Heart of Gold

Giorgia Bronzini is struggling to find the right words. Just moments earlier the 37-year-old had been talking full-gas (to borrow a phrase she uses frequently) while telling Cyclist the story of a 2015 race in Belgium that involved wind, rain, shattered sunglasses, broken bikes, stubborn domestiques and a teammate who podiumed but still thought she had done wrong and cried afterwards in the team bus.

‘That was an epic day,’ Bronzini summarised dryly after relaying the whole tale in detail. But now she is quiet and reflective. The question that has Bronzini momentarily stumped is little more than a throwaway line, dropped in towards the end of the interview: ‘Can you describe yourself in just three words?’

‘Three words?’ Bronzini murmurs to herself. ‘Hmm…’

Rainbow of surprises

Trek-Segafredo’s sports director is talking with Cyclist via Zoom from a hotel lobby in the Netherlands. With her short dark hair swept smartly back into her trademark quiff, every so often she glances away to nod or smile at an off-screen passer-by.

So sure was Bronzini that her work would go unseen by the cameras that when her brother called from Italy to wish her luck she told him not to set his alarm

Rewind the clock 10 years and you would have found Bronzini in Geelong, Australia, with the sun about to rise on a day that would bring the Italian her first rainbow jersey on the road. Already a World Champion on the track, when she rose that morning Bronzini knew exactly what her responsibilities would be in the race. Or so she