Back on track: The Marion Clignet Journal 2004

French track legend Marion Clignet retired from racing in 2000, intending to become active as an advocate for women's sport. But after two years off the bike, and perhaps inspired by the other female champions she's encountered while working as a presenter for French TV, Clignet returned to the velodrome in 2003 to the velodrome in a determined comeback. After a solid year building a foundation, Marion's back competing at thehighest level in 2004.

• Index to all entries

Giro d'Italia Femminile - 2.9.1, Italy, July 2-11, 2004

Tricolored legs

Stage 2 - July 4: Montereale Valcellina - Monfalcone, 120km

The first thing Marcus, our massagatorie said to me, was "you have tri-colored legs." Seeing that no Euro company has taken the initiative to make shorter shorts (to coincide with the miniskirt length) I roll the hem of my shorts up and apparently not always the same length, so my legs are brown, tan, and red from today's new line.

Now that you have that valuable information, today's stage was 120km with two good climbs. One was kind of a switch back ordeal and the other coming after a decent, a flat stretch and then a sharp left under a bridge and right into the climb and... yes, I dropped my chain! Huff, huff, huff, puff, puff, and a few wheezes later I managed to catch back on and even after a wave to the left and a wave to the right manage a 12th in the field sprint which put me on the first page in GC. Still 39 seconds down because of the prologue but I've gone from 85 to 72 to a whopping 47 today in GC. Tomorrow's goal to make the top half of the first page?

Other than that not a whole lot to report other than the red wine in this region is quite nice and two glasses are supposed to be good for your heart, especially if you're not a regular drinker. On that note, tomorrow has 133kms of rolling country side to offer with one good size but not too hard climb (on paper it's a cat 3 but you can never really tell by the profiles as this one looks harder than today's which were both cat 2 climbs).

Meanwhile La Gazetto della Sport has been kind enough to offer us a paragraph amongst full-page photos of the boys riding the tour. If any of you boys read this, have a chat with Jean Marie and tell 'em you wanna see the women race the tour too!!!!!

Thanks!

Results