Giro d'Italia Internazionale Femminile, Cat 2.9.1

Main Page Stage 5, Cascina - Buti Monte Serra, 113.5 kms: AVS: 33.101 km/h 1. Daniela Veronesi (Smr) Alfa Lum William 3.25.44 2. Joane Sommariba (Spa) Alfa Lum William 3. Svetlana Boubnenkova (Rus) Alfa Lum William 0.06 4. Tatiana Stiajkina (Ukr) Selene Rama 2.51 5. Fabiana Luperini (Ita) Gas Sport Team 2.53 6. Edita Pucinskaite (Ltu) Acca Due O Lorena 2.53 7. Pia Sundstedt (Fin) Gas Sport Team 4.03 8. Heidi Van de Vijver (Bel) Vlaanderen 4.21 9. Yulija Murenka (Ukr) 4.33 10. Nicole Brandli (Swi) 5.45 GC after Stage 5 1. Daniela Veronesi (Smr) Alfa Lum William 15.11.38 2. Joane Sommariba (Spa) Alfa Lum William 3. Svetlana Boubnenkova (Rus) Alfa Lum William 0.06 4. Tatiana Stiajkina (Ukr) Selene Rama 2.51 5. Fabiana Luperini (Ita) Gas Sport Team 2.53 6. Edita Pucinskaite (Ltu) Acca Due O Lorena 2.53 7. Pia Sundstedt (Fin) Gas Sport Team 4.03 8. Heidi Van de Vijver (Bel) Vlaanderen 4.21 9. Yulija Murenka (Ukr) 4.33 10. Nicole Brandli (Swi) 5.45 Kristy Scrymgeour report The Giro is certainly taking its toll on my legs and my enthusiasm to get my computer out of the van at night. We have now completed 5 days of the Tour, today being the most taxing so far. It was a 110km stage, that went through the home town of Fabiana Luperrini, one of the peloton's best climbers, and I can see why. She lives at the base of Monte Serra - which is not the easiest climb in the world - today we had to do it twice, from two different angles. I suppose they didn't want us to miss anything! Marion Clignet says she thought today's stage was harder than doing Alpe D'Uez! Anyway, the team had a good day with Sarah Carrigan putting in an awesome climb to finish somewhere in the top 30 - this is excellent, she seems to be getting better every day. Kim and Ali also climbed well. We haven't received the result sheet yet, so I am still waiting to see if I have been eliminated. Hopefully not, however the cut off time is supposed to be 22mins and I think I was 30 mins down at the end. They might extend it due to the difficulty of the stage. All I can really expect to do in this Tour is to get through every day - as it will be a good base for the rest of the season, I have to keep remembering that or else getting dropped every day can be quite demoralising. We have moved further north tonight, hopefully this will mean a drop in temperature, as it has been scorching. But it also means the mountains get longer - oh well, c'est la vie. Can't really complain, as I am in Italy, and I love it here, no matter how much I am suffering in the races. Karren Kurreck report This was the first mountain stage of the race. Everyone is saying that this year, the Giro is even harder than the Tour Feminin. The course featured 2 times up Monte Serra. This is the highest mountain in Tuscany and one I train on quite a bit. Luperini reportedly rides up it at least 3 times a week. There are 3 ways up. Last year one of the stages went up the "easiest" way and finished at the top and Luperini put time on everyone. This year, we went up the opposite way, descended the climb from last year and then rode around to the back side for the hardest way up of all - it takes you to an even higher point than either of the other 2 ways. The heat continues and of course we race at the hottest part of the day. The start was right in front of the bike shop where our team manager works and where I get online when I'm staying at the team apt. I am not in contention for GC here and have been feeling bad pretty much since the start of the race, so my manager told me to ride as easy as I could and just make the time cut. About 25km into the race, the peleton is going 40kph and people are chatting. I am at the back going really hard. On a small rise, I got dropped. I figured I have been feeling so bad that I just hit rock bottom. I notice my rear wheel feels like it is vibrating a bit like my break is rubbing. My team car passes me and I try to ask them if my brake looks like it is rubbing, but I don't know how to say "brake" in Italian and they don't understand. I try to undo the quick release, but I can't do it while I'm riding (on Campy, it's this little tiny button on the lever and you have to brake really hard to get at it). I chase for awhile with only the ambulence behind me. Finally I stop and try to spin my rear wheel - it moves less than 1 inch! I undo the quick release and start chasing again. This time, I'm making a lot more progress, but the peleton is long gone. Finally the motorcycle policeman ahead of me tells me to hang onto the ambulance so I do. I knew I would never make the time cut anyway if I didn't at least get to the base of the climbs with the peleton. Finally we get back to the caravan and I make my way back up to the pack. It is now about 45km into the race and I have been going close to max effort for most of it. Not what I needed today. About 10-15km before the main climbs, we went through some small towns with some steep pitches in them. Dream Team and GAS were driving at the front to set up Pukinskaite and Luperini for the climb. The day, however belonged to the Alpha Lum team. 3 of their riders rode clear on the first climb: Italian Daniela Veronesi, Spaniard Joanne Samorriba and Russian Svetlana Bubnenkova. At the finish, Veronesi and Somarriba finished together hand in hand with the officials giving the stage to Veronesi. Bubnenkova was about 5 sec. back in 3rd. Almost 3 minutes back was Luperini AND Pukinskaite! There was a Ukrainian somewhere between these 2 groups. Pia Sundstedt was about a minute behind Luperini in 7th. In 4 years, nobody has put significant time on Luperini on a climb in the Giro or the Tour. Alpha Lum must have had a good team breakfast! Behind the leaders was lots of carnage. They are being very strict with the time cuts here. It is 20 minutes plus 1 minute for every 5km over 100km. There is no adjustment for terrain. This stage was 113km, which meant the time cut was only 23 minutes after Veronesi's time. Strong riders in the top 30 lost 15 minutes. Something like 30 riders misssed the cut and more dropped out. Next week is the hard week! Even the TT climbs 3000ft! As for me, I pulled out after the first climb and took a short cut to watch the finish. All week, riders have been asking me what is wrong. It is some consolation that people can see that I am not myself here, but the fact is I am not myself. I have been racing internationally every single week for 4 months straight on 3 continents. My only "break" was nationals and that doesn't count. Plus the racing here in Italy is much more intense even than the other European racing I have done in the past. I raced through early June while being sick and finally my body is just forcing me to take a break. I haven't been able to really train consistently for a month now. I can take a few easy days and then have one or 2 decent days, but I can't keep going. The ironic thing is the season is really only half over! I just need some real recovery and then I can prepare for the rest of the season. I actually have quite a bit of racing coming up in August and Sept. I am back at the team apt. today, but I heard Petra Rossner won her 2nd stage (stage 6). The course had 2 steep cat 2 climbs of 7km each. She won from a group of 25 or so. Nada Christophole (Edil Savino) was 2nd.