Day 1 - Tour de Georgia 2007
…No, not Stage 1, Day 1 for me. I got to Atlanta on Thursday night and after a six hour drive from Southern Mississippi (six hours) and having a guy from North Mississippi rear end my car near the Atlanta Airport (again, two bikes on the back of the car; my luck!!! [ed. The bikes are ok, minor derailer malfunctions.]), I got to my hotel and prepared for a long week. I got to the Atlanta Airport Marriott (right next door to my own hotel) at about 9am Friday to start my day in the transportation office of the Tour de Georgia. From experience, I knew not to go to the office, but directly to a large parking lot set aside for the Tour where some folks were already decaling cars. I joined in on the fun with a few other volunteers. Decaling cars involves putting the Tour de Georgia decals along with sponsor decals on certain parts of the car. After that, we put the stickers on the windshields that identify the cars or the people inside them. These stickers include Comms 1-3 (Commissaires), VIPs, Tech Director, Venue Director, Race Director, (all different kinds of directors!), Staff, Marshals, etc. We start off with nearly 150+ cars, although we don’t always keep all of them. Some may be considered “extras” and are sent back to the rental company, in this year’s case it’s Enterprise. So with about eight or nine volunteers, we got the most part of the decaling done in about two and a half hours. That’s record time for me, since I’ve been involved!!! Friday wasn’t too busy with people arriving and picking up their vehicles. Mostly we’d pick up the few folks flying into Atlanta and take them directly to the Wyndham Hotel in Peachtree City, Race HQ for Stage One. I only had to make a handful of runs to Peachtree City that day. We were also supposed to have four Pro Tour teams flying in from Belgium around mid-day Friday. We found out early Friday morning that the Firemen’s Union at the Brussells airport had gone on strike, canceling the flights of Discovery, Prodir, Predictor, and Quick-Step. So, with no teams to pick up, I sat in the Transportation office with Transportation Director, Gary Metcalf, Chris Reed, and the folks from Enterprise all evening until nearly midnight waiting on a few more arrivals.
Saturday morning started somewhat the same, 9am in the office. More folks were filtering in from the airport to pick up their cars and the transportation folks prepared plans to pick up the teams coming in starting at noon. We have a pretty neat arrangement to pick up the athletes from the airport. Here’s what happens…so of course, Atlanta hosted the Olympics in 96. The people at the airport developed a place called “Olympic Circle” for the athletes arriving. It’s sort of a bypass from the terminals so they aren’t bombarded by fans after a long flight and creating a scene with folks wanting to see them, get autographs, etc. So we were given security passes to go through Security checks and go directly to Olympic Circle. For the European teams flying in with lots of cargo, our vans and trucks met them directly on the tarmac. This is where another arrangement, this time with Delta comes in. Delta would take the team’s cargo and place it all into one specific container and put the container into a specific area of the plane. Once the flight lands, the container is taken off of the plane and a member of Customs will come out, inspect everything as it comes out of the container and goes directly into a box truck. This is a pretty neat accommodation to have, especially in the World’s busiest airport.
So just after lunch Saturday, I ran down to Peachtree City to help someone deliver a car down there as well as decal some more cars that left the Marriott before they had a chance to be decaled. We went down there expecting to put a handful of decals on, but wound up finding nearly twenty team minivans as well as the Race Directors cars and a few other trucks needing to be almost completely decaled. Once I was finished, I went back to ATL to pick up Jonathan McCartney of Discovery and take him down to Peachtree City. I got back to ATL around 3:30 to find out there was a 15 passanger van needing to be delivered to Peachtree City. So I took the van back down to Peachtree City to Virginia who needed it to shuttle the Medalist folks to and from the rider presentation, which I volunteered to drive. The skies were already turning grey and a few raindrops were falling so Virginia told me we’d know at 5:15 if the presentation would be called off due to weather. Sure enough, at about 5:10, the bottom fell out!!! So instead of heading to the presentation, groups formed in the lobby and folks started heading out to dinner, riders were seen walking to dinner, stopping to talk to familiar faces, and when Gary got down to Peachtree City, he gave me a ride back to ATL where my car and hotel were.
On Day 3, I woke up a bit earlier to a cold light rain while I packed my car around 8:45am. I was in the office at 9am with Gary and the Enterprise guy, ready for a full day. Most of the cars had actually left Saturday, so there wasn’t much left to do but wait for folks to come pick up the few remaining. Around mid-afternoon, I headed to the airport to pick up a late rider flying in from Milan, Remmert Wielinga of Prodir- Saunier Duval. We talked a lot on the ride down to Peachtree City. He’s a Dutch rider on Prodir living in Monnaco. We talked about racing, fast cars (I was driving a Pontiac G6 that day and he had just bought a BMW M5!!!), cold weather, etc. This really shows that most of the riders are really laid back and cool to talk to before the racing starts, and even during the week. I dropped him off at the Wyndham and immediately got a call from Chris that the Director of the Tour of Missouri (September! Mark your calanders!) was flying in and needed to be picked up. So off I go again to the airport! While I was in the airport waiting for his flight to arrive at the gate, I got another call from Chris saying that a Tinkof doctor had just landed (and was not on the arrival sheet to be picked up). Chris asked what I was wearing so the doctor would know what to look for. I told him I was in an Auburn Flyers sweatshirt holding a Tour de Georgia sign. As soon as I got off the phone with Chris, none other than the Auburn Track and Field team walked out of the gate and up to the baggage claim I was next to!!! About thirty folks wearing Auburn sweatshirts, t-shirts, jackets…Needless to say the doctor found me easily, thank goodness for the Tour de Georgia sign I was holding. Once Mike (from Missouri) arrived, we waited for about twenty minutes for his luggage then loaded up the car to head back down to Peachtree City. Once the car was in motion, the Tinkof doctor was immediately asleep and snoring by the time we got to the interstate. Mike, on the other hand, was very eager to talk about the Tour de Georgia. He was eager to find out my experiences with the staff and organization, the riders, the cities we go through, etc. By the time we got to Peachtree, we were still deep in talking about the Tour, bike racing, etc. But of course he had people to see, things to do…well, you know the deal. So once again, I got back in the car and followed Gary back to Peachtree City to shut down the transportation office at the Marriott until next weekend when we return to Atlanta. After that, I picked up my car and made my final trip down to Peachtree City.
…No, not Stage 1, Day 1 for me. I got to Atlanta on Thursday night and after a six hour drive from Southern Mississippi (six hours) and having a guy from North Mississippi rear end my car near the Atlanta Airport (again, two bikes on the back of the car; my luck!!! [ed. The bikes are ok, minor derailer malfunctions.]), I got to my hotel and prepared for a long week. I got to the Atlanta Airport Marriott (right next door to my own hotel) at about 9am Friday to start my day in the transportation office of the Tour de Georgia. From experience, I knew not to go to the office, but directly to a large parking lot set aside for the Tour where some folks were already decaling cars. I joined in on the fun with a few other volunteers. Decaling cars involves putting the Tour de Georgia decals along with sponsor decals on certain parts of the car. After that, we put the stickers on the windshields that identify the cars or the people inside them. These stickers include Comms 1-3 (Commissaires), VIPs, Tech Director, Venue Director, Race Director, (all different kinds of directors!), Staff, Marshals, etc. We start off with nearly 150+ cars, although we don’t always keep all of them. Some may be considered “extras” and are sent back to the rental company, in this year’s case it’s Enterprise. So with about eight or nine volunteers, we got the most part of the decaling done in about two and a half hours. That’s record time for me, since I’ve been involved!!! Friday wasn’t too busy with people arriving and picking up their vehicles. Mostly we’d pick up the few folks flying into Atlanta and take them directly to the Wyndham Hotel in Peachtree City, Race HQ for Stage One. I only had to make a handful of runs to Peachtree City that day. We were also supposed to have four Pro Tour teams flying in from Belgium around mid-day Friday. We found out early Friday morning that the Firemen’s Union at the Brussells airport had gone on strike, canceling the flights of Discovery, Prodir, Predictor, and Quick-Step. So, with no teams to pick up, I sat in the Transportation office with Transportation Director, Gary Metcalf, Chris Reed, and the folks from Enterprise all evening until nearly midnight waiting on a few more arrivals.
Saturday morning started somewhat the same, 9am in the office. More folks were filtering in from the airport to pick up their cars and the transportation folks prepared plans to pick up the teams coming in starting at noon. We have a pretty neat arrangement to pick up the athletes from the airport. Here’s what happens…so of course, Atlanta hosted the Olympics in 96. The people at the airport developed a place called “Olympic Circle” for the athletes arriving. It’s sort of a bypass from the terminals so they aren’t bombarded by fans after a long flight and creating a scene with folks wanting to see them, get autographs, etc. So we were given security passes to go through Security checks and go directly to Olympic Circle. For the European teams flying in with lots of cargo, our vans and trucks met them directly on the tarmac. This is where another arrangement, this time with Delta comes in. Delta would take the team’s cargo and place it all into one specific container and put the container into a specific area of the plane. Once the flight lands, the container is taken off of the plane and a member of Customs will come out, inspect everything as it comes out of the container and goes directly into a box truck. This is a pretty neat accommodation to have, especially in the World’s busiest airport.
So just after lunch Saturday, I ran down to Peachtree City to help someone deliver a car down there as well as decal some more cars that left the Marriott before they had a chance to be decaled. We went down there expecting to put a handful of decals on, but wound up finding nearly twenty team minivans as well as the Race Directors cars and a few other trucks needing to be almost completely decaled. Once I was finished, I went back to ATL to pick up Jonathan McCartney of Discovery and take him down to Peachtree City. I got back to ATL around 3:30 to find out there was a 15 passanger van needing to be delivered to Peachtree City. So I took the van back down to Peachtree City to Virginia who needed it to shuttle the Medalist folks to and from the rider presentation, which I volunteered to drive. The skies were already turning grey and a few raindrops were falling so Virginia told me we’d know at 5:15 if the presentation would be called off due to weather. Sure enough, at about 5:10, the bottom fell out!!! So instead of heading to the presentation, groups formed in the lobby and folks started heading out to dinner, riders were seen walking to dinner, stopping to talk to familiar faces, and when Gary got down to Peachtree City, he gave me a ride back to ATL where my car and hotel were.
On Day 3, I woke up a bit earlier to a cold light rain while I packed my car around 8:45am. I was in the office at 9am with Gary and the Enterprise guy, ready for a full day. Most of the cars had actually left Saturday, so there wasn’t much left to do but wait for folks to come pick up the few remaining. Around mid-afternoon, I headed to the airport to pick up a late rider flying in from Milan, Remmert Wielinga of Prodir- Saunier Duval. We talked a lot on the ride down to Peachtree City. He’s a Dutch rider on Prodir living in Monnaco. We talked about racing, fast cars (I was driving a Pontiac G6 that day and he had just bought a BMW M5!!!), cold weather, etc. This really shows that most of the riders are really laid back and cool to talk to before the racing starts, and even during the week. I dropped him off at the Wyndham and immediately got a call from Chris that the Director of the Tour of Missouri (September! Mark your calanders!) was flying in and needed to be picked up. So off I go again to the airport! While I was in the airport waiting for his flight to arrive at the gate, I got another call from Chris saying that a Tinkof doctor had just landed (and was not on the arrival sheet to be picked up). Chris asked what I was wearing so the doctor would know what to look for. I told him I was in an Auburn Flyers sweatshirt holding a Tour de Georgia sign. As soon as I got off the phone with Chris, none other than the Auburn Track and Field team walked out of the gate and up to the baggage claim I was next to!!! About thirty folks wearing Auburn sweatshirts, t-shirts, jackets…Needless to say the doctor found me easily, thank goodness for the Tour de Georgia sign I was holding. Once Mike (from Missouri) arrived, we waited for about twenty minutes for his luggage then loaded up the car to head back down to Peachtree City. Once the car was in motion, the Tinkof doctor was immediately asleep and snoring by the time we got to the interstate. Mike, on the other hand, was very eager to talk about the Tour de Georgia. He was eager to find out my experiences with the staff and organization, the riders, the cities we go through, etc. By the time we got to Peachtree, we were still deep in talking about the Tour, bike racing, etc. But of course he had people to see, things to do…well, you know the deal. So once again, I got back in the car and followed Gary back to Peachtree City to shut down the transportation office at the Marriott until next weekend when we return to Atlanta. After that, I picked up my car and made my final trip down to Peachtree City.
posted by JC Gillespie at 8:03 PM
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