Stage 2

Threatening skies this morning, but we got the start going with just a few sprinkles. Fifteen minutes before the gun goes off, we get a call from Winters that there has been an oil spill in town, just before a hard left turn over so e cobblestones...and it is raining. Made it out there in record time with a small crew. Asked the Public Works crew to step aside. A few minutes later and 50lbs of oil soaking product, the race was cleared into town. As I moved on down the course, I kept a close ear to the race radio as they hit the turn. No problems!

The light rain continued all along Lake Berryessa and then started raining as we hit Howell Mtn. Crowds were much smaller on this area of the route, but to expected for such a remote area. Good crowds coming into Napa County and the climb up
Oakville Grade was packed with a lot of fans and a few "crazies".

Coming down Trinity, I radioed pack to the caravan that the road looked to be treacherous....duh! Ten minutes later, I hear "Two riders over the cliff" over the radio. I lost count as to the total number of crashes. Many riders crashed multiple times. To my amazement, we only had one rider abandon and one miss the time cut.




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Race Start

Nevada City was insane...40,000 people. Crew call was 5:30am and there were people already staking out their spot. Everything went smooth, even though someone changed the circuit without telling this of us who produce the event. Nice touch. No big deal, but sometimes there are benefits to pay attention to things that we have been sending out for nearly a year.

In five years of doing this and more than a dozen stages races, I have never seen the large crowds that we had today. It was chilling to see 4,000 people in Cool (I told the Chamber of Commerce not to expect more than a few hundred...oops). On stretches of road where we never see people, there were hundreds.

The finishing circuits in SAC are always exciting, but could have done without the crash with 700m to go. There were some pretty shredded riders that got up and crossed the line.

Off to find some rain gear...80% chance of rain here in Davis and Santa Rosa...boo!





























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1-Day to Race Start

Thought you would enjoy a look at the team area at the host hotel in Sacramento. One thing is obvious, their is "bus envy" among the teams. All of the teams are sporting buses this race and they are huge!!













































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2-Days to Race Start

Amazing day. It ranged from Phil and Paul fighting over my iPad to having dinner at the Squeeze Inn on the tailgate of my Titan. In between, we got our permit from the City of LA (and a staggering bill), got a nifty comm packaged added to the truck, and saw a lot of friends that I have not seen since the Tour of Missouri.

Today and tomorrow are always the feel good days for me. You realize how much work you have done, but you also realize how small a role you play with so much else going around you.

Being in SAC is like being on another planet. This town is insane about the race. Every where you turn there is a news van filming something. Lance is in our hotel. So the place is crawling with reporters and fans. The box truck is parked in the same spot as last year where LA's TT bike was stolen. Lots of "eyes" on all of their vehicles this year!!

Tomorrow is back to back meetings from 8am to 10pm: TT, Security, TV Production, Driver's, Caravan, Officials, Team Managers, Podium Girl Training (honest), and the All-hands meeting. Staying in Nevada City tomorrow night. Should roll in around midnight. Crew call for Sunday is 5am. Ugh!!!



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Location:Sacramento

How cool is this?

Woke up a few minutes ago and turned on the local news on TV here in SAC. Everything was about the ATOC. Where is Lance? Here is where the teams are staying. Here is the list of activities for today.....

They also had footage of the teams out riding and team mechanics plying their trade. Definitely not in LA!


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3-Days to Race Start

Sitting in my room in SAC. What kind of day was it? Well...it started with a conference call with the City of LA trying their best to tell us that we had not talked to anyone, no one knew about the race, none of the agencies had any info, blah-blah-blah. I gotta tell you, there are some really great people working for the City of LA. LADOT, LAPD, AND LAFD are responsible for working through a mountain of issues with the race staff. They are as good as any city we have ever worked with. Thanks guys.

The Thursday and Friday before the race start are usually supposed to be relaxing days. Let's hope that at least tomorrow is a little more manageable. Arrived in SAC at 4pm, got my vehicle (2010 Nissan Titan with just nine miles on the dial and less than a gallon of gas...$80 per tank). Short staff meeting left everyone knowing that other people have remaining issues as big as yours.


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Location:California 160,Sacramento,United States

5-Days to Race Start

Never send out emails before 8:00am. As soon as that first one goes out (6:10am today), the word spreads and the phone starts ringing! At 9pm, the phone has stopped and my email count for the day pegged at 162. All but a few minutes of the day has spent on following up with Stage 7 issues for the TT course. Tomorrow is my last day before flying to SAC. A five minute board meeting at 9am with Exposition Park and then a final meeting with LAPD. Still lots of detail left, but over a week until the LA stage. This is the first stage in five years that gives me a chill.

The good news is that there will be close to 500 people on race day "guarding the course" from the race side and another 200 LAPD and LADOT people. More good news...the Lakers swept Utah last night. That means that the Staples Center is "dark" Friday night so we can start the build earlier. I think everyone knows that none of the build crews will sleep Friday night. Everyone will start rolling into LA from Big Bear around 10pm and start back in on this massive build.


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