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 blood out. I wondered if my body could replace the lost blood by 10am if I ate enough for breakfast.  This time I handled the needle much better but still had cold clammy hands while I nervously waited my turn.

We decided to eat breakfast right away, so I sat with my back to the nurse and chowed into some cereal, yoghurt and several cups of Italian espresso.  They make great coffee but it is a bit strong at times.

Team SATS plan was to get into a break and from the start there were numerous attacks from the major teams.  I was keen into the break and was jumping into many of the attacks but everything was being shut down, by one team or another.  The temperature was really warm too, and everyone was feeling tired.  Meredith had a solo break for several kilometres but the Cataluna team came to the front and team time trialled to chase her down.  After 137km, we passed the finish line and headed onto a 5km circuit that we rode twice.  This circuit had 2 tight corners on it and had a long 1.5km wide road to the finish.

With 3km to go, an Acca Due O rider attacked and I jumped across to her.  I took a hard turn at 55km/hr but the peloton were not keen to let anyone escape at this late stage and we were quickly swallowed up.  I tried to recover and position myself for the sprint.  The AIS train was driving at the front with the Acca Due O team also bringing Rochelle to the front.  It was a rough battle in the closing section with a lot of pushing and screaming.  I chose the right side of the road but just couldn’t get past many of the riders.  Trine, Tina and I were only 0.4 second behind the winner and finished 26th, 27th and 28th.

I was glad to have made it across the line in one piece.  I narrowly avoided running over a photographer who had positioned himself a mere 20m beyond the finish line.  I watched his eyes open wide as he realised he was in a bad place with the peloton hammering towards him at 60km/hr.

So with only one stage to go, it was off to the hotel to get some rest and recovery.  I was looking forward to a good massage, another bowl of pasta and an early night.  Meanwhile, our mechanics had a busy evening getting our aero bars on and tuning disk wheels for our final stage, the individual time trial.