T de CA report

[creekster]

My friend and I arrived early this morning, as we were very excited to be there and get to work. He had signed up for a security detail whereas I was a course marshall. He was issued a longsleeve navy blue t-shirt with the race logo on the front and the workd "security" on the back in block letters. I was given a tennis ball yellow shirt witht he word VOlunteer on the back. My friend was told to guard the entrance to the start area and to keep all the riff raff out, letting riders and credentialed types thourhg. I was told to come back at 9 am to find out my course assignment. I was NOT given a vest or whistle, much to my chagrin. I also quickly realized that the security detail was where it was at if you wanted to hang around riders and meet them.

WHile I was standing around feelijng sorry for myself and expecting to be assigned to some distant location on the course with only a couple of cockleburs to keep me company (there were a LOT of yellow shirts milling around and we were going to be spread thr0oughout te first half of the course) the chief security guy walked up and asked me if I had an assignment and, if not, would I mind joining the secirity team. As an inducemnt he told me I would get a second t-shirt. Before he could finish his sentence I said "Sure." Ironically, I was assigned to stand right next to my friend. As a result, for the next 90 minutes, we got to say good morning to a variuety of riders and VIPS.

At one point we were standing there chatting with some guy that wandered up. I asked if he knew the co9urse very well, and he said yes. My frined asked if he had driven the course and he said "well, I actually chose the course." Turns out he was Bob COlarossi, who is the managing director of the entire race. Pretty cool. Very friendly guy. Told us that the reason the second stage started in martinez is becasue he was from Martinez.

I was then moved to police the very front of the start area. This was the entracne to the start area that a lot of the riders were using. Plus I got to be rude to people that were trying to crash the entrance w/o credentials. I got to see and say hello to Gorgeous gEORGE Hincapie, Leipheiner, Floyd landis, Gilberto SImoni and even chatted rbeifly with David Zabriskie, who seemed like a real nice guy and who stopped and signed a buunch of autographs. Most of these guys are little tiny fellas. I learned that on some people lycra can fit loosly. Indeed, I even saw wrinkles in lycra. On me lycra has no wrinkles and even in its largest size it fits tightly, so the notion of loose fitting lycra, well, lets just say I was surprised.

In general everyone had a great time. Most people were patient and willing to work together (except for the putz of a camera man that I practically had to shove to get out of the way at the start) and the atmosphere was very positive. I was as agiddy as an 8 year old at his first circus. I came home with a couple of photos, two t-shirts and a cow bell to ring.

All in all it was great fun and I iwll definitley do it again next year, although I will probably try to go to more than one stage and I will try to get to at least one finsih line. Now I just need toget my lard butt out on my own bike. Btw, if you were watching ESPN2's coverage, you could see me for about two tenths of a second immediately after the start at the end of the barricade, I was the guy in the long-sleeved blue t-shirt trying to hold back the photogs as the bikes rolled through.

Good riding!

p.s. as always, sorry about the typos.