It's nice to have a chance to write in my blog again. It means that team support and the travel that goes with it is starting again. This trip starts the 2012 team support with a Dutch team called Vacansoleil-DCM.
The first camp of the year is always interesting. There are new riders, new equipment, and new sponsors. Riders are figuring out their new bikes, mechanics are learning the nuances of the equipment, and I'm here to make sure the nuances are manageable for the team and the riders and all are educated enough as to not create a major disaster. The fun of having a fairly technical product.
12/14: Most people expect Italy to be beautiful. I'm sure it is normally, but I can't say for certain since it's been dark and rainy since I arrived. It's been raining and windy the entire week. The hotel is an interesting one. It's connected to a half full mall. It was probably nice at one point. This actually works out nice though, because I'm able to do some my work in a large "bike room". The only downside, is that the only light in the room is a small floor lamp. Oh well, at least it's out of the cold, wind, and rain.
12/15: It's still raining. Today for the training ride, I went with one of the directors. It was cold and windy, but guys were still able to ride about 5 hours. No problems came up during the ride, so that's always nice. It means we did a good job of redesigning the new hub. Post-ride, I found some more "birds" to tend to, which means a little more time in my bike room. Thankfully I'm getting pretty good at getting rid of the birds. After this I spent a few hours talking with the riders and getting them up and running with our software. It's a little challenging when internet is slow and spotty and best, but I was prepared, and got almost everyone straightened out.
12/16: Another day of the same. Another 5 hours in the car, another bird to kill, and check in with the riders before dinner. It's nice to sa
12/17: It was finally nice! Sunny and mostly warm, which is to say in the high 50s probably. Instead of going with the riders I stayed with the mechanics today to get the race bikes ready for the Tour Down Under next month in Australia. It's the first race of the year and always a rush for the team to get everything ready in time.
12/18: Some of the riders left yesterday after training and the rest had an easy 1.5 hour spin this morning before heading to the airport. So with that, my work was done. A very successful camp! Now what? It's 11:30 in the morning and my flight isn't for another 18 hours. How about go to Pisa and see the most famous tower in the world? That sound like a good idea and it's only 35km away. Easy. As it turns out, there's more to Pisa than just the tower. There's a cathedral too. And it's surrounded by a wall, which I guess is pretty typical of medieval Italy . I didn't go to the top of the leaning tower, but did go inside the cathedral, which was impressive to say the least. The Pisa Marathon was today too, which was, well, just like a marathon on the states. It was lunch time so I stopped at a little ristorante and had a spicy salami pizza. As I expected, it was fantastic. It's hard to beat to true Italian style pizza. I easily found my way back to the car and hopped back on the A11 back to Montecatini-Terme, where the training camp was. I'll hang out here for the rest of the afternoon before getting up extra-early tomorrow morning.
Well that's it. My week in Italy compressed into 1000 words or less. Ciao!
