Criterium du Dauphine Libere — Stage 7

Pizza time!!

Today is the last stage of the Dauphine. And we finish in the beautiful city of Annecy France. How cool is that. A small city by a small lake in this small valley surrounded by big beautiful mountains. But unfortunately we will not be enjoying the view long. As soon as the race ends we are out of here. It is crazy how quickly teams are trying to get the hell out of Dodge. Our bus and truck are parked just past the finish along with all the other team busses and trucks. Quite a zoo to be honest. And we mechanics (as well as other team staff) are going like mad to pack the stuff up and into the trucks. As soon as possible, riders are on the bus and taking a quick shower. Then they are off to the airport on various flights. Because we are sort of close to Spain, George and Levi were to go home via the Casse d’Espargne team bus. It was to pass by Barcelona on it’s way to their Spanish service course in Pamplona. Both George and Levi live near Barcelona in a small city called Girona. From there a short ride to Girona. Much faster than waiting for an airplane to Barcelona and having to check on luggage etc. Simpler and faster to drive. Christian VandeVelde and Dave Zabriski (both CSC team) went along on the Casse D’Espargne bus to Barcelona also as they too live in Girona. I would say within an hour after the race finished our bus was on it’s way to the airport in near by Lyon with the remainder of our team. Save for the staff that had to drive cars back to Brakel.

It just so happened that the our team bus and team truck were parked next to a Pizza place. As soon as the truck was packed and the riders were off, Craig and I took a short breather. And Craig suggested we get a pizza to go for our drive home. He did not need to twist my arm too much. After day in and day out full of pasta, I was happy for a nice change.