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Australian Professional Cyclist

Archive for July, 2010

Lotto Ladies- back on the podium!

Podium

Last week I was 2nd in the UCI race in Cento Italy. Kim Schoonbaert was 3rd in Maarkedal Belgium and Grace Verbeke won the Mountains jersey in the UCI tour of Limousin, France.

Grand Prix de Cento Carnevale d’Europa Feminin was held on the 17th of July in 40 degree heat. The course in Cento Ferarra is a flat sprinters course with a total of 10m vertical ascent which is gained on the two bridges passing over the river. The race is 11 laps of a 10km circuit. There is a total of 10km’s of cobbled sections including the 500m’s into the finish- this tends to favour the older, stronger sprinters.

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Post Giro d’Italia Recovery

Home: Transacqua,Trento. Northern Italy.

Stinging!

Stinging!

After crashing hard on stage two at the 2010 Giro d’Italia I was determined to fight hard and continue. I did question why I would consider throwing my leg over my bike when I couldn’t even dress myself or brush my own hair etc but for some reason, we do crazy things!

I was fortunate to crash the day before the TT so I was able to complete the 17km the following day.

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Giro d’Italia 2010 – Stage 4

Stage Four: Ficarolo (RO) to Lendinara (RO). 90km.

Before Start - Stage 4

As predicted, I woke up feeling like I’d been hit by a truck! Well I guess I was hit by some very fast moving bikes and riders! I can hardly turn my head (sore neck) and my lower back is  swollen and bruised- apart from that I’m just coping with the usual throbbing and burning wounds.

After a short discussion with my coach who is in Australia- Warren McDonald we decided I should start and see how I feel on the bike. I thought yeh yeh this is impossible and I had  visualised jumping off the bike and into the race car after 10km! I actually felt ok on the bike and rolled in for 13thplace. I positioned myself near the front (with some committed assistance from my team mates) but didn’t want to take any risks in the sprint in case of another fall.

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Giro d’Italia 2010 – Stage 3

Stage Three: ITT. Caerano S. Marco (TV) to Biadene (TV). 16.9km.

TT Helmet

I woke up very stiff and sore today and also with a very bad headache after the high speed crash yesterday.

I’m lucky it was only an Individual Time Trial today and I could tolerate the pain for just 17km, the extreme heat made it a tough task! I didn’t push too hard on the pedals, I just took it very easy- I’m guessing I’d have the slowest time of the day.

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Giro d’Italia 2010 – Stage 2

Post Race Stage 2

Stage Two: Sacile (TV) to Riese Pio X (TV). 130km.

Today’s stage was long, hot, and pretty boring until the final few kilometres. My SRM Power Control read an average temperature of 40 degree’s, it’s normally pretty accurate but the race car only read 35 degrees, anyway- it was hot!!

I felt much better during the last kilometres of days stage and I was positioned well and feeling comfortable with 1km to go. Unfortunately I locked handles bars with another rider who was fighting me for position and we came down, clearly we were being too aggressive and didn’t give each other enough space. We crashed at 60km/hr in the final sprint and
regrettably caused a little carnage; fortunately I was released from the hospital in the worst condition without any broken bones. Sharon Laws of Cervelo suffered a hairline fracture to her clavicle.

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