Giro d'Italia Femminile - 2.9.1Italy, June 25-July 9, 2000Main Page Previous stage Kristy Scrymgeour's report
Stage 1 - June 26: Pieve Tesino - Levico Terme, 93.7 kmVan Moorsel too powerful in stage oneThe 'Primo Tappa' started in the beautiful village of Pieve Tesino, high above the 'Super Strada' which runrough the mountainous corridor between Trento and Padova in the north-east of Italy. The weather was clear and sunny, with a maximum of 32 degrees. The route commenced with a long technical descent to the bottom of the valley, before three laps of the picturesque Levico Terme lake. The race started nervously on the long descent, which then brought the riders to the first of two sprints for the day. Debby Mansveld and Sissy Van Alebeek of Farm Frites-Hartol took 1st and 2nd ahead of Katia Longhin of the Master Team, with Alison Wright (AIS) in fourth. On the first of three climbs over Sella di Vignola, the Italian GAS team, which include current Italian National Champion, Gabriella Pregnolato, upped the tempo, putting the first real pressure on for the race. The GAS team continued to dominate with four times Giro winner, Fabiana Luperini and the Cappellotto sisters helping to control the race. On the final lap, a crash at the base of the final climb held many riders up, including Wright, Scrymgeour and Feldhahn from the Australian team, at a critical moment with only six kilometres remaining. The approach to the finish was a twisty descent from the QOM, before a slightly uphill finish for 2km. Liz Tadich was involved in a crash in the final 800 metres but escaped injury apart from some bruising. The bunch kick came down to 75 riders from the original 120 starters. Dutch rider Leontien Zijlaard-Van Moorsel , took her first 'maglia rosa' of the tour, winning the stage sprint from Sara Felloni (Alfa Lum) and current World Cup leader Diana Zilute (Acca Due O Lorena). Tomorrow's stage is a 95.4 km loop from Este to Este, which has two sprints and two QOM climbs. Report by Mark Carter, who is with the Australian team in the Giro. Kristy Scrymgeour's reportToday was a 93 km stage from Pieve Tesino to Levico Terme. After last night's 800m sprint in which our team absolutely flew to come last, we were all a little bit tired! (NOT). For us the Giro is a race that is hard but also a lot of fun as there is always so much atmosphere. This morning we weren't disappointed. We rocked up to the start only to be greeted by what we thought was the town on fire. There was smoke everywhere, and hundreds of people standing around not really seeming very interested in doing anything about it. Of course, we later found out that it was only a car. After a short warm up we relaxed in the "Havana club" sponsors tent and waited for the the race to start. The first stage saw 140 nervous girls anxious to get good position on the line as we started with a 1 km climb, followed by a 10 km descent. As usual on the first stage of the tour, the bunch was very twitchy and one of our main concerns was to avoid crashes, which as it turned out there were quite a few. Our other aims for the day were firstly to see if Ali could pull off a few sprints and secondly to get ourselves over the hills and warm into the race. Ali got 4th in the first sprint, which earned her no points, but 3rd in the second sprint which now puts her on the board. We finished with three laps of a 22 km circuit, which meant 3 times up the GPM (mountain sprint). The hill was only 3.1 km and not steep although the bunch still managed to split, mainly due to consistent crashes on the corner leading into the climb. A few of us got caught behind crashes on the last lap which put us out of contention for the finish, and Liz came down in a crash with 700m to go. The bunch kick was won by Leontien Van Morsel, and our best placed rider for the day was Sara Carrigan who finished about 10th. One good thing about this is that our team car will now move a bit closer to the race instead of being 16th car in the convoy. (Mind you being 16th was James' own fault and not because we came last in the prologue last night)! We are now off to dinner in our luxury hotel which is situated in a thermal spring town called Abano Terme. The town is filled with German tourists who wake up each morning to a therapeutic mud bath. The great thing about being in such a touristy town is that there are so many gelato shops.
Results1. Leontien Van Moorsel (Ned) Farm Frites Hartol 2.21.46 (39.657 km/h) 2. Sara Felloni (Ita) Team Alfa Lum 3. Diana Ziliute (Ltu) Acca Due O Lorena 4. Zinaida Stahurskaia (Blr) Michela Fanini Record Rox 5. Svetlana Boubnenkova (Rus) Edilsavino 6. Alessandra Cappellotto (Ita) Gas Sport Team 7. Oksana Saprykin (Ukr) Michela Fanini Record Rox 8. Yvonne Brunen (Ned) Farm Frites Hartol 9. Valeria Cappellotto (Ita) Gas Sport Team 10. Nicole Brandli (Swi) Switzerland General classification after stage 1: 1. Leontien Van Moorsel (Ned) Farm Frites Hartol Sprint classification 1. Debby Mansveld (Ned) Farm Frites Hartol 6 pts 2. Katia Longhin (Ita) Master Team Carpi Diem 3. Sissy van Alebeek (Ned) Farm Frites Hartol 4. Alison Wright (Aus) A.I.S. Australia Mountains classification 1. Edita Pucinskaite (Lit) Team Alfa Lum 8 pts 2. Alessandra Cappellotto (Ita) Gas Sport 6 Under 23 classification: 1 Oksana Sapryikina (Ukr) Michela Fanini Record Rox 2. Nicole Brandle (Swi) Switzerland 3. Sara Carrigan (Aus) A.I.S. Australia ... 8. Hayley Rutherford (Aus) A.I.S. Australia |