Tales from the Giro: What happens when you send a SunGod employee to her first cycling race.
Hi, I'm Jaz, SunGod's Marketing Executive. Until a few weeks ago, I had never been to a cycling race. Now I've been to two of the biggest ones in the world.
I landed in Italy with two content creators and one job: be there for our athletes, represent the brand, and soak up every second of it. What followed was two days of organised chaos, a smashed camera and an after-party in Rome; an experience I won't forget in a hurry.
Day one. Ravenna. The Women's Giro d'Italia.
We started the morning at the Team SD Worx-Protime bus, and I immediately understood why people fall in love with this sport.
Before a stage even starts, there's a particular energy around a team bus. Riders in kit, staff moving with purpose, everything accounted for. We got time with the riders, talked about women in racing, how they each got into the sport, and what the Giro means to them at the start of two weeks on the road.
Part of my job that morning was to walk the team through our products, the Velans 2 and the Vulcans they race in. I went in ready to explain the changes, the benefits, the thinking behind them. What I got back were riders who already knew their kit inside out, had opinions, and wanted more from it. It ended up feeling less like a brand briefing and more like a product session. These aren't people who just wear the gear; they think about it.
Then the riders set off, and I learned my first real lesson about following a cycling race. It is organised chaos, and you have to move.
The feeding zone. 71km in.
We jumped in the support car and drove through the Italian countryside to the 71km mark. On the way, I got a crash course in race support I didn't know I needed. The bottles handed to riders mid-race are wrapped in stockings packed with ice, pressed against the body to bring core temperature down fast. Small detail. Massive difference. When the peloton came through it was loud, fast, and nothing like watching it on a screen.
The finish line. My first ever.
The speed alone. You think you understand it from TV. You don't. The celebrations, the team hugs, the community, it was an atmosphere to remember. That night, we walked around the streets of Ravenna, a city I'd never been to, still buzzing, full of cyclists and locals and fans who hadn't quite come down yet. I talked to people, wandered, and took it in. Everywhere you looked, people were still in it.
Day two. Rome. The Men's Giro.
Early train, a 5-hour trip to Rome. We watched our other partners Unibet Rose Rockets and Netcompany INEOS Cycling Team, and this was the final stage, the last day of three weeks on the road.
I made my way to the team buses and watched the presentation. The day before was about the energy of a start line. This was different. Helmet tan, sleeve tan, the particular kind of tired that comes from three weeks of racing. You could see it on everyone.
The final stage took the peloton through Rome, past the Colosseum, Circo Massimo, through streets lined with people who'd travelled from everywhere to watch. I was sitting in a foreign city watching riders I'd met at a team bus that morning speed past some of the most iconic scenery in the world. Watching our athletes, Filippo Ganna and Dylan Groenewegen, put in a shift, and eventually watching Jonas Vingegaard take the overall win.
The after-party.
That evening, the Unibet Rose Rockets held their after-party. If the race was focus and determination, this was the release.
The team were exhausted. Happy. It was their first-ever Giro, and you could feel what that meant to people in the room, not just finishing, but being there, competing at that level. That kind of atmosphere is hard to put into words without making it sound cheesy, so I'll just say it was a good room to be in.
I knew our athletes were good. I knew the partnerships meant something. But knowing it and actually standing at a finish line in Rome watching it happen are two pretty different things.
Already I'm thinking about France.
