Abstract: We consider solutions to Ricci flow defined on manifolds M for a time interval (0,T) whose Ricci curvature is bounded uniformly in time from below, and for which the norm of the full curvature tensor at time t is bounded by c/t for some fixed constant c>1 for all t in (0,T). From previous works, it is known that if the solution is complete for all times t>0, then there is a limit metric space (M,d_0), as time t approaches zero. We show : if there is a region V on which (V,d_0) is *smooth*, then the solution can be extended smoothly to time zero on V.