Hot & sweaty on our 'Lap of Italy'

I am sitting here in the luxurious surroundings of my Sheraton hotel room…very grateful for coverage of the World Cup and access to the internet.
We have now completed 5 days of the Giro…only 5 to go! In many ways it has gone very quickly already. After the time trial we had a couple of flat, fast stages to kick it off and now we have headed into the hills. I had an unfortunate little bingle with 12km to go on the first road stage, had a slow change and then did some solo time to the finish, 7 mins down....not a great start to the tour, but not as bad as the poor Spaniard who dropped herself on the first corner in the time trial and broke her collarbone...bugger!

Yesterday was the longest stage of the tour, 135km with 3 climbs, 2 of which were right near the start followed by 65km of flat and a final climb. I did not have the form of my life and groveled over the first climb. It is always quite obvious when I’m having a shocker as I get as low as I can go on the bike….I must look quite horrid but yesterday I knew I needed to get over the climbs with the bunch, as much to stay with the water supply from the car as anything else. A couple of the Aussie girls 'went pipe' on the first climb and had what can only be called a 'character building' day, trying to figure out how to digest pieces of power bar with no water and very little saliva left. It has been really hot and everyone's major concern has been hydration...I think dehydration can be one of the worst forms of torture....you only worry about where your next drink is coming from...bugger the bike race :)

We have gradually moved north from where we started in Rome, we spent 2 days in Tuscany and are now on the northern coast. Day 4 we started in a town called Orvieto on the top of a hill...a beautiful little town with lots of character that I would like to explore senza bike :)Most of the next 5 days of the tour involving climbing although many of the stages are quite short. Tomorrow we have only 73km to race with one big climb in the middle...the only thing to be assured is that when it is short the pace is on! This racing is great for getting some speed in the legs, something I need after a few weeks of long km's and strength efforts.

Still no-one has scored in the soccer...I hope its a penalty shoot-out...I love those :)