Oct 4th - 5th - Stage 2 & 3 - Giro d’Italia
Stage 2:
Stage/Finish: Alcamo - Agrigento
Distance: 149 kilometers
Stage 3:
Stage/Finish: Enna - Etna (Linguaglossa Piano Provenzana)
Distance: 150 kilometers
Brent's Update:
It’s been a challenging couple days at the Giro. My favorite cycling analogy is that performance is like gardening... sometimes you prepare the perfect plot, plant the best seeds, give it all the love and care and nutrient it needs.
Veggies and flowers sprout and look to be amazing but then for some reason just never ripen or turn into the beautiful fruit. Nothing specific happened—they weren’t wiped out by a frost or flood or hurricane. You just were watering away and believing the next sprouts would be the most beautiful, tasty ones you’ve ever grown.
And that leads us to the Giro…..
Stage 2 was going along as straight forward as possible. With around 20 kilometers to go, we were about to make our move at the front as a team when riders in front of me slammed into each other.
I desperately tried to slow and avoid them when someone clipped me from behind with their bars. It sent me somersaulting to the ground. My back took the brunt of the impact, but I also smacked the back of my head on the ground.
I surveyed the damage. Knowing I hit my head, I began asking myself what I remembered, where we were in the stage, what day it was, etc etc. Aside from a small headache, things checked out, so I tried getting back on my bike. Quickly I realized it needed to be swapped.
Once I had my spare, I realized the worst damage was to my back as I landed directly on my race radio, which slammed into my lower back and was already creating a baseball size hematoma. This made pedaling at any force nearly impossible.
I limped into the finish. I was scared, worried because I didn’t know the extent of the damage and frustrated to see all my hard work and strong condition instantly turn into pain, suffering, and feebly creeping to the line. I was alone, almost 20 minutes behind the stage winner.
I was thankful mostly that my head appeared to be ok but also worried if I could continue with my back in this condition. Any ability to push power to my legs, especially in the flexed position, was gone. It was a long night... a couple of hours on the treatment table, more time sitting in the physio lab ice/compression system, and a painful sit at the dinner table.
After Stage 2, I was anything but confident. I just focused on keeping my head in the game with the hope that my body would follow.
I was fortunate that there was not a huge fight for the breakaway, and despite a hard pace laid down by my teammates, I was able to keep it as smooth as possible, although still in pain the entire time.
I kept thinking just get to 40 Km to go where I expected some sprinters to call groupetto. I finally made it to that point, but then still had the 20 Km climb to the finish. Under normal circumstances, this climb at this pace with minimal time cut pressure would have been relatively pleasant, but it was anything but.
I struggled in and out of the saddle to find some relief which proved elusive. I was relieved to see the kms tick down and finally see the finish. To add to an already tough day, we saw Simon unexpectedly lose some time to the main GC rivals. Knowing we have barely begun; I’ll keep fighting to keep myself in the race. As a team we will keep our eyes looking forward knowing that there is plenty of opportunities ahead.
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