The Giro Donne is the most prestigious women’s stage race of the year and runs from the first to the tenth of July taking in many of the mountainous climbs that feature in the men’s Giro or Tour de France.

Last week five riders from our team went to check out some of the most important stages of the race. With Emma Pooley, World Time Trial, British Road, and British TT champion leading the team, it is our big goal for the year. Emma is arguably the world’s best climber and finished second to Giro Donne overall winner, Mara Abbott, in both of the two crucial mountain stages to Livigno and the Passo dello Stelvio in 2010. A badly timed flat tire on one stage however left her in fifth place overall.

It is one of the major stage races that Emma has not yet won and we will be working hard this year to help her achieve the victory. I broke my collar bone on stage two last year in a huge crash 2km from the finish. It was a real low light of the season. I had trained on some of the mountains a few weeks earlier with Emma and her coach and was relishing the challenge of my first Giro.

Instead I found myself having my collar bone plated and screwed on my 36th birthday and spending the next few weeks on a turbo trainer in temperatures of over 32 degrees trying to maintain fitness. I didn’t race for six weeks. It was the third accident in three years, all requiring surgery, and made me think very seriously about hanging up the bike. Yet I’m still riding and once again nervously awaiting the Giro and hoping I will have more success this year.

We started our recce in Volpiano, Torino which is the location of the penultimate stage (stage nine) – a mountain top finish on Ceresole Reale. A 4am start from Girona meant I was feeling particularly weary when we finally headed out to ride at 12.30 after a series of hiccups as the support van had broken down. This 115km stage finishes with a steady climb from kilometre 60, kicking up near the end, with some steep sections in places.

With 3km in a tunnel the gradient is deceptive and it was only on the descent that I realised quite how steep it was! At first we didn’t think the race could go through the tunnel but investigating the only other option around the tunnel we found it was more akin to a mountain bike trail, probably unsuitable for a peloton of 150, so we reluctantly returned to ride in the dark for 20 minutes or so. Having had no lunch and already sick of energy bars I was very ready for a proper meal that night.

The next day we looked at the final stage, a 16km time trial. The route is pretty flat with only one very short climb. By day ten I imagine the results will have little impact on the overall standing of the top ten riders. For many of us the time trial is one of the only few opportunities to try to gain selection for the World’s time trial in Copenhagen in September. Whether my legs will respond to this challenge after nine days of hard racing is yet to be seen.

Later that day we drove across Italy to Tirano located in the beautiful Valtelline valley. The hotel was great and had the biggest selection of olive oil I have ever seen. Two of us headed out with Emma for our second ride of the day – an ‘easy’ two hours but with Emma deciding the route it included a 10km steep climb. The views however made up for it; it is a really stunning area.

The next day there was little time to warm up before we tackled the first climb to Aprica. Fortunately this climb is not in the race, but, a necessary evil to see the major climb in stage seven. As we climbed the blue skies turned dark and the rain began in earnest much to the glee of the photographers from Catelli, providers of our cycle clothing, as they now were getting full exposure of all varieties of wet weather gear.

Unfortunately for me I had listened to the Director Sportive’s weather forecast, which predicted 1mm of rain and had only bought the shower proof jacket. Given that it appeared the forecast should have been 1mm of rain every minute this was a real school boy error.

Somewhat shivering (on my part) we descended to Edolo to begin the major and infamous climb of the Passo del Foppa or Mortirolo as it is more popularly known. From Edolo it’s 17.1kilometers at an average of 6.8% to the top of the pass, 1160 meters higher. It is however considerably steeper in places.

The pace was steadier than the previous climb as we contended with the rain. The visibility was poor and it felt more like night than the middle of the day. Emma and I went to check out the top part of the climb again whilst Jessie jumped in the car and Noemi and Carla descended.

Having raided Jessie’s wet weather gear I was slightly more prepared for the technical descent of the climb, which is likely to have a significant impact on the Tour’s results.