Day 7 Pau to Bordeaux
This was a rest day however I had some work to do as this was the day that really got things going with organizing this trip. Last year I approached Steve Bauer about putting together a TDF bike tour for a small group I might be able to bring together. To get things kick started last summer, we auctioned off 6 spots at the Ride with Lance team dinner’s in Kitchener and Mont Tremblant. A total of $135,000 was raised for the local charity’s through these three donors successful bids. Lance was kind enough to raise the ante by offering the lucky winners an opportunity to sit in on the team meeting on the team bus prior to the start of a TDF stage. It worked out that this morning in Pau I was to bring the guys by the RadioShack team bus to hear Johan Bruyneel share what the strategy was for the day on the road by Lance and the Shack boys.
We woke up to pouring rain however by the time we got down to the TDF Start area and the VIP village, the rain had subsided and things were all good.
The start area is like a circus with cars/police/tents/fences/spectators all squeezed into a narrow park area. The actual start time of this stage was at 12:15 and the team buses roll into the start area from their hotels about an hour before the scheduled start. Right on cue a long convoy of brightly colored buses started to enter the compound with team cars with bikes on top following closely by. Within minutes things unfolded with each team setting up shop with their bus and team cars positioned all together ready to get things organized for the day on the road and the stage start. Since we were given some VIP passes by the BMC team (David Cohen and Och-thank you!) we have free access to all the teams and other than the chaos in front of the RadioShack bus, all the other team buses you could walk up to and engage in conversation team officials and riders. We had a good visit with BMC’s George Hincapie who is such a gentleman as well as Garmin’s Ryder Hesjedal who was very approachable and friendly.
I received word via a text it was time to round up the guys going on the RadioShack bus as the meeting was to get going in 10 minutes. I walked everyone over to the bus and now it was 6 deep in front of the bus. However through technology got word inside to Mark Higgins that we were outside and within seconds Higs was at our side and escorted our two donors on to the bus for this rare opportunity.
Everything worked out great and Lance even came out of the bus for a quick moment and signed a bike for our major donor from Cape Town. With the “work” obligations over for the day tit was time to hit the road before the traffic would be an issue and head to Bordeaux and the Hotel Le Saint James our home for the next three nights. We arrived at our Hotel just before dinner and we were lucky to get one of the rooms that backed on to the vineyard at the back of the Hotel.
Enjoyed a relaxing and casual dinner with the group at the Hotel and had an early night in preparation for riding out to Saint Emilion in the morning.
No comments:
Post a Comment