Giro del Trentino: hills and lots of rain!

First stage Trento - Appiano (km 75) with the "Passo dela Mendola"

Team presentation in Trento (Suzie, Irina, Natalia and Buba)

This race was way too hilly for me to hope for a good result, but it was a perfect training to improve my climbing skills.

Team car ........

For the first stage, which started in Trento and arrived in Appiano, with a 35km uphill to the passo della Mendola (1.363m), my only aim was to cross the finish line in the time limit. I survived and reached the arrival 21’ after the winner Emma Pooley, who smashed all her competitors and eventually won the race.Fortunately this stage was dry, because the downhill from the passo proved to be very technical. Usually, I am a pretty good in downhills, but I lost over 2’ in that part.

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.... Suzie and Nicole Cooke before the start of the race

Second stage Riva del Garda - Monzambano (km. 111)

Teampresentation (Natalia, Suzie and Irina) with Mister Speaker Alberto Rigamonti

The day started with sunshine, but just before the start the sky grew darker and darker and after the 15km, we had thunderstorms with heavy rain.

7km after start, the first uphill of the day: several attacks right from the start had woken up the strong riders in the bunch, so the bunch immediatly split.

Suzie before the start and ..........

I was in a second group, along with Alexandra d’Ettore from Fassa Bortolo, who at that time, was second overall in the general classification.

After a chase of about 20km, we were back in the main bunch. In the second GPM however, which was about in the middle of the race, I got a chainsuck, lost my rhythm and the contact to the bunch. Again I was in a group of six behind the bunch, we were struggling in the floods of water to reach the arrival.

..... on the arrival!

I was very happy when the line finally came in sight, because my backwheel was slightly sliding and after the arrival, I noticed that it had a broken spoke.

The 100km in the water left marks: my fingers and hands were wrinkled as if I had laid in a bathtube for half a day...

Teampresentation (Suzie, Natalia and Irina) with Mister Speaker Alberto Rigamonti

The third and last stage led from Castel di Thun to Cles. The organisator had choosen a beautiful spot for the start, but as it was raining steadily all day long, nobody really cared and we couldn’t appreciate it. The inital 3km downhill were neutralized because of the dangerous and, due to the rain, slippery passages. Then we had to ride up two thirds of the climb of the first day (passo della Mendola). I had felt better from day to day and, as regularly riders dropped out of the bunch, I was in a group of a dozen riders, again with the first days 2nd A. d’Ettore, some strong riders from Gauss, just behind the main bunch.

On the way to the Castel Thun for the teampresentation with manager Marc

Fortunatly, the stage was short (only 72km), but the cold never ceasing rain made it seem long enough. I was longing for a warm shower after the race, so I forgot to lift my rain jacket on the finish line (all the other girls in my group forgot too) and therefore I am not in the final classification.

With a groupe in the 36km long uphill and .........

The last girl in the classification was a rider that got dropped out of our group, so I’m sure that we were in the 50 first riders of the race, which shows my progression and makes me confident for the nationals this weekend.

... on the final arrival!

Just I just hope that I didn’t catch a cold with all that rain in Trentino.

See you.