Songezo Jim Blog: My Milan Sanremo

You’ve heard all the riders say this already but yesterday was the coldest I have ever been on a bicycle. Still I would not want to be anywhere else in the world. I still can’t believe yesterday happened and keep thinking I am going to wake up from a dream.

It started at the start village. I went to sign on along with Doug Ryder, our team principal. He was on a Qhubeka bike while I was on the Trek Madone. All the way back to the bus, people were stopping me every 20 metres. Doug was in front and every time he looked back I wasn’t there as someone else grabbed me for a chat.

The racing started out easy. The first 30minutes was very easy. I really wanted to go into the break and thought I had the legs for it but our director, Jens told me he needed me in the bunch to look after Gerald and Andy as much as I could. After 30 minutes it got harder and harder. 70km into the race, the team was all together and I was keeping the guys out of the wind. All of a sudden there was a crash and Sergio, Martin and I went down. I am not sure what happened as it was raining so hard and you couldn’t really look ahead of you.

I broke my bike and called for my spare bike on the radio. We were car number 20 in the convoy so it took a while to get my second bike. I was waiting for Martin but he broke his shoes so his race was over. I caught up to Sergio and it took us 22km to catch up to the peloton. The racing was really hard at this point and we just managed to latch onto the back. It was snowing, it was wet and the rain kept coming down. I was riding with my eyes closed at some point because there was no visibility with sunglasses but when you took them off the snow went into your eyes.

I didn’t know the organisers were stopping the race and I saw our team pulling off and other guys pulling off but I thought I am not giving up in this race. I am going to carry on because this is all I dreamt of. By the time I got to the last team bus down the road I realised the whole peloton was pulling over and realised what was going on.

I was so cold I could not take off my gloves or any of my clothes. Our director, Jens had to undress me as my fingers were frozen. Our staff were so organised. We had showers on the bus and they had fresh kit for us to get into which felt so good. This team is so professional, I was very grateful to be part of it.

Before the race got started again I spoke to some of the big names like Boonen and Farrar. They were really friendly and it was an incredible experience chatting to them. I was still feeling good and motivated after the race started again but the race was so hard. I didn’t even have a chance to eat or drink. I was looking after Gerald and Andy and kept them out of the wind. It was great racing with them as they taught me where to sit and what to do. I kept asking them what to do and they told me when to move up. I learnt so much from them yesterday, they are incredible guys.

With 50km to go I went up to Ciolek and told him I was dead. He asked me to get him gloves but he could see I was finished. I helped him with the gloves but I couldn’t anymore, he had to come back to the team car to get them.

While the racing and weather was so hard I was thinking why am I doing this, this is horrible. But then I thought this is what I’ve dreamt about. If I want to be a professional in Europe I have to endure days like this. Gerald winning was just unbelievable. I can’t believe I was a part of it all.

I am back in Lucca now. My next race is Coppi and Bartali on Wednesday. Living the dream.

Songezo Jim