Saturday, July 4, 2009

Emma Mackie Races in the Women's Giro d'Italia, Part III


Emma Mackie's (Lotto-Belisol) second report in her own words:

Prologue, Day 1:

It is finally here, the start of the GiroDonne! Leaving the airport at 10.30am from Belgium and looking at the weather forecast in Pisa, cloudy and thunderstorms! I was not looking forward to the flight! But to our surprise we arrived in Pisa to sun! I’m always excited when I travel to Italy! I love coming here, the country, food and the best part of all, the Italian coffee...mmmm. I headed straight to the closest espresso bar to order "un cappuccino!" It didn’t disappoint.

So we have arrived at the hotel and it is very nice. I was surprised and happy to see we had air-conditioning! After a quick lunch I’m now relaxing before we leave in 30min for the 2.5km prologue!


After the prologue we arrived late back at the hotel, I think 11pm. So I was looking forward to a good night sleep after a long day and a hard short prologue in the heat! So I’m not sure where I finished think around mid field (ed. note: 70th). But with the days ahead this is not so important for me.

Stage 1, Day 2:

Today was a hard day! The heat was nearly unbearable and I’m from Australia!! Today’s stage was 99kms with two main climbs with the finish on top of the last climb! I got over the first climb with the front bunch. My legs feeling good considering I haven’t done much climbing lately. But the heat today really hit me. I heard from my team mate that the average temperature today was 38 degrees (C)! On the last climb I was trying to keep good position as it was going fast with Cervelo driving it on the front. In the last 2ks I was thinking great I could try for a good finish and tried to move up on the outside with 1k to go just as they kicked on the front! I'd moved to early and could feel the lactic rise from my legs to my throat and had to ease up as I'd lost too much. Now I just wanted to cross the line! But as soon as I did I was grabbed by the doping control, just my luck! So it’s been a lot of rehydration this afternoon. I had the best massage from Steffano our Italian masseuse. We have just finished dinner and I’m now ready for bed and looking towards the 13km time trial tomorrow in the heat! So for now it’s goodnight.

Ciao

Emma




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