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.