Day 21 - Cognac (the drink)

Friday 27 July 2007

Not having to travel far after a stage is always nice; but hardly having to travel anywhere is even better.

We got a little taste of what the Tour is like for those who don’t have to go from finish line to finish line everyday, but instead can relax knowing they won’t be traveling far. Actually, it’s the start line crew that’s screwed on this stage, because with the finish line being the same place tomorrow, they’re the ones who have to travel; if you follow. We switched on the restaurant locator on Miss Meredith, and she led us into the middle of the town of Angoulême. Naturally, we sat outside in a crowded patio-type setting and enjoyed some good food.

Après le diner, we traveled back to the chateau; where I unfortunately found myself on a conference call about college football graphics. Yeah, we’re starting early. They want it to be perfect. I tried my hardest not to be anti-social, as I threw my line on mute and walked downstairs to snap photographs of the place. I ran into the owner of the place (I really shouldn’t say “ran into”, since this is where he lives.) outside, where he was awaiting our return from the day. With 6 glasses of cognac; which I believe was Remy Martin. I said, “pour nous?” To which he replied, “oh yes”. His English was rather good, as his wife has family in Florida which they visit often. He also noticed my camera in hand and warned me about taking pictures inside the house, because the massive paintings in the house are probably worth a lot; something he doesn’t need ruined. I obliged, and walked along the grounds to snap some night photos. All this while holding the phone to my ear. I nearly drained my battery; a first for my phone.

90 minutes later, I put the phone down and rightfully enjoyed the cognac.

Day 20 - Cognac (the town)

Thursday 26 July 2007

I take back everything rational I said about CBS previously. They’ve made clear the fact that they are no longer covering the race as it is (they never really do to begin with), but are now enthralled with the storylines – the Yellow Jersey being kicked out is top priority, and will probably take up 35 minutes of their 42 minute (60-minute w/commercials) formatted show. And they win Emmy’s for that bullshit. Whatever. Not bitter.

Dave Hagen’s fantastic quote o’ the day:

“There was a pint of blood in my mini-bar last night, but I didn’t have the
right tools to transfuse it. So I went with a Heineken instead.”

Yeah, it’s business as usual for us today.

Another long drive for us tonight, on the road which leads to the southwestern region of France, where every town ends in an ‘ac’. Cognac is the larger town in the region, which has been made famous by the spirit with its namesake. We are in Jornac tonight, in a beautiful chateau which was purchased by its current owners from a cognac company a mere 6 years ago.

Everything in this chateau is big. My room is huge. The bathroom is enormous. The walls are lined with giant paintings. The grounds are massive. This is what cognac money buys, apparently. This chateau was just for 6 of us, and we sat outside and enjoyed some of our rest stop-bought bottles of wine. This was the right place to spend two consecutive nights; not some crappy chain hotel like Ibis or Novotel.

Day 19 - Rasmussen, Out!

Wednesday 25 July 2007

I’ve got to stop writing so late at night. I just went back and looked at my entry from last night, and it was completely incoherent. I won’t even quote it, because it won’t even make any sense. Rest assured, it’s been changed.

Interesting setup today, as we’re not actually at the finish line; which is 6K up the road. I didn’t even realize that, until I asked Adrian if he was going to go film the finish on his Super 8. “Hell no, that’s 6K up the mountain!”

Good God it’s all gone to hell. On the long ride back into France from the mountains, I got the call from Alanna from CBS. I actually got 3 calls from her; the third of which bore the news. Because she’s obsessed. With either me or the hype, I’m not sure yet.

Michael Rasmussen, the race’s leader, was just fired by his team; because it was discovered he had lied (bent the truth) about his whereabouts during training and scheduled drug testing. To make a long story short, it’s very political, and he’s been dismissed on merely assumption and association. So of course the newspaper press is going crazy, and everyone is generating their own opinions and stories. It’s a crushing blow to the ASO and Tour organizers, but the show still goes on. At least I think it will go on…we’ll see what happens tomorrow!

On unrelated note, we’re staying in a very nice hotel tonight, in Castelsarrasin. It is very modern. Dave was so very, very bitter after arriving, especially because it was such a long drive, and because the hotel was not very understanding of his southern Texas drawl.

Day 18 - Rest Day 2 of 2

Tuesday 24 July 2007

I slept in until about 10am, when Breakfast was nearly finished. It felt pretty good; to sleep that much, considering we got in a little late last night after our visit to the discotheque. (Yes, discotheque is still a word.) And my clothes smell DISGUSTING after being down in that smoky place last night.

Golf again today; but this time it was a little better. You would think we learned our lesson from last time, in that we should try to find a course that is close by. So after a 40-minute ride, we arrived at last.

The foursome was: myself, Al Trautwig, his son Alex, and Robbie Ventura, who is Floyd Landis’ personal coach. Talk about playing with good company. Thankfully, we were all about the same skill level, so it made for an interesting match. We played more of a match play style than normal scoring. I played a good game on the front, lost it a little bit on the back. But the course was beautiful. Set in the middle of the Pyrenees in Huesca, Spain sat the nicest golf course I’ve ever played on. The look and feel of the course was very contemporary, as it was designed by PGA star Jose Maria Olazabal. Even the pro-shop was so very modern.

The game was overshadowed unfortunately, when the bombshell regarding Alexandre Vinokourov of team Astana hit. We were returning back to the hotel when Joel called and informed us that they kicked Vinokourov (and his team) out of the Tour after a positive blood transfusion test had surfaced. Al was extremely upset; and rightfully so: when he reports on an athlete and says all positive things about them, and then it turns out the whole time they’ve cheated, it makes him look like a liar or a fool. I understand his opinion, and I guess this is not the first time it’s happened to him.

Dinner was included at the hotel tonight, so we all gathered in the restaurant. Naturally, dinner wasn’t until 9pm, Spanish style, so we finally got seated at around 9:20.

But it didn’t take nearly as long as I had expected. Since it was free, we were limited to the number of bottles of wine we could have. So when we ran out, what did we do? That’s right, I stole some bottles I saw sitting on the side of the restaurant and brought them outside to the patio to continue drinking. Did anyone say a word? Nope.

Day 17 - Espagne

Monday 23 July 2007

Yeah it’s about time for another rest day.

The drive into Spain was a long one; and I didn’t realize we had to go up and down so many mountain roads, which made it longer. I must’ve forgotten we were in the Pyrenees. Though we did drive right next to the bottom of this massive dam, which was a cool sight.

The Hotel Formigal is a lovely place to stay for these two nights. Up a hill lies Sallent de Gallego, a small ski town of sorts which looks over some massive valleys. It’s so remote…
…it’s so remote that when the office tried to send some tapes via UPS, they never arrived; as the return message stated something to the effect of, “The recipient is in a location which lacks daily delivery.” Again I experienced the same thing when we went to Spain last year—even if you’re right over the border, there is no French spoken. They speak better English than they do French. It’s probably a matter of choice too, in a rebellious way.

We realized we had a time limit on when to get there. Not because the place was closing, but because the bar was. So for a mere 45 minutes we got to enjoy some spirits. But is 45 minutes enough for this crew? No. So we reassembled at the club down the street. And we had a good showing of people. It was good to see people relax and unwind; even if it was a little overboard like some of the frenchies, who stayed up into the wee hours.

Day 16 - Into the Pyrenees

Sunday 22 July 2007

This is how much I don’t know what day it is: I saw Alanna from CBS on top of the mountain today, and thought to myself, what is she doing here? Good lord, it’s Sunday already. How did that happen?

Again, CBS kind of left me alone. The Tour has been much less stressful without them hovering. While they still ask of me ridiculous requests, I have been able to successfully point them in the proper direction; and have been getting out of the truck at a decent hour everyday this past week. Although the drives at night have never been forgiving.

It took FOREVER to get off of the mountain tonight. Forever = 2.5 hours. At one point we did get out of the cars and walk around, because the traffic had come to a stand-still. When we finally got moving again, we found a shortcut by following Matt and Lance down a back road; which probably shaved 30 minutes off of our ride to Peyragudes.

Though we still arrived pretty late. But it was about on par with everyone else; as we all seemed to arrive at the same time. There were not as many schloogies on the climb up the Col de Peyresourde, but there were a couple of serious roadside tent-parties going on that were tempting to stop at. At which to stop, I mean.

Well, I knew it would happen at least once more in these tiny mountain towns…room sharing. Although this time it wasn’t nearly as bad because they were more like apartments, with much more privacy. Ski apartments, really. Not much to them. Not much to the whole place really; there really was no reception; just unlocked rooms with your name on them.

Day 15 - A Test of Time

Saturday 21 July 2007

So if the Alps couldn’t decide between contenders for the overall classification, maybe the Pyrenees will. Hell hopefully today’s time trial would! …But not so much.

The Tour is becoming very much like Groundhog Day. It’s the same thing every day. Early calls, long work days, 2+ hour drives at night. Finally we got to break it up with a time trial, which although meant a longer day, was more fun to work with, because it’s a different formula altogether. And as a side note, can I just mention how much I miss the team time trial; it’s such a display of function and form on the bicycle that is so fantastic, yet unfortunately hasn’t found a permanent place in Le Tour.

We took Meredith to the max tonight, where she unfortunately electronically limited us to 180 kph. And Neal got flashed by a speed camera. Fantastic.

Tonight we are in Ax-les-Thermes, which is close to Andorra. (Is Andorra an actual country? I don’t know.) This is the entrance to the Pyrenees; where tomorrow morning we will get in line to climb Plateau de Beille, one of the greatest Pyreneean climbs. A 20 km, 15-minute ride will probably be stretched closer to an hour, since it will take some time to get to the top. Whatever; better to do it in the morning than at night after a long day of working.

Matt and Neal busted out some wine and we drank for a couple of hours outside the hotel tonight, which was in a beautiful location up on the hill.

Day 14 - Can someone please go get the internets? Thank you.

Friday 20 July 2007

After two days of very warm temperatures (95°F+) in the south of France, today I am freezing. It rained last night, and I kid you not the temperature has dropped 40°.

The compound is in the middle of a very nice park today. There is more room to breath in the Zone Technique, because of the departure of most of the German TV. They’ve still got a skeleton crew, but they’ve pretty much made their intentions known.

I haven’t found reliable internet in days, which has halted the progress of this blog. Granted, I’ve been writing, because you don’t need internet to use Microsoft Word; so as soon as it gets reliable again, you will see postings again. Although we do have internet in the truck, I’ve refrained from posting there because the slow internets are incapable of uploading any large files (such as my pictures) to the Blogger site. Even getting my pictures on Facebook has become a chore. Why did I call them internets? It’s a joke in the truck; if you were here you’d know.

Not having to drive more than 30 minutes back home tonight was awesome. While many people had planned to go eat dinner in the town of Castres we were in, I wanted to as well; however none of the other 2/3rds of my car did, so I was stuck going back to the hotel. But it was alright because we had a great dinner with 8 good people and good conversation.

Not looking forward to the drive tomorrow morning however, which claims to be over an hour.

Day 13 - Bon Anniversaire

Thursday 19 July 2007

Although the Tour is nearly half over, it’s still not too late to introduce you to a friend of ours we’ve made along the way.

Meet Meredith, a Citröen C5 HDi Turbo Diesel 5-speed manual. She gets us to and fro, and doesn’t give us any crap. The GPS is fantastic, always steers us right; and Neal has become accustomed to using the exact coordinates feature; wherein he finds out (from Google Earth on his computer) the exact latitudes and longitudes of our next destination, and plugs in those numbers direct to Meredith. Traffic? She steers us around it. Road closures? New route. You say you’re traveling to a different country? Oh yeah, she follows. She pretty much gets us there every time. And so far, nobody’s GPS on this crew is as good as Meredith’s.

Why is she Meredith? Because she has a British accent and is very proper. I voluntarily gave her a last name of “Farnsworth”, to maker her super-mega British, but it has yet to be adopted. Cars don’t need last names.

And speaking of Brits, we gave Mel a good surprise for her birthday – Al & Bob pretended to do a taped segment for the primetime show, which promptly turned into the Belgian engineers singing Happy Birthday in Flemish. It was quite awesome. Although it’ll never hit air, it was fun to tape.

We stopped on the side of the road just short of our destination to take the obligatory sunflower field photos. I was wondering when we might see them. The hotel we’re staying at is a very nice place, though hard to find, on a lake in a town called St. Ferrouac du Lac; which is a suburb of Revel. What’s even better is that we get to stay for 2 nights. While this means more driving in the morning, it’s much easier after a show.

We arrived a little late for dinner, but they were able to serve us a “couple of things”; which turned into a 3 course meal. Dave and I stayed up until 1am just talking about TV and what not.

Day 12 - The Germans are (leaving).

Wednesday 18 July 2007

FINALLY! Something exciting has happened in this Tour!

Everyone thought this would be the year, where the Tour de France and the UCI would clean up the sport for good; it was to be a new dawn of cycling. Obviously, doping won’t go away overnight, but when a new case surfaced on a T-Mobile rider in the past 24 hours who had just crashed out of the race; German television took it one step further.

Sister networks ARD and ZDF refused to air coverage of today’s stage, stating they were only interested in a clean race to begin with. And since German television is run by their government, they had every right to protest and deny coverage. While they claim they will deny coverage until the rider’s B-sample is confirmed, the likelihood of that is unknown; as the German media were still in full-force today; and will likely be for a while (we passed them on the highway going in the same direction.) Plus that leaves 80 million Deutschlanders without a means of watching cycling.

120KM down the road to the west brought a complete change of scenery. Montpellier is a fantastically beautiful city. The buildings, the statues, even the people – lots of young, attractive women about! I shot some great pictures of the center of town at dusk. A group of us went out to dinner in a huge square, where we toasted the halfway point of the Tour. And schemed on how to surprise Mel on her birthday tomorrow; which she thinks we don’t know about.

*Correction on last post: apparently, Soler is Columbian, not Ecuadorian. I don't even know if there have ever been any Ecuadorian cyclists.

Day 11 - A Low Point

Tuesday 17 July 2007

Let me preface this post with a little disclaimer: what I’m about to write can be considered quite harsh, but I assure, I am still having a lot of fun on this Tour, and I am nowhere close to being bitter.

I love it when a no-name guy rides the best day of his life, and we really don’t care. I mean, how many times does an Ecuadorian win a stage in the Tour de France? Who cares if he doesn’t speak English! Get a translator! There are times I wish I worked for a non-American biased network. Oops, people from work are reading…

I’m going to go watch some Eurosport to calm down, haha.

The drive down to Marseille was a long one (3+ hours), but I was able to pass out for maybe and hour of it. I awoke around the time we reached the start town for tomorrow’s stage, Tallard. This little town is deep in wine country, and was a very cool little town with a castle and lots of little outdoor cafés. It was very picturesque; I can’t wait to see pictures in the truck tomorrow from there.

Before I got to Marseille, I was really excited to get there. I’ve never been to the Mediterranean Sea before. But then we pulled into town. France’s second [largest] city is a dump. It’s really an old industrial shipping port, and the city is…how do I put this nicely…a hell-hole. We’re set up inland a bit, so we’re not really anywhere near the sea. So I still have no idea what it looks like.

The hotel sucked ass. Ironically, while that was a dump as well, it did have one of the best showers ever. (You know, one of those ones with the huge rainfall heads? Awesome.) Which is good, because the French suck at making showers. Also, if you want to meet some rude Frenchies, Marseille is the spot. I’ve never encountered more rude people than Marseillians (?). They’re definitely not thrilled by Americans; nor do they want to serve you in any way.

Day 10 - Rest Day 1 of 2

Monday 16 July 2007

What an incredible first week of racing. Nothing really exciting going on in this race; two hard days of climbing haven’t proven anything, just that no one can work together to try to get ahead. Whatever, I’m just happy for the day off, which I will use to catch up on sleep and laugh at everyone back home who has to cut the rest day show.

The weather was much nicer this year than last for golf; so it was much more pleasant to play. We just had to go play at a course that was over an hour and a half away from where we were staying, none of the closer ones would do. So we were late to begin with. We played so slow we had to call our game after 12 holes. And not because it was getting dark, but because we had a dinner to make it back to. I played decent, especially for rental clubs, but I tweaked my wrist a little bit at the turn, so I wasn’t playing at 100%.

Now this was a typical French dinner. Frogs legs, foie gras…yes I had them both. And they were not bad. The entrée? Duck. With honey lavender. They’d never heard of mango salsa. And it took 2+ hours to arrive. Typical French dinner. With lots of people.

So did I rest on the rest day? No. I felt more tired than ever before. As Dave “Le Grand” Hagen put it, “I need a rest day from the rest day.” Agreed.

Day 9 - Schloogies ("My name-a Borat!")

Sunday 15 July 2007

So at least there were two separate rooms in our “family suite”, so it wasn’t all that bad. But still, you shouldn’t have to do that when you work. I tried to put it behind me today.

Weekend in review (surprise #1): CBS has not bothered me nearly as much as they had last year. I think they’ve changed much of their crew out, to a more proficient one.

Weekend in review (surprise #2): Where are the fireworks? Frenchies you suck at partying, especially on Bastille Day yesterday. You couldn't even get a Frenchman to win the stage. Boooo. Granted we were in the mountains…but that’s no excuse! The schloogies were out in full force though, I will say. Drunk and loud as they should be.

Everyone in the truck has their own impression of Borat, and is heard quite often. Joel joked he hired him to interview the Kazakh riders (who are very good this year). So when a roadside fan, dressed in nothing but that infamous green banana-hammock (complete with mustache and 80’s curly afro), went running up a mountain with the riders, the impressions came out ten-fold. “THAT’S-A NIIICE!” We replayed the clip 3 times throughout the course of the show. Hey, it’s not [quite] nudity!

Tonight’s drive was the most interesting by far. Getting from Tignes to Briançon as the crow flies is impossible, so you have to ascend certain mountains and take an indirect route. Little did I know that indirect route went up one of the tallest climbs in the Alps, the Col de l’Iseran, of which I’d seen many a time in historical footage back in the office. Well once I saw that famous sign at the summit, I made Dave stop the car so I could get out and take a picture. (Condition report: Altitude: 2770m (= 9088ft); Temperature: 4°C (= 39.2°F)) Also, little did I know that same road took us through the long tunnel (10 min end to end) under the Alps and into Italy, super-close to Turin. YAYYY I’VE BEEN TO ITALY!!! But for only 25 minutes, as the road turned back west and down into Briançon.

Golf tomorrow. #@!*$ yeah. Foursome is myself, Scotty-boy Shaule-zy, Teepee Darby, and Hector. Hector needs a nickname.

Day 8 - Lost in Translation

Saturday 14 July 2007

I love when we get lost in the morning and can’t find the Technical Zone. Dave and Neal get so frustrated it’s not even funny. No wait, actually, it is still funny, because they have such short tempers. And they get so fired up if they’re a minute off schedule. Ha, ha, ha.

But we found it eventually. Why? Because I speak a little French and could ask someone. The two of them would be nowhere without me translating. Some people around here speak English, more don’t know a word; but it depends on where you go in this country.

I ate lunch today with Al Trautwig and his family, who always come on the Tour and hang out with us while Al commentates for us. I swear he hasn’t a clue who I am; just that’s he’s seen me in Stamford before so he knows I work for Versus. But he’s a super nice guy nonetheless. I’m trying to get some of the features I cut back home that he’s since voiced online for all to see, because I think they look really great.

Mother f’in’ son of a bitch I have to share a room tonight. This stupid f’ing mountain town Tignes doesn’t apparently have enough hotels/ski lodges on top of it. I think this is seriously against Versus Travel and Entertainment (T&E) policy; which I expressed to Sandra back home to try and have remedied…but I guess she wasn’t on her email on Saturday; who would be. That shit better not happen again.

We went out for a little while again tonight, where we solidified plans for golf on our first rest day on Monday. We just have to get through the nightmare that is the CBS Sunday show tomorrow, and then it’s two nights in the same hotel in Briançon for a little rest and relaxation.

Day 7 - Blackout

Friday 13 July 2007

Finally it’s starting to feel like summer in France. The weather is starting to not be so shitty.

We took two massive power hits during our show today, forcing us to lose power in most areas of the truck. It’s a freaky experience, when you have such high-powered, expensive electronics in front of you, running perfectly fine, and all of a sudden everything shuts down. You wonder if something broke would you even realize it. But our crew is good, and they were able to get us back up online within minutes. Naturally this happened because it is Friday the 13th.

Tonight is our first ride into the mountains. The road seemed to suddenly turn from normal highway to uphill road, and before long we were 8500 feet up, in the quaint mountain town of Le Grand Bornand. The drive took us super-close to the border, near Geneva, as well as the road that goes through the mountains to get to Italy.

After we arrived, a few of us headed out to the center of the small mountain town, where we found an outdoor band playing and a couple of nice bars. We had some awesome beer of which I don’t remember the name, but three of them put a dent in me, I will say. Plus the scenery was nice. (Scenery = French women, not the mountains surrounding us.) This was the first real “let’s go have a beer” night for us this Tour.

The mountains are fun, because they incite a party atmosphere. And being the weekend of Bastille Day here in France, it’s going to be an exciting time.

Day 6 - Sans Doping

Thursday 12 July 2007

The race is slowing. Consistently, the pace is off schedule, late. It’s become apparent that without all the doping, the riders basically have no balls and are all scared of one another. So nothing happens, and the race takes longer. It sucks when we all want to just get the hell out at the end of the day.

The compound, or “Zone Technique” (Technical Zone), is set up around a lake today, which is really nice. After lunch I took a walk up the race course about 1.5 km, in search of some kind of shops/town scenery, but didn’t come up with much.

We’re starting to get into the wine regions of France now, and hopefully I can find more time this year to sample and buy some good regional wine.

We had a very nice three course meal at the hotel tonight in Bourg-en-Bresse that was ‘gratis’. I’ve never eaten quail before, and I must say it is a very good bird. We ate dinner with Liggett and Sherwen, and of course they are funny as always when they’re together; crazy Brits always crack me up. But it’s a very interesting hotel, with lots of antique-looking objects strewn about.

After this three course dinner, we retired to the patio outside where we threw a few back and learned more about one of our cameramen Darby, and his alternative lifestyle. You see, Darby lives in Steamboat Springs, a nice area of Colorado; in a teepee. That’s right, a teepee. Native American-style. Except it’s a massive teepee; double insulated, so it’s warm in the winter and cool in the summer. And it has a loft. And electricity. Plus four cars, some animals, and an outhouse. The day before he left for London, a coyote stole his wallet and ate it. You think I’m making this up but I’m not. He showed us a picture. Direct Quote #1: “Hell yeah it’s a chick magnet. I’m not, the teepee is!”

Oh and Jason mounted a rooster and demanded I take pictures. Direct Quote #2: “I look like Chris Shivers riding Little Yellow Jacket.” PBR nerd.

Day 5 - The Swing of Things

Wednesday 11 July 2007

Another boring one today, unfortunately. And the weather was only slightly better today. It was a good day however, because Philippe made cook-to-order steaks. I love cook-to-order steak day, it’s awesome.

I did manage to sneak out for a couple of minutes and check out the finish line. At that very time, the Škoda sponsor caravan came by and was giving out those free Gilligan hats. What are those called anyway? Well I got one so back off.

I’ve been taking a lot of pictures, but have been slow to upload them to any site. Probably put them up on Facebook, and will provide the link once I do. You can also access this blog from within Facebook (still working out the kinks on that one), and make comments there as well. And speaking of Facebook, not only am I now friends with Mel, but with the one and only Leslie V. as well. It’s taking over the world.

Fell asleep for a good chunk of the car ride tonight, thank goodness. Although when I woke up I unfortunately was still in France. Zing!

We’re at a Novotel tonight, a chain hotel in Europe like Holiday Inn. It’s none too impressive, but it’s the exact same looking hotel as the one last year, where if you recall, one executive producer climbed behind the bar and two crew members went down in infamy for losing their shirts, quite literally.

We’re plotting against Mel to celebrate her birthday, despite her wishes. While she won’t tell us when it is, I think I’ve found out, and if I’m right it hasn’t passed.

So I can’t get the All-Star Game, but I can get NBA Summer League Philadelphia Sixers vs. Phoenix Suns game on Comcast Sportsnet/NBA TV. Being played in the practice arena next to Thomas & Mack Center at UNLV. Was T&M booked that night? Honestly. What the hell.

Day 4 - Abandons

Tuesday 10 July 2007

I have to start back at breakfast at the château, because this place was so great. It’s on a huge piece of property, and it is so nice in the forest here. Thierry & Sylvie prepared breakfast for the 10 of us staying there (haha other crew had to go elsewhere!), which was fantastic. Unfortunately, like every other stage in the Tour, we only spend the night and are quickly on our way. Good find by our logistics crew.

So it’s only stage 3 today, and two of our crew have already abandoned! Even the Tour hasn't lost this many riders yet! Dirk, one of the tech managers took off yesterday; which apparently was pre-planned. Dirk is an awesome guy, who really knows what he’s doing in the truck. Also, Goss ran off today, apparently the stress was getting to him. But I don’t understand, he was here all of last year. Who knows. You know what I say? They’re all soft. And screw you Bellotti. I’m tough man.

Today’s stage – REDICULOUSLY LONG. It was the longest stage of the Tour, and the riders just decided to ride at the leisurely pace of 33kph! That’s so f**king slow! They were over an hour behind schedule! WASTE OF TAPE! Everyone in the truck, and I mean everyone, was starting to fall asleep after so long, including me.

We got to the hotel in good form and fashion tonight here in Joigny; on a road which took us right next to Paris; so I saw the Eiffel Tower all lit up, it was very nice. We’ve finally had the time and location now to sit and relax with other crew members and have a drink. A drink naturally turned into three, and 11:30pm into 1:30am. But that’s all to be expected. All I really want to do right now is watch the All-Star Game, but naturally it’s nowhere to be found. Yes I know it doesn’t start until 9pm ET. Yes I know that means it’s 3am here.

Plus I can’t get over how late the sun goes down here. 11pm and there’s still the slightest bit of light in the sky. European summer DST is ridiculous.

Day 3 - Crazy F’in Schloogs

Monday 9 July 2007

It was rainy and cold today at the finish line in Belgium. I hate that. It makes such a mess. And it makes the walk to lunch so much longer. Plus I have no jacket here really, because I was banking on the fact that I would get a free one from VS.; and I was trying to pack light at the same time. But our swag really sucked ass this year (yes, it did), so I refuse to wear a BRIGHT neon green thin as paper wind jacket that doesn’t even say Versus on it. Somebody messed up bad in the swag department big time.

I was happy to see a friend from last year Thibault, this French guy who would always come by and pick up tapes from me to give to CBS. I wonder if he still has that super hot model girlfriend of his; I will have to find that out next time I see him…

Gent is a pretty awesome city. I asked Dirk yesterday if it was a big party town; he didn’t really know, but did know that it was somewhat of a college town. Which meant that it probably was a party town.

Sure enough, after the race was over, the streets were still littered with people. Cycling is such a huge sport in this country (Belgium), and having the Tour de France even pass through your town, let alone finish a stage there is a big deal. People were out partying like it was St. Patrick’s Day. Bars were overflowing on to the streets, people were having parties on the balconies of their apartments; it was intense. Though I didn’t see it, apparently they were jumping the course and fighting with police as well, soccer-riot style. Especially since a Belgian won the stage.

The ride back into France on the A1 was a reminder of many the roads that were ahead of us: wide open speed circuits. We drove deep into the forests of Compiègne to the Domaine Bois d’Aucourt; a small château operated by Thierry & Sylvie Clement-Bayard, and their dog, Ringby. This place is the first real château I’ve stayed in both my years coming here. Although it doesn’t have a TV, or Internet (you can tell I’m backlogged with the blog entries), it does have books. And Mastermind. Remember that game? It is super quiet here, and there are no distractions. And it’s in the middle of the woods with nothing surrounding it. There are already some great pictures from just getting in tonight, can’t wait to see what this place looks like in the daytime.

Day 2 - The Countryside

Sunday 8 July 2007

…but it was anything but Tranquil. The hotel was over 500 years old, had no shower (just a bathtub), and possibly the most uncomfortable spring mattress bed I’ve ever been on. Getting 4 hours of sleep was not cool. Though we did stay in the coolest location out of the whole crew.

The race was nothing special today, although it was quite cool to see Robbie McEwen kick ass as always. Don’t know how that guy does it (maybe he’s on the juice?), but he’s damn good. I’m pumped because my first feature (of 5) aired today. Big ups to my homeboy Dave Skowronski (aka “D-Ski”) for cuttin’ that shit. Big ups. He gets a free plug: http://www.dski.tv/.

After the race, we had to drive to the port at Dover, England, to take our cars across the channel on massive passenger/freight carriers. This operation is a sight to see. The port had to deal with thousands of Tour vehicles plus vehicles still traveling from the F1 British Grand Prix PLUS normal everyday traffic. We were lucky enough to sneak on one of the first boats out that evening, thinking we would be much later. After landing, we switched driving to the right side of the road, and were one of the first groups to the hotel, despite sitting in a good deal of traffic.

Gent is a typical Belgian town, from what I can remember of Belgium from last year. Already an improvement from last night, the hotel is new, it has a shower, and a decent bed. The best part of the Tour de France is the places other than France you get to go. I also just realized we’ll probably be staying in Spain again one night when we’re down in the Pyrenees later this month.

Haha, an interview of Philippe the chef just ran on “Le Journal” news program on RTL, as I’m writing this. It’s interesting to watch other networks’ coverage of the same event you’re working on, to see what they focus on, or ignore for that matter.

Day 1 - Prologue

Saturday 7 July 2007

7/7/7!! Oh man it’s like I really never left. Same old problems, same old people! It was a little bit of a rough one today, but it will only get better with time.

Trekking back and forth between the hotel in and around Buckingham Palace has been an enjoyable experience, one that is much different from what the rest of the Tour will be like. Not worrying about cars or where to be next has been nice. But that will end.

I picked up our car today after the stage, and it was truly a brand new C5. Although it cost me 60 pounds to get it out of the garage! The drive to Canterbury was not brutal, and both Neal and Dave kept the car ride amusing. And thank goodness for Neal bringing his iPod. Recalling last year, relying on the French car radio was never really that fun.

Made the drive to Canterbury tonight, where tomorrow we will spend our last day in the U.K. The town is very, very quaint, many little shops on cobblestone roads, in the shadow of a massive cathedral. It’s too bad we arrived late on a Saturday night, as all of the shops were closed. I particularly wanted to visit the Bang & Olafson store, which looked like it had some great stuff in it.

Our hotel was impossible to find, as it was just a hole in the wall, wedged in between a Starbucks and an old gate of the cathedral. (By the way, Starbucks has hit the U.K. like a ton of bricks.) You know it’s small when the room numbers have names rather than numbers. And since I know what you’re going to ask next, the answer is, Tranquility. That was the name of the room.

Day iii - Test

Friday 6 June 2007

Walking into the truck today for the first time induced flashbacks. I was reacquainted with my 6 cubic feet of space in the corner of the tape room today; a home away from home for me. Hell, even Dirk saved my exact router labels from a year ago, to make it seem like I never left.

Unfortunately, I really don’t have anything exciting to say about today, it was the typical cram setup before the race day; make sure everything’s working alright. It’s normally a chaotic day that’s very hectic and fast-paced…but I must say there was some civility when it was realized Dave Coulombe’s pillarboxing idea maintained a certain level of peace and proper aspect ratio in the truck. Dave, your job is safe…for July.

And speaking of coworkers from back home…Keith, where is our HDV stock? Yeah it didn’t show up. I heard that guy is on vacation.

Everyone [left over from America’s Cup] is so tan, and it makes me jealous. But the joke’s on them, as they’ll be spending time in a truck all month, and that tan will soon be gone. HAH! And speaking of America’s Cup, I’ve never seen anyone so excited about the latest boat change regulations than Craig Hummer. “Did you hear they’re making the boats 90 meters with 20 crewmen?” Outstanding. I cannot wait until 2010/2011.

The biggest news of the day: PHILLIPE. He is baaaaaaaaaack. There was some disagreement, and doubt that he’d show up, and later join us in France, BUT NOT THE CASE!! Haha I am so happy and will be eating well. While I worked an extremely long day today, I did get to snap a few good pictures…pictures which, I will soon find a common home for so you can view them at your leisure. Tomorrow marks the end of my London experience unfortunately, and I now have to readjust to moving from town to town every night. Boo to that!!! But we do get the car tomorrow, which I hear is a brand new Citroen C5. Yay to that!!!

Day ii - The Starting Line

Thursday 5 July 2007

I slept a solid 10 hours this morning. It felt really good.

The rest of the crew traveled in, including many who had been in Spain for the America’s Cup. I received my cell phone (YAYY!!) and credential, and was ready to work. Maria and I set off with our London-based ENG crew to the starting line complex today, which was located at a huge convention center in London being used for the 2012 Olympics. There, we shot press conferences and medical check-ins for team Discovery Channel (our American riders). It’s enjoyable to go to press conferences, because you get to see the riders in a more normal atmosphere; much more up close and personal (something I never did last year). And I mean really personal…check out George Hincapie getting the works from the doctors and journalists! Good cycling stuff right there.

Much of today was waiting around for the riders, so it took up a good chunk of the afternoon. At night, we had our annual production meeting to kick off the entire Tour. Most everyone here is from years past, with a few exceptions; and so by having the entire crew all in one place (an event which won’t happen again until the night of the last stage, at the wrap party), it was hard to stay serious and focus at the task at hand.

One thing I’m not looking forward to: the amount of time we’ll be on the air for the first two stages originating from London. Apparently, someone (maybe even the city of London) on the Brit’s side is paying to make the broadcast be televised live from start to finish (normally, since stages are so long, broadcasts don’t always pick up right from the beginning of the race; not very eventful). This calls for earlier crew calls in the morning, and an overall longer broadcast. *cough cough* logistical nightmare *cough*.

Topped it all off with another (smaller, 8-person) group dinner, at a French restaurant [ironically]. Didn’t see that one coming.

Day i - Prestart

Wednesday 4 July 2007

It’s hard to find a starting point for this day, considering it really started at 7:00AM ET the previous day (if you follow). I got MAYBE an hour of sleep on my flight that evening; which would have been more except for the fact that when I wanted to sleep, it got a little bumpy. And then it started to get light out. But I’d never flown on a 777 before; it had space to breath, which was nice.

I’d forgotten the name of the hotel I was staying at, and while trying to explain what I had thought to be close to the name to a couple of people at concierge desks in the airport, they hadn’t a clue. “It’s something like Hysteria London, on 2 Bridge Street!” was really Hesperia London Victoria on 2 Bridge Place. I wasn’t so far off…

Taxi ride was 60 pounds. ***By the way, why is London not officially on the Euro?*** Later realized a train would’ve been 8 pounds. But I had a lot of luggage I didn’t want to take on the train. I was greeted curbside by Maria, and was made to sit and wait since my room took forever to get ready. Opportunity #1 to sleep: foiled.

Skip the boring though, and get to the good stuff. Once we all got our act together, Matt and I departed from lunch at St. George’s Tavern back to our hotel to meet our chauffeur. Chauffeur you ask? Yes, we were picked up by Phil Liggett’s friend’s car service and driven up to Wildhill, England, in the countryside. For what you ask? To meet (and shoot) Phil at his favorite pub, the Woodman, which housed some of the best beers in the world. (Opportunity #2 to sleep: foiled. Driver kept talking! But he did take us past Abbey Road Studios, which was very cool, if just to see the crosswalk.) Graham, the barkeep gave us a tour of the little back-country tavern while serving up some of the finest ales not too many people have heard of. Phil later joined, shot some darts and had some drinks. I only recall the “Belgian Black”, a lighter, smoother, drier Guinness.
We caught a ride back to the hotel (Opportunity #3 to sleep: foiled. Matt kept talking!), where 13 of us promptly set off for what will probably be the largest group dinner this entire Tour. We tube’d it to ChinaTown, had a huge meal, tube’d it back (Opportunity #4 to sleep: foiled. Caught out by Joel!!), and FINALLY WENT TO BED.