I didn’t have high expectations before today’s Giro Rosa stage. I was glad that the start was close to the hotel and that the race started quite late, 1pm, so we had a cheeky lie-in. Things took a more chaotic turn not long after the start. The peloton rode around Pioltello three times and then headed out onto the course. I decided to take a photo from a balcony in lap two, then headed out in front of them. After about 10 km, they were supposed to turn right and do a short loop and then re-join the previously used road. The first shocking thing occurred when minutes after the peloton left, the marshals re-opened the roads, even though there were lots of riders on the course. In the next minutes, police motorbikes were desperately trying to make way for the back of the race through thick traffic. We didn’t want to risk it, so we waited for them to re-join the road.
We waited at a petrol station, where a Lotto-Benison team car has also set up shop to hand out bidons. Time was ticking away and there was still no sign of the peloton. We heard something on the race radio about some routing problems, according the riders, they covered an extra 10 kilometres. For the rest of the stage, we stayed with the breakaway group, four riders, who were turning themselves inside out in the cruel heat.
Their efforts didn’t pay out, the race ended in a bunch sprint and in an all-Italian podium. Unlike yesterday, I’m quite happy with my shots from today, especially that the scenery was lacking much spectacle. That shouldn’t be the case in the coming days, as we’ll be hitting the mountains. I’m singing off for the day, enjoying that everything is all done by 7pm and I can delve into an ice-cold watermelon.
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