On The Run, But Having Fun

Milton Keynes, England - It's the eve of the Tour of Britain and that made for one busy day. And through it all, the rain kept falling.

Actually, I did see the sun twice today - for a total of about 20 minutes. But otherwise it was overcast and sprinkling or just an outright downpour. For most of the Rock Racing training ride, it was the former. And that's good when you're trying to get a few miles of training in on a new bike you have never ridden.

Also, I learned that this city, Milton Keynes - which is a suburb about 90 minutes south of London - has the most roundabouts of any city in the world. What makes this great is that we only saw one stoplight in our four-mile drive to the race hotel. Those things are confusing, but they keep you moving.

The highlights of my day (it's 12:45 a.m. Sunday so I need to keep this short):

- Coordinating an interview and photo shoot for GQ (Italy) magazine.

- Making my first purchase (in person) with my British pounds.

- Seeing a Burger King (no, I didn't eat there).

- The desserts at the team meal tonight. They were motivation for my nearly hour-long workout (one that was cut short when they closed it down at 10 p.m.)

- Getting first class treatment by the race organization at team check-in while at the same time being stared down by every other team.

Here's what I am dealing with on the media front. This is from a British publication, The Sporting Life:

Elsewhere in the Tour of Britain field, there is the usual mix of the sublime and the unwelcome.

Falling into the latter category are the Rock Racing team who have named a five man line-up including the American Tyler Hamilton - returned to racing after a two-year ban for blood doping - Spaniard Oscar Sevilla and Colombian Santiago Botero.

All three were named in Operation Puerto, a Spanish police investigation into organised doping, and although no criminal charges were brought against them, success for any of the three ought to be hugely embarrassing for the Tour organisers and their sponsors given their presence is not necessary to the success of the race.

Nice, huh? Well, they are expecting a half a million people to line the race route tomorrow and I'm guessing a lot of them are going to turn out to see what this "Rock Racing" team is all about.

Here's a few more photos from the guy who can really shoot, team photographer Paul McKelvey of Vero Image:

The special commemorative bike - just for this race.

This photo looks distinctly European.

The team has had all of its support vehicles "wrapped" with signage.