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Karen Kurreck's Tour of TuscanyThe Local East Coast Australian Time is
Giro della Toscana, Italy, (Sept 14 - 19)Note: We've decided to have this as a separate adjunct to the main Tour of Tuscany page, as it is more of a diary than a race report. The report is now complete and we hope you enjoy it. Thanks Karen! Stage 1, September 14 The Tour of Tuscany is a 6 day, 7 stage race in the Tuscany region of Italy. Forthe Italian teams, it is on par with the Tour de France and the Giro d'Italia. Many of the other top foriegn trade teams and national teams are hereas well to prepare for World Championships in the Tuscan sunshine. The fieldis 120 of nearly all the best women riders in the World. For the Italian-basedriders, it is also their last chance to show something to help negotiate acontract for next year. One can see alliances that have formed that don'tnecessarily correspond to the jersey riders are wearing, but more to whatteam they want to ride for next year. The first stage was a 4.1 km prologue TT in downtown Montacatini, which is abig tourist town. The course was more or less flat with fairly longstraight-aways and 11 corners. The thing that made it interesting was that weraced at night and it was pitch dark!! There were a few streetlights here andthere and each rider had a motorcycle in front and behind them. It was stilldark. The other interesting thing was that the course was not closed totraffic!! There were policemen at each intersection, but knowing Italiandriving habits, it wasn't all that reassuring. Plus, there were cars parkedall along the course and there was nothing to stop them from pulling out atany time. There was also nothing to stop all the spectators from walking outonto the course at any time. I tried not to think about all this too much. Ialso could not help thinking of the irony of comparing this to the USnational TT championships that were cancelled for safety reasons due to a bitof rain! The first rider went off at 8pm and Diana Ziluite went last around 10pm. Thefirst few riders has a little bit of daylight left, but they also had themost problems with cars. I went around 9 and the course was realtively clearby then. There was also absolutely no place to warm up since there wastraffic and darkness everywhere. I did pre-ride the course before the race,but the whole town was one big traffic jam, so one couldn't do anything withany speed at all. I did notice a lot of bad pavement, potholes and even acouple of speed bumps. These were all completely invisible in the dark of therace. I had a reasonably good start and all I could do was focus on the redtaillight of the motorcycle in front of me because that is all I can see.After about 1 km, I am barrelling down a slight downhill and I hear mydirector screaming "sinistra! sinistra!" from the team car behind me. I knowthis means "left", but with my heart rate at 180+, it takes my brain a secondor 2 to process it. There is a left turn and I brake just in time and makethe turn only just barely. Heart rate goes up another beat or 2. Now I havelost my nerve and I took the rest of the course way too cautiuosly. I endedup 7th. The podium was sort of an odd mix of time trialists, sprinters andpursuiters. Edita Pucinskaite, who is best know for her climbing, took thestage win and the leader's jersey. 1. Edita Pucinskaite (Lit) Acca Due o Lorena Lituania 5.352. Antonella Belluti (Ita) Selene Rama Mista 3. Elena Tchalich (Rus) 0.014. Gabriella Pregnolato (Ita) Acca Due o Lorena Mista 0.055. Diana Ziliute (Lit) Acca Due o Lorena Lituania 6. Vera Carrera (Ita) Selene Rama Mista 0.097. Karen Kurreck (USA) Edil Savino 0.108. Tatiana Stijakina (Ukr) Ukraine Pink Byke 9. Zinaida Stahurskala (Lit) Acca Due o Lorena Lituania 0.1110. Alessandra Cappellotto (Ita) Gas Sport Stage 2, September 15 So far this race has been well organized and we've had lots of spectators. We are staying at a really nice hotel here in Tuscany with great food. It is out in the country on a little river. I think the rooms were designed by midgets though! Especially the bathroom. I have to sit sideways on the toilet to avoid hitting my knees on the shower stall!! Stage 1 was 115km with 2 cat 3 climbs. We started out with an 18km neutral through downtown Florence. It took us 50 min! We kept having to stop to try to maneuver the entire race caravan through city traffic. Kind of crazy! With Edita in the leader's jersey and the hardest climbing stage the next day, the Dream Team seemed mostly interested in keeping the field together. Edita spent the whole day back mid-pack and only appeared at the front for the climbs. There were a lot of attacks but nothing got anywhere at all. With 50km to go, it started to rain and soon turned into a downpour. That's when things got interesting. It wasn't cold, but just extremely slick. I could barely see a thing between the rain and grit and fog in my glasses. I could pick out the bright orange Dream Team jersies but that was about it. We seemed to take all the turns at about 10mph, but still there were crashes in almost every one. I'm sure half the peleton went down at one time or another. The 2nd climb was at 89km and it was a short steep thing in a town on a tiny road. I just tried to stay up front and out of trouble. Everyone else had the same thoughts. Diana Ziluite took action and rode tempo at the front at about 40-42kph for at least 10km before the climb. Her teammates also went to the front later to help out. We split a little on the climb but gaps were small. I went over in the front group of 10 or so and Gabriella Pregnolato went barrelling down the descent and dropped us all. She is really pretty crazy. A British rider crashed in front of me on the descent, disrupting our chase somewhat but we eventually caught Gabriella and the rest of the field caught on later as well. With about 10km to go, I covered a small break and as we were caught, Gabriella counters and gets a gap. With her fearless descending and cornering in the rain, she is very quickly out of sight. There is somewhat of a chase, but most people are concerned mostly about safety. Still there are crashes right and left. With 250m to go, we round the final corner and I can see the finish banner. I'm in about 6th or 7th position. I am just about to heave a sigh of relief that I have survived the stage when all the riders in front of me slide out in the turn! We are going less than 10mph, but I have nowhere to go but into them. We all get up pretty quickly and I manage to come in still in the back half of the peleton. It was a slow motion fall, but I somehow managed to sprain my little finger. No real damage though. Sarah Symington of Great Britian wins the field sprint for 2nd. Gabriella won by 43 seconds and takes over the leader's jersey from her teammate. 1. Gabriella Pregnolato (Ita) Acca Due O Lorena Mista 1 2.56.362. Sara Symington (Gbr) England 0.433. Tamara Farnocchia (Ita) GSF Selena Rama 4. Elisa Neri (Ita) Team Selene Rama Mista 2 5. Kristina Obrucova (Cze) GC Mimosa/Czech Republic 6. Barbara Heeb (Swi) Nürnberger Emmi 7. Simona Sagramoni (Ita) GSF Selena Rama 8. Alessandra D'Ettorre (Ita) GSF Selena Rama 9. Gulnara Ivanova (Rus) Russia 10. Lucia Pizzoloto (Ita) SC Master Molteni GC after stage 21. Gabriella Pregnolato (Ita) Acca Due O Lorena Mista 1 3.03.032. Edita Pucinskaite (Lit) Acca Due O Lorena Lituania 0.483. Antonella Bellutti (Ita) Team Selene Rama Mista 2 4. Elena Tchalich(Rus) Russia 0.495. Vera Carrara (Ita) Team Selene Rama Mista 2 0.57 Stage 3, September 16 Today was (I hope) the hardest climbing stage of the Tour. We had 2 category 1 climbs, 2 category 2s and then a category 1 hilltop finish. The climbs all came in the last 50km, one after another with plenty of uncategorized climbs in between. Most of them were in the 2-4km range. The finish climb was about 5 km. At least we had good weather again and as far as I know, there was not a single crash! Dream Team kept things together the whole first part of the race. This didn't mean people didn't try to get away, they just were not successful. The only unusual event was that the whole peleton was stopped to wait for a train for at least 5-10 minutes. Everyone took the oppurtunity to get water from their team cars and make a pee stop. I was feeling kind of sleepy the first half of the race - we had another early morning visit from the UCI vampires. When the climbs started, Dream team swarmed the front. Zulfia Zabirova was mostly the one driving the pace up. She just set a really hard tempo up every climb and more and more people dropped off the back. I just tried to stay close to Zabirova and her teammate Pregnalato who had the leaders jersey. I figured I couldn't go too far wrong if I stayed on their wheels. Pucinskaite, Luperini and Joanne Sammorriba (Alpha Lum, '99 Giro d'Italia winner) were the main QOM sprinters. After each sprint, Zabirova would pull Pregnalato across any small gap that formed. By the time we got to the 2nd to last climb, the group had shrunk to less than 20 riders, but I'm not sure where they all came off. The last QOM was about 10 km before the finish climb. It was labeled a cat 2, but to me it seemed the hardest one of all! It just went on forever, it seemed Finally, the road widened and you could see a straight shot to the top about 400-500m up. Sommarriba, Luzia Pezzelloto (SC Master) and Pucinskaite got a gap and Pucinskaite dropped the other 2 by the QOM. This time she just kept going. We caught Pezzellotto and Sommarriba on the descent but Edita was gone for good. GAS had Vera Hohfeld, both Cappellotto sisters and Luperini and they tried to chase or attack and bridge up, but they couldn't do it. When we got to the finish climb, we could see Edita on the switchbacks and Sommarriba and the Cappellottos tried to attack many times but just never could close the gap. Luperini was there but didn't really do anything. I could hear her breaathing pretty hard - it was kind of a nice sound! We finished in the town of Volterra which is a big tourist town. We had a few tourist busses along the course stop and cheer for us. With 1km to go, the road flattened slightly and we had a group of 15 and Edita was still away. The finish was in the center of town in a cobbled plaza. We climbed the main road and then made a sharp right turn into the walled city center. I had very little left at this point, but I gambled all of it on the fact that the finish would be just 100m or so past the last corner. I attacked on the last little steep section of the main road climb and sprinted for the corner. I got there first and went through the opening in the wall. Then I saw a sign that that said 500m to go! The street was all cobbled and went straight up! OOPS!!! I tried to recover a bit, but it was too late. I quickly went from the front of the group to the back. Sigrid Corneo (SC Master) took the sprint for 2nd. Pregnalato got dropped on the final climb, so Pucinskaite took back the leader's jersey. These 2 have swapped it every day so far. Because of the uphill sprint, there were gaps and people (including me) lost a few seconds here and there). I was behind Valeria Capellotto and Jolanta Polikevechuite in the finish and they opened a gap I couldn't close. Stage 3, Prato - Volterra, 114.2 km, AVS 36.034 kmh1 Edita Pucinskaite (Ltu) Acca Due O Lorena Lituania 3.13.092 Sigrid Corneo (Ita) S.C Master Molteni 0.373 Zulfia Zabirova (Ltu) Acca Due O Lorena Lituania 0.394 Barbara Heeb (Swi) Nurnberger-Emmi 0.425 Vera Hohlfeld (Ger) Gas Sport Team6 Tatiana Stiaikina (Ukr) Ukraine Pink Byke7 Anke Erlank (Rsf) Edil Savino 0.448 Rasa Polikeviciute (Ltu)9 Lucia Pizzolotto (Ita) S.C Master Molteni10 Fabiana Luperini (Ita) Gas Sport Team 0.4524 Gabriella Pregnolato (Ita) Acca Due O Lorena Mista 2.49GC after stage 31 Edita Pucinskaite (Ltu) Acca Due O Lorena Lituania 6.15.502 Tatiana Stiaikina (Ukr) Ukraine Pink Byke 1.023 Vera Hohlfeld (Ger) Gas Sport Team 1.054 Sigrid Corneo (Ita) S.C Master Molteni 1.075 Karen Kurreck (Usa) Edil Savino 1.116 Fabiana Luperini (Ita) Gas Sport Team 1.177 Barbara Heeb (Swi) Nurnberger-Emmi 1.228 Joane Sommariba (Spa) Alfa Lum 1.22 9 Lucia Pizzolotto (Ita) S.C Master Molteni 1.2210 Roberta Bonanomi (Ita) Acca Due O Lorena Mista 1.24 I was wrong. Yesterday's stage 4 was the hardest climbing stage!! The stage overall wasn't as hard as the previous day, but it all came down to the final climb at 10km from the finish. We had 1 cat 2 climb about halfway through the stage, but aside from that, it was mostly Dream Team riding hard tempo at the front all day. Pregnalato especially was driving at the front most of the time. The team also did long (5-10km), very fast leadouts for Sara Felloni for the intermediate sprints. She took over the sprint jersey by the end of the day. The last climb was about 4km and very steep on a small, narrow road. With a 23, I was standing most of the way. If anyone had any doubts that Edita is the strongest rider in the tour, she dispelled them all by again climbing away from everyone again and winning the stage by 1 1/2 min! This is her 3rd stage win of the Tour. The race for 2nd is quite close though - there was a group of 5 riders in the first group behind Edita. Of this group, only Luperini and Pizzolotto made the front group yesterday so they are 2nd and 3rd respectively. Allessandra Cappellotto took the sprint for 2nd in the stage. It was a bit odd - many riders who got dropped the day before, rode much better the 2nd day and vice versa. GC comes down to the different time gaps of the 2 days. 4th-12th place on GC are only 30 sec. apart. Vera Hohlfeld had one of the most spectacular blowups I've seen for a long time. She was very impressively hanging onto Luperini and Edita for the fist 2km or so and they disappeared up the road. Then, with about 500m to the top, we see her weaving back and forth across the road, barely going fast enough to stay upright! We weren't going any too fast, but still, she finished 1 minute behind our group! Stage 4 results:1. Pucinskaite 2:382. A. Cappellotto @1:373. Pizzolotto st4. Luperino st5. Veronesi st6. Polkhanova st7. V. Cappellotto @2:088. Stiajkina st9. Bononomi st10. Erlank stGC after stage 4:1. Pucinskaite2. Luperini @3:073. Pizzollotto @3:084. Stiajkina @3:235. Heeb @3:436. Bonanomi @3:457. Corneo @3:458. V. Cappellotto @3:479. Erlank st10. Koliesseva st11. Kurreck @3:4912. A. Cappellotto @3:5513. Veronesi @4:0914. R. Polikevichuite @4:3615. Hohlfeld @4:40 Stage 5, September 18 This Tour is held in memory of Michela Fanini, a young, talented Italian cyclist who was killed in a car accident in '95. Her father is the race promotor here (and also the manager of the Fanini team). Saturday morning's stage started at Michela's grave site. There was a short memorial service at the start line. The stage started with a cat 3 climb just 3km into the race to make the legs remember they have been racing hard for 4 days. There was also a cat 2 climb at 30km. After that we did 3 circuits of a flat loop. Overall it was a very fast stage. Dream team was again driving at the front all day. They led out Sara for the intermediate sprint for about 10km at 50+ kph the whole time! In fact, it seemed every time I looked at my speedometer, the left digit was a 5! There were attacks especially by the Fanini team, but Dream Team wasn't letting anyone go anywhere. The last 10km were insanely fast. GAS, Russia and Dream Team were all fighting at the front to lead out their sprinters. In the end, it was Allessandra Cappelotto (GAS) who delivered her teammate Vera Hohlfeld to the line for the stage win. This was the first stage Dream team didn't win. I ended up 6th. These sprints are all about position and mine wasn't too good coming out of the last corner.
Stage 6, September 19 Saturday was a double day and the 2nd stage was another night-time affair. It was really pretty insane. It was a 50km circuit race just outside Florence. The loop was about 4km and it was pitch dark again as we raced at 9pm!! The roads were narrow and there was the usual cobbled section. There were a few streetlights but that was it. There was talk on the start line about going "piano" the whole way. I even heard Edita say we would only ride to the sprint and that's it. That idea lasted about 3 sec! It was one of the fastest races I've ever done - single file the whole way! Still, somehow with about 4 laps to go, Pregnolato managed to ride off the front and win by almost a minute solo!! There was a big crash on the last lap on the cobble section near the finish. The field was totally split up, but since it was in the last km, I think everyone will get the same time. |