I have to apologize for my total blog-slack. I know that the 4 of you that read this on a regular basis are probably disapointed that I've been away for a week or so. I wish I could tell you that I was sleeping in a hammock somewhere working on a wicked bad burn contemplating potential blog topics in between pina coladas and games of domino but alas I was relegated to being the ringleader of the traveling circus that was Trek's expo booth at the Tour of California. If you're hip to the roadie speak, the TOC is the first major race on the pro tour and has grown into the biggest race in the US. The race is super fly with typically great weather and some serious big hitters riding. Our boy, Levi Leipheimer, won last year and was poised for the repeat. All exciting stuff if you're there to watch. If you're there to run an expo, here's your schedule:
- Wake up at 6 am and scrounge up enough free breakfast at the Quality Inn to suffice until real food can be located. Tip from the road: the waffle bar is not easy to transport in your pockets. Steal the fruit or bagels.
- 7am - 11am: Set up booth, avoid monster paper cuts from posters, fold t-shirts, complain about weather.
- 11am - 5 pm: Stand on concrete and sling t-shirts, posters and stickers, wax about carbon fiber and how awesome it is, explain to consumers that the bikes used by the team weigh very little, cost a whole bunch, and no, sorry, we're not giving them away.
- 5 pm - 7 pm: Tear down booth, pack everything into a truck, argue whether to stop for chinese or mexican, dial up directions to the next finish city on the Google Maps feature on your Blackberry while maintaining the look that you're really helping to haul bike displays back into the truck.
- 7 pm - ???: realize the drive is too long to stop for food and accept the fact that it's just another night of Taco Del Mar, drive, complain about the reception on your itrip, try to hunt down the only La Quinta in Buellton, collapse.
I would've checked in a lot sooner but the wireless internet reception in the 16' box truck between Palo Alto and Pasadena was less than stellar. The weather was tragic with cold downpour and was a constant combatant of our promotional materials and good spirits. Living in the midwest will make you hearty so the weather never really got to us, especially when the temps back at HQ were at Kelvin status. It was all good though as Levi repeated and we scored a ton of love from the Californians on our Let Levi Ride campaign. I'll explain more about that in another post. Big props to the left coast for the hospitality.
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