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21 June 2005

21 June News ...

Longing for the Giro (Verlangen naar de Giro)

New book by Gijs Zandbergen and Marco Pinotti

Main Page: Longing for the Giro (Verlangen naar de Giro)

Extra Chapter by Marco Pinotti

Hi Gijs,

In ten days I will finally begin my first Giro d'Italia. As you know well, I've been dreaming about this event for a long time and now it's becoming a reality. I feel very excited.

Last year at the end of the season I changed teams from Lampre to Saunier Duval - Prodir, a ProTour team that has a Spanish license. The main reason for the change was the opportunity that they are giving me to race all the most important Italian races, above all the Giro d'Italia. The team director Pietro Algeri told me that he was disappointed last year because I was left off the team for the Giro after my good performance in the Tour of Romandie. He told me at the beginning of the season, 'Our team doesn't have a big leader, but each rider has a chance to show himself. Your chance will be in May at the Giro.'

In November 2004 I got married. We had a week-long honeymoon and soon afterwards I began training for the 2005 season. I felt very committed and I worked and trained throughout the winter with passion and love for cycling. In the past few years I have worked mainly on two elements: physical preparation (riding, aerobic cross training and strength training) and body maintenance (nutrition, weight control, attention to injuries and adequate sleep).

I'd been thinking that I wanted 2005 to be special and so it should require specific attention. So I talked with my personal trainer, a wise person, about my my goals and how to reach them. He told me that I needed to work on a third element, the most important: psychological and emotional preparation. Training plans are usually based on power measurements and heart rate monitors; the emotional component does not get the attention it deserves, which is unfortunate, since few riders recognize how important this element is. Even fewer riders have any detailed plan of psychological preparation. With the help of my trainer, I began to do some psychological training sessions. The goal of this kind of preparation is to reach an emotional state that would boost my performance. I was searching for optimism, enthusiasm, focus and confidence, while keeping my eyes on the Giro d'Italia.

This March, I rode the ProTour race Tirreno-Adriatico for the first time. I began the race as an underdog, but I felt good and I nearly won a stage with a long breakaway. It was a cold and rainy day and normally I don't perform well in those weather conditions. The stage was won by the experienced Dutchman Servais Knaven.

While at Tirreno-Adriatico my roommate was American Chris Horner, who crashed in stage 2 and was forced to abandon the race. His injury, combined with my good performance, enabled me to gain a spot for what is the most important one day race in Italy: the 300K long Milano-Sanremo. I was overjoyed racing that Saturday and I will always remember that long day: a early wake-up at 6 am, the crowd of fans at the start, my first time to race 300K and more than 7 hours on the bike! It was all so fast, with the pace increasing km after km, until the last 30K which was full of nervousness and tension.

In April the team director called me to spend two days to preview some of the key stages of the Giro d'Italia. It was both stressful and enjoyable, up and down in the car and on and off the bike trying to become familiar with as many key points as possible. The experience gave me a lot of confidence, since it's usually something that only riders who are certain to race do. The team had faith in me, and that was a very important for a morale boost.

Also in April, without much forewarning, I was informed of a change in my racing schedule. I was scheduled to race the Tour of Georgia instead of La Flèche Wallonne, Liège-Bastogne-Liège and the Tour of Romandie, races in which I performed well last year. I considered that change as a sign of destiny. It would be my first time in the USA (a new experience is always welcome), the team did not have a leader due to Horner's injury, my wife was happier because my days away were less overall, and it was a good training race for the Giro. The only problem would be jet-lag. We arrived in Atlanta just 48 hours before race started and I have to admit I had jet-lag problems.

One word can summarize my impression of the USA: oversized. It is all so big, from the road width to the hotel rooms, and even the food portions. It was a beautiful experience; it was like being in a movie. We often had dinner outside hotel - once in an arena and once in a college.

There was a huge amount of spectators on the roads following the stages. Many of them took a week off from work specifically to see every stage, following the race in their mobile-homes! The race had a great media coverage since Lance Armstrong made his "do not miss statement" in the press conference the day before the race started. The strange thing is that we never saw Armstrong and his team in our hotels, or even at the race starts until the last minute!

I was very pleased to see the landscape which perhaps inspired me to ride a great race, one of the best stage races of my career. I arrived 7th overall, and almost won two difficult stages (3rd and 6th place). The race in which I placed 3rd had very bad conditions, with showers and thunderstorms at some moments. But I was thinking about my solo training in the rain in Bergamo and wasn't really affected by the weather. I was only focused on my performance, riding in a perfect state of mind. The mental training seemed to be paying off. I had incredible feelings while climbing in the difficult stages next to riders like Armstrong, Julich, Leipheimer and Landis. Sometimes I felt like I was watching TV and saying to myself "go,go,go!" For the first time, I had the opportunity to witness an attack by Armstrong in person. Seeing him hammering along was really amazing! I rode the hardest stage as a team leader and it gave me lots of confidence. The team director was surprised by my overall performance.

So here we are, and this year I am going to ride the Giro d'Italia! I have many expectations for a great race.

Bye
Marco

Main Page: Longing for the Giro (Verlangen naar de Giro)

21 June News ...