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 number of athletes were busy eating their cereal while in a corner, a nurse was busy sucking blood out of each riders arm.  I am horrible with injections and warned our Director that I may faint.  He had me squeeze his hand and this helped distract me from the procedure.  The results came back before the start of the stage and the tour was certainly taking its toll on me as my hematocrit level was only 38.7 when it is typically around 40.

Today’s stage was really tough for our team.  The course was a 30km undulating loop in the town of Jesi but it had a really nasty 2km climb straight off the line and on the first lap I felt like my legs were being ripped off.  The climb really warmed me up though and about 10km I saw an attack up a climb and went with it.  I sat on her wheel and then countered her attack.  She jumped with me and I looked back to see that we had a gap.  She pulled through over the top of the climb but within 30 seconds the strung out field soon closed the gap.  The next counter attack left me gasping for air and struggling to hold a wheel as the peloton kept the pace at 45km/hr.

A few minutes later I heard over the radio we all wear that Tina Mayolo-Pic had flatted.  Charm dropped back to help her while Meredith, Felicia and I hung towards the back of the peloton while  Mette stayed up near the front of the peloton to cover any attacks.  Tina rode hard and was soon in the caravan of team cars and after several minutes of time trialing was at the back of the peloton just as we started our second lap.  Suddenly, someone at the front of the main field attacked hard up the 2km climb and the peloton strung out into a long single line.  With most of Team SATS at the back with the weaker riders, gaps started to open up and we were all struggling to close them.  As we crested the hill, we were in a group of 30 riders, about 10 seconds off the main field.  Meredith, Tina and I started driving it hard but no-one would help us.  We held the 10 second gap for a several minutes before it gradually began to stretch.  I radioed my frustration to our Director who suggested that two of us jump off the front and time trial ourselves back onto the group, without taking the entire field.  Tina and I attacked with Lynn Gaggioli (USA) coming with us.  We worked hard together but were unable to get any closer than 25 seconds.

At the start of the final 30km lap, the three of us knew we were unable to close the gap and we rode tempo for the final lap.  A team mate, Felicia and another rider, Rhonda Quick (USA) eventually joined us and we rode in together.  We lost nearly 10 minutes today on the lead group which was disappointing.  Mette (Team SATS) narrowly avoided a crash in the final kilometre and then rode up the wrong side of the finishing shoot, so her chance at a top 10 finish didn’t happen today.

The other unfortunate incident today was that Charm, after dropping back to help get Tina back on after her wheel change, missed the caravan convoy and rode the majority of the stage on her own.   With such a fast stage, Charm finished outside the allocated 10% time cut allowance and was excluded from continuing in the race.  This rule is tough if you get dropped from the main field and with the hills and windy conditions it unfortunately meant the end of Charm’s Giro d’Italia.

My legs are a little fried from trying so hard to get back to the group, but I hope I find something in the legs to have a good day tomorrow.