 600m from the line the road then curved to the left and kicked up hill for the last 150ms. Ideally, you would want to come from the left hand side as sprinting on the right would be like actually going around a European round-about when you can clearly just drive straight over the top of it. However, as everyone knows, things never, or almost never at least, go to plan in bike races. I came around the corner in 4th position and then somehow got myself boxed in. With 250ms to go I backed off, swung to the right and exploded up the right hand side of the road narrowly crossing the line in first position ahead of Claudia.

Being approached by the race commentator afterwards with a microphone was a little daunting, luckily he seemed to have caught on that my Dutch was limited to non-existent and interviewed me in English. I received my three kisses from the Mayor, my bunch of flowers and my first European yellow jersey which I would wear proudly in the next 100km road race stage.

I will not remember the second stage of the mini tour as fondly as I remember the first. The rain which began as we sat on the start line could have been seen as the first bad omen of the day. However, I think if you took that approach in the Netherlands you’d end up with an extremely grim looking future.

My race and overall Tour aspirations came to a crashing end 15kms into Sunday’s stage when I failed to see/hear the warning (if there was one?) that the gutter jutted out. As I seem to always do, I hit my head when I crashed, concussing myself and have very little memory of the crash and the next hour or so after. However, I’m told that when the team car got to me they found me putting my bike together and jumping straight back on to continue with the race. I’m quite impressed with my level of dedication, even when concussed.

Despite my initial attempt to continue with the race I was soon in an ambulance completely confused, disoriented and going in and out of consciousness. As it turns out, waking up in a foreign country thousands of miles away from home while a nurse speaks to you in Dutch and the roof is spinning can be quite overwhelming and exhausting.

My first trip to a Dutch hospital, a CT scan and a few hours later it turned out I was fine. The Moving Ladies team once again loaded everything into the cars and headed home after a very eventful weekend. Harrie, the man both Emma and I are staying with seemed to have found himself in charge of a mini hospital as both Emma and I hobbled into the house a little worse for wear than when we left.

This coming Saturday is my next UCI race. Here’s hoping I’m healed from my latest adventure and can improve on my last result when racing the big girls!