Campbell's Giro Rosa debut comes to early end

TENIEL Campbell’s Giro Rosa debut came to an early end after stage six pedalled off, in the Italian town of Nola, on Wednesday.

The 22-year-old had her toughest day yet, placing 107th and finishing outside the time limit (OTL). An OTL is when a rider fails to finish within a specified time behind the race winner. This time is usually defined as a percentage of the winner’s time.

Stage winner Marianne Vos (Netherlands) completed the gruelling 97.5km distance in two hours, 14 minutes and 24 seconds while Campbell’s time was beyond two hours and 30 minutes.

Campbell though, did well to complete six stages (661km) of the challenging nine-day stage race. This was her first Giro Rosa – one of only two stage races remaining on the Women’s World Tour’s revised late-season calendar.

After her performance, on Wednesday, the Tokyo-bound cyclist admitted she could go no further.

Posting to her Facebook page, Campbell relayed her experience, “Zero Power. This time a mechanical in the legs on the climb. My body just overheated and I was left with no choice but to ‘break away’ in the back (of the peloton).

“No matter how much I tried to push on, everything just said no today. That’s a bummer because I thought all was good. However going from grupetto (a group of cyclists who form a large group behind the leading peloton) to grupetto, (being) completely empty was a really bad sign.

She continued, “(I) literally crawled over the finish line today. One rider had to ask me if all was okay, I guess things were looking really bad as well. Which means my Giro Rosa is over as I was Out of the Time Limit. I enjoyed it while it lasted.

“Definitely learnt a few things during the tour plus gained a bit of confidence in my ability to climb. Now it’s time to rest and recover. Until Next time,” she posted.