Tour of Missouri – Stage 3 Time Trial and Our Time With The Discovery Boys
Where to start, where to start….
Okay, first, big kudos to the citizens of Branson who were perfect hosts and set up a spectacular race venue amid gorgeous sunny weather. I had the privilege before and during the race of cycling their main roads and byways – and invariably when cars honked at us it was with a big wave and a cheer (albeit for the pro riders lurking nearby) and drivers went out of their way to allow us to work into traffic. What a great place to ride.
Second, the course was splendid for a time trial, relatively short at 18 miles but a leg burner with continuous rollers and serious hills offering miles of 8-10% grades with almost no variation – and absolutely no chance for relief – leveling the challenge for the power/speed guys and climbers.
Tour de France winner Alberto Contador was certainly feeling the pain from his 10th place effort. After signing autographs at the finish area he and teammate Benjamin Noval began the ride back to the Hilton hotel near the start area – that’s right, Discovery apparently no longer feels it necessary to pick up their TdF winner in a helicopter (a la LA) let alone send a team car or even a kid on a Vespa to escort them the 10 miles back – so off they went looking for directions which could be viewed as insulting to them as prestigious riders, let alone as men. We hate to ask for directions, it’s well known.
Instructions we overheard from one race volunteer weren’t exactly helpful, either, as she couldn’t decide whether they should take a right or a left at highway 248. Our Discovery boys, who speak lets just say less than perfect English, found this, lets just say, confusing.
Fortunately, yours truly and my good friend Steve just so happened to be heading back to the start area (i.e., stalking them) and seized on the opportunity to lead them back. In full disclosure, we had ridden the route once already that morning and gotten miserably lost notwithstanding there weren’t many roads to choose from. With this invaluable advanced scouting we were gung ho to give it another try with two hapless Discovery chaps along for the journey.
So we got underway and Noval promptly handed over his water bottle as advance payment for our services, then he pointed at his legs and said, “Ok, amigos, EASY.” We of course understood they’d both just burned their matches all the way up to their fingertips in the time trial and they weren’t looking for a testy ride behind two overzealous club guys (who, us?), so we rolled out at slightly less than full throttle and when the roads tilted up Noval shouted up “Amigos, EASY,” and glancing back our boys were now floating a few bike lengths back. So I looked to Steve, who’s the faster of the two of us (except when going for Noval’s bidon, hah!) and therefore gets the blame for our up tempo, and said, “Man, slow up a bit, you’re dropping Contador” — and with that it was a ride for posterity, not to mention lifetime club bragging rights.
So our newfound best friends Alberto and Benjamin trailed behind us chatting happily en Espanol, relieved of navigating their way home. Meanwhile, Steve and I were engrossed in our own friendly conversation that went something like, (me) “I think we go straight here,” (Steve), “No, I think we go left,” (me), “No, that’s the way we came when you got us lost the first time and led us into a valley it took a donkey to ride out of,” (Steve), “weren’t you leading at that point?” (me) “I think we go straight anyway.” Clearly the Discovery Team had found a couple of rubes for this job, but what do you expect for a used water bottle?
Long story short, our guys got back safely and we headed straight to the pub for some well deserved refreshments and proceeded to blast-dial anyone we could think of who might be jealous about our little spin with The Boys.
As a final note, we spent some quality time with Dan Schmatz, Missouri native and pro rider for BMC, who had the day before crashed out upon hitting an armadillo (think big rat with Kevlar shell), breaking his collarbone in the process. Actually, we shouted down to him from the second level of the parking garage and he waved back. It was great. We wish him a quick recovery, and promise not to get within 50 yards as per the restraining order.
We skipped the Friday stage due to having to be at work (writing Blogs doesn’t exactly pay the bills yet), but will be spending the weekend taking in the final stages in St. Charles and St. Louis. Keep posted for further updates.
JT Fisher
1 Levi Leipheimer (USA) Discovery Channel 39.37 (43.920 km/h)
2 Nathan O’Neill (AUS) Health Net p/b Maxxis 0.16
3 Matti Helminen (Fin) DFL – Cyclingnews – Litespeed 1.27
4 Ben Day (Aus) Navigators Insurance Cycling Team 1.32
5 Danny Pate (USA) Team Slipstream p/b Chipotle 2.04
6 George Hincapie (USA) Discovery Channel 2.07
7 Timothy Duggan (USA) Team Slipstream p/b Chipotle 2.31
8 Darren Lill (RSA) Navigators Insurance Cycling Team 2.39
9 Rory Sutherland (Aus) Health Net p/b Maxxis 2.55
10 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Discovery Channel 2.57
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BMC Working Well
Cool! A good deed done and 15 minutes of fame all wrapped up in one musette.
JT Fisher, you dropped the Yellow Jersey. Bragging rights indeed. It sounds like it was fun. I wish I could have been there. There is always Next year.
Sep 20th, 2007 at 5:58 pm
[...] sure to see JT Fisher gets a private ride alongside leading Tour de France winner Alberto Contador and gets to say: “Man, slow up a bit, you’re dropping [...]
Feb 1st, 2008 at 10:58 am
[...] Noval. No kidding. How’d it happen? Quite accidentally, as you can read via the following link (http://www.bicycle.net/2007/tour-of-missouri-stage-3-time-trial-and-our-time-with-the-discovery-boys). Just had to be at the right place, at the right time, and you had to be on a bike — and we [...]