2008 Tour of California - behind the scenes

• Sunday, February 17 2008 - Greetings cycling comrades. I got the opportunity to work as chief gofer for the HealthNet pro team during the Tour of California by virtue of knowing the team manager. I arrived here in Palo Alto yesterday and I just finished a long day setting up for the prologue TT and squaring things away afterwards. Sounds like work when we'd all rather be riding, but it's actually a lot of fun. I almost stepped on George Hincapie's foot coming around a corner in the hotel, sat in a warm lobby seat just vacated by Mario Cipollini, and recommended the tortellini to Paolo Bettini in the buffet line. Paul Sherwen strolled through the lobby in a classic sport coat while Bob Roll sauntered in wearing jeans and a t-shirt having a "Route 81 / BERDOO" logo.
  
  Here are some pictures from yesterday and today: http://tinyurl.com/37jjdu
  
  
• Monday, February 18 2008 - Yesterday at the team trailer there was a scene which reminded me of the celebrity side of pro bike racing. The guys had returned from their morning ride to loosen up before the TT and stopped back at the trailer to check in and get fit adjustments. A couple of hot Italian gals were strolling the lot and stopped to chat with the guys. Tim Johnson, one of the HealthNet racers, is a handsome fellow and a ladies man, I am told. These gals wanted their picture taken with him and he was happy to oblige.
  
  There were some pro photogs looking on and they posed them, the gals standing in the open end of the equipment trailer and TJ sitting on the edge in front of them. Many flashes. TJ then stood and helped each of them down with a proffered hand, a real gentleman.
  
  Today we loaded up and transferred to Santa Rosa, traveling north on highway 101 and over the Golden Gate Bridge. Randy and I were the second team to arrive thanks to my superb navigating. I have quickly learned that you want to arrive before anybody else in order to grab optimal parking spots for team vehicles and get room assignments straightened out.
  
  One of my glorious tasks to complete before the peleton arrived in Santa Rosa was to do laundry (cycling kits only) for the racers. The secret - the racers stuff their kits in mesh bags with drawstring tops and their names attached. The entire bag goes in the washing machine and then in the dryer. No need to sort afterwards, just return bag to owner.
  
  As I am writing this, David Millar is being interviewed a few seats to my left here in the Sheraton lobby. Most of the questions are about, of course, doping. He responds that team management needs to support and promote clean cycling, and he personally is seeing this happen with teams like Slipstream and CSC, among others. He feels that a few years from now cycling will be in the vanguard of clean sports.
  
  Pardon me ladies, but Joby Bazan, one of our soigniers, snagged an "Umbrella Girls" calendar at the finish. I had never heard of them before. They are basically a live model agency targeting sports events and the straight men who attend them. Check them out at www.umbrellagirlsusa.com
  
  Here are some pictures from stage 1, a few contributed by Greg Boris: http://tinyurl.com/2qrcg8
  
  
• Tuesday, February 19 2008 - Today I am fully immersed in the UCI race culture - I picked up the 24 hour bug that always seems to go around the teams and staff. Randy V, the mechanic and van driver had it yesterday and I probably got it from him by driving the van to do errands without sanitizing the steering wheel.
  
  I had an episode in the bathroom as soon as I woke, but afterwards felt OK, so I was helping with the loading of gear into vehicles. As we were loading the rain started coming down. The racers had my sympathy today - from Santa Rosa to Sacramento in the rain... I also pity the mechanics who have to clean the bike after the stage.
  
  All the racers were driven to the start due to the wet conditions, so I sat in the lobby warming myself by the fireplace waiting for the van to come back and pick me up. Oscar Sevilla of Spain was roaming the lobby, also waiting for a ride. That guy really does look like he is a sophomore in high school, no wonder they call him baby-face.
  
  Randy came and picked me up, we hitched the trailer and took off. A bit outside of Napa an episode came over me again and Randy had to pull over to the side of the road immediately. Luckily we were on a left-hand sweeping turn, so as I crouched down next the the van on a slope into the ditch, holding on to the running board so I would not fall backwards, the trailer was blocking anybody coming from behind from seeing me. Likewise, nobody coming from the front could see me because the front of the van and the open passenger door blocked their view.
  
  As I was crouching there in the rain, my low-grade fever spiked and I felt like I was going to pass out right there in the ditch. All I could do was hold on until I could summon the strength to crawl back up into the van and then collapse horizontally on the middle bench seat. Randy started up again and we continued on to Sacramento. As I laid there the fever subsided a bit and by the time we got to the hotel I was about 75%.
  
  I felt good enough to take care of most of my duties, then we drove downtown to watch the end of the stage and pick up the team. Boonen took the pack sprint. Not too many pix today since I was on my back a lot.
  
  Here are the few I took: http://tinyurl.com/3xbqe5
  
  
• Wednesday, February 20 2008 - Feeling much much better today, but it seems that Tyler Farrar, the GC leader, got a similar bug as I had and abandoned during today's stage. If he felt like I did yesterday, it's amazing that he even got on the bike today.
  
  I did not get to see any of the race today except on Versus in the evening. Randy and I hauled the equipment trailer from Sacramento to Monterey, while the race started in Modesto and ended in San Jose. The Hyatt we're staying at in Monterey is in the middle of a remodel, so some rooms are ready while the room right next door might still be under construction. The aroma of gypsum board is in the hallways and our elevator is not working, so Randy and I hauled luggage and massage tables up two floors. Not quite the same as cranking up Mt. Hamilton, but we did break a serious sweat.
  
  Outside of the hotel checkin area I started talking with a fellow who just looked like a cycling fan. Turns out that he was indeed, and had won an online contest through PEZ Cyling News to ride in the Jelly Belly team car through the Big Sur stage. The fellow is from West Palm Beach, Florida, where the terrain is a bit flatter, so he is in for a treat.
  
  Laundry day today. At the local laundromat I was watching this fellow who looked like an aging Harley rider, long grey hair pulled back in a pony tail and a full grey beard, folding his laundry, which appeared to consist of nothing but jeans and T-shirts. His folding technique was meticulous, all of the T-shirts were folded to the same size and stacked on top of each other, like a tower of Jenga blocks. There were at least 15 T-shirts in the stack and it looked like another 20 waiting to be folded. I told him that I admired his folding technique. He responded that he has so many Ts that he has to fold them a certain way or they will not fit in the drawer he uses for them. He folds them to a certain size and stacks them, and then when he gets home just leans the stack on its side into the drawer. He said that this way he can see one edge of each T and then can pull out the one he wants to wear based on the color of the edge he sees.
  
  Hmmmm... that's different. I prompted him a bit more and he said that he is a musician and most of the Ts are from big concert events or from bands. Turns out he is a bass guitar player and has his own band called "The NEXT Blues Band". Of course, he had a T-shirt for the band and held it up for my camera.
  
  Later in the day, after the racers had arrived at the hotel, Dan, the team RV driver, and I walked over to the dining area. Outside of the entrance, a couple of young ladies from a local women's cycling club, "Velo Bella", were lurking to get photos and autographs of the stars. I stopped and talked with them for a bit to find out how their effort was going. Quite well, all the racers have been very friendly. While I was chatting with them they got photos taken with Tom Boonen and David Millar, and made a point to thank them for coming to race here.
  
  One of our guys, Karl Menzies, did not make the time cutoff today and got DQ'd. All of our guys seemed pretty battered, apparently the pace was pretty hard for the whole stage.
  
  Pix from today: http://tinyurl.com/2d33pd
  
  
• Thursday, February 21 2008 - Happy birthday to me, cycling comrades!
  
  Rain started moving in before the stage even began in Seaside, next town over from Monterey. So Mike decided to load the bikes on the van and shuttle the guys to the start rather than have them ride there. That means I had to wait for the van to return to pick me up and hitch up the trailer.
  
  Karl Menzies, one of the team racers, was waiting with me. He was sick before stage 1 started, but toughed out 1 & 2. But he couldn't keep the pace in stage 3 and missed the time cutoff. While we're chatting I keep getting interrupted by calls from work. They are having computer problems and the guy who is supposed to cover for me is out because his mother is in the hospital. Crikey... can't a guy take a vacation?
  
  Randy returned with the van and picked us up, then we headed off to US 101 and south to San Luis Obispo. It rained virtually the entire way even here inland, so I suspected that it was really coming down on the coast in Big Sur where the stage took place.
  
  We arrived in SLO and checked in at a motel just down the street from the famous Madonna Inn. This Madonna preceeded the pop star Madonna, but rivals her gaudier stage costumes. Randy was checking the status of the race on his phone internet connection and found that the conditions were quite dramatically bad all the way through the stage. Pouring rain, cold, buffeting headwinds, general misery. Many racers abandoned, including one of ours, Matt Crane, who started today with the dreaded tummy bug. The KOM leader abandoned due to hypothermia. But another of our guys, Roman Kilun, was in a long-lived break even though he also is sick. Eventually, most of the break got caught and Roman went backwards, getting spit out of the peleton. But he did finish and will continue tomorrow.
  
  Due to the headwinds the riders faced coming south through Big Sur, the race was well behind schedule. While waiting I joined Randy V in the Bissell equipment trailer with the Bissell mechanic Jim O'Brien, a jovial North Carolina fellow who owns both a high-end road bike shop and a custom metal fabrication shop back home, and takes off whenever he damn well pleases. The conversation somehow came around to how much alcohol various team staff members consume. All I can recall is Jim saying "tequila ain't alcohol, it's a religion."
  
  After getting all set up at the motel we took the van to downtown San Luis Obispo to watch the finish. It was still pouring rain but lots of fans were on the streets. I ran into my friend Dayn Schultz on the sidewalk near the finish and invited him to spend some time in the team RV where it was much warmer. Thierry Attias, the team owner, was there keeping track of the race on his Blackberry and also getting phone updates.
  
  Rollin, Hincapie and Camano had gotten away and Rollin attacked the other two from a long way out. Randy V, one of our mechanics, knows Rollin personally and said he is strong like ox and excels in this kind of weather. Randy predicted Rollin would win the stage even at 30K out.
  
  Sure enough, Rollin maintained his gap and took the win. The remaining six HealthNet riders crossed the line and went directly into the RV where they changed into dry clothes and got some hot soup into them. There was so much wet, filthy clothing that I had to make another laundry run in the evening. The place was packed with team staff doing laundry just like me...
  
  As I am writing this report there is a team manager being interviewed a couple tables over here in the otherwise empty lobby of the motel. The both are Euros and the journalist is actually writing notes without an electronic recording device! How quaint! Anyway, I keep hearing references to this tour and that tour, and riders and managers, but the language seems half French and half Dutch. Could it be Flemish?
  
  Short set of pix for today: http://tinyurl.com/ypze2v
  
  
• Friday, February 22 2008 - You know that song about getting your picture on the cover of the Rolling Stone? Well, that did not happen, but our team manager Mike Tamayo informed me today that I got my name mentioned in a velonews.com article on the Tour of California. Neal Rogers of VeloNews sat in the passenger seat of the HealthNet team car during Stage 2 from Santa Rosa to Sacramento banging out an article on his laptop during the race while observing Tamayo and asking questions. The posting is "Amgen Tour of California: A day in the team car" on the web at http://www.velonews.com/article/72484 .
  
  If you check the article you'll find that I have made my mark on the tour not through any great feat of athleticism, management or charity, but merely by getting sick. At least Rogers referred to me as a team mechanic rather than a gofer.
  
  The weather today is a 99% improvement over yesterday. It was drizzling in San Luis Obispo as we left town on US 101 south, but by the time we arrived in Solvang it was mostly dry and clearing. During the TT the weather was nearly perfect except for a bit of breeze out of the west.
  
  The TT starts and finishes only a block apart here in Solvang, and since we are staying here tonight, I actually get to watch it live. Better yet, I got to sit in the back seat of the team car while Rory Sutherland rode his TT. Mike Tamayo was driving and Bob Babbit of Competitor Magazine was up front with Mike. The racers roll down from the starting house along the main drag of Solvang, then make a hard left and start a climb. On this climb the lead moto pulls out in front of each racer, and then the team car pulls in behind.
  
  The TT course heads north through some residential areas of Solvang, then out into the farming/grazing areas, before returning to town along another route. Less than half-way into the course Rory caught sight of his minute man Heath Blackgrove of Team Toyota United. He caught Blackgrove and passed him, stretched out a lead, then Blackgrove came back to nearly catch Sutherland, and finally Sutherland rode away from him on the final climb.
  
  Sutherland placed 21st on the day. Two team members, Roman Kilun and Phil Zajicek, did not make the time cut, but might be kept in the tour due to extenuating circumstances. Roman had a flat out on the TT course and Phil got the tour tummy bug and was tossing last night, and since he missed the cut by only 8 seconds, might be given a bye.
  
  Pix on the day: http://tinyurl.com/2hf4bm
  
  
• Saturday, February 23 2008 - This race should be called the "tour of attrition". 167 racers started and only 91 remain, most of the abandons probably are due to the flu bug.
  
  The HealthNet team has been hit pretty hard. Karl Menzies was done after stage 3, Matt Crane abandoned during stage 4, Roman Kilun and Phil Zajicek were out after stage 5. The team manager won't let Tim Johnson start stage 7 because he is suffering from the bug. So the team is down to three racers for the final stage - John Murphy, Frank Pipp and Rory Sutherland.
  
  Randy V and I got out of Solvang promptly this morning and were the first team to arrive at the hotel in Santa Clarita. My new pal Barbara Steinberg (ToC hotel liaison volunteer) had our room keys ready for us as we drove up, and we had the pick of the parking spots.
  
  As Randy and I were setting up, I saw this one-legged fellow pedaling around the parking lot on a bike with one crank arm. He came rolling over to ask for some air for his tires, and I took a closer look at the jersey he was wearing. It was from the "Wounded Warrior Project", so I asked him about it. He said that this project provides support for soldiers wounded in Iraq, and he is involved with a part of the project that adapts cycles for use by soldiers who have lost or damaged limbs. He was not a soldier himself, but said that he used to be a top level bike racer until he lost a leg when he was hit by a car on a training ride in the mid-90s.
  
  The project is doing a group ride along the California coast February 20-26. They are in Santa Clarita today to see the finish of the ToC stage 6 and will be meeting with a couple of the teams. On Sunday 2/24 in the afternoon they will be riding the beach bike path along Santa Monica Bay from Will Rogers State Park south to Redondo Beach. So if any of my cycling buddies in the South Bay want to ride with them, just start heading north until you meet the group.
  
  In the meantime, Rory Sutherland from our team had gotten into a break which had as much as a 7 minute gap, and it lasted all the way into the circuit in Santa Clarita. The break got caught, but Rory earned the most aggressive rider jersey on the day.
  
  The meager photo selection for today: http://tinyurl.com/2n2q2g
  
  
• Sunday, February 24 2008 - Final stage today! Due to another front of wet winter weather moving into Southern California, and so many racers being sick, there was a possibility that the stage over the San Gabriel Mountains would be shortened. If so, there would be a faux start in Santa Clarita, then the racers would load up into their team vehicles for a drive to Pasadena, and basically have a circuit race on the ~7KM course around the Rose Bowl.
  
  By the time we woke, race officials had already been up at the highest point of the course at 4:00AM assessing the conditions and decided to hold the complete stage. The HealthNet team now was down to three racers - Rory Sutherland, John Murphy and Frank Pipp. Tim Johnson was too sick and the team manager, Mike Tamayo, would not let him continue.
  
  For the final stage Mike suspected that there would be a break at some point coming out of Santa Clarita and that Rory would be in it. If this came true, and if nobody dangerous to the CG leader was in the break, then there would be a chance for the break to hold. With this possibility in mind, Mike decided to station me at the Mill Creek Summit, the highest point on the course, to have a rain jacket ready to give to Rory for the descent.
  
  Joby and Jen, the soigniers, drove me up to the summit in the minivan and then dropped back down to the first feed zone where they would provide food to the three team racers. I was waiting for maybe an hour up there and it was plenty chilly. There was snow in the shade under trees, the dark roiling clouds were running low and the wind was blustery. I kept walking down from the summit about a half K and back up just to keep warm. There were quite a few fans at the summit and I saw maybe 20 cyclists come up from the Santa Clarita side while I waited.
  
  The race went just as Mike suspected it would. There was a 10 man break including Rory that was not being chased down. As the break came up to the summit, I was waiting about 300 meters below and handed the rain jacket off to Rory as he came by. Shortly behind the break was a group of team cars including one driven by Mike, with mechanic Eva Barabas in the back seat. He pulled over for me and I jumped in the front seat.
  
  Rory had the rain jacket on before he went over the summit and was ready for the descent. The chase cars followed and started the high speed drop before the next climb. We were watching one of the other racers in the break trying to put on his rain jacket which had been given to him right at the summit. Trying to do it while descending at 40+mph is a bit precarious and it was several miles before he had it secured. So it was a good idea to give the jacket to Rory as he was still climbing.
  
  The break stayed away during the descent, during the next ascent to Angeles Crest Highway, and the descent down Angeles Crest Highway into Pasadena. In Pasadena we rolled through some residential areas then onto a ~7KM circuit course around the Rose Bowl stadium for 6 laps. By the last lap of these circuits the break had been whittled down to 5 racers and the peleton was closing fast. Riding in the chase car down the mountain and around the circuits had been great fun and there were big, enthusiastic crowds, despite the rainy weather.
  
  Halfway through the last lap the peleton was close enough that the chase cars in the gap were forced to stop off to one side and let the peleton pass. From then on all we could do was listen to the radio and hope the Rory could pull out a good result. As it turned out, the break just barely stayed away from the peleton, with Hincapie scraping out a sprint win over Sutherland (2nd) and McCartney (3rd). Rory took 34th place in the CG, 19:14 behind GC winner Levi Leipheimer. Teammate Frank Pipp finished the stage in the pack and 64th in the CG, while John Murphy abandoned on the climb to Mill Creek Summit.
  
  After the race, the support staff spent a couple of hours straightening away the equipment trailer for local storage until the Redlands race in April. In March the team will be traveling to Asia for the Tour of Taiwan. Maxxis, the tire sponsor for the team, is a division of a Taiwanese company and the team is going there to fly the flag for Maxxis.
  
  This has been a great adventure for me. It has been a lot of fun despite the hard work and the bout with the flu bug, but I'm glad it was only 1 week. 3 weeks like the TdF would be really wearing, and not being able to ride for that long just unbearable.
  
  Pix on the day: http://tinyurl.com/2fgtx9