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The only days of a Grand Tour in which time moves faster than on rest days are the days before the race, and nowhere is that truer than at the Tour de France. It's now the middle of the afternoon on the last day before the race, and it's the first time I've stopped moving in three days. For that matter, last night was the first since the trip began that we got a full night of sleep.

Owing to the fact that this is not my first time here, none of this comes as any surprise. The Tour de France is The Big Show, after all. Between training, interviews, photo shoots, dialling in new equipment and team presentations, there isn't a lot of time left to relax. Throw in a couple of early mornings to drive to a decent location for team time trial practice, and the pre-race anti-doping controls, and we're tired before the race even starts! Thankfully the schedule was front-loaded, so we could take today easier.

I'm getting a bit ahead of myself, though: how did I even come to be at the Tour de France?

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I've known for quite some time that the Tour was a possibility. I managed to finish the Giro-Tour combo last year in support of Tom Dumoulin, and the team time trial here would take on extra importance this year, given the lack of individual time trial kilometres. So when Tom abandoned the Giro after his crash and I went all-in for the final time trial, I also had in the back of my mind that an easier Giro would pay dividends in France, should my services be needed here.

By now you have seen how that final time trial went for me. The victory was one that resonated with viewers around the world, and the response was overwhelming, as I wrote in my last blog. I needed to get away and unplug for a bit, so my wife and I took a mini-vacation to Mallorca, where I could ride new roads as I dived back into training, and then relax with her at the beach afterwards.

I was still on the bubble for Tour selection, but I needed to train as if I was going. It's a state of mind that I did not enjoy, if I'm honest. To be half-way through a set of intervals and asking myself, "Am I a sweaty mess so that I can take the form of my life into summer break?" is not productive, so I pushed those doubts away. I have friends that did as well, working their hardest to be at this race, and who are now on vacation with great form. Cycling can be cruel sometimes.

You can read more at Cyclingnews.com

The only days of a Grand Tour in which time moves faster than on rest days are the days before the race, and nowhere is that truer than at the Tour de France. It's now the middle of the afternoon on the last day before the race, and it's the first time I've stopped moving in three days. For that matter, last night was the first since the trip began that we got a full night of sleep.

Owing to the fact that this is not my first time here, none of this comes as any surprise. The Tour de France is The Big Show, after all. Between training, interviews, photo shoots, dialling in new equipment and team presentations, there isn't a lot of time left to relax. Throw in a couple of early mornings to drive to a decent location for team time trial practice, and the pre-race anti-doping controls, and we're tired before the race even starts! Thankfully the schedule was front-loaded, so we could take today easier.

I'm getting a bit ahead of myself, though: how did I even come to be at the Tour de France?

ADVERTISEMENT

I've known for quite some time that the Tour was a possibility. I managed to finish the Giro-Tour combo last year in support of Tom Dumoulin, and the team time trial here would take on extra importance this year, given the lack of individual time trial kilometres. So when Tom abandoned the Giro after his crash and I went all-in for the final time trial, I also had in the back of my mind that an easier Giro would pay dividends in France, should my services be needed here.

By now you have seen how that final time trial went for me. The victory was one that resonated with viewers around the world, and the response was overwhelming, as I wrote in my last blog. I needed to get away and unplug for a bit, so my wife and I took a mini-vacation to Mallorca, where I could ride new roads as I dived back into training, and then relax with her at the beach afterwards.

I was still on the bubble for Tour selection, but I needed to train as if I was going. It's a state of mind that I did not enjoy, if I'm honest. To be half-way through a set of intervals and asking myself, "Am I a sweaty mess so that I can take the form of my life into summer break?" is not productive, so I pushed those doubts away. I have friends that did as well, working their hardest to be at this race, and who are now on vacation with great form. Cycling can be cruel sometimes.

You can read more at Cyclingnews.com

Editor's note: The organisers of the 2019 Giro Rosa have been forced to cancel the summit finish on the Passo Gavia, which was to be the finish of stage 5 on July 9, due to unexpected landslides and bad weather in the area. The conditions have forced authorities to intermittently close the roads to traffic and organisers have re-routed the stage to finish at the Lago di Cancano.

Here we are at the start of the Giro Rosa!

I think it's the hardest parcours that the organisers have ever designed with a lot of climbing and not much for the sprinters. The addition of the Passo Gavia will be the highlight of this year's race, and it will be epic, but it's not the only ingredient that will make this Giro Rosa hard. It will probably be the first place where there are more significant time differences, but there will also be opportunities on the uphill time trial on stage 6 and the summit finish of stage 9. These will also be crucial stages.

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I was pleased when the organisers announced that this year's course would include the Passo Gavia because I know that climb very well. I've spent about 200 days during my career in that area, and it's always been my preferred region for altitude training. I feel at home in the Valtellina region of Italy. The people from the hotel there – I love them – have become such good friends.

Last year, they closed the hotel in September and invited me for their annual staff BBQ, which was a lovely evening for all the people that work in the hotel to celebrate the end of the summer season. It was two weeks before the Innsbruck World Championships, and there I was at this fantastic party singing karaoke songs with the manager and the maître d'hôtel. It was a lot of fun!

Leading Mitchelton-Scott

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When I step back to think about the fact that I have won 72 US National titles in my career, I recall memories at my very first National Championship in 2004 in Park City, Utah. I was 11 years old, racing age 12. I had just started racing with a licence that year after winning the Redlands Classic kids race for the second year in a row. My family and I were traveling all over Southern California racing almost every weekend chasing the local races. My first year racing US Nationals in Park City I won the ITT and road race and got 2nd in the criterium, it was my goal the next year to win the criterium and improve on my silver medal. In 2005, I went up an age group to 13-14 and accomplished my goal of winning the criterium and also defended my ITT title but then flipped the events and placed 2nd in the road race. I went on in 2006 to continue to improve and challenge myself and win all 3 road titles in Seven Springs, Pennsylvania.

It turned into a summer family affair, travelling in the motorhome that my younger sister and I had enjoyed since we were babies visiting National Parks like Yosemite and Mount Rushmore. From taking the jet-skis out to Castaic, Perris, or Elsinore Lake in the summers to snowboarding Mammoth, Snowbird, or Big Bear in the winters using our family motorhome multiple times a year was a normal activity for the Rivera family to have fun and enjoy the outdoors together. When racing came into the fold, it also became a norm to travel together to the different national championships around the country chasing the title one jersey at a time.

I then got into racing track and cyclo-cross as we learned more about the different disciplines of cycling. My first track nationals was on my home velodrome, The Velo Sports Center, in Carson, CA. It was 2004 when the LA Velodrome was just finished being built and I remember the junior National Championships was the first event to be held there. One of my favourite memories was getting an extra piece of Siberian Pine that was used to build the track – I still have it to this day. The family and I traveled to different velodromes around America like Trexlertown and Colorado Springs to continue going after track national titles in the summers.

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Cyclo-cross nationals for this Southern California girl was a bit more challenging. All through the SoCal cyclo-cross season was dry and dusty racing and would be rare to get a muddy race in before Nationals. I enjoyed the different aspects of 'cross pushing my boundaries with the aggressive starts, technical sections, speed, and running over barriers and steep run-ups. My first cyclo-cross nationals was in Providence, Rhode Island in 2005 it was my first experience with snow. I had no idea what I was getting myself into and I remember breaking my chain and not having a spare bike in the pit and running with my bike in one hand and my chain in the other. I was bummed out to travel all the way to the other end of the country and not be able to even finish the race or let alone feel my hands. I said I would be back and get the jersey. Cyclo-cross Nationals was back in Providence in 2006 and the conditions weren't as bad as the year before, but still had the challenge of mud and slick corners and I was excited and proud to get the stars and stripes on my shoulders after my heart-breaking first try. We went on to travel all over the country like Kansas City, MO and Bend, Oregon for the rest of my junior career going after cyclocross national titles.

I'm not even sure if this is correct, but I believe I ended my junior career with 32 US National titles. Also earning spots to start junior Road and Track Worlds when I was 17 in Moscow, Russia and when I was 18 in Italy. My first year at junior worlds was an eye-opener realizing the level of international junior racing was really high and even though I was one of the best juniors in the country, I still had room for improvement. I worked hard, graduated high school a semester early and had the opportunity to race in Europe more and finished off my junior worlds career with a bronze medal in the road race and the track omnium in Italy. I had some of my favourite junior worlds memories there going after these podium spots with an awesome group of junior girls that are also still in the WorldTour-cycling world today like Kendall Ryan, Ruth Winder, and Kaitie Antonneau (neé Keough).

The count for stars-and-stripes jerseys continued when I was racing collegiately for Marian University. I owe the fun environment of collegiate racing for more than doubling my national title count after juniors! I raced road, track, cyclo-cross, and MTB for Marian while studying business marketing. I remember one year in Banner Elk, North Carolina when I was lining up with Kate Courtney who was racing for Stanford and wondering to myself what the heck I was doing. I was happy to end my collegiate racing career with a short track MTB National title in Snowshoe, West Virginia in 2015 which was my 71st US National title. I remember travelling all over the country with Coach Dean Peterson and the rest of the Knights in our charter bus we dubbed 'The Death Star'. It was no Rivera family motorhome, but we still had plenty of friendships made helping each other for races and memories trying to study on the bus. And for the record, it was the time in my life when I ate the most peanut butter and honey sandwiches.

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As the final week of the Giro d'Italia ticked by, I tried to make a note of things I could write about in my final blog about the race. Aside from the bone-chilling descent off the Mortirolo and an exciting ‘will they/won’t they’ breakaway finale, I wasn’t left with much. But then, as I’m sure you’ve seen by now, I had a pretty special day in Verona.

For two weeks – ever since the time trial on stage 9 went so well for me – I had been counting down the days until Verona.

I helped my teammates where I could as they continued to fight for breakaway success, but every time the race started to explode, I jumped on the gruppetto train rather than go into the red. It’s not exciting, and it’s definitely a gamble to pass up opportunities, but I was committed to my choice.

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That’s not to say that I had an easy ride… The Giro d’Italia is anything but easy, and I actually suffered quite a lot; with the mindset of saving my legs, every effort hurt doubly because I didn’t want to hurt. I had my doubts at times. I wondered how much I was really saving, and whether guys like Roglic would be as tired as I needed them to be by the time they rolled down the start ramp.

With just five climbs between me and the time trial, I started stage 20 prepared to suffer. We hit the first climb and the race immediately exploded, but I found myself cruising past dropped riders, not even feeling the effort. “Whoa,” I thought, as I realized that my plan had worked and I floated up the first climb. I told my director, “These legs can win tomorrow, I just need to get them to the finish today,” and settled in for a long day.

The exasperated cries of “piano!” and “gruppetto!” every time guys felt like the pace was too high became music to my ears, as it was a reminder that most of the peloton was struggling. 6000kJ later, I hopped off my bike and bounded up the steps to the bus. I was tired, but in a great mood after laying the groundwork for a great time trial, and set to work getting everything in order for the next day.

You can read more at Cyclingnews.com