The Contender Club

Here is one for you. What happens when you get fourth in the Tour? You get your own embroidered compression socks.

Ryan’s new cross bike! Really it is a small mold of the Orca made with a printer that stacks layers upon layers of paper to create a quick mini replica to see a 3d version.

After a great day in Bilbao which included visiting the Guggenheim, we headed to the Basque countryside. We are staying in a quaint inn which uses gigantic old school metal keys. I tried to get into the room and couldn’t. Needed some serious help by the Inn staff to get into the room. A little later, Ryan had a donkey go crazy on him. So far it has been classic. Looking forward to a great day at Orbea’s headquarters tomorrow!

And oh yeah, we watched some sheep herding this afternoon!

What a weekend in Paris with BMC! After a little downtime in the city, the German and USA contingent headed to Montmarte for a wonderful evening on Saturday night. At first we had some time to check out Montmarte. They wanted to make sure that none of us were lost so you would randomly run into a tour guide waving a huge BMC sign. The guide would then proceed to walk in front of you for awhile waving the sign. It was hilarious.

After the cruise around Montmarte, we had a wonderful dinner. Then a few of the guys convinced me to go out with them. Big mistake. Let’s just say that all of the incriminating photos have been destroyed!

Onto the Champs Elysses and the final stage of the tour! When we first arrived, we received a goodie bag from BMC. In it was a team jersey. The Americans didn’t get the memo that we should wear the jersey for the final stage. So we were all a little surprised to see everyone else and I mean everyone wearing the jersey! See the photo below! (FYI, I am aware that the photos are terrible. The Blackberry doesn’t take the greatest photos. Also I am typing this all from my phone, so I apologize for the all of the grammatical errors!)

Sure enough, one of the gentlemen wearing a jersey was Andy Rihs, the owner of BMC. Throughout the day, I had the pleasure of talking with him a few times. He was extremely nice, down to earth, fun loving and so so generous to have us be a part of this day.

We arrived at the BMC VIP area and I was absolutely floored. I had prepared myself for stadium seating for the day which I was already super excited about as the crowds on the Champs can go 20 deep. Well, this wasn’t stadium seating. I was a fully decked out suite with gift bags, gorgeously dressed tables, wonderful french food, etc. Not to mention the fact that this was all 75 meters from the finish line. I couldn’t believe it!

Watching each lap on the Champs was amazing! We had a TV in our area and the jumbotron across the street so we could watch the entire race in addition to having the peloton and caravan come flying by on each of the laps.

Following the race we all stayed to watch the parade of teams (which actually took forever). It was great when the BMC team came by. The team and cars stopped, everyone jumped off and came to say hello!

Prior to BMC team the Garmin team came by on the Champs. I managed to get Dave’s attention and he about fell off of his bike when he saw me. I think he was a little surprised to see me in the BMC VIP area (however not as surprised as I was!) We chatted for a bit and Dave gave me a pass to the Garmin afterparty. Later at the party, Dave claimed that he told me that it was a special pass. He probably did and I just didn’t understand what he was saying. Some of the other folks from the US were trying to get in on the conversation and so I wasn’t able to talk too much. I was kind of a bummer because I don’t get to see Dave very often since he moved to LA and he is one of Ryan’s and my oldest and closest friend. I really wish that Ryan could have been there with me.

So we booked it back to the hotel to get ready to go to the BMC party and off we went to Club 1515. The Club was shut down for the entire night. There was cocktail hour, followed by the team arrival and presentation, then dinner with a comedy act somewhere along the way (didn’t understand it but was funny none the less). It was a first class evening all the way. Max was there as he is the team physician. It was nice to see a familiar face and too be able to hang out for a while.

After dinner and socializing, the dancing started. This was the cue for the guys from Palo Alto Bicycles and me to head to the Garmin party. The party was hosted by POM and the owner comes into Palo Alto Bicycles as he lives near there, so Adam and Dan had passes to get into the party also. We had to make a few sly maneuvers but we managed to slip out.

N.E.R.D. was playing at the party. I was psyched as Pharrell Williams is great. We arrived at the club and their was a huge line. There were regular club goers and then a ton of people with the Garmin passes to get in to the party. They had stopped letting people into the party. We thought that we were out of luck, but then I noticed that my pass was different. It had a star on it whereas the others didn’t. We asked and were told that it meant that it was given to us by one of the riders and that they had a few to hand out to family and friends. They acted like we were suspicious because I didn’t know what the star meant. (Later when I talked to Dave, he said that he told me that the star meant that it was a special pass. I don’t remember him saying that as I probably thought he was talking about the pass in general.)

In we went! As I was psyched to see N.E.R.D. we went straight to the club floor as they had already started playing and the party had officially started two hours earlier. I hate to use the words “it was off the hook” but it was off the hook.
The place was jammed and there was nowhere to move. See the terrible picture below. After the show everyone started bailing. That is when I ran into Dave. He told me that the pass had meant that I should have headed to a special area of the club. Oopps! But it was nice to catch up a little more before Dave had to head to the van.

Finally we flagged a taxi. Hilariously enough, the taxi that we flagged had Cancellara and Schleck in it with their ladies. Adam starting saying all kinds of crazy stuff to Cancellara. It was hilarious. However, I am not quite sure why they arrived well after the show was over.

Thank you to BMC for a great week. Yesterday, I spent the day by myself in Paris. Renting a city bike is the way to go! I cruised all over and hit the sights! A great way to finish the weekend.

Just met up with Ryan in the airport in Paris. We now head to the Basque region of Spain to spend the rest of the week with Orbea!

Thanks to all those who were “in it to win it”. Here’s how it all went down after three weeks of racing. We had a tight race for second and the tie breaker was decided by who’s podium picks were closer.

1. Dean 12pts
2. Ashley 10pts
3.Alison 10pts
4.Robin 10pts
5.TD 10pts
6.Clark 8pts
7. Mitch 8pts
8. Ryan 8pts
9. Jane 7pts
10. Jeff 7pts
11. Jex 7pts
12. Scott Campbell 7pts
13. Patrick 7pts
14. Greg 7pts
15. Sam 6pts
16. Rob 4pts
17. Ernie 4pts
17. Sandy 4pts
19. Cody & Jodi 4pts
20. Castor 3pts
21. Allan 3pts
22. Karen 2pts
23 Scott 2pts
24. Matt Lake 1pts

Dean ran away with it this year. It seems many lost points picking Lance for the podium and the overwhelming doper pick was Vino. Special props to TD for not getting a single stage win but picking all three podium spots. Lanterne Rouge goes to Matt Lake with his sneaky 1 point. The top three finishers need to come in to the store to claim there sweet sweet winnings.

Here’s a few special results I found interesting

-Most trash talking- Dean to Patrick
-Best Climbers Jersey description- Mitch McBeth chose Robert Gesink skinny waste of space for the climbers jersey.
-Biggest Lance man crush award- Jason Castor picked Lance for stage wins and 1st overall.
-Oddest Lanterne Rouge pick- TC picking local rider Dirk Cowley. I hope Dirk doesn’t find out about this TD.