She has been in Italy racing in the Giro Donne, the women's cycling version of the Giro d'Italia.  It is probably the most competitive women's cycling race in the world, and Shelley was fortunate to get an invite to race on the US National Team.  The Giro Donne is a 9-day stage race that concluded yesterday.

It has been really difficult to tell how Shelley is doing because I haven't had any contact with her since she left, and the coverage is pretty shoddy.  Basically every day I can read a short report of the day's events and the results.  She seemed to have a bit of a slow start.  131 women were racing, which is a huge field.  Below I will list what place she finished each stage:

Stage 1: 92

Stage 2: 42

Stage 3: 118

Stage 4: 9  (Atta girl Shelley!)

Stage 5: 82  (That was my number in college football. Coincidence?  :))

Stage 6: 22

Stage 7: 38

Stage 8: 2  (YES!)

Stage 9: 13

Damn, Shelley.  Listen, I know most of you don't follow women's cycling, but you can read into these numbers and see that Shelley is the real deal.  Great racing Shelley!

I'm really proud of her, as you can see.  She finished 29th overall, 15th in points (whatever that means), 13th in the mountains, and the US National Team finished 13 out of 18 teams.  If you want to see the course profiles and write-ups and a few photos, click on each day above to take you to the cycling news site.