ToC - HOW DID WE RATE? DAILY :K #6

The 2009 Tour of California has come to a close but Powered:By fi’zi:k is not quite finished with our tour behind the scenes. With an estimated 1.6 million fans and ToC participants, to say that we were proud to be there would be an understatement. Dirtied hands, unforeseen mishaps and speed bumps tossed into the mix, and fifteen hour days of labor and laughter, contributed to a remarkable experience for Powered:By fi’zi:k.



Come in she said I’ll give you shelter from the storm.”
-Bob Dylan

Of the seventeen participating teams at the Tour of California, fifteen enjoyed the luxury of having a home on wheels to shelter them from rainy stage starts and to provide them with a heated haven following four to five hours of bone chillin’ downpours. While visiting European teams reap certain unstated benefits of being an ‘invited’ pro tour team, not all US based teams have the required budget to pony up for a 33-foot chariot. For that reason (plus that other tidbit about the 1.6 million viewers) Powered:By fi’zi:k was pleased and proud to be able to step up to help out our newest sponsoree, Fly V Australia presented by Successful Living on two week’s notice!

It wasn’t our only team out there (eight teams riding fi’zi:k saddles) but ironically, it was the team most decimated by a nasty traveling inter-peloton virus. One by one, day after day, illness struck – and one by one they left. In the end, the 8-team member capacity team bus held two lone riders – Ben Day and Curtis Gunn*- there to weather the storm and finish what they’d started. (*Curtis Gunn started but did not finish the final stage due to a knee injury).

Curtis Gunn and Ben Day

TWO WEEKS NOTICE

Two weeks notice, an idea hatched over a cup of coffee with 1984 Olympic Gold Medalist Steve Hegg, and a wrap design created by Crank Brother’s Art Director extraordinaire Tim Van Gilder in the span of two hours, and Powered:By fi’zi:k was born. So…how did we rate when stacked up against the others?

Team OUCH presented by Maxxis

Team GARMIN-SLIPSTREAM

Team BMC

Team Quickstep

Cervelo Test Team

Team Jelly Belly

Team Rabobank

Team Liquigas

Team Astana

Team Saxo Bank

Team Columbia - High Road

Team Ag2r

Team Type 1

Powered:By fi'zi:k

How'd we do?

TOC – POWERED:BY FI’ZI:K - FROM INSIDE – DAILY :K #4, PART 2

Inside Team Car OUCH
THE DAY’s OBJECTIVES: The object of the day could be to win the stage, move up on GC, or move closer to securing a particular jersey (KOM, Best Young Rider, Most Courageous).

The secondary but ongoing objective is to get a rider in the break. There’s always a break in a road race. Sometimes the riders are caught and sometimes they’re not. If the hosting team car (team OUCH in this case) gets a rider in the break, OUCH car #2 will, at some point, leap frog up to the break to talk to, feed and potentially, clothe the rider. That’s another action or photo opportunity. Team OUCH, however, was not in the day’s break. That left us further, to our own devices for entertainment.

Other traces of action might come in the form of others misfortune. There’s always a healthy of dose friendly jousting happening in the caravan. One’s misfortune is another man’s laughter. Most of the caravan was wondering where Jelly Belly Director Sportif, Danny Van Haute’s rear window had gone. Apparently something had lodged itself inbetween the trunk closure and when the mechanic slammed it shut during race action (likely changing a flat or assisting a downed rider), the rear window simply shattered. But that was only half of it. Jelly Belly’s Team Car #2 was missing a rear driver’s side window. What? Not a good day for the one of the most popular teams on the circuit (free Jelly Belly’s to anyone, just for the asking).


Then there’s the random rider spew after a crash or close call:

Doesn’t the ^*&(%!! guy know he’s supposed to put his *^&%(!! jacket in his team car, not in his *&($%!! spokes? (heard following the Sevilla, Landis, Kirchen crash – resulting in a broken collar bone for Kirchen).

Floyd Landis having a chat with Team OUCH car following a slam to the pavement

Thus, while one truly never hopes for flats, mechanicals or crashes (that’s just bad form),during a long day in the car – with the group mainly in tact – such misfortune can be the extent of the action from inside.