Dirk and I are headed to dinner with the team. I've got a ton of stuff from the day, and it sure was a good day. Lots of good exposure for Force. We did it guys! Force just completed its first TDF. More soon...but here's a little nugget....
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July 29, 2007
July 29, 2007
Chasing Yellow
Just before the last 30 riders go on the course, James Startt offered me a ride in his car to one of his photo locations, a little village just 10 km after the start. Once the yellow jersey came flying by he yelled at me “lets go “ and our race to chase yellow was on. Contador was followed not only by his team car, an official car, helicopter, no! Ambulance, 16 Photographers on Motos, a hand full of Police on Motos, and road service cars. No problem for James! Honking at the Gendarmerie, passing cars and Motos with Millimeters between us, racing with 60 km/h through little villages, so close to people standing at the road so I could read the time at their watches, we were between the motos within minutes. I can’t remember when the last was I buckled up in the back voluntarily. Next thing James wants to find out the GC times of the top3, so he pulls a L”Equipe up and one handed driving reads the paper, still rallying through the villages surrounded by Motos. Still every face I looked into had a smile...once at the finish, we sprinted for the podium shots, James to the front, me to the back... What a great race, thank you James for this experience.
Sandpaper texture 10
The morning of the TT started wet. Having a closer look at the road surface looks a bit scary. In the international sandpaper texture grade this would not be more than a 10. Let’s hope no one will get too close today.
David Millar Cockpit
To make sure he can get the perfect warm-up for the TT, David has set up a nice cockpit at his handlebar. He finished the 45 min warm-up with a smile.
Tour People – covering the Tour 49 times!
The Tour is a big family with great, interesting people, which all have a story to tell. Between James Startt and Sam Abt the have covered 49 Tour de France races! Both Americans that live and have lived in Paris to cover European cycling. James Startt did his 18th Tour this year, delivering some of the best emotional photos to the world. James covers the Tour this year for Bicycling USA and Top Velo France, for more of his photo work visit www.jamesstartt.net. Sam Abt will finish his 31st and last Tour de France today. He has covered the race for newspapers like the International Herald Tribune, the most well-known English newspaper in Europe, yesterday he received the supreme non-cycling award given by the Tour de France organization.
Lars Teutenberg from Germany is a Mr. Schwalbe at the Tour. He is supporting the Team Gerolsteiner the complete Tour to help getting the tires ready. When he is not working for Schwalbe Lars also supports SRM systems with technical training for the pros or is racing and testing for SRAM, he just got the second place in the German TT Champion ships on SRAM Force.
Just outside of the press room I ran into a familiar face looks like Lenny Karwitz stopped by to bring the Tour some peace, love and happiness...
