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

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


Stage 2, Day 3


We have arrived in our new hotel for tonight after a long 4 hour drive! Again there is no Internet access which I am finding difficult. My stay in Italy so far has been going good, although I am feeling the heat as are the rest of the girls! I have still been drinking plenty of coffee every chance I get, I just love the coffee in Italy. So the prologue and one stage have past and I have heard that these are meant to be some of the hardest stages! (I doubt that).After my doping control on the 1st stage I thought that would be it but to my delight and my teammates we woke up yesterday to doping control in the hotel!! The doctor wasn’t very good with his needle and I was left with a dead arm for the rest of the day...ouch.


The stage yesterday was the Individual time trial. It was 15kms long. We drove the course when we arrived and we were all shocked at how hard the finish was. With 1km to go coming off a descent you took a sharp right hand turn and almost immediately went straight up to the finish. I think I could have run faster up it!


My goal for the day was to just finish in a reasonable time but not to blow myself as I’m not much of a time trialer and the GC is not a goal for me. We have one girl on the team, Lizzy (ed. note: Elizabeth Armitstead) who is riding for the young jersey classification. She did a great ride and ended up taking the white young jersey!!


Stage 3, Day 4


The heat again really knocked me around and I felt empty later that night and pretty tired when I woke up today. We had to pack all of our things when we left this morning as we would change hotels for tonight and for the rest of the tour. Today’s stage was one of the hardest on paper and as it turned out on the bike as well! It started off with rain which wasn’t nice and ended in heat again. We had two main climbs. A cat 1 climb and cat 2 climb. We finished again on the top of the last climb which was 10kms long and steep. I think the guys went over the same climb in the Giro d ‘Italia. We had a fast speed going into the first climb and straight away it split into groups. I just tried to get myself into a nice group to get myself to the finish. Lizzy again had a great ride and managed to keep the young rider's white jersey.

I’m always amazed at how much pain you can put your body through in tours and how fast it goes away when you cross the line and finish. So we still have a long way to go so I hope to have some exciting news to come....

Ciao


Emma

Stories, including cycling trip stories, for the Italian Cycling Journal welcome; contact veronaman@gmail.com

GiroDonne, Stage 3

A tough mountain stage today saw Mara Abbott (Team Columbia-HTC) outsprint Emma Pooley at the end of the 106.4 Km stage for the stage victory. Emma Pooley's finish enabled her to take the pink jersey.

The stage began in Calcinaia a Prato and finished with a double ascent of the gruelling Monte Serra climb with a mountaintop finish. Monte Serra, at 917 m. in elevation, is the largest mountain in the Monti Pisani mountain chain.

The 23-year-old American was delighted about the victory. "It's really exciting. There are so many good riders on this team that even though I felt strong, it was difficult to imagine that I could actually be strong enough to go for the win," Abbott said afterwards.

Abbott initially broke away with Pooley on the first ascent of the 10-kilometre Monte Serra, but came off her bike on the downhill section of the climb. "The descent was very tricky because it had rained and I crashed, although fortunately I wasn't injured. Linda [Villumsen, Columbia-HTC teammate] guided me back up to the front group before we reached the Montesierra again.

"Almost as soon as we did, I got away again with Pooley. Then when [Pooley's teammate Claudia] Hausler got across, I attacked and managed to drop her, which left me and Pooley as stage leaders. Pooley did most of the work, but I couldn't collaborate because I wanted to defend [teammate] Judith Arndt's position on GC. Finally at the summit, I attacked about 800 metres from the top and went for the win."

Now second overall, Abbott was cautiously optimistic about Columbia-HTC's chances of winning, either with her or another rider. "There are some very tough stages coming up, but Judith [Arndt] is still high up on the overall so we've got a lot of options, not just me. But in any case, I'm very pleased about things have worked out today. It was cool!"

“It was a hard race,” said Cervelo test team Sports Director Manel Lacambra. “We controlled the race for the first 60 km, and then Pooley attacked on the climb and broke away with a few others. In the decent it was slippery as it was raining. From our team Claudia, Kristin and Emma (Pooley) were all involved in crashes and missed the lead. Claudia and Emma were able to make it back to the lead but unfortunately Armstrong was too far back. On the final climb Pooley attacked again and got away with Hausler and Mara Abbot. It was a hectic final. The finish sprint was won by Mara Abbot ahead of Emma and Claudia. With her second place finish, Emma took also the lead in the overall ranking. Luckily all girls are fine after the crashes and we can look forward to the next stages. I am very happy about the team performances today.”

Emma Mackie's Lotto Belisol teammate, Elizabeth Armitstead, held onto the white jersey.

Stage 3 top 10 results:
1 Mara Abbott (USA) Team Columbia-HTC Women 2:55:32
2 Emma Pooley (GBr) Cervelo Test Team s.t.
3 Claudia Hausler (Ger) Cervelo TestTeam 0:00:36
4 Judith Arndt (Ger) Team Columbia-HTC Women 0:01:24
5 Svetlana Bubnenkova (Rus) Fenixs Edilsavino s.t.
6 Carla Ryan (Aus) Cervelo Test Team 0:01:32
7 Edita Pucinskaite (Ltu) Gauss RDZ Ormu - Colnago 0:02:00
8 Amber Neben (USA) Equipe Nürnberger Versicherung 0:02:05
9 Nicole Brandli (Swi) Bigla Cycling Team 0:02:47
10 Fabiana Luperini (Ita) Selle Italia Ghezzi s.t.

Top 10 GC:

1 Emma Pooley (GBr) Cervelo Test Team 6:06:15
2 Mara Abbott (USA) Team Columbia-HTC 0:01:07
3 Claudia Häusler (Ger) Cervelo Test Team 0:01:18
4 Judith Arndt (Ger) Equipe Nürnberger 0:01:40
5 Amber Neben (Usa) Team Columbia-HTC 0:01:34
6 Svetlana Bubnenkova (Rus) Fenixs Edilsavino 0:01:45
7 Edita Pucinskaite (Ltu) Gauss Rdz Ormu Colnago 0:02:22
8 Carla Ryan (Aus) Cervelo Test Team 0:03:04
9 Nicole Brändli (Sui) Team Bigla 0:03:34
10 Fabiana Luperini (Ita) Selle Italia Ghezzi 0:04:12

Jersey classification:

Pink: Emma Pooley (Cervelo Test Team)

Cyclamen: Emma Pooley

Green: Mara Abbott (Team Columbia-HTC)

White: Elizabeth Armitstead (Lotto Belisol Ladies Team)

Photos: Mara Abbott crossing the mountaintop finish ahead of Emma Pooley; Mara Abbott, Emma Pooley and Elizabeth Armitstead

Stories, including cycling trip stories, for the Italian Cycling Journal welcome; contact veronaman@gmail.com

Wilier Cento1 "Superleggera" at Tour de France

Team Lampre NGC is using a new model of the Wilier Cento1, the "Superleggera", at the Tour de France.

The characteristics of the Superleggera (Superlight) were described by Wilier's Andrea Gastaldello: "Identical to the Cento1 in form and technical characteristics, we have utilized the potential of carbon materials to reduce the weight of the Cento1 Superlight while ensuring the ride quality, efficiency and durability of a bike capable of taking both gold and silver medals at the World Championships.The Cento1 Superlight was 2009 Giro d'Italia by Team Lampre. It is constructed primarily of 46 Ton carbon fiber, while benefiting from the strategic implementation of its even stiffer cousin, Mitsubishi 60 Ton. Its unique and innovative carbon layup also makes it more impact-resistant than other ultra-lightweight materials, and we’ve even come up with a lighter, more svelte aluminum sleeve in the bottom bracket which is molded into the monocoque construction during the final carbon curing process. Research led us beyond materials all the way to paint. The final protective layer on a Cento1 Superlight is a specially formulated paint that provides the same elegant beauty that typifies Wilier Triestina bikes while reducing weight.The result is all the performance you expect from a Cento1 - minus 120 grams!"

Stories, including cycling trip stories, for the Italian Cycling Journal welcome; contact veronaman@gmail.com

GiroDonne, Stage 2

World Champion time trialist Amber Neben (Equipe Nurnberger Versicherung) won the 15 Km individual trime trial to S. Maria a Monte today. It was her first Giro stage victory, and she also took the lead in the GC. In second place was Olympic Gold medalist Kristin Armstrong (Cervelo Test Team) who trailed Neben by 14 seconds. Third on the podium was Emma Pooley (Cervelo Test Team), 30 seconds down from Neben. The highest placed Italian was the Italian national champion Noemi Cantele (Bigla Cycling Team), 46 seconds after Neben.


Neben rode the 15 Km course from Pontedera to S. Maria a Monte in 20'39"26"', at an average speed of 43.574 Km/h. She said, "It was a hard ITT. Glad I drove it before. My FUJI D6 and Shimano Di2 were fantastic."


Emma Mackie's Lotto-Belisol teammate, Elizabeth Armitstead, finished 22nd and took over the white, young rider's, jersey.


Stage 2 top 10 results:

1 Amber Neben (USA) Equipe Nürnberger Versicherung 20:39
2 Kristin Armstrong (USA) Cervelo TestTeam 0:00:14
3 Emma Pooley (GBr) Cervelo TestTeam 0:00:30
4 Svetlana Bubnenkova (Rus) Fenixs Edilsavino 0:00:39
5 Judith Arndt (Ger) Team Columbia HTC Women 0:00:45
6 Noemi Cantele (Ita) Bigla Cycling Team 0:00:51
8 Tatiana Antoshina (Rus) Gauss RDZ Ormu - Colnago 0:00:56
9 Edita Pucinskaite (Ltu) Gauss RDZ Ormu - Colnago 0:00:58
10 Linda Melanie Villumsen (Den) Team Columbia HTC Women 0:01:07


Top 10 GC:

1 Amber Neben (USA) Equipe Nürnberger Versicherung 3:10:18
2 Kristin Armstrong (USA) Cervelo TestTeam 0:00:22
3 Emma Pooley (GBr) Cervelo TestTeam 0:00:31
4 Judith Arndt (Ger) Team Columbia HTC Women 0:00:35
5 Noemi Cantele (Ita) Bigla Cycling Team 0:00:44
6 Svetlana Bubnenkova (Rus) Fenixs Edilsavino 0:00:46
7 Edita Pucinskaite (Ltu) Gauss RDZ Ormu - Colnago 0:00:47
8 Claudia Hausler (Ger) Cervelo TestTeam 0:01:11
9 Nicole Brandli (Swi) Bigla Cycling Team 0:01:12
10 Diana Ziliute (Ltu) Safi - Pasta Zara Titanedi 0:01:15



Jersey classification:
Pink: Amber Neben (Equipe Nurberger)
Cyclamen: Amber Neben
Green: Amber Neben
White: Elizabeth Armitstead (Lotto Betisol Ladies Team)



Stories, including cycling trip stories, for the Italian Cycling Journal welcome; contact veronaman@gmail.com

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

Previous related stories from Emma:
Part I: http://italiancyclingjournal.blogspot.com/2009/06/emma-mackie-races-in-womens-giro.html
Part II: http://italiancyclingjournal.blogspot.com/2009/06/emma-mackie-races-in-womens-giro_29.html

Stories, including cycling trip stories, for the Italian Cycling Journal welcome; contact veronaman@gmail.com

GiroDonne, Stage 1

Edita Pucinskaite (Gauss RDZ Ormu - Colnago), race winner in 2006 and 2007, won the opening road stage and took the pink jersey of the GiroDonne today by outsprinting Italy's Fabiana Luperini (Selle Italia Ghezzi) and Germany's Judith Arndt (Team Columbia HTC Women) on the uphill finish in Pratolino di Vaglia.

"It's a wonderful feeling, unbelievable," said Pucinskaite. "I have suffered much in recent months, not having much success. I dedicate this victory to my team and to Ernesto Colnago, who have both made me feel important and assisted in putting me at ease. The Giro is long, but I am ready to go forward with my head held high. For me this is the greatest of victories and I will be ready to join the fight in each stage going forward." She dedicated her victory to fellow Lithuanian Zinaida Stahurskaia who was killed by an automobile last month while training.

Pucinskaite now leads in GC by one second over Arndt and nine seconds over Italians Cantele and Luperini.

American Megan Guarnier, from the US National Team, attempted a solo escape which lasted from Km 16 to 52.

Top 10 GC:
1 Edita Pucinskaite (Ltu) Gauss RDZ Ormu - Colnago 2:49:28
2 Judith Arndt (Ger) Team Columbia HTC Women 0:00:01
3 Noemi Cantele (Ita) Bigla Cycling Team 0:00:09
4 Fabiana Luperini (Ita) Selle Italia Ghezzi 0:00:09
5 Amber Neben (USA) Equipe Nürnberger Versicherung 0:00:11
6 Emma Pooley (GBr) Cervelo TestTeam 0:00:12
7 Diana Ziliute (Ltu) Safi - Pasta Zara Titanedi 0:00:13
8 Nicole Brandli (Swi) Bigla Cycling Team 0:00:14
9 Svetlana Bubnenkova (Rus) Fenixs Edilsavino 0:00:18
10 Kristin Armstrong (USA) Cervelo TestTeam 0:00:19

Stories, including cycling trip stories, for the Italian Cycling Journal welcome; contact veronaman@gmail.com

Tour de France, Monaco

The Tour de France has even invaded the Principality of Monaco. At 6.15pm, July 2nd, a quarter of an hour behind schedule and greeted by Eddy Merckx and Bernard Hinault on the specially built stage at Port Hercule, Prince Albert surrendered himself to the world of cycling. Greeting, thanking, celebrating, officiating. In two days' time the ninety-sixth Tour begins, but the Principality welcomed it two days beforehand, practically a week beforehand, and sentimentally a year ago when it participated in and promoted "le grand depart" during the race that started from Brest, in Brittany.

GRANDEUR - Monaco received, welcomed and hosted the Tour in style. The stage projected out over the port, and facing it was a stand holding 6,500 people, who leaped to attention when Merckx and Hinault arrived, and when Prince Albert arrived in a blue car with the number plate Monaco 1, they broke into applause. But there were people everywhere: on balconies, on terraces, on overbridges, on yachts moored at the quays. This was how Monte Carlo, with its mazes of skyscrapers, celebrated the two-wheelers, according them the glamour that seems the antithesis of the effort, the sacrifice, the sweat - of the road to be conquered with the power of the legs and heart. A peaceful invasion of bikes and jerseys, posters and displays, champions and glory.

AMBITIOUS PIPPO - Right down to the parade of the teams, who were introduced in heroic tones and an American style. The first team, obviously, was French: Bbox Bouygues Telecom. Then came Katusha, with the much-loved Pippo Pozzato, who is at home here both in terms of his place of residence and his vanity. "I want to win a stage," he declared, "to show my tri-colour jersey." In all, 20 teams, 180 riders, 40 team managers. A litany of brilliant careers, a list of victorious dreams, a collection of endless hopes. And the last was first: the last to be introduced was the winner of the 2008 Tour, the Spaniard Carlos Sastre.

TIME TRIAL TODAY - Between first and last, between last and first, there is room for the half-Tunisian Daid Haddou, the Basque Mikel Astarloza, the Sicilian Danilo Napolitano, the Etruscan Daniele Righi, for the favourite Alberto Contador, for the eternal Lance Armstrong. All stars - for a moment the most modest, for three weeks the strongest. Tomorrow the riders will be able to study the course for the first stage, a 15.5 km time trial. On Saturday it begins. And as is the case every time the Tour begins, so does summer, the party, the ritual of cycling.

Photo: Prince Albert, Felice Gimondi and Eddy Merckx, at the start of a charity ride in Monaco

Story by Marco Pastonesi. Stories, including cycling trip stories, for the Italian Cycling Journal welcome; contact veronaman@gmail.com