Vicki Whitelaw

5 of us piled into the AIS van and headed into Varese for a photo shoot with the mayor. Several local news cameras were also present filming us just walking around and ‘hanging off’ the cycling statue that has been designed by our friend and local artist, Pietro. The sculpture is pretty cool- simple and sleek and not too over the top.

In the van on the way

As it turned out, with all the photos that we had taken I didn’t manage to get one of us with the mayor himself! He was very pleasant and willing to chat in English, once he realised our Italian wasn’t up to scratch! I did, however, have a bit of an interview with one of the journalists in Italian. Think I got the message across and hopefully didn’t say anything that I have to withdraw at a later date! Been there before….

The sculpture (1/2 way to fountain)

All of us with Pietro

One more day and we’ll be lining up for the Women’s Giro d’Italia. Racing starts with a huge 1.2km Prologue at 8pm Saturday. It will be a case of ‘blink and you miss it’ and not being a track cyclist who this distance will surely suit more, I don’t imagaine that I will fair too high in the placings. In saying that though, the time difference between riders will be miniscule and certainly won’t decide overall GC placings at the end of the tour. That’s a relief!

In my last blog I hinted at the idea of a swimming pool at our residence. Well as it turns at, we actually did locate one down in the basement. This colourful little number required a huge degrease and hole patching exercise which took about an hour. (Well, it could have been ready sooner had the rest of us pitched in.) Instead, the keenest of the residents, Peta Mullens and Michael Hepburn went about this cleaning, repairing and pump up exercise alone. (What can I say, I had better places to be – like sprawled on the cool tiles of our living room.)  Then it was time for filling it and all I can say, I’m glad that Italy isn’t in a drought. For such a small pool, it took 30 minutes to reach the halfway mark!  Finally, came ‘swim’ time and given that Peta and Michael had done all the hard work, they were given prime position. Although from the photos, you can see that Peta adjusted to the temp a little better than Michael! (Must have been all those sessions that Peta spent in the AIS recovery centre with its very icy pools.)

Pool party

Yesterday afternoon we visited the Mapei high performance testing laboratory- a 45 minute ride from home. I had been there in early May for the same tests and was very excited for some more pain. Tiff, Peta and I were put through our paces, including skinfold testing, a submaximal lactate test (picture lots of needle pricks to your earlobe so that the vampire scientists can draw your blood) and finally an haemtocrit level test which involves breathing in carbon monoxide for a couple of minutes through a strange apparatus until you almost pass out. To keep us entertained, Peta and I went wild with the camera and turned the afternoon outing into a whole lot more fun. I don’t think the lab staff were amused.

This is as fun as it looks	Well we’re having fun!

We’ve had another huge domestic day today so that we can return to a nice clean house post-Giro. I washed both bikes so that they now gleam like new and then baked and cooked all afternoon to ensure I am well fuelled up for the tour. I decided that I might at least aim for ‘real’ potato for the first few days of competion rather than the powdered form I’m going to be getting for most of it! I have even added some pumpkin and sweet potato for a bit of variety! The aromas coming from the girls’ rooms this afternoon were simply define. What with Tiffany’s pancakes, then scones and Peta’s pasta sauce. Hmm mmmm. Thought my potato was rather boring in comparison.

Tomorrow we are getting all dressed up for a meet and greet with the Mayor of Varese. This special occassion which will include photos in our team kit is in honour of the fast approaching Road World Championships to be held here in Varese in September. Today in Italian class, I paid special attention to all the formal and polite use of verbs and phrases so that I can impress tomorrow.

So that’s about it for now. Not sure if I’ll really have a chance to blog whilst on tour so I’ll be nervously handing the reins over to Dave……

As indicated in my last post, it’s extremely hot over here. Although on looking at the Varese weather forecast on the internet, it gives temperatures in the high 20s… Who are they trying to kid? My roomy, Peta tells another story with her SRM bike computer giving readings in the high 30s. She reckons that her computer is only ever a few degrees out, not 10! Anyway, it doesn’t really matter on what the absolute temp is. We are all just getting used to the fact that every day we wake (and sleep) it’s hot and sticky. Did I mention the humidity? Averages around 80% most days. Coming from dry old Canberra, I’m used to things drying and not to perpetually having a water catchment in my cycling jersey after 10 minutes of riding. The saving grace is our tiled floor which I can often be found sprawled out on, barely able to move all afternoon. Well, actually that is exactly where I am now! In addition we have a pedestal fan that Peta and I have blasting in our faces all night which provides some relief. They don’t believe in air conditioning over here. Come summer time, most Italians who live in the cities just escape to the cooler mountain regions, or pebbly beaches and lakes. A pool on these premises would be nice, though I think totally out of the question. The best Lorian Graham and I have come up with is filling up this old kid’s paddling pool down in the garage. Tempting.

The other joy of Summer are mozzies. Whilst we are pretty fortunate at this house as there aren’t too many, I decided not to take any chances and asked Dave to source me a mozzie net at home and send it over with our soigny, Christine.  It’s this nice box-shaped version that attaches to the ‘roof’ of my bunk bed and drapes nicely over all sides of the bed (pictured below).

If anything it’s just peace of mind so that when I do hear one of those little critters buzzing near my ear, I can lay relaxed and return to slumber knowing that I’m completely out of reach. This, however may not be the case for Peta as the mozzies that now can’t get me go for a double chomp on her!

We’ve had a couple of huge storms lately (again not really indicated in the ‘Varese weather’ report on the net. Think I’ll give up even checking it now). The wind gusts were huge, almost smashing the massive windows of our apartment. It hailed and then proceded to flood out our basement which strangley has two water drains opening directly into it. This wouldn’t be a problem except that’s where we store all our bikes and also have a well equipped little gym with carpet! Several of us were quickly down stairs rolling up all the carpet squares and trying desperately to catch the water gushing from these drain pipes. I thought that these storms might cool us all down for the next day and possibly for a few more but alas, the temperatures have remained the same. 

Ok, you didn’t read this blog to have me complain about the heat the entire time so I’ll end things there. I will say that it’s probably going to make the tour in 3 days time substantially more challenging than the Tour de L’Aude. It will be a real case of guzzling lots of isotonic drink mix and frequently tipping bottles of water over our heads. I’ve attempted to do some heat acclimitisation cycling in the last few weeks including erg sessions down in the basement. The others have just labelled me as crazy. Yeah, but I wonder who will have the last laugh come the Giro next week.

Ciao,

Vicki