Giorgia Bronzini is not just an unbelievable cyclist, she is utterly charming to boot with a smile that is completely infectious. Despite suffering from a nasty cold all week, the Italian has shown impressive form out on the road. And better still she her spirits have remained high throughout. Earlier on the week we caught up with Giorgia to see how she felt about the week ahead and now as the inaugural Women’s Tour draws to a close with just one stage left to go, we were fortunate to grab another quick chat with her.
Looking far healthier and glowing after an impressive performance today, coming over the line in second place behind Vos, she assures us there is even more to come tomorrow. We can’t wait!
You are looking far happier and healthier than you were when we saw you a couple of day ago. How are you feeling?
I really completely change my face when the sun comes out. When it’s cloudy and rainy I am miserable.
There was a lot of wind out there today. How did you cope with that?
When there is a lot of strong wind, it is not my perfect race but there was a lot of corners in the race and a lot of rolling so you find the wind but not like in a flat race, like in a Dutch race. When the road comes up, the pace slows so I can stay in the wheel. But when they go fast in the wind, with the cross wind especially, wow that kills me. There were only a few kilometres like that today so I feel good.
It was really tight at the end of the race, describe the end of the race.
We were together with 10km to go. In the last couple of kilometres, I was with Dani (King) and Peta (Mullens) and I said to them to be sure they were in Vos’s wheel because I knew the final was technical. They had described everything to me. In the middle of the race Laura Trott came to me and said there was ahead wind after the last corner so I said if I can get in the wheel I will be ok. So I fought for that today.
When we came to the roundabout I was in fourth position so I knew I was a little bit back so in the middle of the roundabout I tried to go the left side to get into second position. Vos saw me do that and she came out too. The on the last corner I closed my eyes and I sprinted but the motorbike was there, I couldn’t do anything so I had to go for it. I fought for my race. I was so close to Vos, our wheels touched, I was so so close. I tried to go in the same line as Vos but in the end she was much stronger today. She looked at me and said ‘Bronzini, bye’.
Was it stressful with Laura going to hospital yesterday? (Laura Trott sustained an injury to her elbow in a crash yesterday)
We were sad and we were thinking about Laura and her arm but she wrote to us and said ‘I’m ok’ and everyone in the truck cheered. She came back and she was happy. Today she was a little bit careful after the crash, she was scared to crash again and I understand that.
An incident happen with one of the team vehicles when your bikes were damaged by a low barrier going into a carpark, that is pretty unfortunate too. Did that affect you?
When I came out of the camper and saw something missing from the bike – the saddle, I asked what is wrong with my bike. It was my spare bike thankfully. I said to them ‘if you put it on the roof, please put on a saddle as I can’t use it like this!!!’ I think mine was one of the lower so only the saddle got damaged but some of the other bikes have damaged frames.
We have seen a really impressive performance from you so far. Can we expect even more on the final stage?
For sure. Tomorrow we must give everything we have in the legs and the body and we must finish the race like we are dying. I think me and my teammates are ready for that.
Can you sum up how the event has been?
It is really really cool to be here. I have never seen so many people around us and also the two British stars with us so our camper is full of people who want photos, autographs and selfies. It has been cool for us.
I really appreciated the kids. There has been a lot of them and if you want to say something to the people, you must start with the kids. They were really lovely with us too.
I hope Great Britain will continue with this event.
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