TOC POWERED:BY FI'ZI:K, DAILY :K #2: THE VIRGIN DUMP

IT’S JUST GOES WITH THE TERRORITY….
When you’re in this deep…there are certain responsibilities that come with managing a team bus for a professional road team. For the last two days, Powered:By fi’zi:k personnel have been toying with and perhaps subconsciously procrastinating the inevitable: the purging of the septic tank.

Cruising the winding and twisty Highway 17 en route to the Santa Cruz stage finish, we spied the Rabobank Team Bus at highway pull out, with large black industrial sized hose extended in what could only be described as the DUMP position….as far as we could tell anyway. Hmmmm…what an odd place for a ‘dump’ we thought. Should we join them? Too late to slam on the brakes on the 33-foot beast, we motored on.

Upon arrival at the TEAM PARKING lot of the finishing stage, we digested the fact that it was better to deal with the Black Box (that’s RV lingo for septic tank) sooner rather than later. A full Black Box makes for an unpleasant morning transfer for the riders. And thus the VIRGIN DUMP process began.

The alleged story goes that if you telephone the organizing race porta-john company (United Porta Johns in this case), talk real nice, pool some team buses who could all use a dump (about $20 each), they (United) might come to you to collect your poo. The survey began. All told, we tallied five teams - Powered:By fi’zi:k, Team Type 1, Team Jelly Belly, Astana, and Team Liquigas - all in need of a good dump. Fast forward to three hours later when the organizing D.U.M.P. committee (Powered:By fi’zi:k) finally received a call-back from United Porta Johns. The cost? $200 per Team Bus! $200 to collect our professional poo? Who was he kidding? We could probably sell this stuff on EBay!

Stage 3 DUMP: Mission Aborted.

Stage 4 DUMP: Mission On.
Rolling along Interstate 280 this morning on the wheel of the Team OUCH Bus, our thoughts were completely preoccupied with the ensuing morning DUMP.

"Hey, uh, Dan (Team OUCH bus driver), have you got a good lead on a DUMP station around here?" we asked, phoning a couple hundred of feet in front of us.

"Yep, there’s one right off 99. There’s a gas station there as well. Follow me. I’ll take you there," he said.

"Wow, John, we’ve got ourselves a DUMP escort – follow him," fi’zi:k's Marketing Manager suggested.

In the parking lot, Dan escorted us around the sides of one of those 'corporate' trucker/RV stops - the type where you feel out of place if you're driving anything short of 18 wheels or Class A vehicles. In pursuit of his overzealousness to find the DUMP hole Dan, in the Team OUCH bus, dropped us.

"Dude, you dropped us," we phoned. "Where'd you go?" (Yes, the place was this big.)

"We’re back in the front; we found the hole. Come around. Look for something like looks like a garbage can. There’s a hole on the ground next to it; that’s the dumper," Dan said

"Oh…the thing that says RV DUMP, you mean?"

These exclusive Powered:By fi'zi:k images illustrate what happened next but suffice it to say that this was perhaps the smoothest virgin DUMP to ever occur in the pro peloton support caravan.

John readies with blue gloves, courtesy of Dan the Man

Never imagining it could be this much fun

Many thanks to Dan the Man, Team OUCH Bus Driver and to John Cordoba for this stellar display of teamwork and their ‘hand’ in the task.

Dan the Man shows us how its done. Hang on real tight he instructs.

**Blue gloves and Moto-Home Anti-Stink chemicals courtesy of Dan the Man – ToC expenses reduced by $12.99.

Black Box clear….for the next three days.