Somebody has lied to me. This race is madness! Not the chilled out pasta party I was told it was.

The day we are having today is unbelievable. It has been chaos! They had to delay the start because we got caught up in mad Sicilian traffic. Then my wheels were not right, so I changed them. I was so far behind that another kindly team let me hold onto their car and towed me back up and I got on - just before km 0!

Then it rained on a big descent. It was super dangerous and scared the bejesus out of everybody what with the treacherous roads here. Amazingly, nobody crashed. That soon changed. After somehow missing Za Dave’s crash yesterday (who incidentally is okay but stuck on a Magical Mystery Tour on the team bus as he can’t travel home for a few days), I thought that I was good for a few days without incident.

Alas no.

40 km from the finish, there was a massive pile up. Miraculously I didn’t hurt myself, but the impact was so great it ripped my foot out of my shoe. That was a first. I was left tip-toeing through the bodies and bikes looking for my shoe. Surreal.

Things then turned for the worse. The finish was crazy dangerous, like a roller coaster. I once again missed a crash by a gnat’s hair. Stuey and Brad went down hard. Everybody was battling for position while Christian was holding top three like it was a training ride back in Chicago. Easy.

missed ferryThen after the finish we were supposed to get on buses and be taken to ferries. We shower in a building that resembles a prison. Then the buses are full so we’re left there in a parking lot. Whitey puts me, Ryder and Christian in cars with the mechanics to go back with them as this will be quicker.

So we thought.

This proves to be a mistake as we end up going to another port and have no idea what’s going on. Eventually we get going by which time the other guys are on a different boat from another port!

It’s now 22:11 and we’re still in the car. Christian has just asked me if I’d like to start compiling the ‘Top Ten Reasons Why I Hate The Giro.’ Oh and we raced 230km today, and it’s day three of twenty two.

And weirdly, I’m having a great time!

P.S. The photo is of the ferry leaving as Christian, Ryder and I arrived. Argh!