The Millar Diaries: Whitey’s mythical Giro (stage 2)

I’ve spent most of my career doing the Tour de France/Vuelta España double. Last year I was sold on the Giro d’Italia/Tour de France double for the first time. JV and Whitey were the persuaders and Whitey in particular was a very good salesman:

Whitey: ‘Mate, you’ll love it! The Giro’s a three week training camp. Easiest race you’ll ever do, loads of flat easy days, no stress, great food. Like a bloody holiday. Best race in the world mate!’

Me: ‘I dunno Whitey, it looks kind of hard.’

Whitey: ‘Ok, there are a couple of big stages, but you’ll be hangin’ in the grupetto. No worries Dave, trust me, you’ll love it!’

Me: ‘Alright Whitey, I’m sold, count me in!’

Matt White giving instructions on stage 2

Those three weeks of the 2008 Giro d’Italia were the hardest, physically and mentally, of my career. Whitey’s words ‘you’ll love it mate’ were on infinite loop in my head; I was as far as somebody could possibly get from loving something. I actually spoke to a journalist this morning who said something about it being the hardest Grand Tour they’d been on in 30 years. I agreed with almost hysterical enthusiasm.

So today was a wonderful surprise, 155km on flat, freshly re-paved, wide roads. One rider escape, peloton controlled and steady, and JD and Tyler showing fine form beating Cav in the intermediate sprint. We were then all systems go for the finish sprint, Tyler just had to finish in front of Cav and in the top three to take pink. Sounds so easy…

Unfortunately there was a roller-coaster 10km finishing circuit that we had to tackle three times. There was a hill 2km long, hard enough to hurt in an unpleasant way, then we crested the summit into a cork screw descent which started the 4km crazy run into the finish. This was more like the Giro!

I was surprised at how at ease I was back in the peloton after my crash of Paris-Nice. I had little problems being at the front for the narrow road at the foot of the climb, but any ideas I had of complete recovery from my crash were wiped out as we crested the summit into the crazy descent. I was horrible, a total gimp, the man and machine symbiosis was non-existent. I was barely a man holding onto what felt like somebody else’s bike. I’d forgotten what it’s like to be scared on a bike; it’s not much fun.

Somehow I managed to get back up to the front and lead out Tyler and the boys. Unfortunately Ty thought we were a kilometre closer to the finish than we actually were and had me start way too early, meaning Wiggo was left alone with a kilometre and a half to go (too far.) VDV was in the mix but got knocked out the train and smartly removed himself from the crazy zone. I should have known better than to start my lead out where I did, but it’s amazing how hard it is to make a lucid decision when it’s flat stick and the adrenalin is pumping. Ty, Brad and myself fully accept we all slipped up, but it’s the first time we’ve worked together in this capacity so it’s going to be a steep learning curve.

All in all a good day, and much more along the lines of what I expected from Whitey’s mythical Giro. And only an hour transfer post race, this isn’t the Giro I know….

In Whitey’s mythical Giro, everyone ride beach cruisers!

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This entry was posted on Sunday, May 10th, 2009 at 11:40 pm and is filed under Home Page, Rider Diaries and tagged with David Millar, Giro d'Italia, Jonathan Vaughters, Matt White. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.