Behind The Scenes at the Amgen Tour of California

Sports Illustrated's Austin Murphy (left) interviewed George Hincapie.

Bob Roll of NBC Sports (right) interviewed Tejay van Garderen.

Lots of Belgians here (from left): Chris De Vos, Greg Van Avermaet and Rik Verbrugghe.

A Dreadful Tuesday

At least dessert was good tonight.
This will be quick. It's 1:20 a.m. and I have a race to staff on-site today. Plus, it was a long and very stressful day.

I supervised no fewer than seven interviews. It would have been seven, but I couldn't be two places at once. That alone was taxing. But we also had a few media-related issues to work through. Oh, and did I mention I covered a race in Spain? Yep, I started working at 7 a.m. and didn't meet with anyone (visiting) and here I am, still working.

Today's highlights:

- They fixed the light that was out in my bathroom. And the one over my desk. Then they pulled the door shut and locked me out.

- Chris De Vos and Freddy Viaene, team soigneurs, shared some type of dessert/cake loaf with me. I guess it's super high in calories. I had a bite and it was awesome. I skipped lunch today but can say I've eaten pasta at nearly every lunch or dinner. In four days, the team went through 20 kilos. (You'll have to do your own conversion.)

- Wednesday is a big race. I'll be riding in the team car. Hope to get some good video or photos. Thursday, we'll be doing reconnaissance on the cobblestones for Sunday's race. Friday we move to France. Saturday is the team presentation. And Monday I fly home.

- I still need to get my picture/blog post up from Sunday's race.

- It rained here. Nearly all day. The high temperature couldn't have been more than 50. This was what I imagined Belgium was like.

- The Quiznos Pro Challenge in Colorado (in August) is no more. Actually, it's still happening. But it's now the "USA Pro Cycling Challenge." Quiznos is apparently still involved. It's all confusing. What I do know is that it looks like the race is on shaky footing. And the people doing the marketing and public relations have a long way to go before they understand the sport. They're obviously outsiders to the sport or just plain bad when it comes to doing their job. Or both.

- Taylor Phinney is not doing Paris-Roubaix (Sunday's race). I didn't announce that, which led to some of the stress today. But it's all good now. Everyone knows now that he won't be there and they'll mob George Hincapie and Alessandro Ballan instead.

I wish I had some fun stuff to share today, but it was all business.

Marcus Burghardt did an interview via Skype.

This might have been my mistake – coffee for breakfast.

BMC Racing Team Chief Mechanic Ian Sherbune (left)was interviews by Nick Legan of VeloNews.

Check out the tags on my lululemon pants. (Click to enlarge.)