Stage 4 – 11 May 2003 – 60 minute criterium Conditions: sunny and not humid – 75F The criterium course was a 1.5km anti clockwise loop with 12 corners and 3 climbs per lap.  The first downhill corner after the start/finish line was a left off camber 90 degree turn.  Taking this corner near the front was a lot faster […]

Stage 3 – 10 May 2003 – 4km (2.5 miles) Individual Time Trial Conditions: hail, thunderstorms, rain, wind – 70F After a few hours rest we drove for an hour in heavy rain to the start of the uphill time trial.  As we pulled in to the parking lot, the hail started as well as lightning and thunder.  We sat […]

Stage 2 – 10 May 2003 – 110km (69 miles) road race Conditions: overcast, humid – 80F Today’s road stage started at 8am and after finishing yesterday’s race at 6pm we didn’t get a lot of recovery time.  However, I woke up feeling fresh and ready for two hard stages. The 110km road course started and finished in Fayetteville.  We […]

Joe Martin Stage Race – Fayetteville, Arkansas Stage 1 – 9 May 2003 – 112km (70 miles) point to point road race Conditions: hot, humid and windy – 80F The first stage of the Joe Martin Stage race was a 112km point-to-point road race starting at Natural Dam and finishing in the centre of Fayetteville.  The organisers transported all 31 […]

Stage 9 – 13 July 2003 – 24km I was so happy to wake up and realise that after today I could have a rest.  I wouldn’t have to force down food, I could sleep in and even have a day off!!! The time trial started in Mira and ended in Venezia (Venice).  I spent 45 minutes on the trainer, […]

Stage 8 – 12 July 2003 – 147km I couldn’t believe it.  Our director knocked on our door at 6am to inform us that (the vampires were back and) we all had to go to report for drug control testing again.  My first thought was that we had a long stage today and I hoped they wouldn’t take too much […]

Stage 7b – 11 July 2003 – 44km After another meal of pasta (what else would we eat day after day in Italy) we headed to the 7km circuit in Cento and rode a warm up lap in the 38C heat.  We were all dripping with sweat from the heat and from the thought of riding such a technical circuit […]

Well, the tour is finally over.  Here is how the last few days turned out. Stage 7a – 11 July 2003 – 45km Today was a tough day as we had to ride two stages.  We kicked the day off with a point to point race that started at 9.30am.  This meant an early start for us with me trying […]

Stage 6 – 10 July 2003 – 90km This morning we were woken up at 6.30am for drug testing.  Every rider in the hotel had blood taken to check whether our hematocrit level (red blood cell count) was under the prescribed limit.  And what better place to take our blood than in the restaurant where we eat breakfast, so a […]

Stage 5 – 9 July 2003 – 101km Today’s stage was really really fast.  After a breakfast of cereal, pasta and croissants we rode 5km from our hotel to the race start, in Lanciano for another hot stage. Someone attacked early and with the cross headwinds the bunch was strung out in a single line for the first 30km.  I […]