Rest day at the Giro... As I explained in the Tour de France for Dummies book in the chapter about a day in the life of a rider, rest day at the Tour is not a time when the riders kick back and do nothing. Maybe its a tad less demanding at the Giro, but usually the guys still ride to keep their legs in shape, plus they usually have all kinds of press interviews and sponsor obligations.
I was told that The Tour de France for Dummies was to be released yesterday, and you would think that as a co-author, I would know, but I don’t.... Guess I need to visit a local bookstore this week and see if it's on the shelf. So where will they put it? In the Travel section or in the Sports/cycling section? Should be in both. At my local Barnes and Noble, the small cycling section is pitifully buried somewhere after a huge baseball section, and is on the bottom shelf - or was the last time I looked....
Over at the paceline.com, Chris Brewer gives us lots of good details about the haps at the Gala dinner, plus Liz Kreutz has some pics there. Nice one of Sheryl performing onstage. Turns out that the guy who matched the $100k bid for the day with the team at the Tour was none other than Tiger Williams - a long-time friend and supporter of the LAF.
Hope you’re checking out the Velogal Wachovia Journals at www.wachoviacycling.com - I just sent another one in a couple of days ago about cycling obsession - updated from an article I wrote about five years ago. I think there will probably be one or two more short on-the-spot and behind the scenes journals while I am in Philly. I’ll also update this blog, but it may be in the afternoon or evening, rather than early morning....
Maybe I can write my blog entries while I am being the Food Police, as I call myself, and monitoring the team dining room. I make sure only team members enter to eat, and that they eat undisturbed by autograph and photo seekers. A couple of years ago, one of the teams from Europe jokingly called me the food angel, because I was chasing the teams all over the place to get them to the right dining room, and they like being greeted with a big smile.
We were staying in a hotel that had a lot of banquet rooms, and the hotel kept moving the location for the meals from one place to another, even on different floors. So the riders, soigneurs and DS who didn’t speak English just looked around until they saw me standing in front of a banquet room door: Like a Pavlovian reflex, when they saw me they knew food was there. All the big hotel chains have all these totally confusing names for the myriad of banquet rooms, and I guess in order to maintain a tres elegante decor, there are never any signs telling you where they are....
But I love this part of my job - I get to see and greet all the guys on the teams at least twice a day, and most often for all three meals. I always get lots of hugs the first day from riders who remember me from prior years - and no, I’ve never asked for even one autograph. Every once in a while, one of the teams bring me some rider cards or trinkets, but mostly, the European soigneurs or staff try to get Wachovia tee shirts from me....
I was told that The Tour de France for Dummies was to be released yesterday, and you would think that as a co-author, I would know, but I don’t.... Guess I need to visit a local bookstore this week and see if it's on the shelf. So where will they put it? In the Travel section or in the Sports/cycling section? Should be in both. At my local Barnes and Noble, the small cycling section is pitifully buried somewhere after a huge baseball section, and is on the bottom shelf - or was the last time I looked....
Over at the paceline.com, Chris Brewer gives us lots of good details about the haps at the Gala dinner, plus Liz Kreutz has some pics there. Nice one of Sheryl performing onstage. Turns out that the guy who matched the $100k bid for the day with the team at the Tour was none other than Tiger Williams - a long-time friend and supporter of the LAF.
Hope you’re checking out the Velogal Wachovia Journals at www.wachoviacycling.com - I just sent another one in a couple of days ago about cycling obsession - updated from an article I wrote about five years ago. I think there will probably be one or two more short on-the-spot and behind the scenes journals while I am in Philly. I’ll also update this blog, but it may be in the afternoon or evening, rather than early morning....
Maybe I can write my blog entries while I am being the Food Police, as I call myself, and monitoring the team dining room. I make sure only team members enter to eat, and that they eat undisturbed by autograph and photo seekers. A couple of years ago, one of the teams from Europe jokingly called me the food angel, because I was chasing the teams all over the place to get them to the right dining room, and they like being greeted with a big smile.
We were staying in a hotel that had a lot of banquet rooms, and the hotel kept moving the location for the meals from one place to another, even on different floors. So the riders, soigneurs and DS who didn’t speak English just looked around until they saw me standing in front of a banquet room door: Like a Pavlovian reflex, when they saw me they knew food was there. All the big hotel chains have all these totally confusing names for the myriad of banquet rooms, and I guess in order to maintain a tres elegante decor, there are never any signs telling you where they are....
But I love this part of my job - I get to see and greet all the guys on the teams at least twice a day, and most often for all three meals. I always get lots of hugs the first day from riders who remember me from prior years - and no, I’ve never asked for even one autograph. Every once in a while, one of the teams bring me some rider cards or trinkets, but mostly, the European soigneurs or staff try to get Wachovia tee shirts from me....
posted by velogal at
7:09 AM
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