Catching Up

Aix-en-Provenece – Darn it, I'm not keeping up as I had hoped. It's Saturday morning and I'm two days behind. So I'll work my way backwards and try to do some catching up.

Saturday didn't go as planned, like it sometimes does at stage races. My original plan was to go to the time trial start, follow one of the early riders to the finish and hang out there until the race was a wrap. Then head back to the hotel (25-minute drive) to write up my story. As it turned out, I saw none of the race in person.

Here's what did transpire: I went with the team to the reconnaissance session (didn't drive them this time) and rode with Trudi Rebsamen behind the guys as they rode the 27-kilometer course. It was really interesting to see some of the roads (one looked more like a back alley – which it probably was) and the people setting up campers and chairs six hours ahead of the race. I knew teams rode the course before the time trial, but I'd never been able to see it first-hand. In the U.S., at National Racing Calendar races, the courses are often not open for warm-up because of women's racing, lower categories, etc.

When we got to the finish, it was apparent we had brought too many people for everyone to ride back. Fifteen people for three cars sounds easy, but two of the three cars were loaded with bike stuff in the back seats. So the two directors stayed and had coffee while we took the riders back to the start. That's when things went astray.

Steve Morabito had been complaining about his back throughout his warm-up. It got serious when he climbed off with about 10 kilometers to go. When we got back to the finish, he talked to the race doctor and pulled the plug. Within seconds, it was decided I would take him to the airport in Marseille. But first I had to go get the two directors. That meant driving the course again. This turned out to be fun, as I snapped a few photos along the way and really got a better sense (at a higher speed) of how the course would play out. It was a pretty tough course toward the end, with a nice climb and a few tricky turns.

With the two directors now on board, we headed back to the finish. From there, I took a car back to the hotel (thank goodness for GPS) and picked up Steve. Again, the GPS helped me navigate my way to the airport, where I dropped him off. He didn't know which flight or airline at the time – only that he was flying out at 4 p.m. (It was about 1:30 p.m.) I thought I would have to drive back to the time trial at that point and was a bit worried about the traffic. But Trudi sent me a note that they didn't need the car, so I bee-lined it back to hotel.

That decision turned out to be a good one, since I was able to watch the finish (online) of the race in Italy and the time trial on TV. So, in the end, it turned out to be a good day. Both races wrapped up before 5 p.m. and my story was done by 5:30, leaving me to catch up on a few things. I ended up going to bed at 10:30 and sleeping eight hours – which was much-needed.

A couple notes:

- How strange was that earthquake/tsunami in Japan? On the French TV news channels, they do NOT show replays as often as cable news channels in the U.S. I watched for about two hours and saw the helicopter video of the waves coming ashore twice. Yes, twice.

- The riders apparently haven't eaten much, according to the team's chef. That's a bit strange. He also said they're eating a lot of pasta at night, which is a bit unusual. Usually, you eat a lot of pasta in the morning and rice at night.

- I'm going to miss this hotel. Nice. Very nice. Though the glass door on the fridge has had me wishing I could drink all the refreshments and re-bottle them with water and eat the candy and put the empty wrappers back. But I gave up candy for lent.

- Speaking of lent, I had no trouble not eating meat yesterday. I didn't have lunch and supper was fish, which I didn't eat. So I had bread (three rolls).

- Paris-Nice is know as "the race to the sun" because it starts with rain and cold and ends with warmth and sunshine. This year, it sounds like it's going to be exactly the opposite. Rain is forecast for Saturday and Sunday. Fortunately, Steve Morabito is letting me borrow his rain jacket, since I forgot mine.