Last minute blogging at Disco camp

It’s been a while since I last blogged. The reason being was that it was production week (when we put the magazine together) and we were making preparations for the Tour of California. On top of that we visited a few training camps. Before we knew it, we had a magazine due. So I’m going to get back into the blogging habit again.

I’ve visited training camps before but I’d never gone to the Discovery Channel camp. This year I decided to go, schedule interviews and see what I got. I asked to interview Levi, George, Tom Danielson, John Devine and Ivan Basso. Due to conflicting interview times, Jenn Reither, our roving reporter, joined Al and myself to help conduct the interviews. I chose Jenn to interview Basso. The reason? Jenn is, obviously, a woman and I know from past experience with Ivan he interviews better with women. I’ll leave it at that. Sure enough Ivan sat and talked to Jenn for the full time and didn’t seem rushed to get back to his room. In fact, he was starting to hang out with Jenn and just shoot the breeze with her. So after my interview with Levi was over, I introduced myself and showed him our Tour of California book. Levi came over and he showed Ivan the photo of him pumping his fist as he won the prologue in San Francisco. Basso was curious about the gradient of the climb and the amount of time it took up the climb to the finish. That conversation went back and forth with Levi trying to explain the course and the gradient and Basso seeming to understand. After awhile I even became bored with Levi asking Ivan if he understood and Basso replying that he did. It started to border on an Abbott and Costello sketch. Anyways, Basso was a good interview and we got what we wanted for this issue. I kick myself for not asking him the 20 questions (Insight section) we have at the back of the magazine. At a later date I’d like to sit down with him and conduct a longer interview. Maybe after the Tour…

After our interviews were over we were hanging out in the hallway of the Discovery Channel hotel. As we are standing there, in strolls Sheryl Crow! My first thought was, “Man, she is small!” She only took about three steps inside before Dirk Demol saw her and came over. They chatted and seemed to be catching up. I don’t know why she was there and perhaps remains friends with the team. I only decided to write about it now because her being there became public knowledge a few days ago. I didn’t want to be perezhilton.com and throw photos of her on my blog and insinuate who she was there to visit.

After it was all said and done we loaded up into Al’s SUV and drove home. A long day, but I’ve seen how the magazine looks and I’m happy with the outcome. Sometimes those long days pay off.

Tomorrow I’m off to Mallorca, Spain to see the Saunier Duval team and to check out the Mallorca Challenge race. It was one of the first races of the season and is run omnium style, meaning that it is a stage race, but a rider could skip the mountain stage and continue the next day. I come home from Spain the 14^th and then the 16^th Tim and I drive up to start the Tour of California. This is going to be a long month.

Hincapie’s custom painted Trek