One More Sleep! time for the TdF 2010 to Start. We are at the end of Day -1, which is the point where the whole team just want things to start already. Admittedly I’ve been in that mood since Tuesday afternoon when I headed out from the team Service Course in Girona. Now everyone else has joined me in night-before-Christmas-as-a-seven-year-old land.
Today the boys did a couple of hot laps of the course (which was closed for 90-odd minutes today), checked out corners, worked out how quickly they can hit them and then packed it up and got back for food and massage. Some wrapped the night up with some hair sculpting, of questionable taste for some, others… not bad!
The major stress of the day has been over tomorrow’s weather predictions. For an 8km prologue there are only ever very small margins between the leaders, and so we really want our riders with the best chances for high places riding in the best possible conditions.
Consequently every weather prediction website has been pored over repeatedly, and we’ve used as much local knowledge as we can to try and figure out when will be the best time to roll.
The result? Two of our guns early, one late! Hahahahaha! You could have picked it before you even looked at a thing! Well, almost.
And it looks like a few other teams have made a similar decision, with some other big hitters going earlier, when it’s likely to be dry but windy; and others late, when likely to be wet but still. Either way is a gamble, but hopefully it will pay off for the mighty Garmin-Transitions!
Now the staff are having bets and chit chat over the Prologue top 5, overall top 5 and the finishing order for our boys tomorow. Important stuff!
I love the start of a sporting event. All there are at that point are possibilities and conjecture. Can we bag a stage win? Hold or win a jersey? Grab a top-5 overall? All very possible eventualities, as are a bajillion others, all of which we shall begin to find the answers to tomorrow.
I can’t wait!
