The Giro d'Italia Femminile (or Giro Donne) is always held in July, when it's nice and hot in northern Italy. It's famous for having hard mountain stages, ruthless time cuts and plenty of DNFs.

I was riding with instructions from our DS, GianCarlo Montedori: "Breedie, the Giro, it's hard, no? You must finish, si? And you must help Monia e Tatiana, si? Va bene." Terrific. Lets' not get too specific on the how I go about that!

Team Valdarno had been waiting for this race since the beginning of the season, and 2009 Road World Champion, Tatiana Guderzo was our GC contender. She was fit and in form, and her new custom painted Pinarello Dogma (complete with subtle rainbow stripes) was ready for the tough mountain stages in the last 3 days.

She had 2 other climbers to assist her, a Russian who spoke a bit of Italian (Tatiana Antoshina, Russian TT and Road champion) and Evgenia Vysotska, a Ukrainian who barely spoke Russian. Evgenia was a tiny climbing machine, brought to the team 3 days before the Giro. She was a revelation, even when she described her legs as being 'kaput!'

We also had Italian road Champion, Monia Baccaille, vying for wins in the early sprint stages. Unfortunately, she was involved in a huge crash inside the last km of stage 2 that brought down a lot of riders, including Australian Rochelle Gilmore (Lotto Belisol Ladies Team), the Brit, Sharon Laws (Cervélo Test Team) and three National Team Riders, Tiffany Cromwell, Kirsty Broun and Emma Mackie.

Monia wasn't badly hurt, and went on to finish the Giro well, but couldn't manage a stage win. Sharon Laws fractured her clavicle and was operated on in Switzerland, and Gilmore started the next 2 stages but was heavily bandaged and pretty sore. She couldn't trick her body to continue and pulled out on stage 5.

My role and my plan of attack required daily vigilance: eating enough, staying safe in the peloton, drinking enough fluids in the 39º heat and then listening for a teammate's call over the radio to get to the front to either A. chase back a break, B. keep pace high into a climb (meaning I hit the start of the climb in the top 5 and then 100m later, I'm in 100th place!) or C. assist Monia in the sprint.

If I was being kind to myself, I'd say, yes, I did do all those things. But the quality and experience of the Team HTC-Columbia Women, the US National Team and Cervélo Test Team and was enough to overwhelm any meagre efforts by lone Italian team domestiques!

Ina Teutenberg (HTC-Columbia Women) took the first 2 frantic sprint stages, and then surprised even herself by winning the 17km time trial in stage 3. Oh, and then won the stage 4 sprint finish too. Outstanding displays of skill and strength, both by her and the team.

By stages 5 and 6, the alleged 'non hilly' days, all were a little tired and hot. The average temperature had been 37º and we knew which mountain passes were coming in stages 7-9. We had changed hotels every single night, and the novelty of a carpark shower then 3h in the back of a hot van was starting to wear off! What is it with cyclists and a fear of air conditioning? Legionnaire's? Italian birdflu?

Marianne Vos, current World no. 1 and riding for the Dutch National Team, took the next two stages solo, in technical finishes that suited her aggressive cyclocross style. Judith Arndt (HTC-Columbia Women) had consolidated her 2nd place and Guderzo was in 3rd.

For stages 7, 8 and 9, we covered high mountain passes, technical descents and the challenges of getting a bidon from your 70 yo visually impaired soigneur. I learned how to climb in the sprinter's bunch, at JUST the right pace to make time cut safely, but not so hard that the bunch splinters on the 42 switchbacks of Stelvio (2758m). Besides, no one wants to get yelled at by Teutenberg for not doing it right.

I also learned that your legs can feel fine at 25km/h in a warm up ride to the stage start, instilling plenty of positive vibes "yeah, this is fine, I'm really not that tired..." but when the race starts with 3 x 6km laps at Livigno (1875m), and they take off at 40km/h before a nasty climb, that non-tired legs will just not cooperate. And that's the day, done and dusted.

Uberclimber and yoga instructor, Mara Abbot (US National Team) won stages 8 and 9 and sealed the maglia rosa. Her team mate, Shelley Evans, won the final stage bunch sprint into Monza and our leader, Tatiana Guderzo finished up 3rd on GC, with the best Italian rider jersey. We also had the full 8 on the finish line and won best team (with Evgenia 6h and Antoshina 8th on GC).

10654m climbed, 1125km ridden, a kajilliion litres of water drunk and a I stayed upright. Gotta be easier the second time around, right?

(L to R): Laura Bozzolo, Tania Belverderesi, Bridie O'Donnell, Evgenia Vysotska, Tatiana Antoshina, Monia Baccaille, Martina Corazza, Tatiana Guderzo