Wish I was home (here)

Traveling the world as a team mechanic lets me see many sides of the world and also being on Postal a Division 1 team and Tour winning team allows us some great perks that help make the tough job a bit easier.
Hotels specifically are usually great. Sometimes not (like in Redlands) but usually nice or over the top nice is the norm. Places like the Four Seasons in Austin (which is nice and we have almost cart blanch), The Marriott in Paris (with the damm bitchen heated bathroom floor and huge shower), the cool hotel at the top of the Genting highland stage in Malaysia (in the fog layer), the island huts also in Malaysia (where someone I know crashed a jet ski), and of course the Castles turned into hotels in France durring out Tour stays. All of which tops my list.
Well, I have add the hotel here in Scottsdale to the list of over the top cool places we stay at. The Boulders Resort. Anything with Resort in it’s name should be a clue.
A few days before we were to leave Solvang to go to AZ I was told I needed to room with a team rider. Extremely unusual for me. I have on only two occasions had to room with a rider. A bit weird for me because riders need to be on a certain schedule and mine does not match it so I’m always worried I have to be careful of what I do and when so as not to disrupt their schedule. My other option was to get a roll away bed to put into Julien’s and Juan’s room and share their small space. I chose the latter.
When we got to the hotel I had to go straight to the area where we were set up and did not get to my room till late in the day Friday. But when I did I was shocked. It was basically a house. A three bedroom house with a shower/bathroom in each bedroom, a kitchen, laundry room (where was the laundry room all the last 12 days in Solvang damm it!) a family room with VCR and a DVD player and a garage to park the MTB bikes we were to borrow for the few days. MTB bikes because it was almost 2 Ks from our “hotel room” to the truck (and meals for that matter).
Everyone was in small groups of two or three to a room (House). Man this place is cool. If only we could have had this place for our main (long) camp in Solvang. Especially for the riders as they are doing Laundry each day. Or should I say for the Soigneurs who did the daily laundry for them. The riders were not to receive new team clothing (riding and casual) till we got here so they had to suffer with a few of last years clothing till the end of camp. So laundry was a daily thing for the soigneurs. Not too hard for a stage race of 7 or 8 or 9 riders but here was the entire team of 25. That was a lot of laundry.
Of course we had our annual team/sponsor dinner which was easily numbering 300 for this event. Like last year Robin Williams was here and again he got up to speak. Of course he got into his routine. But not really a routine as he is an amazing comedian and things just flew out of his brain left and right. We were in stitches for 20 minutes straight. Yesterday he even went on the Sponsor ride. Word is he rides regularly at home for fun and some exercise. Very interesting guy.
Well, I’m off to go back home tomorrow. But I wish I was home (here)!!!!
Here’s Jaun in his huge room.
Me and Robin Williams:
Robin on the sponsor ride:

CClinton

Owner of Promechanics.com and long time professional race mechanic.