Stage 3 –  7 July 2003 – 83km

Today’s stage was 83km, again finishing at the top of a mountain.  I am so grateful that today is the last mountain stage, with the rest of the stages being relatively flat and undulating – much better terrain for my build.

We started today’s stage in Monteroduni, an amazing Italian village perched right on the top of a mountain, with an old castle standing on the highest peak. I read in our Italian race bible (not that I can read Italian) but could work out that the castle was built in 1193.  The weather was again hot, (35C) so keeping hydrated was again a concern.   There were storm clouds gathering though, so we were anticipating a shower or two.

After yesterday’s bad start, I got to the start line 20 minutes early to secure a position up near the front.  The stage started with a fast 4km steep descent and then we headed onto a highway before turning upwards for a day of climbing.  My stomach was still a little squeezy but better than yesterday so had a bit more energy today for climbing.  The first category 2 climb started at the 9km mark and the fast pace caused me to gradually slipped towards the back of the peloton.  I recovered a little at the 20km mark but I kept getting really slowed down on the hairpin corners and the accelerations out of these corners to catch back on was ripping my legs apart.  At the 28km mark, I started to drift back through the cars and I watched the peloton ride away.  I worked with a few girls as we crested the hill at 31km, and soon formed a group of 15 riders which included two Team SATS team-mates, Meredith and Charm.

The rain started after 40km and it came down really hard.  The roads turned treacherously slippery and with the long hairpin descents we had to ride really conservatively.  The oil and mud off the roads was flicked up everywhere making riding a little unpleasant.

In Team SATS Charm, Mitte and I remained upright while the others had a few incidents. Tina wiped out on a corner and slide for several metres but jumped up quickly and got back into the front group.  She went on to finish in the top 30.  Christine abandoned the race after vomiting all night and having absolutely no strength to climb.

Felicia crashed into a guard rail, with her ribs taking the entire impact. She flipped her bike over the guard rail and had to climb over and retrieve it.  Our director Chris had trouble finding her as she was still down the embankment retrieving her bike when he drove by.

Trine crashed out on a corner and put a nasty gash in her elbow and still finished well.

Joan Wilson (Team TDS) who was riding carbon wheels that are super light but have the disadvantage of not breaking well in the wet, lost control on a corner, broke 2 ribs as well as her collarbone.  Meredith and I found her in the back of the ambulance in a full body brace after the race.  Amy Safe (AIS) crashed on a corner and needed 5 stitches in her elbow which they did without an anaesthetic.  In all, nearly every second rider had a bandage of some sort on their body.

We finished the race in Castelpizzuto several minutes behind the lead group but happy that the major climbing stages are over.

Gidday from Italy!!!