Fisher-Black won the road race at the National Road Championships, at the beginning of the year, but hadn’t been able to race outside of New Zealand, as races fell through due to the pandemic.
The European races were her first big professional event and she said it was a hard, last-minute decision to come back, although she had made the right choice, especially being based in Italy.
Fisher-Black said she and teammate, Mikayla Harvey, were both learning Italian but weren’t at a fluent level and the language barrier meant it felt like things happened more suddenly.
Despite living in an area hardest-hit by COVID-19 in Europe, she hadn’t understood the extremity of the situation.
“We didn’t read the news, because we couldn’t read it,” Fisher-Black said.
At the time, things were changing in a matter of hours and the pair fled Italy, with their bikes and some clothes.
The pair took a taxi from their apartment in Lombardy, Italy to Switzerland, then a train to somewhere they could stay.
They were lucky they acted fast, Fisher-Black said, as they wouldn’t have been able to get past border controls the next day.
Harvey arrived in New Zealand about a week after Fisher-Black, as when they left Switzerland, they ended up in different countries.
Fisher-Black said she still checked to see if tickets to Europe were available.
“If I can’t get back to Europe, that’s my season done.”
It was uncertain when racing would resume, but she expected September would be the earliest.
“If there’s a season, it’s going to be a full-on season.”
Bigla-Katusha plans to launch a fan support programme next week, to provide fans with the ability to financially support the team through its partners.