We have some downtime as we drive to Girona tonight. Its a welcome break from the hyper intensity during each day. I copy footage onto 2 dif drives and clear flash cards. Curtis preps cameras and batteries. Ken spends time via BB on email and sussing the next days route while JZ drives. We are finally in a groove.
Today was uneventful for the race but we all shot good parts. I am already seeing certain scenes coming together...
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Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Monday, July 6, 2009
Breakthrough
Its been hard but tonights breakthrough came at dinner with the team. Communication has never been more important and we are finally all getting it dialed. Spirits were high with another win. Minor victories mean the world and having the sougniers and mechanics bust my chops was great. Well, as great as getting mocked can be.
Jb
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Jb
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Test blog
Remote. Vlog from the feed zone. Racers r close! Hot as hell here.
-jb
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-jb
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Sunday, July 5, 2009
The Glass Is Half Full
From the Chasing Legends blog:
Trying a new way to update the blog from e-mail. Hope this works. So far we've been road-blocked by a lack of electricity to our RV, a lack of a generator, lack of air conditioning on 100°+ days which contributes to a lack of sleep, lack of proper finish-area passes (there's about 20 different levels of press passes here, we're at the bottom), lack of coffee (which only effects me as I'm the only one out of 4 of us in the RV who drinks java), yea there's 4 of us in the RV which means a lack of space, lack of any decent internet connections, lack of bourbon (again this is a Jason-thing so clearly there is no lack of whining from me), lack of sleep (I know I already mentioned that but it's worth repeating) and a general lack of fun.
But in such times, it's best to focus on what one does have. While there is no lack of stress, sore backs, unruly mosquitos that have left me looking like I have chicken pox... what we DO have is a kick-ass team of guys who get along pretty good considering the tough conditions, we have have a kick-ass driver-interpreter who speaks 6 languages including Japanese (in case we get really lost). We have an abundance of unruly cords, chargers, batteries and camera gear but we have wrestled them into very organized bins. We have the Columbia High Road HTC team to follow who just won the 2nd stage of the race and they have a very cool new sponsor, "HTC" which is a telecom company. We have some really impressive footage so far considering I've been kicked out of the finish area twice in 2 days, we have a lot of new friends who are fun to film and we have one hell of an adventure in front of us.
Since time is one thing we are exceptionally short on, I must run. Now that we have better cell and internet connections we will be putting up more and more info as the race and movie progress. Thanks for reading...as the glass fills up.
-Jason
Trying a new way to update the blog from e-mail. Hope this works. So far we've been road-blocked by a lack of electricity to our RV, a lack of a generator, lack of air conditioning on 100°+ days which contributes to a lack of sleep, lack of proper finish-area passes (there's about 20 different levels of press passes here, we're at the bottom), lack of coffee (which only effects me as I'm the only one out of 4 of us in the RV who drinks java), yea there's 4 of us in the RV which means a lack of space, lack of any decent internet connections, lack of bourbon (again this is a Jason-thing so clearly there is no lack of whining from me), lack of sleep (I know I already mentioned that but it's worth repeating) and a general lack of fun.
But in such times, it's best to focus on what one does have. While there is no lack of stress, sore backs, unruly mosquitos that have left me looking like I have chicken pox... what we DO have is a kick-ass team of guys who get along pretty good considering the tough conditions, we have have a kick-ass driver-interpreter who speaks 6 languages including Japanese (in case we get really lost). We have an abundance of unruly cords, chargers, batteries and camera gear but we have wrestled them into very organized bins. We have the Columbia High Road HTC team to follow who just won the 2nd stage of the race and they have a very cool new sponsor, "HTC" which is a telecom company. We have some really impressive footage so far considering I've been kicked out of the finish area twice in 2 days, we have a lot of new friends who are fun to film and we have one hell of an adventure in front of us.
Since time is one thing we are exceptionally short on, I must run. Now that we have better cell and internet connections we will be putting up more and more info as the race and movie progress. Thanks for reading...as the glass fills up.
-Jason
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Get It While Its Hot!
The Chasing Legends Trailer is here!!! Running out of internet and batteries. Follow this link to our new Gripped Films website.
Chasing Legends Trailer
Tomorrow Curtis is getting rigged up with three on-bike cams for course recon with Columbia-HTC
yes, HTC. A new cool cell phone sponsor has jumped aboard for the next 2 and a half years. Look out iPhone...
The Chasing Legends Trailer is here!!! Running out of internet and batteries. Follow this link to our new Gripped Films website.
Chasing Legends Trailer
Tomorrow Curtis is getting rigged up with three on-bike cams for course recon with Columbia-HTC
yes, HTC. A new cool cell phone sponsor has jumped aboard for the next 2 and a half years. Look out iPhone...
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
We Made It & Its Full the Gas the Whole Way
Keep an eye out for the CurtisCam. I will be uploading videos every couple of days behind the scenes with riders and team crew. A sneak peak into the pro lifestyle.
We are in Monaco preparing for the prologue. Yesterday was hectic- landing in Paris, then flying to Nice, then picking up our mobile hotel- the RV, and finally driving to Monaco - all with zero shut eye for 36 hours.
Tomorrow we are going to have another busy day and the tour has not even started! In the AM we will be with the riders while they train and do some recon for the opening prologue. They have pretty sweet rides- two mammoth busses, incredible Scott bikes. Too bad they have to stay the 5 star hotel overlooking the Mediterranean... They can't roll in style like us in an RV.
Nice, France at a Glance: Everyone is attractive. Everyone- Newborns and old men are included. Calvin Klein and TommyH don't actually pay models. The simply give a camera to photography student and he takes snapshots in downtown Nice.
Monoco at a Glance: See above** PLUS everyone is loaded enough to own a yacht, a Benz, a place for the Benz on the yacht, and a mansion 3,000 feet up built into a cliff overlooking the yacht.
Driving here is insane. I don't generally think of roads in three dimensions but there are intricate networks of tunnels, bridges and warp holes cluttering the extremely narrow roads every 500 meters. And with our 25 footer, Ken is loving it.
I got to experience the roads, for the first time since landing, in much calmer, back-to-the-basics type way; just two wheels. Rode as high up as the roads would take me and then said to myself "hmm...how do I get back" But after bumping into a directionally savvy Rabbi(he gets the 3-D road network) in the pitch black, I was back at base camp in no time.
Jason is keeping his game face on, introducing us to the entire staff, and keeping us informed on anything TDF. We have 12 cameras and he has plan for each one for each day. He's got a lot of editing ahead of him, but its going to be great and even better than Gripped Films awardwinning Off Road and 24 Solo.
Ken has been Captain Tech making sure that we are self sustained with power and communication. We are able to run all of our PC's (and Macs for us Apple goons) keep our food cold, run multiple appliances, and charge batteries all without the help of an external outlet.
Speaking of batteries, our batteries or charged, in both the metaphorical and literal sense, and we are ready to get the wheels turning bright and early! Thanks for reading
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