Schwag and more...

Stages 4 and 5 was a lot more of the same - hurry up and wait. Stage 4 started in Livermore. My team driver suggested to me that it was imperative that I get some schwag (free stuff) to hand out at our drops. So that morning I headed over to the Jelly Belly team bus in hopes of scoring bags and bags of beans! I was the first of our 8 teams to arrive at the Jelly Belly team bus. I quickly spoke to one of their directors about grabbing some schwag to hand out. He said it would be know problem but we needed to wait for the truck with all the cases of beans. The next thing I know 5 other teams are knocking looking for schwag as well. Originally he said no problem I'll get you 2 cases. But then theses girls who I guess know how to sweet talk an old man got 1 of my cases. Then mass confusion sets in with all the other schwag seekers. I hold my ground and walk away with a 1 gallon ziplock bag full of beans. I handed them out along the course to kids who were excited to see the race. Of course I may have saved a few for me!




Stage 4 ended on the Sierra road just outside San Jose. My last drop of the day was a right hand turn just 2 blocks from the base of the climb. The road leading up the mountain had been closed since the day before. I was only allowing authorized vehicles up until 2pm. At 2pm there just wasn't anymore room at the top! If you watched the coverage on Versus you may have seen me standing in the road waving the cyclist and cars through the turn with my orange flag. I watched a little bit of coverage on the news and saw that it was 10 deep at least at the top with spectators. All the crazies were out yesterday!

Today we started our day at 5am. My roommate got up an hour and fifteen minutes early due to the fact that our alarm clock in the room was wrong.(I had my own clock) He thought he was headed down to the lobby at 5:11am but in fact it was 3:45am. He walked all the way down before he realized it was so early! He came back to the room a few minutes later. And laid back down!

Eventually we got underway and it was a lumpy course through the Carmel Valley on the way to Paso Robles. Pretty straight forward stage, 2 drops and listen to the finish on race radio. The night ended with sushi in Paso and a crash of the VIP party afterwards. It was a good day in the sun!

Tomorrow is the TT in Solvang and It's going to be along day! We have a long transfer and the day starts early with amateurs, then the pro women's invite, followed by the men! Can't wait!

Here are a few random shots from the past couple of days.
















Thanks for reading and take care.

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