Saturday was a big day for me – my first race back after breaking my femur in August of last year. The team did the Tropheo Laigueglia, a one-day race that is the season opener in Italy. And what a race it is, on a beautiful course that sweeps in and out of the hills above the Mediterranean coast.
For me it was a moment that had loomed large on the horizon for a long time, the day that I would be in the peloton again, rubbing elbows and pushing the limits of the bicycle. I still have a screw and pins in the femur, but it is now fully healed, the only complication left being some periodic inflammation in the hip joint; but the scar on my thigh is a constant reminder.The big challenge through the off-season has been mental, with the thought of crashing constantly running through my head, and what the consequences of another crash would be. In my head I imagine my tire letting go in a corner again and again. I honestly didn’t know how I would react at being in the middle of the peloton again.
Jokingly I had said to the guys last week during our photo shoot that the ride was only my second group ride since August. There hadn’t been many chances to work on my group riding again. I knew that my mind would be my biggest stumbling block, so I took the time to work on my mental positivity and imaging. While I was training in California through December I wrote sayings on my arm to reinforce their significance. Sayings like: “only yes, only now” or “only the pedals” to focus myself on the moment. A wandering mind can be a big drain during a race.
And to take it one step further I did some visioning in the days before Laigueglia. I imagined myself in the peloton, descending through switchbacks and bumping with other rides. I even won the sprint to the line a few times.
And it all worked. The course for Laigueglia is one of the more technical ones that I have competed on. Running up and down the coast the race takes in two big loops up into the hills. As the race gets further from the coast the roads get narrower, going both up and down the hills. The descents were all lefts and rights, running along the edge of the hills, with many of the turns blind corners where you couldn’t see the exit radius. And I held my own. I definitely wasn’t the fastest descender in the race, but I sure wasn’t the slowest, and that‘s a great start to getting on the horse again.
Overall I have to say I was happy with my day. I didn’t have the greatest legs in the world (surprisingly as I had felt great on our pre-race ride the day before) but I still stayed in the race until the moment when a lot of other riders were coming off the pace. And it was after all only the first race of the season. I think it was a positive start to the year and things will only improve from here as we head to La Boucle d’Ardeches in southern France next weekend and then north on to Belgium.
