Miffy Galloway’s Giro Donne Diary – Stage 1

image courtesy Anton Vos By Miffy Galloway (Twitter ? @MiffyG) The Giro Donne week coincides with the hottest week in Italy – fact. I glanced over at Rochelle’s SRM and it read: 35deg at 11:00am.? I was sweating buckets just being alive. We successfully navigated our way to the start of stage 1, a good result in itself after a road trip where having close encounters with other vehicles was seen as a challenge. Lining up on the start line, we had 8km of ‘neutral’ through the centre of Napoli before resetting our clocks and covering the 139km along the coast to Terracina. I say ‘neutral’ because there was nothing ‘neutral’ about it – as riders raced over the cobbled streets, limbs wobbling, bottles flying, bikes breaking, the majority of the peloton was in the red before the race had even officially started. I was having problems of my own during the neutral section, the buckle of my shoe decided to eject itself off my foot over the cobbles. I was pulling my foot out of my shoe every time I pulled my foot up on the pedals. Not ideal. It took about 10km before I was able to return to the team car and ask for ‘scotch’ – electrical tape so I could firmly strap my foot in my shoe. Crisis temporarily avoided, I was back in the bunch and ready to work. Honestly, after a couple of riders snuck off the front of the peloton early on in the race, it was a rather uneventful day out on the bike. The peloton seemed largely content to let the 4 riders suffer alone in the heat and gained a maximum advantage of 8min before the sprinters teams got to work to bring them back for the finish. A little mean really. Fast forward to 15km to go, the breakaway riders were caught and the sprinters trains were starting to gather at the head of the peloton. 10km to go and I saw our sprinter Rochelle Gilmore battling on the right hand side of the road against the Diadora and Specialized Lululemon trains of Giorgia Bronzini and Ina Yoko Teutenberg. Riding uncomfortably close to the broken edge of the road, I rode up alongside of Rochelle to try and stop every other sprinter in the bunch who was also looking to take advantage of the well drilled trains. It wasn’t long after I settled in on the gutter, chewing stem, that I hear Rochelle’s familiar call ‘UP!!’ – my first reaction: ‘F me. Is she serious??’ my engine already overheating I turned on the after burners, legged it to the front with her in tow, and blew up spectacularly. My job was done and now it was up to the rest of the team to help her at the finish. 5km to go and I’d drifted through the bunch as if my breaks were rubbing. Gritting my teeth, I to tried desperately to cling to the thinning peloton and get as much tow as I could to avoid what would have probably otherwise been the longest 5km of my life. I rolled across the line, as what was surprisingly not last wheel, and lived to fight another day. Still perspiring like a pig on a spit, seeing a sparkling blue pool at our accommodation was like waking up on Christmas morning to a stocking filled with presents. Rocking up to Hotels on tour is a little like opening a surprise pick and mix ? you know roughly what you?re going to get but there is always something that will take you by surprise. After having a dribbling shower and a toilet which leaked its contents all over the bathroom floor in the previous hotel, it was a nice change to have a shower with pressure even if I couldn?t bring myself to eat the main course of a whole fish ? face and eyes very much still intact. Tomorrow?s stage is a 7km TT, not expecting much although given the ridiculous form of some of the riders here, I will definitely have to make an effort to make sure I get across the line in time limit!! Better go practice being aero. Miffy xx