Brett and I at the Euskadi tapas bar..mmmmm.
Posted by Hello
Tuesday, August 03, 2004
Monday, August 02, 2004
#6
Disclaimer...this entry has no edits so excuse my grammar and spelling:
Most of the teams and close to a million crazy spectators stayed on the top of Alp Duez at the conclusion of the Time Trial stage to the top. I was scheduled to leave the summit shortly after the last rider finished the time trial. So, ever wonder how you get down off a mountain that is only accessible by one road which is filled to the rim with jubilant fans, police, teams, sponsors etc? You take a helicopter of course. It was an amazing trip off the mountain and you can see how the road to the top twists and winds its way up...you get a true feel for the 21 switch backs.
Yah, Lance and the US Postal Service Team won the 2004 Tour De France. At this point definetly not news given that I'm writing this entry almost a week after Lance stormed on to the Champs Elysses wearing the Malliot Juene. It was quiet an impressive day in Paris as the fans and Parisians all gathered to witness history. All kinds of politicians, leaders, famous musicians, actors and athletes of other sports all waited in anticipation of seeing the blue train of the US Postal Service Team leading Lance and the entire peleton onto the Champs for the final 10 laps of the race and the closing kilometers of the Tour De France.
I arrived in Paris the day before and as I stepped off the TGV in the famous Paris train station, I could smell the electricity in the air as the Tour approached. The last stage of the TDF is really just a parade as the main positions of the general classification are locked up in the final Time Trial that took place on the day before. Lance, as you know, notched his 5th stage win by convincingly storming to a 1st place finish the last real stage of the TDF. I had the chance to meet up with the boys after the last major mountain stage that went over the last climbs of the Alps near Lake Annecy.
After the race, the team had a huge 600 person dinner at the Hotel Crillion...incredible. Next...we all headed to the top floor of the Pompadue Museum for an after party that started at 2am...the best part was seeing the Eiffel Tower in full flight as the lights were going off like fireworks.
Fortunately my flight to Gerona Spain wasn't until 935pm the next day as I didn't get back to my hotel until around 7am. After a day of shopping and sight seeing in Paris, Brett and I jumped into a cab for the Paris Beavuas Airport....about 100k from the center.... Brett and I both asked the cab driver if he knew where the airport was and he assured us that he did.
After about an hour...I was looking around thinking that I knew where we were...and it wasn't the airport. We were on our way to Belgium. I told the taxi driver to get off the auto route. I got a map and opened it up on the hood of the car to show the taxi driver where the airport was...dork!
Yah, we missed our flight. On top of that the taxi guy wanted 250 Euros...I told him to take a hike. Brett and I went in to get on the next flight that didn't leave until the next day. Eventually the police showed up. We knew that we'd have to pay..but decided to have some fun and at least get our money's worth. So we spent 30 minutes negotiating with the police and the taxi driver...we got the fair down to 100 euros and a few US Postal hats.
While all of this was going down...one of the spectators and his three daughters started talking to us to figure out what our story was. Next thing we knew they had loaded up all of our luggage and were giving us a ride in to town to get a hotel. It was super cool...this guy turned out to be a famous horse breeder. He knew all about the Tour de France and even remembered that I had one a race near his town. ....
OK, the next entry will pick up where this one left off...about Gerona, my old apartment, shopping, hanging out with my old teammates etc....
stay tuned
Most of the teams and close to a million crazy spectators stayed on the top of Alp Duez at the conclusion of the Time Trial stage to the top. I was scheduled to leave the summit shortly after the last rider finished the time trial. So, ever wonder how you get down off a mountain that is only accessible by one road which is filled to the rim with jubilant fans, police, teams, sponsors etc? You take a helicopter of course. It was an amazing trip off the mountain and you can see how the road to the top twists and winds its way up...you get a true feel for the 21 switch backs.
Yah, Lance and the US Postal Service Team won the 2004 Tour De France. At this point definetly not news given that I'm writing this entry almost a week after Lance stormed on to the Champs Elysses wearing the Malliot Juene. It was quiet an impressive day in Paris as the fans and Parisians all gathered to witness history. All kinds of politicians, leaders, famous musicians, actors and athletes of other sports all waited in anticipation of seeing the blue train of the US Postal Service Team leading Lance and the entire peleton onto the Champs for the final 10 laps of the race and the closing kilometers of the Tour De France.
I arrived in Paris the day before and as I stepped off the TGV in the famous Paris train station, I could smell the electricity in the air as the Tour approached. The last stage of the TDF is really just a parade as the main positions of the general classification are locked up in the final Time Trial that took place on the day before. Lance, as you know, notched his 5th stage win by convincingly storming to a 1st place finish the last real stage of the TDF. I had the chance to meet up with the boys after the last major mountain stage that went over the last climbs of the Alps near Lake Annecy.
After the race, the team had a huge 600 person dinner at the Hotel Crillion...incredible. Next...we all headed to the top floor of the Pompadue Museum for an after party that started at 2am...the best part was seeing the Eiffel Tower in full flight as the lights were going off like fireworks.
Fortunately my flight to Gerona Spain wasn't until 935pm the next day as I didn't get back to my hotel until around 7am. After a day of shopping and sight seeing in Paris, Brett and I jumped into a cab for the Paris Beavuas Airport....about 100k from the center.... Brett and I both asked the cab driver if he knew where the airport was and he assured us that he did.
After about an hour...I was looking around thinking that I knew where we were...and it wasn't the airport. We were on our way to Belgium. I told the taxi driver to get off the auto route. I got a map and opened it up on the hood of the car to show the taxi driver where the airport was...dork!
Yah, we missed our flight. On top of that the taxi guy wanted 250 Euros...I told him to take a hike. Brett and I went in to get on the next flight that didn't leave until the next day. Eventually the police showed up. We knew that we'd have to pay..but decided to have some fun and at least get our money's worth. So we spent 30 minutes negotiating with the police and the taxi driver...we got the fair down to 100 euros and a few US Postal hats.
While all of this was going down...one of the spectators and his three daughters started talking to us to figure out what our story was. Next thing we knew they had loaded up all of our luggage and were giving us a ride in to town to get a hotel. It was super cool...this guy turned out to be a famous horse breeder. He knew all about the Tour de France and even remembered that I had one a race near his town. ....
OK, the next entry will pick up where this one left off...about Gerona, my old apartment, shopping, hanging out with my old teammates etc....
stay tuned
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