The Road to Giro 2012

Dreams Do Come True with Team MTN Qhubeka

Since I started racing competitively in 2009 and I had an idea of what races were out there to do taking part in the Giro Donne (Giro d’Italia Femminile Internazionale) has been on the top of my list.  To actually get to compete in this event was classified in the “dream only” category in my mind together with all the other seemingly unrealistic dreams I had at the time.  Also included in that category was being a professional cyclist, driving a Porsche and being a hot shot athlete so that Oakley will custom make me some sunglasses that fits on my narrow face.  I turned out to be a professional cyclist and I am going to the Giro Donne, driving a Porsche is not important anymore (the Granny Mobile is doing the job just fine) and the Oakley sunglasses…well I am still working on becoming that hot shot athlete. 

With all the drama and unpleasantness around the Olympic selection recently this dream had been overshadowed.  Now that the dust is settling I am remembering what it was that I was dreaming about years ago.  To come from being the idiot who lined up for their first cycling race in a T-shirt and running shoes not that long ago to cleating in next to 160 of the best riders in the world is a dream come true. 

The Giro Donne is a nine day journey through Italy that is considered to be the most prestigious women’s race in the world over 965km (600 miles) starting in Naples and finishing in Bergamo.  This will be no pizza eating, wine drinking, sunbathing or olive tasting trip to Tuscany.  It is going to be gel eating and PVM Octane drinking filled days of what surely will turn out to the hardest nine days of racing that I have ever done.  As with the other European races that I have competed in this year it will be a steep (literally and figuratively) learning curve but a challenge that I am very excited about taking on.

I have waited almost four years for this opportunity and it is only thanks to Doug Ryder, Carol Austin, Anthony Fitzhenry and all others involved with Team MTN Qhubeka that it is now only four days away.