Tour of Missouri - Stage 6

So this is the end...this is the end of the Tour and the end of what's being called a dynasty. Today was one of the most amazing days of my life for quite a few reasons, and I know it will stay with me for a long, long time.This morning started off not quite as bright and early as the rest. We had planned to leave at 9am, however, we wound up simply meeting downstairs for a long breakfast at 9am with quite a bit of fun and laughter. Being the overachiever I am (and securing my jobs for the Tour of California, Georgia, and US Pros for next year, I was prepared as always. I had a small breakfast before the rest of my group reached the dining room and by the time they did, I had already pulled the car to the front of the hotel and was ready to pack Virginia's bags when she brought them down. After a second breakfast (everyone elses' first), we headed out for downtown St. Louis and the end of this year's Tour of Missouri.We arrived downtown around 11am. By the time we got there, Hospitality had looked like we'd already been there for hours. Pretty much everything was set up, give or take a few auction items, etc. One thing we noticed when walking up was that Hospitality was placed right in front of a water fountain across from Union Station. When the wind blew, the water was sprayed over the tent and onto the folks (at that time of day, spraying us!) walking in front. That soon had to be addressed! We had word from the caterer that the water was causing condensation on the inside of the tent that was leaking. Another two hours later, he threatened that if the fountains weren't turned off, that they were going to pack up and leave. (The fountains were later turned off around 3pm.) We had a few meetings take place before Hospitality opened and the race began. The two things being addressed were the awards ceremony and, most importantly, the tribute taking place afterwards.The race started in it's usual ceremonial order. It was really hard to notice the race with all the craziness at Hospitality. Again, we'd had a line forming over an hour before we planned to open at noon. We opened 15 minutes early to accomodate the special day. A few of us had special jobs on the day so our time at Hospitality check in was less than normal. Ryan was handling the caravan rides for special VIPs. Each VIP and their guests got one lap ride in one of three VIP vehicles. I was a runner for the day. I didn't have much running around to do during the beginning of the race so, for the most part, I could take it easy, just merely helping out with check in. My main job would come at the end of the race. I took a break midday to run to the car to get a new card for my camera. On the way, I saw Jered, one of the Disco workers. I'd met him earlier this week so I said hi and he handed me a packet of Discovery rider's cards. I told him I'd intended to buy a Discovery hat, but they'd sold out earlier in the week (they're selling all of Disco's gear this week). He told me he'd gotten more hats and even gave me one for free! I happily wore it all day, along with my favorite Discovery t-shirt. About halfway into the race, I got a great visit from my cousin, her husband, and their 6 month old baby Madison. It was really neat to take some time and see them. I even got them into Hospitality to enjoy the race. With one lap to go, I made my way over to the announcer's stage and was able to watch the end of the race from there. My job was to wait for the official race results to come in from Phoenix Timing and quicly run it over to Virginia at the Awards Stage. I watched the final sprint and was ready to do my job, but I knew something was wrong when Chris Aronholt went running onto the course as local rider Brad Huff caught the barriers and did some terrifying arcobatics a few meters from the line. There was a major hush everywhere! Even the results took a bit longer to come by. But when Brad crossed the line, I got the results from Stephanie and ran them over to Awards. Once I handed the results off to Virginia, I began helping where I could set up for Awards, like set aside the champaign, hand out the jerseys to their presenters, and make sure Bearemy the Build a Bear didn't trip backstage. I watched the whole thing from backstage. But it didn't take me long to realized what I was seeing...When George stepped up on the podium, it hit me. This was the last time I'll ever see a Discovery man on the top step, or anywhere in the race for that matter. After the top three were presented, George was asked to remain on stage. He was soon joined by folks like Sean Petty, Alex Steada, Kevin Livingston, Johan Bruyneel and others in a tribute to an American dynasty. (The biggest applause of the day was no doubt saved for Johan.) These were men who created American cycling starting with folks like Sean being instrumental in taking Americans to race in Europe. (This is when it really hit me, and I started crying backstage...and struggled to regain myself for about an hour aftewards.) They were soon joined by the rest of the Discovery riders and crew. This was the most memorable part of the day for me. I know I'll never forget seeing my hero on an American stage with the team he built, no matter whether it was the men who came before or after him. I hope the other people realize what they saw today and know what it really means to the sport to see the era of 711, Motorola, US Postal, and Discovery go out on top. Each man on stage was given an amazing painting displaying the whole era of these men, from Alex Steada winning all five jerseys in one day of the Tour, to Contidor's recent victory. When the Discovery team exited the stage, the filed out of the green room area back to their bus. I took advantage of this!!! I grabbed Angie's sharpie (since she'd borrowed mine earlier this week) and made my own opening in the fence. I stood there waiting for a second for Johan to walk out and asked him to sign my hat. (I already have his autograph, but this'll be the last time I'll have the chance to see him in person.)Things quickly quieted down and it didn't take long to break down Hospitality. A small group of us sat at one of the round tables and opened a few bottles of the Missouri Wine. I even had a tiny, half glass! One by one, others joined us and we cleaned out whatever was left over of the Michelob Ultra (sponsor plug!) (I stuck with water.) We toasted eachother and laughed at eachother for a few hours. A lot of talk was about how incredibally successful this event was. The crowds were amazing!!! I really can't wait to see how the numbers compare to California and Georgia. Around 7pm, we finally decided to part ways and go to our hotels, only to rejoin a few hours later at the Wrap Up Party!Jim Felt of Felt Bicycles took part in helping to rent a new restaurant/club in town, Fifteen. The team dinner took place upstairs, a buffet was set up downstairs, and the bar was located in the back. We all enoyed the best food we'd had all week and quickly glided through two bottles of Chardonay. (There were only about eight of us, so no real dare there.) More and more folks soon arrived at Fifteen and the party took shape. At first it was mostly staff and volunteers there, then one by one, riders began to show up. Around 10:30, the Discovery team showed up and it seemed like the party picked back up a notch. There're a few things I've noticed about Discovery at after parties. 1) Where ever the noise/music is, George isn't. 2) Where ever Benjamin Noval is, Contidor is close by (and vise versa). 3) Popovich is the life of the party!!! The man never stops dancing! So the shuttle service back to the hotel was ending at midnight. Around 11:45, I said good bye to most of my friends, snapped a few pictures, and made my one, last, daring attempt...I asked Johan for one last picture. And I got my wish.Tomorrow afternoon I leave St. Louis and fly home. I leave behind one amazing week. From Kansas City chills, to Branson nights, to Irish Bars, and seeing my hero for the last time in person, ever. (I'll never forget him tapping me on the shoulder asking me to hold Lance's first ever Trek Madone when Lance won the sprint into Rome in the Tour de Georgia.)Thanks for reading and following along with my journey through the Tour of Missouri, the first of many to come.Sadly signing off,JC
ps. Ok, I admit, I cried over halfway through this report...

Tour of Missouri - Stage 5

Well, one more day in the books...which means one more day to go, sadly. It seems like most of the folks I've talked to today are ready for the event to wrap up. It's been an amazing event, but folks are ready to go home and sleep in their own beds, not question the integrity of the hotel we'll be in that night. As for me, I've made SO many new friends this week. I know this isn't the last time I'll see them, but the event is so amazing, I just want it to last forever. Not to mention my passion for Discovery. All of the talk this week has been about the team folding at the end of the season. I admit, I still get teary eyed when I hear the talk about my dream team fading. Especially the fact that this'll be the last time I ever see my hero, Johan Bruyneel in person, EVER again. I mean, what're the odds of me moving to Madrid, next door to him? I'll never have the feeling I get when I stand next to the man I sometimes call "The Ultimate", the feeling like I'm so scared that I don't have the resume to be able to talk to him. Someone who's seen all there is to see and done most of it with one hell of a palmares. While I think about that, there's still today's Stage to talk about!This morning was cold, real cold. Remember me saying that quite a few folks went out to buy jackets in Kansas City? They came to GOOD use this morning! When Virginia and I walked out to pack the car, the temp was around 47 degrees! Whoa! Don't get me wrong! I was loving the weather!!! After we packed the car around 7:30, we met some other folks in the lobby for breakfast. Everyone got a good laugh at my battle with the waffle machine (I still have the mark to prove it!) so I ate what was left of that and a bowl of cereal. Our morning was a little different from others. Virginia and I headed to the Start in Jefferson City at 8am. The start line was located at the Capitol building, really neat! The set up for the morning Hospitality Tent was fairly normal, including the "overachiever" of a volunteer who was going nutty about not having the tablecloths yet. I was handling the VIP check-in solo (staff wise), but with the help of some awesome volunteers comprised of Chamber of Commerce (I think) staff, the morning went smoothly. Cynthia was my favorite of the staff! She and Sylvia (I think) were so eager to learn about cycling and even more eager to know how to get the athlete's autographs. I had a great answer for every question they asked and even gave them the 'heads up' of riders coming up to the Sign In stage. As you all know, riders are required to sign in before each stage. The "alley ways" leading to and from the Sign In stage are what is known as "Autograph Alley". That's the best way to get the rider's John Hancock in the morning, keeping in mind to get a spot early, because it fills up quick! So somewhere around the time the big dawgs of the race started pulling up to Sign In, Virginia came to me and offered to take the "Will Call" sheet from me so I could neander around and talk to folks like my amigo, the VIP car driver, Darach and the Comm 3 driver John, always saving time for Cynthia and Sylvia and cracking jokes with Nelson Vails. At one point, when Cynthia was asking about who the riders were (which I found the Start Lists for her to get her autographs on), Nelson walked up and I said "Whoa, wait a minute! Girls! THAT is THE autograph you need!!! That's Nelson Vails!!!" Nelson put on a nice little grin and walked over to the ladies and introduced himself. In the meantime, I saw my boy, Tony Cruise heading up to Sign In, so I walked onto the course between the Sign In stage and the Hospitality tent. As I was point out the riders to the girls, Tour de France winner Alberto Contidor came up. Cynthia begged me to go get his autograph so I got her start list and pen and walked over. 'Berto was gladly signing autographs and signed Cynthia's as well, as well as posing for a PICTURE with yours truly! I headed back over to the fence at the Hospitality tent across the street to applause from all of the girls around! Then..."HIGH FIVE!" Tony the Cruiser pulled up to give me our daily high five. I introduced him to the girls as well so they could get his signature and he and I got a picture as well. I got lots of good pictures today! So the riders began to pull up to the line before Call Ups began and I stepped back to talk to John Kelly, driver of Comm 3. As the National Anthem was played, I slowly stepped back behind the fence to wait for the race to start, watch the only circuit lap (couldn't leave anyway because all of the Staff cars wound up parked ON THE COURSE! Whoops...) After the circuit, which was ALL in view of the start line, Virginia and I hopped in the car and headed off to St. Charles, an hour and a half drive away.On the way over, Virginia was working on the awards ceremony for tomorrow and arranging a meeting (after the stage) to discuss it with the key players of the staff. At one point, she got an unpleasant call from Ryan who was at the Finish line VIP tent. Bad news, he was running out of wristbands. (We give out wrist bands as we take up tickets so VIPs can still have access to the tent.) We arranged a plan to temporarily save our crisis with the wristbands. We would give the white, paper wrist bands to anyone over 21 and give the normally over 21 bands to the underaged, just a reversal of the way we usually do it. When we got to the tent, Ryan only had a handful of bands...it was then that we found out that he has misinterpreted our plan and had still given out the regular wristbands. Well, today we were expect 500 VIPs...and tomorrow...over 700!!! Virginia was a little frustrated and explained the bands again...craziness! She was also able to order more bands through Anheiser Busch (sp?) (who supplies them) for tomorrow. So the race was getting closer. The closer the race got, the more VIPs left the tent for a better view or approached the barriers for some kind of view. This left the tent area completely empty minute Sean, Darach, me, and Ryan watching the race finish on the screens around the tent and "testing" the food. If I may say...Danny Pate owes his victory to me...we were talking about the riders in the breakaway and I said "I'd love to see Danny win! For the last three years, I've been watching him; he's so aggressive!!! But he only manages 2nd or the Aggressive Riders Jersey, nothing more." Just a few minutes later, he bridged the gap to the two leaders and soloed in for the win to a massive cheer from the crowd. I didn't take as much time today cleaning up as I usually do, but instead joined in on the meeting about tomorrow's awards presentation. All of tomorrow's awards including the presenters, awards themselves, and order was the topic for the meeting. After the meeting, as usual, many of the Medalist folks and major Tour folks stood around talking about the day and the upcoming. Before Virginia and I left, she was talking to Jim Birrell and he explained to her about a (ok, get ready for JC to pout and cry!) presentation that is going to take place for Discovery tomorrow...actually...I think I may leave my race report at that...In the meantime, we all wandered down the street to yet another Tavern for a few drinks (mine again being non-alcoholic. So many folks want to buy me a beer tomorrow!) Tomorrow morning sets off the big show! If you haven't read about the last stage of the race, we finish under the Arc in St. Louis amidst a major league football, baseball, and hockey game, all going on at the same time. Afterwards, THE WRAP UP PARTY!!! More info to come tomorrow...Pouting and crying,WAIT! No, not yet...Anticipating tomorrow, your reporter in the tent,JCPS. YES! I will post all of my pictures, however poor and far away from the action probably when I get home Tuesday-ish. Till then, mahalo and aloha!

Tour of Missouri - Stage 4

If it's Friday, it must be Columbia...Columbia, Missouri that is...Greetings from Columbia, home of Mizzou! Today's stage was absolutely routine for our group. I woke up around 7:15 this morning for our 9:30am departure. To my suprise, at 7:45, I got a text from Virginia asking me to be at their hotel across the street (remember, I transfered to the Drury to avoid near death due to the mold and chemicals apparently in the room at the Oasis reject shanty), the Oasis around 8:15 so we could go get breakfast. I quickly got out of bed, dressed, and packed and was at the Oasis by 8:10 to pick up the other two. I met up with Jenn in the parking lot and after loading the car, the four of us headed to Waffle House. We had intended to grab something small and hit the road for our three hour trek to Columbia. We decided against that and sat down to eat. Two of the boys from Road Magazine showed up. (So quick! Run to RoadMagazine.net and watch the Waffle House Cronicles!) After a Waffle and a quick laugh with the boys from Road, we hit the road (no pun intended). I plugged the finish line into the GPS and saw that our trip included mostly highways. Due to the fact that I was on my cell phone and missed an exit apparently, we took our next exit which was in fact Route 66! So we wound up on Route 66 for about six miles before it met with the course. Wow, the riders were taking a little stint on that historic highway and were in for a treat...not to mention the winds blowing and the considerably cooler day. The rest of our drive was really scenic. We drove through an awesome area called Osage Beach located near the Lake of the Ozarks. It's a really cool area and to my amazement, had a lot of really neat boats EVERYwhere! (I really like expensive boats.)When we finally got to Columbia, it was a typical morning of setting up the tent. We didn't have quite as much to do this morning since the clean up crew yesterday somehow got all of our banners with theirs which meant three less huge banners for me to put up. We also got to the tent only about forty-five minutes before we had to open for business. But the race today seemed a little more interesting and the racers actually seemed to be racing. The crowds even seemed to return! Of course, it's a college town that's preparing for it's first home football game of the season tomorrow, so plenty of folks were in town to catch the show. Today even proved interesting with yet more counterfeit VIP passes. One of the passes is actually printed out at home and in all common sense looks totally fake! Folks who use them say they get them from Felt Bicycles, who turns out to be a sponsor of the Tour. Well, Jim Felt, owner of Felt Bikes hangs around the tent everyday so the rule was today to go to Virginia or him when faced with one of these passes. He quickly got to the bottom of one of the culprits! But others came in from different vendors. Someone had even printed the normal VIP pass on cardstock on a home printer. HORRIBLE! It even had the pixels and printer lines in it! Another big joke is one of the daily faces we see at the Tour, Lt. Gov. Peter Kiddner. It's truly hard to think that this guy is actually up for re-election. We get comments daily about him mistreating our volunteers or hitting on the podium girls. Everyday, we notice him almost forcefully pushing his way through the crowd and into the Hospitality area. Our protocol is to check IDs, check credentials or tickets, and finally, after receiving a wrist band, you may enter. He refuses to accept the wristband and pushes past our volunteers, sometimes flashing his credential in someone's face, who try to do their jobs. Not to mention, yesterday we were told that he is yet to show up to the event sober! Two days already, I've noticed him approaching our caterer and saying only "Miller Light." No "Please", "thank you", but in a stern voice. He does this after we've already closed down. I guess he just doesn't realized that these are his voters he is mistreating and embarrasing himself in front of.Today really had a great finish. It was neat to watch Saunier Duval's Brazillian rider win with a bike throw across the line. He even took two laps of the finish line with a Brazil flag to massive cheers from the crowd.Tomorrow we get a step closer to St. Louis, and I'm kind of sad about that. I really don't want this Tour to end. I'm having a great time working with Hospitality and just as much fun meeting folks like Darach McQuaid (who wouldn't love hanging out with his squeeky, Irish accent?!) And of course, he and Sean Petty are shaddows of eachother, so if you hang out with one, you've got the other.So I'm going to check on my laundry in the dryer upstairs. Thank goodness we have considerably better housing tonight at the Drury in Columbia where we can have a good, free breakfast and nice, expensive laundry options. Till tomorrow...Getting her kicks on Route 66,JC

Tour of Missouri - Stage 3 Time Trial

So I'm sure you want to hear about the ITT, right? Well, 1) If you noticed the time of my post from last night, you'd know I'm too tired to remember whatever happened today...and 2) One word: Levi, what else could you imagine?!So this morning started early as usual. (Keep in mind, anything before noon is early for me.) I woke up at 6:30am so I could get my things packed, out to the lobby, and pull the car up before everyone else got out to meet me at 8am. Being the suck up...wait...overachiever that I am, I was in the lobby by 6:55 with luggage in hand. I still don't know why I was out there SO early! But I sat around for about half n hour watching the old foggies neandering around the lobby preparing to go on their tours, or group breakfast, to doddle around the grounds...whatever it is they do. So around 7:45, I finally decided to put the newspaper down and pull the car to the front door so I could be ready to pack Virginia's stuff in the car and be rolling by 8, destination: Starbucks! After a quick trip to Starbucks and running into a few of the Medical members who'd ventured into Branson, we were back in the car heading to The Landing to prepare today's only Hospitality area. When we got there we parked directly in front of the Hilton and the enterance to the Landing, only 50 or so hards away from our Hospitality tent which was RIGHT in front of the starting ramp. (Great view! Aye?) I immediately got into my routine of placing banners, setting up auction items, and taking pictures. Re: Pictures I'll admit...today I slacked off a bit... Earlier in the event, I was eagerly involved in the goings ons around the tent. I even ran into Shawn again and gladly gave him a bracelet for access to the tent (Happy early Birthday, Shawn!!!) After talking to him for a while, I made my way back to work. At one point, I moved outside of the Hospitality area because a lot of the riders were making their way to the Start gate from behind our tent, so I moved out to direct and escort them through the crowd to the ramp. That took up a lot of time and helped time to pass quickly. Later in the afternoon, I remember someone telling me that Discovery had been selling items by their bus in the mornings...So I took a "break" and neandered down to the team parking area and arrived at the Disco bus in time to see George Hincapie wrap up his warm up. I've never gotten to see the Disco boys (or many others for that matter) warm up before a time trial. It was really neat to see. I also watched Johan Bruyneel hop back into the car. "The Master at Work!" I noticed before he pulled off that he said something to George on the radio and George gave a smirk and a thumbs up. I really, really wonder what he said... After tracking down a few of the leftover Disco t-shirts, I headed back to the tent, making my way easily now that all riders were out on course. Whoa! What was I thinking...after it happened I realized...two Disco riders that passed by me while I walked up...I had a brand new white Disco t-shirt and a fairly new Sharpie in my pocket...I JUST PASSED ALBERTO CONTIDOR!!! And didn't get his autograph at the perfect time...oh well...we're only half way through...The crowd left temporarily and the tent wasn't as busy, but inside it was still a bit full. We have flat screens all over our tent and folks were watching anxiously. The camera was really focused on George. When he passed his two minute man, everyone stood up and cheered him on. I'm sure he heard it, even though he was 18 miles away! Folks began making their way back to the tent and the presentation stage just down the hill around 2pm. The awards ceremony was taking place around ~2:15. The VIPs, etc. made their way down to another tent set up just down the hill a bit with a better view of the podium. I stayed up in the original tent to guard belongings like our Felt Cruisers that are for auction, as well as our Build A Bear wearing a Build A Bear Best Young Riders Jersey. After the awards ceremony, we had already cleaned up and shut down the tent. As soon as someone else came to guard the bike, I again neandered away to the Build A Bear store just down the road to make my own Best Young Rider Build A Bear! I had a lot of fun making it too and the folks int he store enjoyed my jokes about the bear being more aerodynamic than me, stronger than me, much better looking in lyrca...So my new bear, named Disco Branson (I love his new name!!!) and I made the way back to the car for our transfer to Springfield overnight. Virginia and Amy were already in the car and Virginia was behind the wheel...(wait a minute!!! They hired me so just this wouldn't happen!!!) The ride back to Springfield wasn't a great one for me. For some reason, I began to get quite car sick before we even left Branson...I managed to make it to S'field with what was left of my snack in tact...although a bit lightheaded. We checked into our hotel, the Oasis...The teams and riders were staying in the main part of the Oasis and we were somehow stuck in the "reject" building just across the parking lot...wow! When we were walking through the hallway to our rooms, we noticed a funky smell! When we got in the rooms, funky was compounded with musky! We were all really suprised (especially after our luck in getting 'stuck' at the Welk Resort last night!) at the accomodations. Not even five minutes after I'd walked into my funky smelling room, my allergies began to kick in...at one point before I had planned to go to Wal Mart with Whitney, I noticed that my allergies were getting pretty bad. When I went to get the keys from Virginia, my eye was swollen so bad due to allergies, that Virginia was ready to "escort" me to the Medical room...but I told her I just had to wrench out my contacts and I'd be fine. So Whitney, Jana, and I made out way to Wal Mart...they wanted toys (beachball, soccer ball, frisby...wine...) and I wanted Sudifed!!! By the time we left Wal Mart, my allergies began to subside. I got a call from Virginia saying "if you're this bad only a few minutes into the room, then it's only going to get worse. Goodness knows how bad if you SLEEP in the room! I have you a VIP overflow room across the street at the Drury" which was where other staff members like the VIP folks were staying. I still had a few errands to run and managed to take about an hour or two to go to dinner. After dinner, Bar B Q with a few friends, I made my way back to my car at the Oasis. My friends were heading to the bar for a nightcap and a hankerin told me to go in and spend a few minutes in there with them...once again, when I'm heading in to find them, I pass Johan at the bar!!! Wow, my hankerings this week are really something great! So I had my usual water while they teased me about being too shy to go see him...I eventually got a call from Dr. Brother (my brother Tripp) so while talking to him in the hallway, Johan and my friends had all managed to skip out. When I was walking out to my car, Kevin Livingston was doing a wonderful impression of juggling in the hallway and throwing soft, squishy balls at one of the Disco helpers, "accidentally" tossing one at me, but missing. I didn't miss when I threw it back, everyone noticing what a great curve I have.So around 10pm, I had left the hotel, crossed the street to the Shell station to wash off our window (that had some FUNK from the highway all over it!!! still does too!) while talking to Tech Director Chuck Hodge (I want his job one day!) who was getting gas for tomorrow's stage and finally got to my new hotel...so here I am...and honestly...I need a shower and some sleep, so I think this is a good place to wrap things up!Some comments that I've gotten so far include folks agreeing that the strategies yesterday were a bummer, no matter what Harm Jensen says about protecting Chris Werry...(He's now 15 minutes behind, big deal!) Another comment was the weather, the cold temps are unusual this time of year. Well, the weather is ideal, beautiful! The mornings are crisp and cold and around 11am, things will start to warm up. But a spot in the shade will still cool you down quickly. Tomorrow or Friday is actually supposed to be quite cold. I'll look forward to that.Until tomorrow...JC - Signing off

Tour of Missour - Stage 2

Stage 2...not much to say except "See Tour de Georgia, stage 3 into Chattanooga...Score: Peloton - 0, Breakaway - 1, Sponsors - -1, Getting to see maybe one last Disco win, priceless...". I'll explain...First off, We started this morning EARLY! My crew and I (including Client Servies Director Virginia, Amy, and myself) were to meet in the lobby at 7:30am to hit the road for a four hour trek to Springfield, today's stage finish, passing through Clinton but completely bypassing the start...because our job is really at the finish. So I did all of my packing last night and this morning, by 6:45, I was ready to roll! I rolled my luggage out to the lobby knowing I was early and totally took advantage of the time by grabbing breakfast in the hotel restaurant. (I don't recommend an $18 buffet...breakfast can't really be THAT important!) After a small helping of eggs, bacon, and cereal, I then headed out to the lobby to start tracking out route for the day to get us to Springfield quickly and easily. So around 7:05, I was all ready and about to head out to pull the car up to the front of the hotel. ("Fire lane? No way...I've got 'Tour of Missouri' official stickers...read the badge (aka, Credentials), I'm wit the Tour." Just kidding.) On my way out the door, I got a call from Virginia asking if I was ready...HA! Was I ready?! Earlier than la Directeur herself...and a lot less stressed. Virginia usually stays a little strung out before these races. People start calling her with goofy questions or major problems as early as 5am. That's actually why they brought me in to help her out. She's always done everything on her own, including driving to the starts, finishes, and doing this while on her blackberry and computer at the same time. Apparently I'm doing a good job...because on the trip down to Springfield today, she was eventually pretty laid back and we listened to some great music and chatted.So along with the "stickers" and the "badge", one thing that comes with the Tour is poor driving habits. Let's just say I turned our 4 hour trip into something around 3.5 hours, with one stop for gas and coffee (which made the other two in the car kinda nautious all day...thank goodness I don't drink it too terribly often.) Once in Springfield, Amy and I immediately set to our routine of putting up two sponsors banners in the VIP tent, preparing the silent auction, and preparing VIP check-in. We were done setting up in ample time to watch a bit of the race that was already going on on the flat screens all over the VIP tent. We watched plenty of action at the beginning of the race...ATTACK! Brought back...ATTACK! Brought back...WOW! This one stuck! "And they're off to the races!" Early news was that one of the hometown boys (or home state boys) Dan Smatz (sp?) was out of the race after hitting an armadillo on the open road...he was taken to the hospital. So the action got started and around noon, the Hospitality tent opened up. The action at the tent was considerably slower today, whcih I guess was a good thing...since Virginia was a little sickish and I'd had a migraine since we'd arrived. (But like I told Virginia, "It takes a HECK of a lot to get me down when I'm around a bike race. Especially THIS race!" After today, she believes me!) But it was almost a little boring today...in fact, the only thing that gave us any entertainment was the fake VIP passes coming in. Yesterday, we had two but admitted the folks anyway. Today, we had NINE! The people with the fake passes said they were part of Felt, but after talking to Mr. Felt himself tonight...NO MORE FELT FAKES! The last two people who tried to get in on the fake passes today obviously noticed that we knew something was up! They tried to back off at the last minute when I finally said "Well, sure, we'll let you in. There're no more good spots to see the race anyway..." They looked quite guilty walking into the tent. Right before the breakaway hit the circuits, I'd run to get a few jerseys for Virginia to have signed...and I was the last person to be able to cross the street to get back to my anxiously awaiting camera. So the circuit laps were short today and only two of them. When the break came through, they were being followed, as usual by a helocopter, allowing us back at the finish line to see their progress along the route. We had a clear view of the chopper the whole time, so I knew just when the group would be coming back around. The break finsihed the circuits before the peloton even touched the circuits!!! The word is that, like in Georgia when the break was going 28mph and the peloton was going 18mph, today's break was also going 28mph putting them ahead of schedule while the peloton rode a ginger 15mph...pittiful. I was happy with the results of the race. The breakaway gave us quite a show and I'm happy for George to finish his run with such a great team in such a wonderful way. But at the same time, folks're really upset with the racers. I've heard a lot of folks tonight say "It sucks that they just don't care!" But it's not the whole peloton that doesn't care...a lot of it goes back to Toyota United. I can't believe that Ivan Domingez didn't want to try to keep the jersey...it's almost pathetic. A good show is what keeps sponsors coming back year after year, and with shows like what we saw in Georgia and what we saw today, how do we show them what world class racing they get out of their investment?! Hopefully these guys will realize what an amazing thing they're doing and they'll start racing tomorrow. A pretty cool thing about today was that I did get to see a familiar face. After watching the break finish, Shawn (from Bookoo) turned up!!! We watched a bit of the podium together before I had to go help handle something. Totally cool to see a familiar face so far from home.So after the race was over, we took down our portion of Hospitality slowly so we could avoid the afternoon traffic as we headed down to Branson, the site of the Time Trial (MY FAV!). The teams and most executive staff are staying at the Hilton at The Landing. Our hotel, however, is down a more interesting route...On our way to the Welk Resort Hotel. If you've ever been to Pigeon Forge, TN, you know what we saw...and then some!!! Including "The Riverboat Motel"...which is an actually riverboat...but also a hotel!!! Also was the Titanic exhibit which is a slightly smaller scale of the Titan herself, housing about 400 artifacts, completely with an iceberg for an entrance!!! (I'm hoping to get pictures tomorrow!) Well, we finally found the Welk Resort and...well, it's not the Hilton...let's just leave it at that. After having dinner with Angie and the podium girls and Ryan tonight, we returned to yet another Irish Pub (right next to/under the Hilton) to join the owners and other staff (a "whos who" of cycling...Kevin Livingstone, Sean Petty...) Virginia expressed her "opinion" about the Welk where Sean and Darach (one of our friendly Irishmen) are actually staying as well. The rest of the night, everyone at the two tables were cracking jokes about the Welk...something tells me a prank may be in the making...Revenge? No...justice? Maybe. So we joined everyone else in drinks. I, as I have been all week with no problem, was the DD so I just sat around talking to the others. For the most part, we were always outside on the patio when...the highlight of my night...of all people, I noticed Johan Bruyneel inside. For those of you who really, really know me and my passion for cycling, you know that one name will sum it up...my hero himself. Ok, so I get a little intimidated and nervous around the guy...so I've only been able to talk to him one or twice, but just being near "the man" is good enough for me. It's really rare to see him even walking around the hotel (which I've already seen a few times this week), and seeing him out at a bar...unheard of to me!!! So I took the opportunity to go inside and order a glass of water. (He was drinking some mix drink...gosh, I wish I knew what...) I stayed inside for a bit talking to friends...only feet away...I actually noticed eye contact twice!!! Good, solid eye contact!!! Then I made my way down the line of folks and was caught by John Kelly, sitting right next to where Johan was standing. I was so nervous knowing I was standing shoulder to shoulder, back to back with Johan, my hero, my favorite rider of all time! Luckily for me, when I'm nervous, I can usually play things a lot cooler than I can most other times. So I talked to John for a minute, giving him enough time to crack a small joke "Wishing Johan would fix my phone...it won't send text messages. Obviously his is texting pretty damn well right now..." I laughed and John and I walked back outside to where the others were. Wheew...I was done...but I couldn't help looking inside all night and even went in for one more glass of water. the rest of the night, I just sat outside listening to old stories of the Motorola team (which is pretty damn neat! These guys have actually been there! They were part of it!)So my night ended a few minutes ago. We left the bar and Virginia and I made our 6 mile trek back to the Welk. So I guess this is where I'll end tonight's post...cause tomorrow's another busy day, although 8am, not quite as early a start for us! Tomorrow is the ITT starting at the Landing in Branson. I can't wait to show yall pictures of the starting area. I think the street, if it's really a street, is mostly bricked. And the landscape around here is crazy, lots of BIG hills...I almost feel like I'm in the mountains...I'll be at the start in Branson which is where everything, Hospitality, Expo, etc, will be.More to come tomorrow!Your girl in the Ozarks,JC

Tour of Missouri - Stage 1

Well, with today being 9/11, my day started a little sad, but followed by a little happy. I woke up thinking about my friend who just left for his second tour in Iraq, but as soon as my roomie and I turned on the news to see Pres. Bush taking a moment of silence in front of a Color Guard, my mood changed when I saw another friend holding the stars and stripes (he's a member of the Old Guard in DC.) So our alarm clock was a little hazy this morning and we woke up about half an hour later than we intended. I was meeting my crew in the lobby at 9am to leave for the Start/Finish. Virginia, who I'm working for stopped by my room to drop off something for my roomie, so she and I walked to the lobby together to meet up with Amy and Ryan, the two we'll be working with in Hospitality this week. I've been designated as the driver for Virginia so she can spend all of the transfer time on the phone and the computer, which rumor has it she used to do anyway without a driver. (Now, we can be ASSURED that Virginia will make it safely to the line.) So we hopped in the car for our 20ish minute drive to The Plaza where the race was starting. We were station at the Hospitality/VIP tent right next to the Start/Finish. This is one of the areas Virginia oversees as Director of Client Services. We spent a bit of time setting up tables for the Hospitality and VIP check in as well as hang a few sponsors' banners around the tent in proper places. We then helped set up a table for the private auction which includes, among things like a Felt Cruiser and a ride in a team car (if it was the Disco car, I'd have bid!!!), the most popular item at this year's tour...a Build a Bear wearing the Best Young Rider's Jersey! As the line formed outside the tent an hour and a half early, I ran past the expso, past the beer tent, and past the Bud Clydesdales (sp?) to the car to grab five bears. It was REALLY fun walking down the road with both arms full of teddy bears wearing lycra. I noticed one kid jumping up and down telling his mom "Mommy! Look! Bears! BEARS!!! Teddy bears!!!!!!" and three others asking me where they could buy the bears. I have to admit, I want one just as bad as everyone else!!! When I got the bears back to the tent, I noticed that Bearmy, the Build A Bear Bear was neandering the tent. YES! I got a picture with Bearmy! Anyway...the tent finally opened at noon and I was stationed with Amy and Ryan checking in the VIPs and Hospitality folks. Sometime shortly after opening, riders began riding through our area looking for a way across the street to the Sign In stage. We had a break in the french railing so we let them through...so the entire peloton followed, one, sometimes two at a time!!! Including...guys like George Hincapie, Alberto Contidor, Levi Leipheimer...my favorite was Tony Cruise coming by and giving me another high five. So at 1:00 the State Flag waved and the riders took off. (Jason Callaly likes to drop the State flag to start a new race.) So after the first lap, the Hospitality tent really calmed down quite a bit and one at a time, we took a lunch break, me offering to be the last. (Yall know me, I won't eat unless someone demands I go away and get food!) I wound up at the Tex Mex place right next to the tent (so I could sit down that much longer!), Baha 600. (I recommend it!!!)So with two laps to go, the crowd returned to the tent and the beer. Ryan and I managed to grab a great viewpoint through the crowd for the final run into the lap. I have to say, the one major thing I noticed today were the crowds. This crowd was HUGE, especially for a new event! After the race and podiums, all of the big dogs of the Tour staff and Medalist sports gathered in the Hospitality tent for a Gatorade while the crews began clean-up. A few of us soon packed up the car and headed across the street from the car to O'Dowds, an Irish pub in the Plaza. Everyone had a good drink except me...the DD, which I don't mind at all. The new joke about me is I'm the non-drinker...the DD!!! ("Hm, wait...JC's not drinking...YEAH! I'll have another one!) So after about an hour and a half of hanging out at the PUB, we headed back to the hotel for showers and anything but standing on our feet! I got a well deserved shower then headed out to the lobby where half the peloton were sitting with their laptops (hotel only has free net in the lobby). Across the lobby is another type of lobby, restaurant, and conference rooms...namely the lobby and bar! That's where I met up with Angie and the two podium girls, one, I can't remember her name and the other is Whitney who always tells me War Eagle when I'm wearing something Auburn. So I hung out with them for a while until they finished their mini pizzas and then the four of us ordered a whopping chocolate brownie from the bar. That rounded out all of our nights...tomorrow is an early day with a LONG transfer. Every night after a stage, we usually stay in the town of the finish and transfer to the start town in the morning. Tomorrow is an earlier start so some folks ahve to be up super early to roll out for the two hour drive to the Start. I, however, head out at 7:30am for our FOUR HOUR commute to the finish town of Springfield to begin setting up the Hospitality area for Stage 2.So that was my day. Any questions, comments, concerns (other than me skipping meals), please feel free to let me know. Otherwise, it's getting late...I'm outta here!Your Hospitable Host,JC

Tour of Missouri Pre-Race Report

Welcome to the first ever Tour of Missouri. For those of you who haven’t read my reports before, I’ll explain. I’ve been volunteering for these events (Tour de Georgia, Tour of California, and US Pro Championships to name a few) since 2004. So I like to tell my friends and others about what it’s like “behind the scenes” from the folks who put the race together, the volunteers who keep our race running, and the view we have of the race, the riders, staff, etc. This year, I finally have a “real job” with the Tour; I’ve risen above being a mere volunteer and now wear a “key staff” credential. I’m working with Virginia Kavanaugh, a member of the Medalist Sports staff. Medalist Sports is the marketing company that puts on these races. A state or group will approach Medalist with the idea of a race like this. Medalist will cover every angle of the race from the course, to the teams, the hotels, transportation, race employees, the food they eat and many, many other areas. Virginia is the Client Services Director. She oversees and directs the sponsors, hospitality, the signage you see around the course, just to name a few. So I’ll be taking a little part in each of these areas helping her. I’ll know more about my job tomorrow and will explain it in tomorrow’s report. But here’s what’s gone on so far…I flew into Kansas City on Sunday around midday. Once you get to your hotel, your first job is to “process”. The process of processing involves getting your credentials, your per diem, you uniform, and technical and housing manuals. (Everything but the tech and housing manuals are different depending on your job.) Your second job is to get checked into your room (Your hotel also depends on your job. Some different groups are at different hotels.) and then get aquainted with the rest of the staff you’ll be working with. Once I got the hotel, I immediately called Virginia to see what I needed to do for the day. A few hours later, I was in the race office helping pack away items that will be auctioned off throughout the week to VIPs. That, in fact, was my only job for the day. Later that afternoon, I hopped in the Tour vehicle for a trip to Wal Mart and Chipotle (I guess I have to support the new American team…). Each vehicle is decaled by the transportation staff and I always feel pretty cool driving a car with official decals, especially being in the driver seat of this car saying “Client Services Director.” Each car is labeled specially for the folks it holds. All of the race directors (“Director of Communications”, “Race Director”, “Technical Director”), Media, Staff, Marshalls, VIPs… So any time you’re sitting in the lobby of your race hotel, you’re almost always surrounded by riders and team staff. Occasionally you’ll recognize a familiar (or FAMOUS) face. All of the riders are always wearing some kind of team gear, so after a while it becomes easier to recognize the riders. Funny enough, after getting a text message from my friend making sure I had arrived in Missouri, also asking me to send cheers out to Alberto and Johan, who else strides through the lobby right by me than my hero himself, Johan Bruyneel, Director of Discovery Channel. I’ve been away from the pro race scene for a whole six days and haven’t seen or spoken to Johan since February (when I greeted him at the airport for the Tour of California) so I choked and immediately drove into sending a text message on my phone. A few minutes later, George Hincapie and Tony Cruise walked through. Tony and I know each other a bit and he gave me a high-five as he walked by. I thought “two is enough for me” so I headed toward my room for a little Cyclingnews.com time when I saw Popovich getting off the elevator. The rest of the day went by uneventfully. Monday was going to be a busier day…So Monday morning started fairly early. The day before the race is always full of MEETINGS! Some start bright and early and some end late at night. I missed the chance for breakfast so I could sit in on an Announcers Meeting at 10am. The announcers meeting included folks like Chris Aronholt, one of the Tour Directors, the two announcers Dave Thole and Jeff Roak, Steff, their assistant, Jason Callaly, Master Whip, and Kelly Greene, Venue Director, just to name a few. This meeting covered the “goings on” before the race as well as the podium presentations. It covered who will be on stage and when, how long they will be talking, and what sponsors to pay homage to when. Tuesday being 9/11, the emphasis was put on the Governor and the Veterans that will be present before the stage. We also talked about the podium presentations after the stage ends. Not all of the meetings are serious!!! We had a good laugh (at the sponsors expense, or not so much) while debating whether the Build A Bear mascot would be a real bear or a true mascot. The meeting lasted less than an hour and we all went about lunch plans. My lunch plan including a trip to Dicks Sporting Goods to buy a jacket. Apparently no one knew what to expect when coming to Missouri. We all packed shorts and t-shirts and the race organization held of on supplying jackets expecting the weather to be “nice and warm”. This morning we were greeted with fair winds and temps in the upper 60s, slowly but surely falling. I wasn’t the only Tour member at the store. I also noticed a Team car and a Medical car in the parking lot, the occupants I recognized were also looking in the long sleeve section.Monday also included events for riders, key staff, and VIPs. There was a Team Presentation at the Intercontinental hotel followed by a Gala for the riders, sponsors, and VIPs. Once this event concluded, the key staff returned back to the race hotel for a final “All Staff Meeting” which wrapped up the day for me.

Today was a really short but sweet day. Today's stage 5 started in Dalton, hometown of Credit Agricole rider Saul Raisin. The town was really active for today's stage. All of the shops in downtown Dalton "adopted" a team and decorated their store windows for that team. Some of the stores' employees even wore team t-shirts. Everytime we roll through this town, you can really tell that they are excited about the race being in their town and are eager to support it.

So today's stage started at 11am on it's way to Brasstown Bald, the 5km monster of Georgia. It's really hard to tell how intense this mountain is until you go there and see it for yourself. I've never actually seen a stage from the Observation Deck of Brasstown Bald...until today. I was so amazed when my friend gave me a pass to drive up the mountain. The pass is a window decal labeled "BB". Two special decals are made for the time trial, labeled "TT" and Brasstown Bald, "BB". These decals are the only thing that allows a vehicle onto the course or up the mountain. The GSP can't even get on these roads without this decal. (Powerful stuff!) The mountain is really tough to get up, even when you have a decal. At a certain time of day, the local athorities close down the roads (Spur 180 leading up the mountain) to ALL traffic (minus the folks with the decal). Even with the roads closed, you have to contend with cyclist and spectators on foot just to get to the parking deck (located at 1km to go). So in order to get there on time, I left shortly before the start of today's stage. I sort of regret being able to see Saul lead the peloton on a parade lap of the town. I always brag about Saul and I'll keep saying that it is so great to see him anytime on a bike. But if the rest of the staff was already leaving, I figured that I shold leave as well. After writing down the directions for the Alternate Route (there's always an alternate route mapped out in our technical manual that allows us to proceed to the finish line [hopefully] ahead of the peloton) and putting the directions onto my atlas, I left town for a two hour drive to the Bald. When I got up there, parked my car, and caught a VIP van to the Observation Deck, I still had about two or three hours before the peloton arrived. The alternate route really works!!!

So when I got to the VIP area atop Brasstown, the news came in that there was a small break dangling around about 4 minutes. It seemed like forever before the two spectators, Dave and Jeff finally showed up on the top. I learned today that they start speakng 90 minutes before the first rider arrives. For the first time in my life, I was happy to hear the cheesy music and Dave told chime in. By the time the break reached the bottom of the climb, 5km to go, their lead was down to about 2 minutes. Just before the excitement was going on down the mountain, we got a few VIPs on top. The first minivan brought none other than Bob Roll and Phil Liggett. Folks were easily excited to see these two. The next minivan, just minutes later brought a suit-clad group of three, and out stepped Floyd Landis. Jeff and Dave had a wonderful time interviewing Floyd for about ten minutes before letting him walk the gauntlet of fans up to the Observation Tower. Dave and Jeff spent so much time talking about the breakaway, it seemed like they were totally shocked to see a group containing Levi, Tom, and Simoni coming up the mountain and Levi attacking hard with about 3 or 4 km to go. If you check out my pictures, you'll see one picture of a few guys standing on the edge overlooking the parking deck of Brasstown Bald. You'll see a road in the background with a few sets of car lights noticible. Those lights are the vehicles following Levi! So we could almost see him approaching the 1km to go. It didn't feel like too much longer before he was rounding the corner coming to the finish line, and one by one, sometimes two by two, more riders crested the Bald and crossed the finish line with the crowd screaming for every one of them.

One note about the crowd though...it doesn't take the folks who do the statistics to realize that the crowds that were here to cheer on Lance two years ago are no longer here. Rumor has it that there are 1/5 of the fans that were here last year. Where'd they all go?! It's a sad thing to see.

That's all I have to report today. I'm still working on getting my few decent pictures set up to post on my site. Otherwise, as usual, any questions, comments, jokes about the wicked fast start at the criterium last Monday, feel free to e-mail me.

Aloha!

Tour de Georgia 2007 - Stages 1-3

Stage 1
Morning morning was calm, but exciting. By the time I got up, packed things up, and was hanging out in the lobby around 8am, folks including Gary, Chris, the Tour doctors, and a few others were just coming in from a morning run (Gary told me the night before that he refuses to go out and run anything less than five miles!) The Course Marshals were already huddling around the lobby getting ready for the day to start. I left the hotel a bit early heading to Waffle House (a great Tour sponsor!) for a big breakfast, then headed down to Macon for my first race of the season (and my first time on a bike in two and a half months!!! Ouch!) Before the Tour rolls into town, Macon hosts the Susan G Komen Crits. There’s a Cat 3/4 and a Pro 1/2 race, both lasting 45 minutes plus five laps. This is the first time in a long time that I’ve actually been nervous about a crit, not to mention my first race with my new team, Bookoo Cycling! All I could think about on the drive down was how I was going to start the race. I told my teammate that, of course I hadn’t been on a bike in two months, so no question that I was out of shape. So my plan was that I was going to go hard right from the gun. I’d probably only last for a few minutes at that pace, but at least I’d hopefully breakup the field and make the race interesting for others. So come start time, I did exactly that. I’d never had such a great feeling start in my career (so far). I was slightly off the front until turn to when…BANG! I seemed to hit a brick wall and the energy totally left. Just like I told my teammate, I’d be off the back soon, and that’s exactly what happened. The few girls that followed me were the ones who’d make the eventual break and podium of the day. I finished the race and was proud of myself for doing that. But by the time I got back to my car, I truly realized why my doctor told me to stay off a bike!!! (But a week full of a sore/stiff back is certainly worth the price of being on a bike again.)

The Tour rolled into town on schedule. I’ll honestly say that I didn’t see much of the circuits because I was talking to some of other staff members, but from a few rows back, I saw the final sprint which was very exciting. You could hear Contrini yell out over the crowd. After the podium presentations were done and the town cleared out, I joined the marshals for dinner at Luigis for some great Italian eatin’! Macon always treats the staff to dinner, giving them coupons at some of the local restaurants, and Luigis has always been the number 1 choice of the Traveling Course Marshals.

Stage 2
I got to Thomaston early to watch the start of Stage 2. I like to get there early because I like to see all of the preparation that goes into stage racing whether it’s the riders, the race staff, or the town. I hung around the stage area talking to a friend, the local Volunteer Coordinator. I eventually moved over to the Comm cars and tried to help Nelson Vails find a new “Comm 2” sticker for his car. His had flown off earlier in the week and if there’s any car in the caravan that needs to have ALL decals ON the car, it’s the Comm vehicles! After talking to Nelson, I went down the row of vehicles and spoke to another Comm driver that I know, John Kelly. Not too long after, riders started coming down to sign in, so I stood around to get a few pictures. Low and behold, someone walked up to me and said “War Eagle” (my third War Eagle so far in the Tour!) I turned around and saw Ginger and Nick, two of the current Flyers who’d come to see the start of the race. As the riders staged at the start line, it seemed like Nick was recognizing a lot of the riders and Ginger was more intrigued by the bikes they were on. After the start and parting ways with Nick and Ginger, I jumped in my car to go to my favorite place on the course, the Feed Zone! I hadn’t planned my route to well and I either got stuck on the wrong highway, caught behind the race, or stuck right when the very beginning of the race envelope came through. A little explination on the “Race Envelope”…The race envelope can be anywhere between a mile on a flat stage and 10+miles long on a mountain stage. It starts with what we call a “10 minute car”, a Georgia State Patrol (GSP) car that stays ten minutes ahead of the leader on the course. Following sometime after the 10 minute car is quite a few motorcycles including “moto” marshals. If there’s something on the course and there’s no course marshal near, a moto marshal can make a stop to take care of the problem. More GSP cars may be in this group as well. And there may be VIP cars carry those VIPs to the Finish Line after watching the race up close. Also, there’s a truck with speakers mounted to the top. These guys drive ahead to the group and let spectators know what’s going on in the race. Then comes the race itself! After the peloton comes through, a rainbow of team cars FLY (fly, speed, zoom, etc.!) by behind the race, sometimes with riders mixed among the cars who’ve either fallen off the pace or are coming back from a mechanical or other stop. Mixed among these cars are four Comm vehicles holding Commisaires that monitor different areas of the race. Immediately behind the caravan is Broom Wagon followed by emergency vehicles and an “End of Convoy” van driven by the GSP. This is the final vehicle in the “race envelope”. The Traveling Marshal’s vehicles may sometimes tag on behind the race, behind the End of Convoy van, but they aren’t considered in the “envelope”. There’s so much about the envelope that is a working machine, whether it’s the position of the motos, the position of the Comms, or even the vehicles that’ve stopped for any reason and have to rejoin the envelope. (Any questions about this “machine”? E-mail me and I’ll answer as well as I can and if I can’t answer it, I’ll go to someone who can.)

So I finally made it ahead of the peloton! I arrived in Rome with about 45 minutes to spare!!! (I don’t know how I did it!) Again, I found myself behind a row of spectators talking to members of the staff. (That doesn’t work well for taking pictures…) The only bit of the finish that I saw was Stevic coming down the hill to the finish line ahead of the pack. I left early, not seeing too much of the podium. My task was to get a hotel room ASAP, before they were all gone. Even then was too late. I wound up in Dalton for the night, half an hour away. The Tour itself was taking up three hotels, then I guess fans and spectators took the other few decent hotels. I’m sure there were a few choice hotels in Rome, but from experience, I’ll gladly drive half an hour for a decent nights sleep.

Stage 3
Wednesday was a pretty interesting day for me. I learned from my mistakes and bought a Georgia Road Atlas and planned out my day by the atlas and race log. I decided not to see the start that day, but instead I planned on getting on the course an hour ahead of the peloton. I drove the entire course until I got to…FINALLY…the Feed Zone. I got there around half an hour before the day’s breakaway was schedule to be there and parked on a hill slightly past the Feed Zone. I walked back to the feed zone to talk with some friends that I don’t get to see often, soigners from the European teams like Richard from Discovery. One thing he and I talked about was the size and quality of some of the roads. The roads before the sprint line were tiny! Barely large enough for two cars to pass each other. One of those roads was incredibally rough. Richard told me that a lot of the roads they pass over in Europe are actually a bit larger than that. They’re often on major highways! Nothing quite as small as the feed zone (a four lane road).

So the 13-man breakaway came flying through the feedzone with Jani Brajkovic of Discovery leading. Only a few people had slowed down to get food. When they passed me, Brajkovic pulled off, pulling all the way across the four lane road and seemed like he was heading straight for me. He then straightened up and continued with the group. The peloton followed about ten minutes later. When they passed, I was outside of my car taking pictures. When they passed, I heard two or three guys call out my name and two water bottles and a mussette bag came flying my way. Over the last year, I’ve found out that these folks really do recognize the staff. Some of them we talk to often so they know us fairly well. The fact that they were taking time to call my name and toss “goodies” my way (I got a full lunch out of one of those bags!) shows that the peloton may have decided by then to shut down and let the break go. After the envelope followed, I jumped back in my car and followed the race for about six or seven miles before jumping on another highway and heading north to catch up with the race again before heading back to the Finish line. While following the race, I recognized the roads as the roads that my team, Bookoo Cycling uses for our winter training camps leaving out of Mentone, AL. I was so surprised that I was so familiar with those roads that it made me laugh. When I caught up with the course again at the third KOM, the breakaway had extended it’s gap to twenty minutes. I watched the break go through and decided not to wait for the peloton to go through, and headed to the finish line. I caught up with the race course (ahead of the breakaway) on top of Lookout Mountain. Coming down it, I was so eager to stay ahead of the race vehicles that I burned the breaks on my car coming down the mountain. That was the first time I’d ever done that! (It was kind of scary too!) I followed the course until 3km to go then I turned off to park my car and get to the finish line. The finish in downtown Chattanooga is neat. There is a very large open grassy field. On one side of the field is the expo and on the other is the expo parking (and beside that is the team parking). The giant video screen (that shows the race throughout the day) was set up between the grassy field and the finish line. I hung out in that area with my friend Sid, and we realized…watching the screen really was the best view…so much easier than fighting for a place against the railing. So the breakaway came to the finish line and the crowd was going crazy! The announcers had been screaming about the time gap for a while, so the crowd knew that one of these thirteen guys would be the race winner by Sunday. Again, as loud as the crowd was, I was close enough to the road to hear Meersman scream as he crossed the line. He’s done so well in Europe this year, it’s really cool to see his first pro win. After the break crossed the line, Jeff Roark, one of the announcers said “Hang tight folks. I’m going to arrange my sock drawer. When I return, we’ll still be waiting for the peloton.” Ok, I admit, I laughed! The crowds left the finish line while a few stayed behind to watch the peloton on the screen. They returned almost half an hour later to see the field come cruising in. For the entire thirty minutes, Meersman sat on the top step leading to the stage with a huge grin on his face. He even stayed there while other riders took the podium before he actually climbed up there.

One funny note: In the feed zone, the Jittery Joes car was speeding to catch up with the breakaway. The car flew by me and I remember wondering how fast he was really going…but of course he wouldn’t get a speeding ticket. When I was reading the penalties for the day (this part of the results always makes you laugh), I read that Johan Bruyneel of Discovery was actually penalized 200 Swiss Francs (the official currency of the UCI) for driving in excess of 90mph (rumor is he was driving 92mph) and will not be able to drive the vehicle during Stage 5. (One rumor has it that he’s actually banned from the car entirely on Stage 5.) GSP- 1, Discovery-0.

Stage 4
The Time Trial. The Race of Truth. The Race Against the Clock. The course started again in Chickamauga and finished atop Lookout Mountain. Again, I got to the finish line to watch the teams roll in and set up camp. It’s funny how at 10:15 things will look so disorganized and at 10:30am, everything runs like clockwork. The first riders to head out to take a look at the course were a few of the Discovery riders. They seemed to be the most serious about today’s race. So when the first riders went off, I was standing at the same spot as last year, the very first turn on the course. After about twenty minutes and realizing that I’d parked my car in a place that I couldn’t get it out of (while the race was going on) I decided to walk down to the next turn and chat with a friend of mine who was positioned on that corner. When I got there, I got a laugh at Ekimov, the legend, loading the team’s luggage into their team minivan. Is this what really happens when you retire? You become the bag boy? (Nope, not for Ekimov. He saw me laughing, made a joke about it, and got a kick out of it himself. At least I found out he remembers my name! Friends tease friends, right?) At one point in the race, Andy and I saw George Hincapie come screaming down the road and through the corner. But he had no follow car nor was he schedule to roll yet. He was serious about his preparation for this race. Andy said “You see that?! He *wants* to win today!” A while later, George comes back, riding in opposite race direction. You’d think he’d know better. He almost collided with a racer on the course coming around the corner. A little while later, George took the start. A minute later he was followed by Dave Zabriskie. I got a laugh out of a few marshals when I said “What is George Hincapie thinking right now knowing that Dave Zabriskie is one minute behind him?” And another laugh when I said “What is Dave Zabriskie thinking going up Lookout Mountain knowing that Tommy D is one minute behind him?!”

One of the best things that I saw today was my buddy Saul Raisin come riding upto the course. And like George, he continued riding the course backward to the starting area. If you don’t keep up with Saul Raisin, he’s the Credit Agricole rider who crashed in the Circuit de la Sarthe last year and was in a coma for six days. If you have to ask how he’s doing today, your answer is seeing him ride up to the course today after riding over from Dalton. He’s doing great and he’s back into his training regimine. His plan is to come back to racing at the US Pro Championships in September. He said “I don’t just want to come back at the US Pros. I want to WIN US Pro!!!” If you just sit down with Saul and have a ten minute conversation about cycling, you’ll know that he means what he said. Check out SaulRaisin.com for updates, etc.

Well, that’s it for now. Hopefully more to come tomorrow after the leg breaking stage from Dalton to Brasstown Bald. As always, I welcome questions. Anything you want to know. If I can’t answer it, I’ll do my best to find someone who can answer it. And soon I’ll have my pictures posted up at gillejc.smugmug.com.

Aloha!

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.

Hello again yall!

I'm back again, this time from the US Pro Championships in Greenville, SC. I didn't really come up here to work, but my first day as a spectator and I'm trying to find a job!!! This weekend consists of two major events surrounded by good times. Today was the 20 mile ITT. Tomorrow morning there will be the Palmetto Peloton Project. I'm excited about that because it'll be lead out by Saul Raisin. I saw Saul (say that five times fast) today and he's looking pretty good...a little heavy, but great! I can't wait to see him on the bike tomorrow.

Sunday is the big road race, a 120+ mile race taking the riders up and over Paris Mountain five times before the finishing circuits in downtown Greenville.Todays race was a good one. It was fun to watch. The course was hilly and technical which made it even better. The day started off with AJ Smith, the "Discovery Channel guest rider" starting at 9:55am, five minutes before the real riders began. AJ stayed away from the man five minutes behind him and finished with a respectible time around 47 minutes which, if he were actually racing for the stars and stripes, would have put him around 48th place. All day, the talk was of a few big guns that have the opportunity to take the jersey. Those were Jason McCartney, Chris Baldwin, and Dave Zabriskie. Jason put in a great ride. He came flying across the line! He got a big cheer from the crowd but not quite as big as the one Craig Lewis got. Craig is George Hincapie's next door neighbor, a hometown boy. The crowd loved seeing him gun for the line. Everyone was getting antsy waiting for the last few riders to come in. At the turn around point, Dave Z had a big advantage of the lead rider. When Chris Baldwin hit the final checkpoint at the turn around, he was 8 seconds ahead of Dave. Dave didn't have an ear piece on today, so he had no idea about the time splits. He told his driver "If it's close...HONK!" and the car was honking all the way home. Dave took the lead ahead of Jason when he crossed the line, but Chris was ripping up the course. The video cameras were following Chris in since he was the last rider on the course, so of course the cameras cought every minute of his ride, including the final turn within 1.5K to go.

Chris overshot the turn. His back wheel locked up and he went tumbling into the ditch. He grabbed his spare bike and ended up finishing second. He was obviously disappointed when he came across the line. It was really sad to see. The crash didn't occure so much because he overshot the turn...the marshal on the corner was not doing his job. This is where the importance of dedicated volunteers come in. We often worry about some (not all!) of our local volunteers. In the past, we've realized that they want to "Get the t-shirt, get the good view point, and the free Subway sandwich." I'm not saying this was the case, but watching Baldwin on the screen showed that he clearly didn't know which way to go until he turned his head, saw the marshal and tried to correct his missed turn. I guess it shows that our job is fairly important. When we mess up, accidents happen.At the end of the day, after the three winners had gone into the press conference and things were quieting down, what was left of the crowd had two special visitors. George Hincapie and Levi Leiphimer rode up. George's wife, Melanie was actually at the race today because, being the #1 podium girl she is, she presented the riders this afternoon and will do it again Sunday. Anyway, they signed autographs, took pictures, and talked to the big guns of USA Cycling like Steve Johnson. After a little while, they rode off with their own moto escort. Not long after they rode off, Ekimov rode up. What's he doing on a bike?! He's retired!!! In case you hadn't heard, he's now a Director Sportif for Discovery. Not much more than four days since his last bike race as a rider, he was in the car behind AJ and Jason and will be on Sunday. It supprised us all to see Eki riding, not a Trek, but a Bianci! We got a good laugh out of that. I don't think he planned on riding much while he was in town, but wound up doing so.I'm posting up pictures on my web site this afternoon. gillejc.smugmug.com

Enjoy! And I'll have a report from Sunday's road race. Like always, feel free to ask questions, make comments, correct my typos...whatever.

Missing Auburn,JC

Hello from Champion, PA; more specifically Seven Springs Resort (7springs.com), home of the 2006 National Championships. This place is fantastic! It's founders were Bavarian so it has an amazing European flow to it. They tried to keep true to the European ski resort theme and succeeded in that. Once you're inside, it has the feel and smell of interior design from the 80's with lots of maple leave prints, wood, and stone. But the rooms are incredibally comfortable. The resort is rougly 14 miles from Donegal, PA which lies right on the (sketchy) Penn Turnpike; simply an hour's drive from Pittsburgh. The little resort nestled in the mountains has almost everything you need close by. They have a selection of restaurants on the far end of the resort, shops ranging from "Pizza and Pastry" to coffee, to outdoors clothing, and even a hair salon. Most of the hotel rooms overlook the ski slopes which right now are completely green with a trail hear and there leading to the top. I can see three different runs from my balcony.

Finally! Let the games begin! The National Championships start tomorrow with the Elite Men and Women, U23 Women, and Juniors Time Trials. The Elites and U23s will be riding a 30km course, rougly 18.9 miles (ish). My impression of the course is...WOW! It's incredibally difficult! The first three miles are spent in Laurel Hill State Park. Asscents of about .5 miles at 6-12% grade followed by similar descents and two switchbacks make up the first three and a half miles until you turn right out of LHSP onto Trent Road for about .3 miles (the flattest part of the course!) You then make a left turn onto Indiantown Road and are on this for the remaining five miles. Indiantown is a narrow two lane road. It is very curvy and has many short, incredibally steep up and downs, with a few long steep rollers and one major (two-lane) highway crossing on the out and back course.

I came up here feeling well prepared. (Prepared for everything except the altitude.) I had followed my training schedule that Chad gave me to the dot! I even did quite a few hill repeats! (Keep in mind that the biggest hill in Hattiesburg is on Bonhomie Rd. I go up it sitting down doing about 15+. Doesn't quite match Auburn's terrain.) I got to the resort Sunday night around midnight after a two day driving (stopping overnight in Gatlinburg, TN- my fav!) I got out to drive the course around midday just to realize that the course profile did not do it justice. I planned to ride the course a little later that day, but then the scattered thunderstorms rolled in. So I spent about half an hour on my (new) trainer. (The old one fell out of my car when I was packing to move to H'burg! [whoops]) Monday evening, I noticed something unfortunate. What I thought were allergies in fact became a bit of an affect from the altitude. I had a lot of pressure in my sinuses and an incredibally sore jaw. I've never really been affected by altitudes, so this caught me off guard. Tuesday, after the rains faded out a bit, I took my road bike out to the TT course to see how difficult it would be. OUCH! The mountains hit me so hard, I couldn't make it out of the Park without putting my foot down a few times. After a while of trying, my asthma (exercise induced (...?!)) started to hit me along with an incredibally high heart rate. So I resolved to go back to my car and sit around for a bit and try it again once I calmed down. I never did. The asthma calmed a bit, but the heart rate still stayed a bit high. (I didn't have on a HRM, but there're those time when you just know when to stop.) I came back to the hotel and decided to give it another go on Wednesday, my last good day to train before the race. After an amazing breakfast at the Slopeside Inn downstairs, I headed out to the course for round two, this time with my TT bike. The same problems came up within the first three miles so again, I headed back to my car. I loaded the car back up and decided to drive the course while I calmed down. Driving the course didn't do me any good...I began to get really nervous about the steepness of the hills and the effects I was already having. I talked to a doctor here at the Resort and told him what was up. He said I may want to talk to my local doctor, but it sounds like I'm having a bad reaction to the altitude and he would not recommend the incredibally tense time trial tomorrow. My local doctor agreed. Honestly, I've never been more heartbroken in my life. This is my last U23 Nationals ever! (And I don't qite plan on moving up to the Elite Nationals...) So what do I do? Health vs. Sense. I've done some reading on the net in the past few hours and according to most doctors, including "High Altitude Medical Advice for Travelers" states that “People with asthma have been thought to be at theoretically increased risk at altitude due to the possible adverse effects of cold and exercise. However, asthmatics have generally done very well at altitude, possibly due to the greatly decreased presence of allergens at high altitude. However, people with asthma should be cautioned to carry their medications with them at all times"...This hasn't worked for me so far, considering I had a mild asthma attack this afternoon and the local drug store refuses to call CVS in Auburn to get my prescription. (Harsh. Yankees?)

For now I'm resolving to sitting on the balcony watching the big guns of Nationals roll in. Teams like Victory Brewing, Cheerwine, Liptons, a few T-Mobile and others. These are the women who I really look up to in cycling and, personally it's awesome to be able to watch them through their preparation and training. I was also watching the FIFA World Cup match between France and Portugal. Awesome! It comes down to France and Italy! Kudos to the French for an early stage win in le Tour and advancing to the finals of the World Cup. Despite the Americans being so highly favored in the Tour, they still have something to cheer about. Vive le France en foot! (I think I said that right...I'll have to check my old notes...)

Adieu from Pennsylvania! (For now.)

Check for pictures eventually at gillejc.smugmug.com