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.

The Ride That Wasn't

Those that know me well can say a lot of things about me (disclaimer: nothing they say is binding in a court of law), but the one thing everyone knows is that I am super-disciplined when it comes to my workouts. I have been known to rise in the mornings long before the proverbial roosters crow and stay up way past my witching hour to fit in a workout. During my tenure on my previous women's team, I was usually one of the instigators of outdoor rides despite the cold winter weather. When teammates or friends join me for a ride in my neck of the woods, they know to be prepared for an epic journey.

The dusting of snow on Saturday prevented my weekly 65mile (+/-) ride ... we all know I've hit the deck a few too many times in the recent years and I'm so not going to tempt fate. The second the words ice or snow are uttered, I'm out. A two hour ride on my rollers (have I mentioned lately how rockstar my e-motion rollers are?) gets the job done but it's just not quite the same as hauling my off-season bum over the hills, so I was bound and determined to get in the weekly ride with my unnamed training partner on Sunday.

Yeah, I knew it was going to be cold, but I'm tough. Yes, being cold is one of my least favorite things in the world, perhaps second only to lack of sleep (that's not just bad for me, that's bad for everyone in my path). Dammit, I was going to get my ride in.

I arrive at our meeting point at 10am, as planned, completely ignoring the thermometer on my car that reads 24degrees. I commence putting the wheel on my bike, resetting the SRM, layering the vaseline on my feet and my face, breaking out toe-warmers and hand-warmers. There is a nagging voice in my head (one of many) that reminds me that my "Oh-Hell-No" temperature was 32degrees. I ignore the voices. My partner-in-crime is going through the same motions and neither of us say a word. Neither of us want to be the one to call it.

So, off we go, stubborn pride and sheer idiocy intact. Did I mention the wind on Sunday morning? Looking at the weather afterward, windchills were in the low teens. WAY below my Oh-Hell-No limit. No words are exchanged but I'm thinking that this little jaunt is going to be a death-march from the get. We are about 5mins down the road and I am already losing my fingers to the cold. That's with 2 layers of gloves (including a wind-proof layer) and a hand-warmer. I finally break the silence with "You know this is insanity, right". Response: "Yep". About two minutes later I call it. Something to the effect of "This is stupid. What the hell are we doing? I'm already losing my hands and we're not 10mins into this ride."

We loop around and head back to the cars. Good thing because it took me the whole drive home to get full feeling back in my hands. Who the hell suits up for a friggin' bike ride in 14degrees? Who do I think I am??!

I take off my bike shoes to drive (also remembered to take off the helmet - I've found people look at you funny if you're wearing a bike helmet while driving a car. Not that I know that from experience or anything), head back to the warm heat of my house and my beloved rollers. I pop in a fantastic Spinervals workout - Have Mercy. It's fantastic because it features workouts from various Spinervals videos from the beginning so the bikes, the kits and the hair-do's are all entertaining. You can catch several local hot rods in all their trainer-glory. And it's a killer workout. I go from frostbite to melting - sweating buckets. This is funny because I had a thin layer of vaseline on my face, anticipating windburn on a cold winter ride (as an aside, it also helps snot slide off your face if the occasion comes up). Indoors, the vaseline simply lets sweat slide down your face in sheets. Then you wipe your face with a towel and things get real nice and gooey.

Two hours later, having switched over to the Ravens game after 1hour of the workout video, I was toast. 4hours on the rollers in one weekend is more than enough. During that time, I made peace with my inner-idiot and decided that this one was out of my control (I can't tell you how painful it is to say something is out of my control ... really). So there you have it, the ride that wasn't.