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Milk Ras Journal
(Stage 1)
5/19/01
It’s 10:30 PM the night before the start of the
race and the hotel is
buzzing with activity. The lobby is filled with riders
and staff
checking
in, picking up their numbers, radios and car decals
and the parking lot
is
full of team cars with mechanics washing bikes and gluing
tires. Most
impressive are the Telekom guys who have a fully painted
pink and
silver
Audi along with a painted mini bus with a full shop
as well as a washer
and
dryer in the back (all the Euro’s had their cars
ferried over to the
island). Even more impressive is the fact that as you
walk down the
hotel
hallway, from each room you can hear a different language
being spoken,
from
Polish to Japanese to Canadian, “Aye”. It’s
especially disconcerting
to
hear the Telekom team next door whispering in German,
surely planning
our
eventual demise.
Otherwise, everything’s running along smoothly.
Our team driver was a
little late in showing up tonight, but he finally got
here and he’s now
out
with our team mechanic (bike washer) picking up some
last minute
supplies at
the grocery store and setting up the team car with spare
wheels, tools
and
stickers. It should be quite a site tomorrow with all
38 team cars
plus the
official race vehicles, neutral support cars and (gulp)
the broom wagon
lined up behind the 190 rider peleton.
The last couple of days have been rather enjoyable
and Ireland is an
incredibly beautiful country. It’s been nice to
have a few days to
relax
and look around but I’m definitely read to get
the show on the road.
Fortunately, I’m feeling as good as I’ve ever
felt and I think the
timing
between this and Tour of the Gila and this is going
to work out
perfectly.
It may be just in my head but I feel like the effect
of spending a week
racing at high altitude is still in my system. Realistically,
my goal
is to
finish each day underneath the 25% time cut and maybe
even stay out of
last
place. If I get to mix it up at the front a bit or jump
in a breakaway
for
a few minutes, all the better. Well, it’s time
to get to bed, I’d
better
sign off.
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