This is what my dashboard looks like when I cover races.

The Final Kilometers

Post-race shot from the chopper.
Media swarm the winner on the right.


Watch the final kilometers of the race.

Race Day

A look at the final 10 meters of the 298-kilometer race course.
It was an early start to the day for everyone because the race was scheduled to start at 9:45 a.m. Or 10 a.m., if you were going by the race guide. Or 9:30, if you asked the riders. Or 9:37 a.m., if you went by the time of the actual start.

I got everything packed up after enjoying my second day of scrambled eggs for breakfast. At the hotel front desk, I asked them to print out 10 race cards for me. They printed them in full color, which was pretty darned impressive. (It was a five-star hotel, though.)

Scott Nydam (shown at right) and I would ride to the start together in a rental van. Unlike some other teams I've worked with, the BMC Racing Team always has its bases covered and had official race stickers for it to permit it access to the course, team parking, etc. Very pro.

The funny moment of the morning occurred just as we were leaving the hotel. Jeremiah Ranegar, one of the soigneurs, had told me he was going to "run up and get his stuff." What I (and nobody else) didn't know was that he probably wasn't completely packed up. We started rolling out, with all the vehicles making their way down the hotel drive, when suddenly one of the lead vehicles stopped. Second later, Jeremiah came running out of the hotel with all his stuff and we were off again. We nearly left him. Oops.

I sold a bunch of BMC Racing Team autograph cards right when we rolled up to the start. I went back into the bus to get more and suddenly all the fans had moved on. The "time to buy/sell" window had apparently closed. Since we had the bus, the riders were pretty cozy and away from fans until it was time to go to sign in.

Once the start was underway, I followed the motorcoach out of town. The interesting thing was taking the streets of the race route. Lots of fans and lots of cobbled streets and train tracks.

Driving from Milan to San Remo was 300 kilometers (185 miles) and three hours comparable to being on a thrill ride. Narrow roads, dark tunnels, lots of tunnels (20+, by my count), toll booths and incredible scenery. Of course, I was watching the back of the BMC motorcoach nearly the entire time since I was following it.

We were expected to be stopped by police somewhere along the route from the start to the finish. Apparently, it's a shakedown that's not unexpected every year at this race. Police set up a road block and get a jersey from every team. But there was no roadblock and no free jerseys given away, thankfully.

San Remo must be the motor scooter capital of the world. There were TONS of them. And tons of traffic. But the parking area for team vehicles was organized (if a bit cramped).

The press room was more than two kilometers from the finish line. Who does that? With that in mind, I canvassed the area for media members, most of whom were watching a TV located about 150 meters after the finish area. I also ran into Marya Pongrace, the Garmin-Cervelo media relations director, and Joachim Schoonacker, who I worked with at Toyota-United during the 2007 season.

Once the TV coverage came on (about 90 kilometers from the finish), I watched the race from the bus (interior shot at right). When they were within seven kilometers, soigneur Stefano Rubino and I went to the finish line. There, I tried my best to watch the TV from the crowded area where soigneurs and media were gathered.

The swarm (scrum) of press around the winner was of epic proportions. Imagine the media running out onto the field and tackling Tom Brady after the Super Bowl. That's what it is like. (See aerial photo in this post.)

After the race, it was fairly chaotic (photo at right was shot looking outside the bus), with an hour-drive from San Remo to Nice, France (and no check at the border) in the motorcoach. We dropped off Greg Van Avermaet at the airport, then made our way to a little hotel nearby. Fortunately, it had free wifi, but only two outlets in the entire (tiny) room. So I unplugged the coffee maker and the TV and plugged in my computer and phone.

From the Notebook:
- I typed my story on my Blackberry (again) because there was no internet on the bus (still). This was getting old.

- When Greg Van Avermaet was off the front with fewer than 10 kilometers to go, I really thought he was going to win. Some of the soigneurs on other teams even started walking back to their buses. But it wasn't to be. He was caught with 2.5 kilometers to go.

- For the first time in a long time, I didn't eat my sack lunch. Perhaps I was a bit nervous or maybe it was the big pieces of salami. I didn't eat my candy bar, either.

- Francesca Villa, our motorcoach driver, and mechanic Ronald Ruymen went to a nearby cafe to get a coffee and a pastry. It was one of those rare moments when I had a chance to get away from the race and see a bit of the sights I always seem to miss. The race hadn't yet come on TV, so we just enjoyed some coffee and a brief (15-minute) moment of relaxation.

The yellow fencing indicates this is an area to escape the course.

Nice fountain as we drove into San Remo.

A look at one of the little tunnels we drove through.

My view for the three hours.

I thought this was a pretty funny sight in Milan.

Here's the damage after filling up the motorcoach - $654.00.

My view of the race (watching TV) near the finish line.

Garmin gurus Joachim Schoonacker (left) and Marya Pongrace.

Before the race came on, "Miracle" was showing in the bus.

The finish line is adjacent to the ocean.

Before the start, Greg Van Avermaet is interviewed.

Alessandro Ballan finished fourth.

Eve of the Race

Milan, Italy – Today was one of those hot-cold days. Some good, some bad. Nothing really bad or really good, though.

The bad: Somehow I had Chad Beyer NOT riding Vuelta a Catalunya (a race that begins Monday). Instead, I had Marcus Burghardt starting. I think the problem occurred when I was looking at the rider spreadsheet and got my lines transposed. What this meant was having to send a correction. The ultimate blow, though, came from George Hincapie, who told me, "Weide, you're slipping." Yes, not a good thing.

The good: The internet was working great at this hotel. Enough said.

Not much else to report, really. I spent about two hours trying to figure out how to set up e-mail on Jim Ochowicz's ipad. Never did get it working.

News and notes:
- So many hotels and buildings in Europe are built with energy conservation in mind. For example, most hotel rooms don't allow you to turn on (or keep on) the lights without putting your room key in a slot. At this hotel, the lights in the hallways are on motion detectors. The little flashing motion detectors on the ceiling reminded me of something out of "Star Trek."

- Food was good here. For the first time I saw scrambled eggs. Pasta was good (of course), as was some type of rice dish. Meat is awful. Yes, awful. If you want a steak, go to Nebraska.

- A TV in the hotel bar actually had one of the NCAA Tournament games on. That was pretty cool. I was talking to a journalist (on the phone) at the time, so I didn't have time to watch it or pay attention.

Where I'm Headed

A look at a few of the places I've been and where I am headed (courtesy of Google maps).

On Thursday afternoon, we drove from Bologna to Milan.

Here is Saturday's race course, Milan to San Remo (185 miles).

After the race, we drive from San Remo to Nice, France.

Headed To Milan

The BMC Racing Team car I drove to the supermarket.
That white thing on top is a satellite dish.
Today was another "day off" from racing, but far from a lazy one.

I had a preview to write for the upcoming Vuelta a Catalunya (which I wrote on the ride from Bologna to Milan) and a few other things to catch up on. The transfer between hotels was supposed to have taken three hours, but it was more like two-and-a-half (in rain). Fortunately, I didn't have to drive, so I got some work done.

I'm trying to tether my Blackberry to my MacBook. It's been an unsuccessful task so far, but I'm still working on it. This would allow me to work remotely from my laptop when I don't have Internet (like at all those bogus hotels on this trip).

One thing that was a bit of a shock to the system took place after we arrived at our hotel here in Milan. Jeremiah Ranegar (one of the BMC Racing Team soigneurs) asked me if I could do him a favor. Well, it turned out he was asking me to go shopping for water. With no GPS and no idea where the nearest shopping center was, I set out in one of the team cars. Fortunately, St. Anthony guided me to a nearby warehouse-type place that had plenty of water, which I brought back – then made myself unavailable for future "errands."

Leftovers:
- Sorry, Julia. You won't have the room key from the hotel in Bologna. It was a high-tech one with a chip on it (like you see on credit cards here in Europe). They would have charged my own credit card an arm-and-a-leg had I not turned it in. And gosh darn, I forgot to take a picture of it for you. Next time, for sure.

- At my hotel here in Milan, the key card is also pretty high tech. It's a magnetic-type card reader. So I won't be bringing this one back, either.

- Only four riders (George Hincapie, Greg Van Avermaet, Michael Schär and Marcus Burghardt) stayed in Bologna with us. The rest of the crew will meet us in Milan.

- A couple of the riders were talking about flights out of San Remo after the race. The interesting thing is, their flight times were within about an hour of the finish. That's just crazy. I'll be driving to Nice, staying overnight, then flying to Munich and onto Chicago (and ultimately, Omaha).

- Today was the celebration of a "unified Italy" - an equivalent of sorts to our "Independence Day." But there really wasn't a whole lot of celebrating. And there were even far fewer people wearing green for St. Patrick's Day. I heard the Lady Gaga concert in Omaha was pretty good, though.

Happy Birthday, Emily!

My teenager, Emily, in one of her typically funny moments.
Finally, some calm. Well, a bit of calm. Still creating chaos in my life is the lack of internet here at the hotel. When I arrived, they said it was broken. And it remained that way all day.

Here's a snapshot glance at how things went on my first "off day" (no racing to cover).

- Today is Emily's 14th birthday. Wow. It really does seem like only yesterday. I called her at 6:38 a.m. (her time, 12:38 p.m. my time) and wished her a happy birthday. I also shared some of my memories with her so she could share them with her classmates and sisters.

- Breakfast (shown at right) at this hotel is pretty good. No scrambled eggs, toast or bacon, but plenty of pastries, yogurt, croissants (not as good as in France) and some really, really good cereal. It's a cross between Wheaties and Corn Flakes. Really good stuff.

- My room has a back door that leads out to a small patio. Although it rained nearly the entire morning, it stopped later in the afternoon and the sun crept out. That was the signal for me to try and get some sun. I figured out how to hand crank this big "grid guard" that protected the rear doors. Moments later, the sun was shining in. Unfortunately, there were more clouds than rays for the next hour.

- The guys rode their Elite trainers for about an hour, then went to visit a nearby Formula 1 race track. Wish I could've gone, but there was a ton of work to do.

- I didn't eat lunch. Part I of my return to a slimmer Sean. When you sit around working on your laptop for hours on end, there's no reason to eat so much, right?

- Dinner was good – chicken, pasta and even dessert. It's a good thing we have Fabio Baldato with us because he translates everything.

- There wasn't a lick of hot water in my room this morning. Not sure why, but shaving was a less than pleasant experience and showering was even more "memorable." I had a flashback to my days at Mt. Michael when all the people showering ahead of me used up all the hot water.

The guys on their Elite trainers. It stopped raining an hour later.

A look at my room, which I have all to myself.

Check out the little stool by the sink, Julia.

Jerseys and photos hang in the hotel atrium...

...and on the walls of the lobby.

My room is out in a building where you can pull right up.

The Best Of Times, The Worst Of Times

My view of the taxi ride to the hotel.
Things didn't go very well today. Probably the worst day of the trip, actually. It could have been much better, really. But little things kept creeping up and ruining what should have been a great day.

It started right off the bat – at 1 a.m., actually – when I couldn't get online for a conference call (via) Skype for the Nature Valley Grand Prix. I had paid for 15 hours of internet, rather than the standard four (or even one). So when I woke up from a brief nap, I wasn't immediately aware there was going to be a problem. Well, there was a problem. And doing everything to trouble-shoot it, even walking to a nearby hotel to try and get wifi there (the desk was a closed) didn't fix the problem.

The next downer was an e-mail I received from my mom about my dad's twin brother and his failing health. This certainly hit home and made for some emotional hours as I tried to go back to bed. Next up was the town bells. I should have gotten some video, but I didn't realize the bells on a nearby church (pictured at right) were going to ring for five minutes. At 6:30 a.m. Not that I wasn't already up, but it was a bit annoying.

This would be another big travel day, so there was the stress of getting to the airport, two flights and then a taxi ride to the hotel. First, the ride from airport to hotel in a shuttle. No problems, actually. Once at the airport, I got in a slow-moving line at the ticket counter. Fortunately, they weren't surprised this time with my two bags. Ticket in hand, I was off on my first flight on GermanWings.

Now a funny thing about GermanWings is its marketing campaign. It's three "sexy" flight attendants who are on brochures, the Facebook page, Twitter page, etc. Apparently, this is to disguise the fact that they are Germany's equivalent of Southwest Airlines. (But they do have reserved seating, thankfully.) My first flight had me in seat 1-A. Yes, right up front, looking at a plastic divider. This meant not having access to my backpack (it was in the overhead bin), so I decided to sleep a bit.

The flight from Zurich was to Bonn/Cologne. Not being a geography major, I didn't immediately realize were were flying away from my final destination. It was equivalent of flying to Chicago out of Omaha to get to Los Angeles. Yeah, about 75 minutes in the wrong direction. But that was OK, because I'd never been to Germany.

One bad (or maybe good) thing about connecting through another country is you don't go through customs. Which means no stamp in your passport. (And no long lines waiting to get it stamped). But I did enjoy some nice aerial views of the beautiful German countryside. It's really neat how certain European countries really have a flavor and look to them.

Once at the airport, I took a quick look around for souvenirs. Then it was off to my connecting flight. That's when more trouble arose. It turns out boarding passes for connections aren't issued at the gate like they told me in Zurich. No, they're at a kiosk somewhere else in the airport. Fortunately, it wasn't that far. But the kiosk wasn't manned, though there was a phone that said to call "extension 2141." Of course no one answered (it was lunch time). So I went back to my original connecting gate. A second attendant was there with the first one I'd asked about the boarding pass. She told me I'd have to go all the way back to the main ticket counters to get it and asked when I was flying out. "On this flight (in 35 minutes)," I told her. She looked at me like I'd never make it there and back. The other (original) attendant took my name down, I guess, so he could page me and let me know I'd be missing my flight.

So I ran off to find the main ticketing counter. Have you ever gone backwards through airport security? Now I have. Have you ever run through the airport like you're competing in the 1,600 meters on a track? I have. Have you ever wanted to stop and eat at an airport Burger King? I did yesterday. (Wanted to, but didn't have time, of course.)

Anyway, I got my ticket, then sprinted back to go through security. Thankfully, I didn't have to take my shoes off (must be a U.S.-only thing) and got back to the gate just as they were beginning to board. Now another thing that's different from flying in the U.S. – the exit row seating. On GermanWings, you can't place your bags beneath the seat in front of you if you're seated in an exit row (which I was). So my bag went up in the bin. But here's the kicker. The tray tables in the exit aisle (shown at right) can be used. That's really different because U.S. airlines bolt them shut so they can't come down and block the aisle as you're rushing out the emergency exit.

One nice thing on my flight (90 minutes) to Italy was my "Happy Picnic." I had a coupon (shown at right) for a cup of coffee (or water) and a turkey (or cheese) sandwich. So that was terrific considering I hadn't eaten anything since my pizza lunch the day before. The other nice thing on the flight was the view of the Swiss Alps. (No photo, sorry.)

Once on the ground in Italy, I grabbed my bag (and was disappointed there was no clearance of customs because I wasn't flying in from abroad) and hailed a taxi. By this time, the race I was supposed to cover was well underway. So all the way to the hotel, I was monitoring developments on Twitter. I arrived (in the rain) at the hotel only to find out its wifi was down (and would NOT be coming back up).

I scurried to my room (which was in another building) and switched on the TV just in time to see Cadel Evans going to the top step of the podium (pictured at right). I'll spare you the dreaded details of how difficult it was to have to type my entire story on my Blackberry. Let's just say that when I finally get Internet service, I'm going to work very hard on tethering my laptop to my Blackberry. (Thanks for the tips, Matt Davio.)

From the Notebook:
- It was great when the guys from Tirreno-Adriatico pulled up at the hotel. Seeing them after a big win was a nice bonus. We had a terrific dinner to celebrate, too.

- It rained all afternoon here in Italy, adding to the dreariness.

- I ended up writing two news releases today. One on Cadel Evans's victory and the other on him achieving (a tie for) the world No. 1 ranking. Impressive (him, not me writing about it).

- In the airport in Zurich, I came across a hand dryer just like the ones at AksarBen Cinema (pictured at right).

- One of the lighter moments today happened as we were de-planing in Cologne. We went down the stairs from the plane out onto the tarmac, where a bus was waiting to take us to the terminal. We crowded onto this bus and it pulled away. Not more than 10 seconds and 100 feet later, we stopped – at the terminal. Yes, we rode in a bus for 100 feet. I should have snapped a picture, but I was in a bit of a rush.

This is what a "Happy Picnic" looks like on GermanWings.

My view from seat 1A.

After the first stop on the transit bus, nearly everyone was gone.

View of my plane for the flight to Cologne.

Cool Zurich airport shot. Reminds me of "Up in the Air." (below)

Switzerland In A Day

The Zurich train station reminded me of something out of the movies.
Today was "BMC factory visit" day on my agenda. I've shared a few specifics in my "thoughts on travel" but here is an overview of the day.

A couple months back, my colleague, Georges Lüchinger, thought it would be good for me to visit the BMC factory. I agreed and my agenda was planned out. So today, I was off from Nice, France, to Grenchen, Switzerland.

Once in Switzerland, I had to take two trains to get to the factory. As my friend, Bob Cullinan pointed out, the trains in Switzerland run on time, which is great for planning purposes. Both train rides were pretty uneventful and I used the opportunity to take photos and video and catch up on some work. The only nerve-racking thing about train travel is making sure you're paying attention to the stops so you get off at the right one.

Upon arrival in Grenchen (a small town), BMC's Mike Hürlimann picked me up and took me to lunch at a nice little pizzeria. It was great catching up and just eating. (I hadn't had anything to eat since lunch the day before.) Then it was on to the factory. No photos are allowed there, but you can visit the BMC Racing Team website to watch a few videos of how the BMCs are made, etc.

Following the tour, it was time to watch the race and write about it (my set-up is pictured at right). And what a great race it was. Cadel Evans won – scoring the team's first win of 2011. I told Michele Tanner (marketing person) that if coming to the factory was what it took for the team to win that I'd be spending quite a few days hanging out at the factory.

The only tense moment of the afternoon came as I waited to receive the quotes from the race. The train schedules are a bit limited, so I had to make sure I caught one that allowed me to make my connection in Zurich. I was able to snap some nice photos on the train ride and one of the BMC Racing Team's former riders even sent me a message on Twitter that I was going through his hometown.

The final transportation of the night came on foot as I once again used FourSquare's GPS navigation to walk to my hotel. Very cool. Note that my hotel room even included an umbrella (with sign that said it was intended only for use while you're a guest there and not to take it home with you).

A few thoughts on travel:

- If "Easy Jet" is the "Southwest" airlines equivalent in Europe, I'm not impressed when it comes to baggage. Even though my ticket was booked for two pieces of luggage, I got dinged for my second item. To the tune of 120 euros. Yikes. And outrageous. If there's a consolation, it's that I didn't get charged for extra luggage coming out of Spain in January (training camp).

- Speaking of outrageous, how about a 50 euro cab fare for about a 10-minute ride from my hotel to the airport? That's just crazy. I'll have to ask Rik Verbrugghe what they charged him. I think it was a scam against "The American."

- The outlets in Switzerland are different from those I've encountered in Spain, France, Ireland and Great Britain. They're a three-plug combination (shown at right), which I didn't have an adapter for in my bag. But the hotel was kind enough to loan me one.

- So much for getting my passport stamped in Switzerland. I walked off the plane, got my luggage (there was a nice countdown clock at the baggage carousel) and then walked out into the lobby. No Swiss Miss girls to greet me, either.

- The flight from Nice to Geneva was short. Either that, or I slept awhile. It appears it was about an hour. Not bad, since the seats didn't recline, there was no baggage service and boarding was general. I thought sitting next to the VIP guys the BMC Racing Team owner brought to the race the day before would be nice. It was, until I figured out they only spoke French and German.

- I was a bit nervous about the train trip to the BMC factory headquarters in Grenchen. As I type this, I'm not quite there yet, but I am off to a good start. I have my ticket to Grenchen and it appears I'll get a ride to the factory. After my visit, I take the train to another little city where I fly out sometime Tuesday morning.

- Trains aren't like airplanes. You don't need to board 30 minutes before departure. Twice, I went down to the rail station area, only to return to the upper concourse because my train hadn't even arrived at the station.

I was told this was the first "spring-like" day in Switzerland.

We passed through quite a few railyards.

My final destination: train station in Grenchen.

Flight out of Nice. Good weather for travel.

Michele helped me purchase my return train ticket.

Escalator: stand on one side, walk/run up the other.

My last train was a double-decker. Pretty cool.

Grey motif in this one, Julia.

Not a big room, but clean and nice.

Four hours in at the "Fly Away" hotel, the Internet stopped working.