Tuesday July 19

I have a hard time dragging myself out of bed this morning. Piet, the doctor, tells me that riders sometimes have the same problems due to the combination of stress, adrenaline, sickness, injury etc. Some of them sleep with earplugs and the blindfolds you get on airplanes, and sometimes they are given a mild sleeping pill.

We start off the morning shoe shopping. There’s a discount shoe store near the hotel in Pau and some of the guys need (want?) shoes from the new sponsor - Kappa.

Luke Roberts had made some joke the day before about riding with a disk wheel, so today the mechanics fitted his road bike with a disk at the start. Everyone thought it was rather funny, but I’m sure other teams were wondering what he was thinking as we wheeled up to the sign-in with it. It was changed to his regular Zipp 404 before the start.

It’s a great day today - clear blue sky, no haze, and sunny. I get another tour of the countryside in the soigneurs’ car. As we enter the town where the feed zone is located, we get stopped by a demonstration against the reintroduction of bears into the region. The police were out in force in riot gear complete with shields and clubs and tear gas, looking pretty menacing. The look alone seemed to keep the crowd restrained. Alex is driving today so the pace is more subdued until we are late leaving the feed zone. Then he shows he’s equal to Geert in his liberal interpretation of road rules in an attempt to catch the rest of the soigneurs’ cars and avoid getting caught in the throngs of spectators' cars.

More later,

P.

CSC renews and extends sponsorship

Today is a chance to get caught up with things for the staff. Breakfast is a bit later than normal and it’s a bit more relaxing. After that, the riders head out for a training ride with Bjarne. The mechanics and soigneurs work on all sorts of things, from filling protein drink and water bottles for the next few days, gluing tires on, fixing the car antennas, cleaning bikes and cars, etc. Craig is washing the bikes and the hose occasionally “slips” until a water fight breaks out.

After the riders come back from the ride and have their lunch, there is the regular rest day press conference. The Novotel is a bit tight for space and eventually there is an impromptu press room set up in the lobby. By the time the press arrives and sets up cameras in the front row, you can’t see anything.

However, the message still comes across loud and clear as Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) announces that they have extended their sponsorship for 3 years until the end of 2008. Basso announces he’s renewed a year early and will stay until at least the end of 2008 as well. It’s what Bjarne says he needs to take the Team to the next level, and he’s really pleased. CSC is also really happy as they have found tremendous value in the sponsorship. There are interviews in the podcast area at the Cervelo Media Center if you’re interested.

There’s champagne all around at dinner in the evening to celebrate the sponsorship agreement. Everyone on the Team is happy as it provides some stability as well as the ability to conclude contracts with riders and staff in the next month or so when these things are normally taken care of.

My business partner, Gerard, has arrived in town on a whirlwind trip for distributor and press meetings. He’ll be working pretty hard and, unfortunately, won’t see much of the Tour.

Rest day -- chance to get caught up

Today is a chance to get caught up with things for the staff. Breakfast is a bit later than normal and it’s a bit more relaxing. After that, the riders head out for a training ride with Bjarne. The mechanics and soigneurs work on all sorts of things, from filling protein drink and water bottles for the next few days, gluing tires on, fixing the car antennas, cleaning bikes and cars, etc. Craig is washing the bikes and the hose occasionally “slips” until a water fight breaks out.

After the riders come back from the ride and have their lunch, there is the regular rest day press conference. The Novotel is a bit tight for space and eventually there is an impromptu press room set up in the lobby. By the time the press arrives and sets up cameras in the front row, you can’t see anything. However, the message still comes across loud and clear as Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) announces that they have extended their sponsorship for 3 years until the end of 2008. Basso announces he’s renewed a year early and will stay until at least the end of 2008 as well. It’s what Bjarne says he needs to take the Team to the next level, and he’s really pleased. CSC is also really happy as they have found tremendous value in the sponsorship. There are interviews in the podcast area if you’re interested.

There’s champagne all around at dinner in the evening to celebrate the sponsorship agreement. Everyone on the Team is happy as it provides some stability as well as the ability to conclude contracts with riders and staff in the next month or so when these things are normally taken care of.

Another mountain top finish

Well, it appears that I should not have stayed out late last night, as a few people comment that I look like crap. Very complimentary bunch here. If you can’t toss back the insults in this team, you get run over quickly.

The area around Lezat sur Leze seems to be the sunflower capital of the France with fields everywhere. Very scenic. Then 30 km from the start the road turns and enters a tunnel through the mountain. But this is a natural tunnel - a huge grotto probably 800m long and wide enough to take an autoroute. This is really cool. Unfortunately, the problem with being in any of the cars - either with the Sport Directors or the soigneurs is that you can’t stop to take photos. So you see these great scenic shots as they whip by and you miss them, or react hopelessly slowly and end up with tons of photos of fence posts and trees in the attempt. I guess it’s just another reason to come back after the Tour.

The feed zone today is in St. Béat. The town is nestled in the valley in the Pyrenees and I just can’t get photos that do it justice.

The feed zone goes well, but Lombardi is off the back because he had a minor crash earlier. He does not take a musette, but he’ll get one from the DS car later.

It’s another mountain-top finish so it’s a bit of a mess getting the riders and cars down. After a bit of a wait and a car-bus transfer for the riders we continue on to Pau for the evening. Later we hear that some Tour people didn’t get off the mountain until 2:30 in the morning so we had it pretty good. Imagine how long it took spectators to get off the mountain, as the police keep one lane open for Tour accredited cars, and the other is completely stationary with non-accredited traffic.

If you come over here and don’t want to walk to miles to get to the race route, the thing to have is a visitors parking pass, if you can get one. If you don’t have one, be prepared to show up at least a couple of days early for a mountain stage or be prepared to walk 10-20 km to the race finish. Seriously. Non-mountain finishes and flat stages are a lot better but bring your walking shoes in either case.

A day in the feed zone car

Today I was in the feed zone car with the soigneurs again. This is a good way to see the route, although it goes by at a quick pace and you can’t really stop to sightsee. And there is plenty to see in the French country side. Every year I come I resolve to come back with a bike and tour around the winding rolling “D” roads. One of the most scenic places was the vineyards of Bordeaux and Sauternes. Today there are the usual vineyards, and there seem to be lots offering dégustations (tastings), but there are lots more in the foothills of the Pyrenees. There is no shortage of castles strategically sited on hilltops and ancient towns in the valleys below.

Geert shows off his car racing skills as we tear down the closed 2-lane roads in pursuit of the Caravan. Then we slalom through the 150 or so cars of the publicity caravan and get to the feed zone ahead of them to park and set up before they arrive.

On the way we have various discussions slandering each others’ nationality and culture. Geert wonders what the Spanish are thinking with the bullfight thing. Alex explains that the bulls are treated better than regular cattle, live longer, and also explains the other traditions of the bullfight and toreadors. When we get to the feed zone the discussion continues with impromptu bullfighting lessons using Geert as the bull. Check the photos on the website.

At the feed zone, the soigneurs prepare the musettes for the riders and then hand them off as the riders stream through the feed zone. The musettes contain bidons of cold water and sports drink, a Coke, and a selection of bars, gels, and some food prepared and wrapped in tin foil by the chef or soigneurs. This could be a piece of cake or other dessert and maybe half an apple or banana.

They also prepare more cold drinks for the cars as they pass through. In the car today was Gawie Nienaber, the chief counsel from CSC Europe. Gawie (pronounced Havie) is a cycling fan and a big proponent of CSC’s sponsorship of the Team. He will play an important role in the negotiations for the sponsorship contract extension in the next few days.

After the handoff, we jump in the car and rush ahead to leapfrog the race and get ready on the finish line.

We’re in a small town tonight and the bus gets stuck and can’t get down the street. The hotel is very close to the Spanish border (in fact the race goes through Spain tomorrow), we get paella for dinner. This is one of my favourite dishes and no-one makes it better than Anna’s mom, so my standard is pretty high. In the end it wasn’t too bad and the beers on tap were all Belgian abbey beers. A bit odd as we are nowhere near Belgium, but I didn’t stop to ponder that too long as I sampled a few.

At 11:30 after dinner was finished, a bunch of us went out to the local town festival. The town square is packed with people from all ages, hanging around eating and drinking, bands playing, kids running around. When we left around 1:00am I think it was just getting going in earnest. You’ve gotta like the European attitude towards life. In Spain, dinner seemed to start at 11pm, and keeps going with drinks etc. until 1:30am. I think the kids went to bed around midnight. No wonder they need the siesta to recover. This region of France doesn’t seem much different.