Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah: Behind the Scenes Final Prep Day

            This morning I woke up, took a shower, and made the mistake of looking out the window. It was raining. I have to say I love racing my bike in the rain, but working in the rain just plain sucks. Rich and I wandered down to the hotel restaurant to meet the crew and eat our complimentary breakfast. The crew for Tour of Utah (TOU) is small compared to the crew at Tour of California (6 versus 14). The crew is pretty tight knit and it is nice to share a coffee with everyone in the morning. Once the race starts the course advance crew is up early signing the course 4 hours before the race, whereas the sweeper crew rolls along behind the race so we do not get to share a breakfast together.

Thank You Crystal Inn

            After breakfast the crew gathered in the back of our hotel to build and sort our signs. Now, the signs were all wet, which was a drag, but our hotel was kind enough to let us set-up shop under the overhang of one of their back entrances. We plowed through the task of building and sorting all of the signs, and loading them into the course advance trucks. Each day there are two trucks that set-up the course and one truck that cleans it all up. I get to be in the clean-up truck.

A Feeling of Paris

            For lunch we ate at this really cool French bakery. Of course, I got a crepe. It was filled with ham and a bunch of different cheeses. To say the least, it was amazing. It made me think of Paris and how I long to one day ride the cobblestones of the Champs-Elysees. After lunch the course advance peeps picked up the generator for the inflatable and we all met up in a park to test it out. Now, let me say this. During sign sort, it was a light rain on and off. During lunch, it had completely stopped raining and was even drying out a little. During our flight-test, it poured. The one task we had to do today that could not be done under an overhang, it rained the hardest.

            I have to say the 1KM to go banner this year is one of the best I have seen. It’s pretty sweet looking and the way it is designed, it goes up with no trouble at all. When you see it on TV remember the Routing & Signs Crew put it up.

Walking Around

            After I got dry from our flight-test and spent some time in the hot tub, the rain had finally stopped and the sun began to peak through the clouds. I took advantage of this and walked to downtown Cedar City to look around as the construction crew built the start/finish line. I got to see the camera people testing their equipment and the production trucks getting prepped for the live broadcast of the race tomorrow. After that I wandered over to the team hotel and took a bunch of shots of the different teams team buses and support cars. The day finished off with dinner at our favorite Mexican place in town and then the all staff meeting.

Make sure to check out the slideshow below for all of the pictures from today.

#Livin’theDream