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 hadn’t warmed up well and my legs screamed for the first hour.  The course was up the east coast of Italy and had some spectacular scenery with great views of the ocean, castles, churches and other old buildings – but with the speed sitting around 48-50km/hr, it was difficult to sit in the peloton and sight-see, although I did see one huge old castle that no-one else saw, so the joke was that I was sitting in the bunch – just looking around and enjoying the scenery.

The race finished in Alba Adriatica where we completed 3 laps of a 2km finishing circuit.  It was very difficult to move up on the last lap and the peloton had a number of almost crashes as we turned the final corner to sprint.  Mette Fische (Team SATS) finished 15th which was a great result for such a hard finish.   Other team SATS riders, Felicia and Charm were rolling into the finish and got caught up in a crash that significantly injured Felicia’s shoulder and took a lot of skin off Charm.  Felicia was at the hospital until 9pm where they told her various stories – she needs an operation, she has a ligament separation but also that she can ride tomorrow.  So she has a shoulder brace on it and she will see how she feels tomorrow.

Until then, I am off to eat another huge bowl of pasta and have a red vino!!! Ciao.

Hi there Everyone,

Here is another update on what is happening for me in the Giro d’Italia.

Ciao.