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.