A Fangirl at the Giro part 1: Brescia-Aprica

Photocamera.A set of batteries.My mobile phone.Taken.
Some money,an umbrella,a handkerchief.Taken.
The map of Brescia,the list of the riders,and the newspaper page with Sorensen's picture on it.Taken.
Everything was perfect for Fangirl on a busy Wednesday evening.Finally,after many months spent daydreaming,the Giro had entered its last week.And,after many months spent daydreaming,the Brescia stage was finally near.
When the parcours of 2010 Giro d’Italia had been revealed,Fangirl had immediately noticed that,for the first time in many years,both Bergamo and Milan weren’t going to host any stage.Therefore,she had decided to go to watch Brescia stage.
On the day before said stage,Fangirl was totally excited and thrilled about the big day that was coming towards her.She had also found an agreement with Logic: she would have gone to Brescia,by train,”as long as the weather was sunny” .”Phfew”,Fangirl had thought.”It’s been sunny for almost a week now and the weather forecast for tomorrow are good.And then,my computer blew up on Monday,so I believe that for this week I am done with bad luck”.Then she went to bed and had some dreams about cycling.
The following morning,it was raining cats and dogs.

What prevented Fangirl from killing Logic on Thursday 27th,month of May,year 2010,was the hotel room that I had managed to book for my family and I the previous week.In fact,according to the family plan (which was created in December,and ended up with me booking a room in May...),we would have watched the Tonale stage of the Giro.Since it takes about 2 hours and a half to get to Tonale from my village,we eventually agreed that booking a hotel room on the climb would have been the perfect thing to do (otherwise we would have had to wake up at 4.30 am to get there before 8 am the day of the stage). Therefore,on my personal virtual calendar,May the 28th was marked as ‘the day of the big departure’.
As you can imagine,on the morning of the big day me was really thrilled and was already daydreaming about very particular ways of meeting my favourite riders and talking to them. Anyway I tried my best to focus on school and I even managed to,even if not for a very long time.

At 12.30,after having escaped the Philosophy examination about Kant,me was a happy girl.Just,I hadn’t considered the Trigonometry lesson.In fact,on Friday the teacher suddenly remembered that I exist and called me to the blackboard.In that very same moment,I thought:
1) Fuck,I don’t know anything.
2) Trigonometry= stupid,useless and difficult subject that has been created just to make you waste your time studying it.
3) The chalk is white and I’m wearing black trousers.
4) Gosh,my hair really do suck today!
As the outsanding superficiality of the 2 last thoughts may show,at 12.55 pm of Friday I was already controlled by Fangirl.Anyway don’t worry: I survived the Maths lesson and,when the bell rang,I was finally free.Surprisingly,I started to sing a song that goes “Happy,sha la la,it’s time to be happy,sha la la” without even realising it.With no doubts,Fangirl had already taken over.
I got at home at 1.45 pm and twenty minutes later I was already in the family car,ready for the travel towards Tonale.
After more than a hour and a half of travel (and after failing in my attempt of finding a radio that talked about the Giro),I saw an indication on the road.Said indication had the name ’Edolo’ on it and, as soon as we saw it,my sister and I went out of control. ”Siamo ad Edolooooo!” (“We’re in Edoloooo!”),we started to scream in front of our astonished parents. The reason of this behaviour was that,on the previous day,we had seen the reconaissance of the Mortirolo stage,starring Bugno,Cunego and Cassani.In Edolo,Cunego (my sister’s new cyclistic love) had started to scream “Siamo ad Edolooooo!” in a very funny way,so my sister and I absolutely had to behave like him as soon as we saw that indication (yes,there’s a big tendency to the ‘Fangirl madness’ in our genes).
After about 30 minutes,we eventually arrived in Edolo.As the screams and the laughs got louder,we suddenly found out that the road towards the Tonale was closed ‘causa Giro’. Aka,the Giro was going to ride through Edolo.

Obviously,the person who had to check the riders' parcours (the same one that had this role during Lombardy Tour) hadn't noticed that the Giro was riding through Edolo,so we were all very surprised by this fact.Anyway we got off the car in a big hurry (we didn’t know where the riders were) and ran to the main road of the village,that was all covered in pink.After risking to die for an asthma attack,we discovered that the riders hadn’t finished to climb the Mortirolo yet,so we prepared ourselves to a long await. During it I saw an eagle flying high in the sky. ”Hey,Orel,which is Menchov’s birthplace,means ‘eagle’ in Russian!”,said Fangirl.”And who cares?”,Logic replied.”Perhaps it’s a sign that is telling us that he’ll win a stage”,Fangirl stated. ”Sweeetheart,you’re getting confused: Menchov’s not racing the Giro this year,he’s going to the Tour to try and win it". “I know that”, Fangirl replied to Logic.”I just wanted to see whether you were prepared for the race or not.By the way,Bahamontes was called ‘Toledo’s eagle’,and Arroyo lives near Toledo.Perhaps that eagle means that he’s going to win the Giro!!”. ”No he’s not.He’s not as strong as Basso,Nibali or Scarponi.He can just arrive second”,Logic said in her 'superiority mood'.At that point,an angry Fangirl screamed: “If he wins,I want you to run through the school corridors singing ‘Poker face’ with a dress like Lady Gaga’s blue one on,ok?”. Logic didn’t answer the provokation (“I don’t want to argue with that childish, brainless thing that you call Fangirl”,she told me later) and just tried to focus on the race.Eventually,we found out that the eagle probably was a good sign for Scarponi,whose nickname is "Filottrano's eagle".

The first race car arrived at about 5 pm and while it was driving in front of us its radio said that at the front of the race there were Nibali and Scarponi,followed by Arroyo and Vinokourov. ”Where’s Basso?”,both Logic and Fangirl asked.The answer came a few seconds later,when we realised that the radio had given the wrong information.In fact together with Nibali and Scarponi there was Ivan.The Liquigas duo was pulling hard,while Scarponi looked very serious (and that's unbelievable,if you know what Scarponi looks like).

After these 3 riders rode past me,my father and I both started to calculate the gap they had on Arroyo.After about 40 seconds the Spaniard arrived together with Vinokourov.The part of me that has a weakness for charismatic men looked at the Kazakhistani with a particular attention (and tried to imagine him wearing Kazakhistani traditional clothes,but didn't manage to).After this duo a group formed by Evans,Sastre,Gadret and Pinotti arrived (and I had the time of screaming ‘Go Marco!’).Gadret was one of the surprises of this Giro,since he rode incredibly well (and he also seems a nice boy).

The following riders to arrive were Samoilau (who arrived all alone), Kruijswijk, Mollema, Richie Porte and some others.Kruijswijk was pulling a little group of riders and everyone in it looked very concentrated. Unfortunately I could notice Richie Porte just too late and so Fangirl couldn't scream anything at him.

Then it was Cioni's time to arrive (and I must congratulate team Sky on their jerseys,which have the rider's name on) and he was followed by the magic couple Cunego/Gerdemann.

I can't actually remember the exact order in which all the riders arrived,but I can tell you that between the guys that I saw very well there were Wegelius,De Greef (Fangirl went bananas), Pozzato and Szmyd.I could also spot Garzelli and Matthew Lloyd.

As you may have understood,after that a lot of riders had already ridden past me,I hadn't seen Chris Sorensen yet."Where is he?!?",cried a worried Fangirl."Don't worry.If he isn't at the front with Richie,he'll surely be in one of the last groups with Nicki". "And what if he has retired?",Fangirl asked."You always have to make me get worried,don't you?",an annoyed Logic replied.

Eventually,we found out that Logic was right.In a big group of riders in fact me could recognise Didier,Nicki Sorensen and,a few meters behind him,Chris Sorensen.Me could recognise the two Sorensens just because of their looking glasses (orange for Nicki and violet for Chris),so I didn't see them very well and I couldn't scream anything.What a nervous.

In the gruppetto then I could see other two Saxo Bank riders,Morkov and Haedo.Once again, Fangirl wasn't fast enough and didn't scream anything at them."Don't worry,tomorrow you'll have another chance of screaming like a fool",Logic told her.

After the stage finish,the news of Scarponi's victory came together with the news of Basso's Maglia Rosa."Well,it looks as if I won't have to run through the school corridors singing 'Poker face' with a blue dress on",Logic told Fangirl."Well,it looks as if someone is behaving in a very childish way-and that someone isn't me!",Fangirl replied.

After the last rider had arrived,the roads were opened again and we found ourselves trapped in a big traffic jam.And,of course,we weren't the only ones.Actually,between the cars blocked in the queue there was also an Omega Pharma Lotto's team car.Poor Lotto guys.

Luckily the traffic situation got better after we arrived at the beginning of Tonale.There we saw a helicopter and,joking,my father told me to check whether Bugno (the former rider who now drives Rai's helicopters) was there next to it.You won't believe it,but he actually was there,with his wild hair and wild beard.

On the top of the Tonale we could see that the snow was still there,on the mountain in front of us.We got to our hotel (check it out on http://www.hotelresidencedahu.it/ :it is in a nice position,has excellent rooms,a great restaurant and also a cute waiter) and during dinner we started to talk with a young man who comes from Basso's same village.We talked a bit and then my family and I went out to take a walk in the little village on the climb.

The sky was full of stars,there wasn't any cloud and it wasn't too cold.The snow was clearly visible in the night and the houses were nice.We had just had a great dinner and so everything was perfect.The only sound we could hear was the noise of the cars and the trunks that were arriving on the climb.We saw Rai's cars and also a big Katiusha's bus.Some men were already working on the finish zone and watching them we could think about how hard it must be for them to work like that for 3 weeks in a row.Nobody ever mentions these people,but without their work the Giro would be very different.Therefore,I say a big 'thank you' to each of them (yes,Logic knows that they will never actually receive this 'thank you',but it doesn't matter).

On the way back to our hotel,then,we had a last nice moment.While walking in fact we noticed a man talking on the phone.He had 2 suitcases with him and he was wearing a dark jacket.I looked to him in a fast way and noticed that I knew him.Or,better,that I had already seen him before. I watched more carefully,received a poke in the ribs by my mother,and realised that it was Davide Cassani,former pro rider and Rai chronist.We all stopped behind him in a pretty astonished way and then we watched him entering his hotel.Then we continued to walk to the hotel,smiling,laughing,and feeling part of the Giro.Without any doubts,the following day was going to be great.

PS: This post is totally picfree for reasons not depending on my will (read: the former working computer has blown up).Sorry for that,and hope you enjoyed the post anyway.Pics will probably be added over the next weeks,months or years (don't worry,I'll warn you when the moment comes).