Tour of Utah Part 2

Tour of Utah carried on. As these races have bigger teams, they come with many more members of the media.

Sometimes interviews happen in motion.

More often in the standard form. Here our director Sebastian is talking to a Columbian reporter about the plan for the day.

More bike racing! Stage 4 was a circuit around the Utah capital building. Only one car in the caravan meant I got to watch the race. Also take pictures.

The final two days were mountain stages, both with a great deal of climbing. Fortunately fans came out en mass to watch the race. In case you thought I sacrificed nothing for this blog that is indeed a cupcake on the right that I didn't have time to grab because I was taking this picture. For you, I sacrifice.

The only thing more abundant than the fans were the views. This one from the finish of stage 5.

Stage 6, downtown Park City. More people! Even with some rain.

And yet more people at the top of the last climb. There was even a guy handing out money to the riders as they went over the top.

We stopped to wait for a few dropped riders at the top of that climb. However one of our guys was with in a group of 3, 3k from the finish, trying for the win. This meant that we (currently about 7k from the finish) were listening to our race radio as updates trickled in.

 

In the end Janier was 2nd on the day and 3rd in GC. Turns out he's very fast and thus made it on the podium.

Podium presentation was watched live streaming next to the car. We could hear people the people cheering and everything.

 

Now on to Colorado.

 

 

 

 

Tour of Utah. Part 1 of...

So I left off in Canada, which was awesome. Bend was great as well, however due to some combination of business and laziness that blog post has been put on the shelf for now.

So. Firstly there was the Lisa/Colton wedding. Which looked like this:

Yup. That's me marrying two people. It was a very exciting and good looking experience. (Evidence above)

The next day I flew out for Utah to start my three week stint with the Jamis Hagens Berman Team (presented by Sutter Home). I know these naming conventions can be confusing. I'm sorry, I just wear the t-shirt.

Sometimes while standing in front of a few cars next to a motor home.

Although that is by no means the largest collection of vehicles at this race. (Three team cars not pictured)

These storm troopers showed up a bit early. The Death Star isn't set to arrive until the US Pro Challenge in a couple of weeks. Although they were happy to get some photos in.

Aside from that it's just a regular bike race. We're even on the same bikes you're used to seeing on this blog.

Crowds may be bigger (and less in focus)

Dinner may be served in a few different venues.

But it's still just great scenery and men in spandex.

Even if I do have a sandwich pre installed next to my seat in the car every morning. I'm enjoying having two Soigneurs as part of our crew.

Thats all for now. We've just wrapped up stage 2, so there should be more news to come.

 

 

 

Canada: Part Deux

The picture machine has been restored! On to more adventures, several weeks after they happened.

I think this cement truck was full of cement. It may also have been full of asparagus .

Closer inspection revealed it may just be cement. I was hoping for at least carrots.

Most mornings in Canada started with coffee and the Tour de France. It's always good to learn about the news of the world before hopping on your bike for the day.

Because after that it's straight to the office.

Warming up for the Gastown crit.

Right next to the course.

There are a lot of people at Gastown. With $15000 for the winner and a downtown course packed with fans, you can see why so many riders want to take part.

The race is also really fast. So fast that they used Maseratis for lead and follow cars.

Like a blur.

However these battles are not fought without casualties. Winger got some bloody elbow and a torn pair of shorts during his effort.

His mood improved upon finding this really small road bike. Alan's mood apparently was also high as he photobombed this shot talking to some ladies on the streets of Vancouver.

We also found, or rather were found by, this very drunk, one armed Australian gentleman. We learned he is a fan of the sport, does not appreciate inner team violence, used to work for Liquigas-Cannondale in Europe, and thinks that road bikes are the bastard cousin of mountain bikes. I wish I knew how to follow him on Twitter.

The Optum team won the race and most of the money so we assume they went out to celebrate. This is exactly how much bike stuff you can stuff into your team car.

Caught Orange headed.

A couple of days later we were back on the waterfront for the start of Tour of White Rock. That's the US in the distance.

Jon and Staz warmed up looking towards the homeland. The man talking to them had a lot of opinions to share about bike racing strategy, conditioning, sponsorship, and the ubiquity of doping in cycling. I only wish I'd had a notepad to help recall this great wisdom.

I was more excited about having a camera to take a picture of this puppy.

Staz ready to rock for the uphill TT.

The next day there was a crit. It looked like this.

I was much more excited about the prepared craziness of my straw. Canadians don't mess around with crazy straws.

Next stop Bend. Well after a couple of boxes of Shredies.

 

 

 

 

Still here

There have been some small technical difficulties around the fieldwrench offices over the past weeks. Mainly my device to move pictures from my camera to the internet has gone missing so I don't have a ton of pictures to go with right now. I just wanted to let the world know I'm still here. Currently here is Bend.

Here has also been nice. Our hosts added a cat to the house this year so I have even more helpful animals around.

That plus the combination of Back Porch cold brewed coffee by the growler and a few ocean rolls (far right) have kept spirits hight.

As for bike racing, my pictures don't yet exist so I had to steal one from the internet. Photo credit to Velownews.

If you're a fan of the Where's Waldo books you can look for familiar faces.

Did you spot them? That's Ryan Miller on the front right of the pack. On the left, through the trees, Burke and myself in the car.

Hopefully more pictures will reach the internet soon, both from BC and Bend.

 

 

 

 

 

Relaxing

While relaxing before Gastown tonight I bring you two pictures courtesy of Winger Studios (www.wingerstudios.com)

Proof of my enjoyment of warm champagne. Steve's mom is in the background.

Use of profanity is not allowed at our host house. Violators pay me $20. For his fine Staz made me this.

 

Delta 2013

After packing up in Madison we slept for a couple of hours before flying back to Seattle so we could drive to BC.

Highlights of the trip included this automatic shoe shine machine. For only a dollar! Sadly they didn't have red polish for my running shoes.

On the drive up (in the Sprinter van), we saw this wounded Sprinter. Hopefully it's not going to spend too much time on the trailer.

The reason for such a long travel day Saturday was so we could make it back for the Delta road race which, as you may recall from this time last year, Steve Fisher won. There was defending to be done.

This year's race was also UCI sanctioned which attracted some top riders from the US and Canada.

Adam de Vos (Canadian) was one of the local favorites.

However there was also the sign to encourage everyone else.

iPad photo taking was very popular on the course. I was only able to catch a couple of these amazing photographers.

Priceless.

Almost as priceless as....

Steve winning again! Riding away from a 10 man break at about 250 meters, Steve repeats on the top step of the podium. This means two very good things: 1) Steve gets UCI points, which I'm told are a good thing to have 2) I got to enjoy the last few ounces (sorry canada: milliliters) of warm Champagne from the bottom of the bottle.

They gave Steve a pimp cup for winning the race. As true pimps do: he got straight onto that green drank.

Followed quickly by the Hagens Berman social media machine jumping to action to spread the good news to the world.