Another great memory to nurture in my heart
It was the fastest race! What I will remember is that everything happened so fast!

The most exciting and memorable 10-20 km on flat of my life

It was part of one of our cycling tours where we were following the Giro d’Italia. We were riding many miles per day, so that day I chose the medium distance route. As I was reaching the top of the last climb, from the cheering of the fans I realized that I was the first woman. I got very excited but on the downhill, more women start passing me since I have always been conservative on the downhills and I was relatively lighter than them. As I started to get discouraged, a group of tall and super-fit male cyclists came by and told me to follow them and they would have escorted me until the finish line. I jumped on their wheels, they were going fast, but I was protected by their wide shoulders and “stayed on their wheels as a glue”. 
I peddled so fast on flat as I never had done before. We were crusing and started re-passing people. They were the best “spalla” ever! I still did not make the podium, but those have been the most exciting and memorable 10-20 km on flat of my life. 

The finish at the top of San Pellegrino

We were going to watch the finish at the top of San Pellegrino. We had already climbed the Fedaia (Marmolada) and the Pordoi Passes, I had just started the pass of San Pellegrino from Alleghe, the hard side. I was feeling the fatigue of all the 100 km already ridden in my legs and I had another 10 km of double digits switchbacks in front of me, when the “magic” happened. Somehow one of the fans caught my name (maybe from my friends riding with me) and started screaming “Forza Luisa” in the megaphone he had. The echo of “Forza Luisa” propagated several switchbacks up in the mountain and, as I was climbing up, at every switch back, all the fans were standing up, clapping as I was coming by, cheering and screaming: “Forza Luisa”. I still cannot described the emotion, I felt a pro for a few moments, the fatigue magically disappered, the excitement took over and the stregth came back into my legs. 
I still feel the goosebumps just writing the story and thinking back to that moment. It was un-repetable.

May 22 of the Stage 18 of 2005 Giro
The Stelvio was climbed from the side of Prato 

Due to the snow fall, until mid-morning of that same day, we still did not know whether the race would have still gone through the Stelvio or not. We were in the van, in Prato, with the radio on, waiting for the last minute decision. I was praying since I travelled all the way from USA, just for this stage. 
Finally the decision arrived. It was almost noon and the passage over the Stelvio was confirmed, but they closed the pass to all vehicles.

Nothing would have stopped us that day, we had come all the way from USA for this stage. So, we started riding around noon. After the first few km, after passing Trafoi, the police started stopping and sending back cyclists. I will never forget that moment: we put our bikes on our shoulders, and despite the slippery road shoes with cleats, we climbed the side wall of the mountain, we by-passed the police blockade and restarted riding on the following swithback. We did this for 3 times, until we could ride up with no more police checks. We made the top after 3 hours. 

It was very cold, but we carried more warm clothes in our small backpacks. You can spot me in the foto next to the paragraph with the red backpacks and a blue helmet. The excitement was high enough to warm us up. We could see all the switchbacks below us. So, when the pro-peloton started the climb, we could see the colorful serpentine all the way from the bottom, snaking its way up through the switchbacks. 

I was cheering for Ivan Basso who was wearing the pink jersey until that day. We were all anxious to see him. But he was not in the break way, he was not in the leading group, he was not even in the second or third small groups behind. We all fans, waiting for him at the final switchback of the Stelvio, started wondering what happened. Finally we saw him, escorted by his team mates. Ivan Basso made the top of the Stelvio with more than 20 minutes behind and he lost the Giro that day. We heard later about his food poison intossication that compromised his vicotry.