Driving to Catanzaro on schedule to get the sticker things felt like they where just falling into place – but when things go wrong on tour, they go wrong big time. First a road block and then a diversion, cutting into our arrival time and putting us right in the thick of it. Every time we reached a road block the Carabinieri told us to go in the opposite direction.

After being told to go one way then back the other then the same way again, I almost lost it. Deciding setting off by foot might be a better option but turned out to be a mission of its own. After another 5 sets of different directions I found it. What a relief! But then the lady at accreditation dropped the bomb – no stickers. They had already taken them to the finish 200km away in the exact direction we had just come. A sickening feeling set in when I realised the only way to salvage this stage was the go directly to the finish.

2 hours later we arrived in the town of Praia A Mare only to find we needed to get on race course to make it to race head quarters and accreditation office.

Up ahead the team buses were waiting to get to the finish as well. We decided to hide right up behind and when the Carabinieri waved the Orica Green Edge bus through we made a break for it. It worked. As soon as we had the stickers on the car, but not before a local restauranteur tried to coax us in to his pizzeria for lunch, we were off.