The hot weather, the efforts, the beautiful girls, the Maglia Rosa, the 'Have you already closed the road? If not, can I pass, please?', Tatiana Guderzo suffering under the sun, Lorenzo Roata's sandals... 2nd and 3rd stage of Giro Donne, seen from my point of view (sorry for the length, I understand you if you don't read the whole post!)
What does it mean to be a cyclist nowadays?
I'd like to ask this question to a girl. But not one of the girls who rides their bikes just once in a while. In fact, I'd like to ask this question to a girl who chooses cycling as a job.
How many things could we understand from a chat with a girl like that? How many good tales would we get from it? One day, I'd like to have one of these girls for me (I don't mean it in the naughty way!), so that I could ask her many things about what it's like to be a professional cyclist in the female peloton. SACILE-RIESE PIO X, 3rd of July 2010, Saturday Riese Pio X welcomes me again just one week after the Italian Championships. The car parking is the same as the previous time, also the finish-line is in the same place. Is the weather the same? No! This time it is even worse: it's so hot that we seem to be in an oven!
It's late in the morning and I take a look around. Men are working hard, I take some pictures and then I look for a place where I can eat something. I stop at a crossroad when a man asks me where he can find more information about the Giro Donne stages. I tell him where the finish-line of this stage is; I tell him that the athletes will face 3 laps before the final sprint; and I tell him when the race is supposed to end. Three steps later, I'm stopped again, this time by an old woman. She asks me what race is that; at what time the riders arrive; and if the road is closed. I answer her as well as I can and then I say goodbye. While I'm doing this, a younger woman stops her car next to me and asks me whether I can let her pass on the road. 'Listen, could you please let me pass? Or have you already closed the road down there?'. I had two chances: telling her a lie ('Of course you can pass, as long as you drive slowly there are no problems, if you want you can ask my colleagues - colleagues?!? Which colleagues?!? - whether they can let you pass, I'm sure they will help you!') or I can confess to her that I have nothing to do with the race organisation. I go for the first option and viva il ciclismo! After asking two people for advice, I find a nice place where I can eat. It isn't a great restaurant, but it isn't bad either. Also the price is good and the lunch is put away fast, accompanied by a glass of wine. After lunch, the sun is terrible. I turn on my mobile phone and I get two messages from my friend Alessandro: he's at sea, while I'm in Riese, the sun is killing me and I'm the only one on the streets. Actually, there is a cat together with me. It's under a tree and it watches me in a very specific way. Here comes the carovana; it's almost two o'clock and the few people who have appeared on the roads start getting excited. I can't understand why, since Tatiana Guderzo hasn't arrived yet. Lorenzo Roata, RAI's journalist, is on the other side of the road, next to a barrier. He's terribly sweaty, talks with two colleagues and he drinks a 0.5 liter water bottle in 10 seconds. He wears elegant sandals, Franciscan style. Don Lorenzo disappears before reappearing 20 minutes later; ready for the interviews with a new, clean shirt; a boss-style look; sunglasses and a cigar that produces more smoke than a car that breaks its motor during a F1 race. You actually can't see Roata - you can just see a cloud of smoke! At the first lap of the race the cyclists are more in number than the viewers; at the second lap, the viewers are almost as many in number as the girls; at the third, the viewers haven't reached the numbers of the racers and the sun is killing me. At the second lap, the bell rings and Brunello Fanini gets very nervous and excited when he sees one of his girls at the head of the race. Hey, Brunello, take it easy! There's still a lap to go! At the third lap there's the sprint, Teutenberg wins, but she can't raise her arms because Giorgia Bronzini is immediately behind her. During the podium ceremony, however, it's Giorgia the one who wins her own special stage: she gives her flowers to an old person in a wheel-chair, with which she also has a photo taken. Maglia rosa! A step back: After the arrival of the first girls, the other cyclists seem to have disappeared. Where are they? The news eventually arrives: there has been a terrible crash right after the '1 km to go' mark.
The girls arrive in little groups. If the time hadn't been neutralised with 3 kms to go, Tatiana Guderzo would have lost almost a minute from Ina-Yoko Teutenberg! Miss Gruppo, Monia Baccaille, crosses the finish-line while she pedals with just one leg: the other is too sore. Then we hear the name of Rochelle Gilmore and we see other girls arriving with their knees covered in blood.
In the evening we see the race on tv: a bad crash, ten girls down and the peloton is broken in two parts. I take my last pictures and I start to wait for the following day - that will be even hotter. BIADENE DI MONTEBELLUNA, 4th of July, Sunday; A super-hot day. 4 kms out of Biadene, in order to park in the best possible place, I start to follow the team car of Columbia, which has riders like Cantele, Teutenberg and Arndt who are all trying the parcours together. I grab the occasion and, thanks to the presence of Columbia's car, I can pass at the stops, since the traffic agents stop the traffic for the girls and their team car (and for us, who are following them). I follow the team until the finish-line, so that I can drive even when other people can't and so that I can park in the best possible place, 200 meters away from the finish-line. Many, too many girls (Guderzo included) don't wear helmets during their trainings. Warm weather doesn't justify stupidity. After walking through the town for some time, I have a pizza for company at midday. In the meanwhile, the race has already started. The girls ride as fast as missils also thanks to the last meters, which are slightly downhill. At 1.30 pm we go towards the finish-line, where we can take pictures of the girls while they're relaxing. Don Lorenzo still wears the same sandals of the previous day;, Edita Pucinskaite seems unable to stop chatting; the other girls, haunted by the warm weather, look for shelter under the trees, which aren't many. The last girls arrive and then the podium ceremony begins. Tatiana Guderzo spends some time chatting with a supporter, who had told her to give him her champagne bottle after the podium. 'No, I'll keep it for me and I'll drink it veeery slowly!', she answers him. Tell me if this girl isn't amazing! Then everyone starts complaining because, just like the day before, Marianne Vos has disappeared right before the podium ceremony. She eventually arrives (just in time to not get a fine) and all the best riders start chatting under a big gazebo. Guderzo looks more tired than the other girls and she chats with the supporters rather than with Vos, Teutenberg, Wild and Arndt (Tatiana, English is useful!). Finally, we can take some pictures. Then, it's time to go. Before going back to the car, we stop at a bar. Supporters and relatives of Guderzo start arriving, looking for a cool place.
Marianne Vos is outside, alone, waiting for her team car. Luckily they pick her up after a few minutes, otherwise she would have melted because of the heat.
After two minutes, while we're waiting at a bar table, here she comes, calm and warmed by the sun. The Angelo Azzurro arrives with a big rucksack. I'd like to have a few words with Tatiana, but I'm too tired. A picture with a boy and then she runs to the bathroom in order to change her clothes. When she reappears, they ask whether she wants to drink something refreshing. 'No, please!', she answers. You can tell from her face that she's melting and she's looking forward to having a shower (the second one of the day, probably).
When I get back to the car, Biadene is hot and a desert. Before leaving the car park, I meet the relatives of the world champion and I stop a minute with them because I want to ask them information about the classification and about the condition of the rider from Marostica.
Then it's time to say goodbye to Biadene, to Treviso and to the Giro. Will we see each other in 2011? Perhaps not, because the organisers want to take the race to the South next year. One year in the North and one in the South, a year for me and one for you. But even this time the adventure has been great, although the organisers could have done better if they had put in a slightly bigger effort. But that's an old story and I'll talk about it another time.
See you next year Amstel!
Fabian Cancellara and Maxime Monfort near the finish. 
