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Lead 'Em Out: The Guido Trenti Journal
Likeable 30 year old Guido Trenti was born in Italy to an Italian father and an American mother, so the Fassa Bortolo rider holds dual citizenship and a USA Cycling racing license. Trenti was proud to represent the United States last year in the world road championships in Zolder, Belgium. Trenti is known as a consummate team rider and his role on his new Fassa Bortolo squad in 2003 will be to act as key lead-out man for sprinter Alessandro Petacchi.
April 19, 2003
Rollercoaster Belgian days
Well my classics season is over for now and all things considered, it went okay. Fassa Bortolo is such a good team and we have such great support here. After Milano-San Remo, we went up north for Flanders, Gent Wevelgem and Roubaix.
The day before Flanders, we did an easy 60km ride to stretch the legs, and after massages and dinner, we had a tactical meeting to discuss the race. We were looking to ride for Bartoli, Ivanov and Pozzato, even though he just came back after his bad crash in San Remo. Luckily, the next day there was good weather for Flanders and as always, lots and lots and lots of spectators along the route. My role was to stay as close as possible to our key riders and then bring them up to the front before the "muri". We got Ivanov in the break and he was riding great but punctured at exactly the wrong time, just before the Muur of Gerarsbergen. I managed to have a good ride even though I worked a lot for the team that day, and I ended up 21st.
I woke up the day after Flanders exhausted; really tired and feeling flat. We did a very easy ride of 40km just to get the blood flowing a bit and then had massages and I took a nice nap. That night, we had a change from the usual boring racer's diet and the whole Fassa Bortolo team went out together to have a pizza. It was a nice change of pace from spaghetti bianco and grilled meat!
Tuesday was the day before Gent Wevelgem and we had another easy ride, this time 80km. But I was still feeling very tired and lacking my usual energy level.
It sounds boring, but we had the same program again; massages and I took a nap again. The next day at GW, I still felt lousy and so I abandoned. That's something I hate to do, but I was tired and catching a cold.
After Gent Wevelgem, I tried to recover for Roubaix so I just took three days off; it's rare that I get to do that during the season, but I needed it. However, I still felt lousy the day before Roubaix and so I didn't start. Too bad, but I have to recover and get ready for a great Giro d'Italia with Fassa Bortolo; my job will be to prepare the "treno" for our sprinter Alessandro Petacchi and support Dario Frigo and Aitor Gonzalez. I hope all goes tutto okay!
Thanks for reading
Guido