Team car, director style

Cafemax on the front

The yellow jersey and two of his teammates, Rocco and Quim
My team car
View from my hotel room



On Sunday I got to ride in the Cafemax team car and see the racing from a whole new angle. I saw Jose shouting orders to the team through the radios, spying on other team's radio frequencies to know when they were going to attack, handing out extra water and food, deciding when to pull back breaks, deciding when to push it, and by the end of the day, securing the yellow jersey for the entire tour.

What was really great is that I got to see one of the greatest moments you can have in the sport of cycling, up close and personal. All day long the team had been drilling it on the front with the peloton stretched out behind; you see 6 green jerseys and a yellow jersey tucked in behind. A great image. With only 6k to go, the unbelievable happens: the yellow jersey flats. I immediately panic because I'm the one who's supposed to pull out the yellow jersey's extra wheel from the seat next to me. My heart's racing as Jose starts screaming and we pull up to Rafa (in yellow) and he's screaming and quickly looking from his wheel to the disappearing peloton. Back in the car, Jose lays on the horn for a solid minute and we see green jerseys popping out the back of the peloton, heads turned looking for their team leader, legs nervously getting ready for the effort. When Rafa catches up to them, each one starts hammering, pouring their hearts onto the road, and peeling off 30 seconds to a minute later when they can't do any more, yellow just going from one wheel to the next cross-eyed from the pain. Only two teammates left (one of them the Cuban) and I finally get to see the Cuban's pain face, in control but going faster than I thought possible, Rafa in tow. As one director later described, they were racing "with cajones" to catch back on. They almost lost the tour in the last 6k, but were able to keep it. It was an epic moment and I saw it from only a few feet away.

I also saw the bad parts of cycling: crashing bikes as handlebars got tangled or someone riding off into the countryside after being nudged a bit too far off the road. The Russians had a rough day, with two crashes I think.