Paris-Nice On The Horizon

Here is this year's race route. This will be my first trip to this race since 2013.

Paris-Nice

Philippe Gilbert was in the king of the mountains jersey today.

The Busiest Day

It was another wet drive to the start this morning.

Writing blog entries at 1:30 a.m. is becoming the norm at Paris-Nice. But there's only one more day to go and so far, I'm a perfect six-for-six on blogging the stages. So I will forge on and hack out one more entry.

For the record, this was one of the busiest days I have experienced in on-site work. Here's a quick glance at only my late afternoon agenda:

• Tweeted a race result and posted a photo.
• Rode 12 km back to the hotel (good decision since it took our bus 75 minutes).
• Wrote two reports.
• Organized a roundtable press event.
• Oversaw a behind-the-scenes photo shoot.
• Monitored two other rider interviews at the hotel.
• Produced three interviews for our Audio Line.

Click on this to enlarge and see if you can spot the mistake.

I'm sure I have forgetting something in there (besides the fact I missed dinner), but that's about the extent of things.

Back in the U.S., Creighton won to make the Missouri Valley Conference championship game, Omaha Central won its fourth straight state boys basketball title and there's a blizzard brewing over Denver. And Daylight Saving Time begins later today.

So now you're caught up. On to the photos:

Some of my breakfast. And there's the Blackberry phone case I've misplaced.

The restaurant where we ate breakfast this morning was just a door down from the hotel.

I worked in the hotel lobby this morning. Check out the "point internet."

Here is what was on the menu.

I caught up to these folks on the bike path on the way back to the hotel.

Small desk but big bed. And all well-lit.

And a little bed beneath the mirror and TV.

There's a footwasher! First one this trip.

Lots of little amenities around the sink.

A Lost Day

Check out this unusual car wash outside a Super U supermarket.

Friday was a bit of a lost day. I had to drive the new van from the start to the finish, which took about three hours. When the bus and I arrived at the finish, it wasn't really the finish. Rather, it was a parking area for the buses about 13 kilometers from the top of a mountain (the finish line). And being in a remote area, we had limited phone service – which means the wifi was awful.

The same did not hold true for the hotel wifi, though. Thankfully, it was screaming fast. So I am pounding out a quick entry before we head to the start.

It's raining again this morning. Yesterday it was pouring when we left the hotel but was bright and sunny by the time the race started. That gradually changed to cloudiness, rain and finally a bit of sunshine by race's end. I shot a video as the peloton went by the bus parking area, which hopefully I can post later.

Lots of driving. Three hours' worth, in fact.

Do they really write the room numbers in chalk? Yep. I was in room 1.

Nice shower.

I really liked the red accent work.

The red theme continues. Maybe that's why I liked this room so much.

My view overlooked the team parking area.

Cool Window Shutter

Watch my hotel window shutter in operation.

Catching Up...

Yep, I'm still in France. And yes, the weather hasn't been so good.   I'm going to use this morning (Thursday) to catch up a bit.

First, to the important stuff: I weighed in at 95.9 kilograms this morning. That's about 211 pounds, which is down 20 from the start of the year. It's a bit easy to lose weight here in France since the food is downright awful. The BMC Racing Team riders have a chef, but he doesn't cook for the staff. (See photos below.)

Let's talk about the internet. Tuesday night's hotel was awesome. Screaming-fast wifi and I took full advantage of it – staying up until past 1 a.m. But the other three hotels where we have stayed have had no working internet. The night I was in the overflow hotel (Kyriad), there was internet, but it was a code or charge type and I just used tether. Thank you, Tether.

Here's the profile for Thursday's Stage 4 at Paris-Nice.

I got a bit of bad news last night when I found a message on Facebook from longtime colleague Buck Mahoney, sports editor of the Kearney Hub. He called to ask me my memories of Don Briggs. Not long into the call, Buck relayed that "Mr. B" had died. Not a big shock, but still sad. Mr. Briggs was pretty much my first boss. I worked in the Kearney State College sports information department my senior year, writing news releases and helping with the media guides, etc. Back then, the fax machine was in its infancy. There was no internet. Just a typewriter, really. And mailing out news releases well in advance of an event. Crazy.

It rained all day Wednesday, which made it miserable for the riders. Thankfully, it wasn't too cold (low 50s). Today, the sun is coming out but the roads are still wet as we drive to the start. Today's stage has seven climbs and is one that Cadel Evans won in the Criterium du Dauphine last year. So we'll see how it goes.

A little insight into my daily "cheat sheet."

BMC Racing Team bus driver Danny Debuck took this photo before we left the hotel.

And here's the hotel. The internet here was superb.

I catch up daily in the press room with Céline Mazard, press officer for AG2R.

Today's press room was not in a gymnasium, but at a hotel.

I'm not sure what the story was here. But at least I felt safe having Spiderman around.

This is easily the largest bed I have ever enjoyed in France.

Check out all the kids – and a marching band – that showed up for the finish Wednesday.

This was the view looking out my room.

Obviously a handicapped-accessible room today.

Lots of room in here.

Things I Did Not Eat

Last year, I would have eaten three of these. This year, none.

Did not eat this.

No idea what was on the left. I did eat the salad on the right.

Screaming Fast Internet

The exterior of our hotel tonight is pretty cool.

If there's one thing I'll remember from Stage 3 of the 2013 edition of Paris-Nice, it is this: my woes with the internet were gone in a flash the moment I logged on here at "Les Bourbons."

The screaming-fast internet made for a productive night. But now it's nearly 11 o'clock and if I've learned anything from being on-site, it's that I need to stay well-rested. We're supposed to get rain tomorrow, so that will make it even more of a tough day. Plus, I have two races to cover.

So here are a few photos.

The press room looks a lot like the two before it - another gymnasium.

Smallest room yet. But it sure smells nice.

Tiny little desk – but there's a lamp and a flat-screen TV.

Check out the artwork over the bed. I actually noticed it.

The extremely clean and fresh-smelling restroom.

Gotta love the "Video Killed The Radio Star" shower tube.

This is the view across the street. Strange trees, eh?

This was dinner. It was as suspect as the yellow tint of the photo.

Here's a look at how crowded that little desk has become.

Paris-Nice, Stage 1

Here's the AutoGrill restaurant where we ate. Kind of like the Kearney Arch, eh?

This will be short (again) because it's now Tuesday morning and my plans to write an entry last night were foiled by a malfunctioning tether system.

Can you figure out what's going on here?

Basically, Monday's stage went fairly well for me. Brent Bookwalter did crash, which is never good, but I got comments from him, John Lelangue and Tejay van Garderen, as well as Philippe Gilbert in French. So that was good. I also had a conference call and a bunch of the usual stuff to do but the bonus was that I was staying at a different hotel than the team. Normally, this isn't the best situation. But I've learned that it can actually be a good one. The key is to get there soon enough to enjoy it. So as soon as we arrived at the team hotel, hospitality director Jacques Michaud and I took our own car and zoomed to a Kyriad Hotel. There, I enjoyed my own room (pictures below) and a nice dinner at a restaurant just 200 meters down the way at the same highway rest stop. Overall, it was a good night.

The dessert selection was pretty good tonight.

I saw this at the restaurant last night and immediately had to order it.

Check out the traffic in Paris.

There's my bio sheet in the corner. AG2R was the only other team to supply press information.

The press center was in a gymnasium.

Check out the construction just outside Paris.

The bathroom was not very scenic.

The area near the finish line featured this canal. Pretty scenic.

Jacques Michaud and I high-tailed it from the team hotel to our hotel.

Tons of little amenities, which is surprising for a three-star hotel.

This looked pretty stark and barren. But it worked fine.

My room at the Kyriad Hotel was a bit no frills, but well-lit and spacious.

Traveling with Jacques Michaud in France is great. Everyone knows him.

Jacques Michaud and I stayed at the Kyriad Hotel, about 45 km from the team hotel.

The view from the restaurant overlooks the highway. Reminds me of the Kearney Arch.

Not the healthiest, but well-deserved and probably not possible the rest of the race.

From where I stood, you couldn't even see the finish line for Stage 1.