In the Italian village Riolo Terme Karen Brouwer finished at second place in the Rally di Romagna today. This mountainbike stage race over five days started last Thursday and was characterized by a lot of climbing under hot circumstances. The rain of the last weeks had made the track really tough and also made the bike gain in weight due to the sticky Italian mud.
On the steep climbs I struggled and could not follow my Italian competitor Elisa Gastaldi. So in the first four stages the victory was not in reach for me and I finished second. Yesterday was a hard stage over 82 kilometers and almost 3000 altimeters and apparantly I had recovered better than Gastaldi. On one of the climbs I catched her and left her behind and finished the race with a stage win.’, stated the KMC bikester.