Cav's bike

after only 4 wins

Spinning Along

So much footage it's hard to explain the amount of work involved in
taking it all in. Imagine walking into a library and needing to know
every word in every book so that from them you can formulate a story.
That's about how it feels these days. On a bright note I goto meet
with Haik this evening to have our first talk about the soundtrack for
the film. Haik is such an artist I'm excited to get the ball rolling.
Or in this case, spinning.

Photos are from an interview with Brian the day Jens wrecked. I had
planned on interviewing him but alas, this is bike racing and nothing
goes according to schedule.

More Legends in the bag!

We finally made it home and I'm going through the Paul Sherwen and
Jens Voigt interviews. Great score from our trip!

Buggered Travel

after a great visit with Cav (he was recovering from a respiratory infection and camped at the final city of the ToM) Curtis and I made our way to the airport. I really look forward to showing the world a side of Cav they don't see. The calm, smiling, quiet guy who speaks with passion and integrity. He joked with us like we were old friends - without the pressure of 2 billion people watching him, without the expectations and media crush Mark Cavendish is a mellow, fun guy. He deserves some credit for being more than a machine on a bike.

Travel days always suck but yesterday was one of those days that REALLY suck. Our flight landed in the connecting city of Atlanta early and there we sat. As the pilot reminded us, "No good deed goes unpunished" we not only sat past our normal arrival time but 30 minutes past our connecting flight's departure time. Wonderful. We had a half dozen hours till the dawn flight.

Reminded me of our brief visit to Sitka, Alaska last year when Curtis and I were on a plane that tried 3x to land in Juneau but couldn't find the runway so we diverted to Sitka, paid $150 for a hotel to sleep in for 3 hours then headed back to the airport for more fun tries at landing. Luckily this time we had 4 hours of sleep AND the guys at the Days in put out the breakfast early. That rocked.

Now we sit and wait to head home. Curtis is a sleeping machine. I'm sipping coffee eyeing the Dunkin Doughnuts counter...
...travel days, all part of the glamour. I forgot to bring my still cam but I'll see if I can post some stills from the footage in the next day or two. Big thanks to Jens, Paul, Bernie, Jan, Cav and Kristy for their help and time. It was great to see them all once again. I'm more dedicated than ever to making this film truly amazing. It's become my raison d'étre.

Exhausted

Finally about to get some sleep after a whirlwind 2 days at Tour of Missouri. Scored some great b-roll yesterday at the race finish in Jefferson City then ate dinner with the teams. Got a chance to talk with Levi, Jens, George, Bernie, Kristy, Jan and a few other riders & staff. Today we were pleasantly surprised to line up Paul Sherwen after a random meeting at Starbucks. Paul gave us all sorts of time as we fired question after question at him. Amazing to hear his stories and perspective on this year's Tour.

I was supposed to shoot from a motorcycle but the race promoter took me off the list once Cavendish bailed out of the race. Not sure why but I did what I could to line up a moto to shoot from during the time trail and it just wasn't meant to be.

We polished off the day with one of the most poignant interviews I've filmed - HUGE thanks to Jens Voigt who gave us over an hour of his time. Thankfully the sunset held off long enough for him to finish - the man can talk!

Then it was out for mexican food with Jan and some of the staff. Pretty full day I'd say. Back to DC tomorrow after we try to connect with Cav in Kansas City where he's hanging out with his lady friend.

JB

Here's a photo of Big George in his new road suit

Jan Lindberg - Top Mechanic and Friend

Jan Lindberg - from the day I met him in Switzerland, has been the most friendly and welcoming of the very friendly and welcoming Columbia HTC family. He is one of the many mechanics on the team and while all of them deserve special recognition for the tireless work they do, Jan became our close friend. As Jan found out, being friends with film makers isn't easy - we pleaded with him to attach camera's to bikes,

give us inside info, let us film him on good days and bad. We always had questions for him, always a favor to ask. I'm not sure what kept Jan saying, "Yes, ok, it is possible. I will do this." but for some reason he did. Even tho he has about 20 years of experience working on bikes, it was his first Tour de France and he was very concerned with doing the best job he could - distrations like us didn't help I'm sure.

We tried to pay him with booze but when you are at the Tour, a hangover can loose your job so we mostly just looked at the booze.

So here's to you Jan - THANK YOU - for fixing our cameras, fixing our bikes, educating us on the Tour and being a good friend amidst the most stressful event of your career.
This is Jan unleashing some dance moves on Director Jason Berry.

Unsung Hero

Walter is the team chef. He's a really nice guy and a great chef. He
fed us most of the trip so a shout out to Walter is long overdue. This
was in Chablis when we were sharing a hotel with Saxo Bank (not sure
of their chef's name but he was a nice guy too!).

Episodes in the RV

Yes, we locked ourselves out. Thankfully JZ had the shoulder span of
an 8 year old girl and could fit through the roof - after we broke the
latch of course.
I am still amazed at this photo.

Backdrops

Texture, both decorative and tactile, will often fill the screen of our film. We paid careful attention to the architecture, spectators, towns and towers.

There's hard and then there's TOUGH

Sure, the scenery is nice but as the team director, Brian told me, "You don't see much when you race. You have to retire then return to these places to appreciate what you were riding through."

So consider, as if the hors category climb wasn't enough,

throw in some bone-rattling cobbles.

Be sure there's enough barren switchbacks stacked on each other so you
can see the break away group just over your head but 2k away...

Get rid of any pansy-comforting guard-rails to keep the sketch factor
properly high.

Then throw in hot temps at the start of the race with snow & rain at the summit but
a finish line 80k away from that summit.


and you've got one TOUGH day in the saddle.
Compliments of Tour de Suisse.