ATOC - The Final Days

Ok, I guess the title sounds a little more ominous than it needs to but you get the point.

I was fortunate enough to be on the back crew for the last two stages of the event. I say "fortunate" because after a couple of days on both crews, I found that I liked the hectic pace of the back more than the more leisurely pace of the front. Besides the hectic pace and being able to sleep a touch longer, the back crew also gets the chance to see all the team cars, check out rider sign in and interact with riders/crew before things get underway.

Wandering around team cars and seeing the riders was really a study of people. I don't tend to get all wound up over celebrities and I don't think that just because someone rides a bike real fast that they are good people. But watching other people nearly run over themselves or each other in order to get a pic or maybe an autograph - that was a show.

Stage 7 started and we were flying behind the caravan, cutting down signs and picking up sprint/kom markers. We had procured a bunch of sample-size jelly-belly's so I was throwing those out to the kids that were watching the race. Amazing how happy people will get over a couple of jelly beans (that said, jelly belly beans are so much more than just jelly beans!). All was going well until we pulled up to a course arrow on a sharp turn. I hung out the window to cut it down and as we pulled away, my illustrious driver cut it a little too sharp. The truck bed hit the sign, creating a vertical crease/dent. The crowd cheered as we extracted ourselves from the sign and continued on ... the damage was done but we still had a stage to finish out.

The huge climbs went slow but the descents were wicked - hair-pin turns, no guard-rails, fans on either side of the road - all of this in a pick-up truck with a ton of sandbags and random signs affecting the weight distribution. I had faith in my driver but it was still a white-knuckle run down the mountain. We made it down and our front team dutifully had the 1k blimp up and running by the time we got there.

The Tour has an "uh-oh" guy ... the guy you call when you have an uh-oh. Considering all the vehicles in the Tour and all the miles they drive at sometimes mach-speed, the uh-oh guy could conceivably keep kinda busy. Thankfully he said the damage from the sign that jumped out in front of us was pretty minor and after filling out an accident report, we were off and running for the final day of the race.

It was well known by this time that I heart Andy Schleck. Not that I totally sweat him - I just think he's so darn cute. Our team had procured a Leopard-Trek waterbottle and hat from the feedzone and it was a known fact that I had dibs. I'd give up anything else that we might have dug up, but I was all about the Leopard-Trek stuff. I mean, with Andy, Frank, Fabian and Jens all racing in the same colors, who COULDN'T like the team??

Anyway, I was lucky enough to be with a "get sh*t done" kinda friend. He put us in the path of Andy when he went up for rider-sign in. I thought we had missed him but as he went rolling past us, he stopped to talk to a ref in between the cars. The next thing I know, I have Andy signing my credentials and then I'm standing next to him for a picture. I'm well aware that we caught him right as the race was about to get underway and he probably couldn't have cared less - yes, I was probably THAT person - but I was a happy kid as I said thank you and walked away.

The race got underway and -wow- the scenery was fantastic. We had these long drags of switchbacks so we could see virtually the entire caravan. There were guys abandoning almost from the gun - I think the first one we saw was less than 5 miles in. It had been a long week for those boys. All was going well and we were coming in for the finish ... There was a course arrow pointing to the final circuit on the right so we did as we always do - my illustrious driver jumped the curb and I climb out the window to cut the sign down. Unbeknownst to us, there was a grate sticking out from the curb and right as I cut down the arrow, there was a huge sigh of air from the front passenger-side tire. Do you have any idea how much air those huge tires hold?

Again, cheers from the crowd as we pulled away and limped as far as we could to get out of the way of traffic. Unfortunately, we limped right into the middle of an intersection - that was fun. Being a rental truck, we had no idea where to FIND the jack and I've never had to winch-down a spare tire (then again, I've never had a flat in a pickup, either). A cop came to block traffic (thank you) but couldn't really help. Then a couple of guys on skateboards rolled up and offered help. Apparently the one was an expert - no, really, he worked at an auto-shop of some sort. He helped a lot and once we got the jack put together, things went swimmingly. Off we go again, with a quick call to Mr. Uh-Oh and a wave to the crowd. Our tour was over. Very fittingly, given the way it started.

ATOC Day 6 & 7

It's been hard to find time to keep up with all that's happening during this week ... the last few days I've been up pretty early with the start crew, putting up course signs, measuring out 200m markings, putting up the feathers you see at the sprints and KOMs ... this is NOT easy work, kids!

It's well worth it, though - once we finish our respective jobs up front, we get to grab lunch, talk with the crowd, take pics and eventually see the finish come through the 1k blimp that we put up. Even though they blow by in a half-second, it's still pretty damn cool to see Andy, Chris, Jens (so sad he had to abandon), Levi and all the others who do, at the highest level possible, the thing we all love to do.

The sheer logistics it takes to put on a race like this is unbelievable. The stats from an early-race meeting included: 1,000 vehicles rented to outfit our caravan and workers. The caravan is over a mile long to include lead vehicles, motos, vip rides, team cars, police, ambulances ... and that doesn't include the 5 cars we've utilized to set up and take down signs as the race rolls through. Over 70 hotels will have hosted various members of the race organization. Two start cities even had hotels DONATE all the rooms to the race. These people absolutely love being a host city for the TOC.

Relatively speaking, after the drama of starting this year's TOC the last couple of stages have been logistically uneventful. Hiccups along the way happen but nothing major. It's kind of like organized chaos, only without real organization but everything just seems to get done in the end. Frustrating at times but very rewarding when we can help a fan or a random visitor understand the race or get to the best spot to watch.

More when I have a moment to update.

ATOC update day 4 & 5

Trying to hit  highlights - its late and our morning starts early tomorrow...

- Squaw Valley = super cute but super snow-y ... too slick for stage 2 start. Start time delayed, race shortened to cut out Donners Pass and start place moved to Nevada City.

- Plenty of time to walk the quaint little tourist attraction of a town. They were so excited to have us there (last year they were the start city for an ATOC stage).

- FINALLY started a stage - I was in the back of the caravan collecting the course signs and markers along the route. Holy fast-pace: if we lose the end of the caravan by taking too long to pull down signs, the road closure ends and we're stuck navigating through the crowds and/or regular road traffic.

- I have never received so much applause and approval for taking down signs. Seriously, I was cracking up the whole time.

- Hanging out with Bob Roll in the hotel laundry/business center. Very funny guy, even remembered meeting me and the girls in PA a few years back. Offered to give me his rider-list but remembered he left it in the car.

- Up super early today for our first full stage. Out with the early crew to put up course signs and markers. No applause or approval for this job.

- AMAZING scenery on this stage. I mentioned out loud that at times it was like driving into a post card. First time to CA; this wasn't what I pictured, it's even better!

- if you ever have the experience of riding through one of those inflatable arches, please thank those operating it. Its not as easy as it looks, kids.

- Met Phil and Paul and yes, have pictures. Phil didn't want to introduce me to Paul because he wanted a pic with me all by himself (he's a smooth one, that Phil)

- Because I was on the early crew, we had time for a late lunch and hot-out-of-the-oven cinnamon rolls from Lollipop Cafe in Modesto. Worth getting up early for.

- Because I was on the early crew, we had time to watch the circuits downtown... those boys were flying! So sad that Jens got taken out. Super pumped to see Andy.

- Live streaming of the race on my cell rocks.

More tomorrow, complete with some pics. 

ATOC Day 2 & 3

Wow. What a couple of days. The time difference was phenomenal on Saturday, allowing me to sleep in until 11am (EST) to make our 8am (PST) meeting time. The weather was still good, but things were cooling down and there was a lot of chatter about that 4-letter "s" word (snow) but we decided that denial was our best option so we started prepping for the first stage.

From ATOC

We made our game plan over a good breakfast and quickly went down to this "beach" area to sort signs and start loading trucks for distribution on the course. The views were awesome but we didn't really take into account the wind - so we quickly relocated to a much less scenic but more efficient parking lot. Oh, the glamour of bike racing.

From ATOC

From ATOC

Finally, we drove the entire course, setting out course arrows, marking sprint and KOM lines and generally exploring the course. The view from Tahoe City:

From ATOC

There's a phenomenal coffee shop very near the sprint line so we all know I was a happy kid!

After an "all hands" meeting at 9pm (? that late the day before the first stage?) we made it a pretty early night with the start team's impending 5am wakeup call. Then came Stage 1.

Holy cluster. Thats the only way to put it. Here's the nutshell version: we woke up to this outside our hotel balcony:

From ATOC

The call was supposed to be made by 9am whether we'd go off as planned. We knew by 730 am that the start would be postponed until 1:15pm. The weather was a complete mess at the start so we were sure the mountain and descent would be treacherous. We start pulling course signs to adjust for the shortened course. Then we hear they're eliminating the neutral laps so we have to adjust signs again. With nothing else to do, we sit in the hotel lobby (with everyone else) and ... wait.

From ATOC

Finally we're in the caravan just waiting for the start. There's the National Anthem and the call ups. The snow and sun have been alternating for the past several hours and at this point the snow was winning. We see the moto's start to roll out, then I see some riders. Ok! Ready - we're gonna finally get this party started!

From ATOC

But the caravan didn't move. We start seeing riders pop out of the parking lot of the hotel and I briefly wondered who screwed up and missed the start of the race. Then the call came over race radio about how we were going to disperse the caravan, where the motos should meet, which roads would remain closed until things got back under control. The race was off.

Now we have to go retrieve all the signs that we put out (for reuse in the next stage). We're going up toward the KOM and the weather is deteriorating FAST. I had heard that the riders protested the start and if they did, I totally support the call. We were following a big group of moto-marshalls when about 12 of them wiped out on a snowy, icy part of the descent. It was lucky we were going to slow and could stop before running them over. Luckily no one was hurt but can you imagine how the cyclists would have fared up there.

From ATOC

We stopped and directed traffic around the mess while they picked up bikes, assessed bike and bodily damage and determined how they would make it down to the fire station to regroup and get rides to their respective hotels.

Several plows and an hour later the moto's actually got back on all of the operating bikes (there were a few broken rides) and more or less coasted down the hill to the fire station. That could have been a lot worse.

We made sure everyone was square and headed on our way. Just getting up to speed, we saw two cyclists on the side of the road that resembled popsicles. I had seen them pass during the moto debacle at least a half hour earlier so they must've been standing there freezing for what seemed like hours. We stopped to pick them up and I'm not sure I've ever seen such grateful cyclists. The ice and snow had frozen on their wheels, brakes etc ... they couldn't even spin the wheels. We gave them lunch and dropped them in Tahoe City, finally heading on our way to reunite with our crew.

What a show.

ATOC - Day 1

I have been fortunate enough to land a pretty sweet gig helping out with the routing and signs crew at the Amgen Tour of California.

I had absolutely no idea what I was going to be in for - all I knew was that I'd likely be in one of the follow cars and the crew essentially set up and tore down courses. I figured - why not? I've never been to CA and being behind the scenes of a pro-race could be really cool. So, here I am, typing this right now on my phone from a quaint little lodge in South Tahoe on the eve of the first stage.

The trip out went as expected. Spending 8hrs - a full workday- playing planes, trains and automobiles is enough to make anyone lose some personality. I did have a partner in crime to travel with, but he spent most of the plane ride(s) trying to sleep. The one moment of panic came after we were already in the air on the first flight. I knew our connection was in Denver but the pilot welcomed us to 'a non-stop to St. Louis'.  At that point there was nothing to be done but I wondered how the super-duper security at BWI could possibly let us get on the wrong flight. Eventually we asked the stewardess (that had as much personality as those bland, processed cookies she was handing out) who looked at us like we were crazy but assured us we were on the right flight.

As an aside, when did airlines start hawking Monster energy drinks?

An hour layover in Denver gave us enough time to grab lunch and off we went to Reno.  I walked out of the walkway into the airport and didn't go 10 ft before seeing the first set of slot machines.  Welcome to Nevada! We both had a couple of quarters and figured we'd drop one in. Hey, when in Rome, right? Then we realized these slot machines don't take coins - what is this world coming to!?!?

Fast forward to meeting up with the rest of our 8-man crew ... great bunch of people with a collective wicked sense of humor. This is going to be fun!

Pick up official clothing. Pick up credentials. Sign forms for driving rental vehicles (in our case, brand new F150s). Start loading the gazillion signs and posts etc we'd need.  Finally food was in order so we went to the hotel casino/restaurant ... I forget how lucky we are in our area that you can't smoke indoors ... by the time we were finished, it was 1230am local time - 330 my time and I was fading fast.

I can't figure out how to post pics via phone yet ... day 2 update tomorrow.