The ride….

Another day, another incredible stage here in beautiful California. We are now in the central part of the state, traveling South bound. Thought I would take a few minutes to give a better picture of what we are doing here. I was able to snap a few pics of our vehicle before rolling out this morning.

So new, the instrument panel is still in Kilometers, the “American” production was not ready.

The title is “Mobile PA.” We are 2-3 minutes (1 mile) in front of the first riders, sometimes more if we are heading into a town full of people. We stop, or sometimes just slowly roll by, and relay as much information while getting the crowd as excited as we can before the final California Highway Patrol car (Command 5) comes into sight. Command 5 is the final car before the riders, so that is our cue to head out. Interactions usually last around 3o seconds max.

You can hear us from about 150 yards away, so we pass along any radio reports we have, throw out some free schwag, and move up the road 150 yards to the next group of fans who were out of earshot. Most people are interested in when the riders will be rolling through. If they are cycling fans (standing near bikes, wearing jerseys, holding signs for teams, etc,) we give them the names and teams of riders in breakaways, many cycling fans can not pick their favorite riders out as the fly by.

We have a pretty good system worked out. There are two of us in the car, and it gets pretty hectic in there sometimes. Driving, analyzing the crowd, keeping our spot in the caravan, taking radio reports, cueing music, looking up riders bios, announcing, and throwing free stuff keeps us pretty busy. The mic sits in the cupholders between us, and it’s pretty much a matter of who has a hand free to announce.

When we come at you on course, this is what you see…

Don’t have much else for now. I’m currently working on a few behind the scenes posts which I hope to have up later in the week. Until then, I will leave you with some pics of today’s scenery.

Snow up in the mountains, the temperature here was right around 65 degrees.

Rolling hills just outside of Merced…
These were plentiful between San Jose and Modesto…
That’s it for now, check back tomorrow!