Jennie Stenerhag

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Giro della Toscana

2010-09-20

Last week Monday I got to know that I am doing Giro della Toscana with the national team. So on Sunday it was time to pack the bag and head off for the last trip of the 2010 season. Early Monday morning I flew to Florens to meet up with the others, it was me, Emma, Madde, Marie, Sara and Veronica. We were very positively surprised when we saw our view from our hotel room, the beach and the ocean!! We are staying on the beach road in Lido de Camaiore. So that it was only us, the German national team and a bunch of retired people and that the design was from the 70´s did not matter so much;)

The first stage was a 5.5km team time trail, we did not have time trail bikes so we did as good as we could on our road bikes. We think we were the fastest team on road bikes so we were happy with that. An 8th place out of 21 teams.

It is wonderful to wake up to the sun, heat and summer, and opening the balcony door to overlook the ocean!! The second stage was in the afternoon so we had time for a cappuccino in the morning!! Life is great in Italy. The stage was relatively flat with 2 shorter climbs. It was 2 serious break aways but it all came together for the finish. We were doing well during the race and Emma got a fifth place in the end!

Day 3 had a hill stage on offer. It started flat with some smaller hills, then a 4km climb before it finished off with 2x10km up hill! We went up Volterra just to go down to the bottom and up again on the other side! I got away in an early break together with Sara and 13 others, I think we had around 3 minutes as the most. Unfortunately my legs gave in on the 4 km climb and then came back to the bunch but lost them the first time up Volterra. I was with a few other girls and we caught up with more and more. When we had 2km to the finish we were in a group of 60, I was completely finished then and came over the line among the last. That was such a hard stage!! Emma did very well but had mechanical problems 50 meters from the line and had to run over the line...

The fourth stage was short, almost felt a bit un necessary to drive 100 km late in the evening to race 2.2 km in the dark and rain and then drive back 100 km and be back at the hotel at 11.30pm. It was such a nice and much needed rest day!! It was still fun to do the time trail, I have never raced in the dark before!!

Day 5 was really not my day… We started the stage by rolling to the cemetery where Michaela Fanini is burried, this race is run by her dad to her memory, she was a great cyclist a before she died. So after a short memorial service the race started. We had 4 laps to do that included one hill and then a fifth lap with a longer hill. The second time up the hill I got a puncture and another teams service car stopped and gave me a wheel, nice but unfortunately the cassette did not work on my bike, something I discovered a bit later when only the easiest or hardest gear was working… I had to chase hard to get back, some other girls had lost the bunch and since I was with them I was not allowed to go on the caravan. We came back and I suffered a bit in the bunch cause the speed was very high today. The fourth time up the hill the race was over for me… I lost the bunch and tried hard for a long time to get back but no…. So 33 km completely on my own… not fun… Emma got a third place today, very well done!!!

The last day we got sunshine again and a fast hard race since it was relatively flat. We started with a 7 laps on a 8km route and our team worked very well and were active the whole time. Then we went on towards Florence in a high speed, most of the time it was only one long line of cyclists. I lost the bunch on the hill close to the finish and came there about 1 minute after the bunch. It was cobble stones and very technical the last kilometres in the centre of Florence.

Emma got a fifth place in the end, I was somewhere far down on the list. It has been a nice week in Italy, nice food, cappuccinos and sunshine (except for 1 ½ day). Thanks girls for an awesome week! Last evening we celebrated with an Italian pizza and Italian ice cream in Florence, there is nowhere where those things tastes as good as in Italy!!!