Journal of professional cyclists Ian MacGregor and Timmy Duggan

behind the scenes trouble

Its always entertaining hearing about the lengths that the slipstream staff goes behind the scenes sometimes to keep us on time, happy and ready to race. Our Soigneur Kim was filling me in on the recent events today during my massage. Appearantly Kim and Jen, our other Soigneur had a run in with Johnny law en route to the deed zone today. After just missing the correct turn, Jen flipped a U to go back. Shortly thereafter a sheriff, not unlike the one in dukes of hazzard, pulled them over in a small town. Oh good, they thought, this nice officer is gonna tell us which is the right way to the feed zone since we are quite obviously a bit lost. Instead they were informed that they had been clocked at 60 in a 40 zone, subject to a 210 dollar fine, payable immediately in cash since they were not Georgia residents. They politely informed the officer that no way had they gone that fast, as they had just turned around, and besides they had only a credit card. Ok then, were gonna have to take you to jail. What?!?! Sounded kinda fishy right? A trip to a broken ATM and a call to the lawyer ensued. Somehow they got the cash to pay the disgruntled cop and made it to the feed zone in time, all unbeknownst to us, as we were just happy to get a coke.
The mechanics are not without trouble either. On the long drive from co to Georgia last week, daimo was driving the sprinter with a loaded trailer, only to have it break down at 2am in the middle of nowhere. As it wasn’t possible to get a tow to a place that fixes sprinters at that hour, and he wasn’t about to leave the rig with all the bikes on the side of the road daimo rounded up all the clothes in his bag, made a warm little nest, and bivouacked in the freezing van for the night. Morning came, along with a tow, a new truck was rented, and he was off. And then got a flat tire on the trailer an hour later. Despite it all he still arrived on time for the airport pick up.
Oh, yeah, there was a race today too. We made a big effort on the circuit, a lot to early in retrospect, to set up Tyler for the sprint, where he narrowly missed gaining the leaders jersey by one place! I’m sure he will get it tomorrow though!
Thanks for checking in