Road Bike Racing - My day with US Postal

Sometimes you are just lucky and get to spend a whole morning with US POSTAL, talking and sharing tips with the mechanics, and riding with team. Here I am in my own hometown of Esbjerg a day before the start of the Tour of Denmark.

Here team mechanic Geoff Brown is attaching a bikepump, yes pump, to Mike Reed's Trek

Notice the smart use of an old bottle to store tubular tires

Nothing clean bikes as good as ...WASHING UP LIQUID !!! - Alan Buttler mechanic.

A very tanned Stuart O' Grady

Wheeeeeeeeee !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As they climb one of my favourite hills outside of town I am left with this final image of the Posties...

So what's the story behind this?

How long did they let you ride with them?

GREAT pix and story. I also want to hear more, though! :)

kewl!

For how long could you keep up with them?

that's awesome, man. what i wouldn't do for an hour alone on that parts truck. my wife has to wipe the drool off my chin everytime they show them stocking the truck on the lance chronicles...

Sorry guys, I should have given a lot more information about my day. Here goes. The first stage of the Tour of Denmark ended in my hometown of Esbjerg. Most of the teams (Saeco, Lotto, CSC, T-Mobile, Cofidis, arrived a few days before in Esbjerg. Postal arrived the day before. I was taking my dog for a walk, when I saw the Postal truck parked near a local hotel, about a mile from where i live. Being the friendly guy I am I introduced myself to the mechanics, who were either working on bikes or just generally sitting about.

I found them to be extremely friendly and very talkative. (turns out no one really likes Phil Ligget after his comments about mechanical failure related to crappy mechanical workmanship etc)
I was most interested to find out what they clean and lube the bikes with. They use an industrial degreaser, and afterwards simply rinse the bikes. Until recently a mixture of gasoline and diesel was used to clean the chain with, but that is enviromentally not so good.

I was amazed to see the truck stuffed with bikes (both road and TT) and wheels. On the rear door of the truck was pasted an information sheet with all Postal riders physical details relating to their bikes. I could not help notice that Lance Armstrongs details were omitted.

During the next hour the Postal riders started showing up around the truck, each getting his freshly serviced bike handed to him. As it turns out Antonio Cruz's bikes got lost by his airline on the way to Denmark (guess he is not based in Europe) Geoff Brown was frantically building a new one to him (why not take one of the ones in the truck I thought to myself)

It became clear that the riders were going for a training ride as soon as the bike was fininshed, with Victor Hugo Pena holding an area map, and I thought this is my chance. I offered to show them the way out of town to the favourite cycling routes of a certain Bjarne Riis, who stems from this part of the world. I honestly expected a no, but to my suprise they said ok. With that I rushed home, got changed (cursing to myself that I had no clean cycling clothes), got on the bike and got back. My timíng was perfect as Antonio Cruz just got on his bike as I got there on mine.

The ride out of town went fine with me leading the way from traffic light to traffic light. I had people look at me before on my bike, but on this ride we were really turning heads. I remember thinking - please do not look like an idiot here today, and dont fall. ( I had my Nikon digital SLR hanging over my back)
I managed to take a few good shots, but as we got closer to the outskirts of town the pace hotted up from 35km/h to 45km/h. When we finally got out of town after 9km, they thanked me, gave me a souvenire bottle filled with lime Extran and showed me why they are professional riders..




Waiting to go

Starting to climb

Race day in Esbjerg

Some more of the Tour of Denmark

That is such an amazingly, fantastic story! What an experience!

That is just way too cool! Great pictures too man!

how does it feels to ride with the pros

how does it feels to ride with the pros


I felt very self-aware and slightly out of place/pace

That's what it means to be part of the cycling community! Props up to you for helping to show them around- I'm sure they were appreciative, and it probably saved them at least an hour of map time to have a local showing them around. We really need more guys like you out there on the roads.

If I ever get to Denmark....

:D

Koffee

Thanks for letting us live vicariously through your experience! Great photos and story.

Now, if they ever do a tour in the US that starts in Madison :rolleyes:

-murray

Great story, thanks for sharing! Talk about being at the right place at the right time. Also, like Koffee said, "it probably saved them at least an hour of map time to have a local showing them around. We really need more guys like you out there on the roads."

O.k. I'll admit it, I'm jealous. :)

Keep pedaling.

You suck!! :)

Hey Murrays, I hear the Tour of Hope is making a stop at the Waterloo Trek facility, perhaps one of the Posties will be stopping buy.

Hey Murrays, I hear the Tour of Hope is making a stop at the Waterloo Trek facility, perhaps one of the Posties will be stopping buy.

Giddyup :D

Actually, Robbie Ventura raced in a local crit a few years ago...lapped the field I think :p

If I'm not mistaken, Andy Hampstein, Connie Carpenter and Eric Heiden all lived in Madison at one time or another. Also, Casy Fitzrandolf grew up close to here and I'm sure he could hold his own on a bike as well :eek:

-murray

Oh ya and there's this: In Lake Mills this fall there is a fundraiser ride which will feature some of the posties.
Tyranena Brewery (http://webpages.charter.net/tobr/)
Kenny Labbe & Robbie Ventura are to be the special guests.

How long were you able to pace them? When the pace picked up to 45KM/h were you still with them? How fast do you figure they were going when they dropped you. Did you have any ambition to keep up with them at that point or did they just drop you like a fat kid on a huffy :) ? (I guess I'm just asking how you compare, but I'm curious because that's, if not a once in a lifetime opportunity, a really rare one)

Chad

thats so fricken awesome.......i wish i could do that.....

That's a hell of a great story!

On the training pictures, nobody seems to be wearing gloves ... is there a reason for this?

To answer your questions Chad, I offered to show the Posties the quickest way out of town. Although Esbjerg is not a big city by anyones standards, (pop. 80 000) it is tricky to get out of. I thought of riding with them as long as possible, but as we reached the outer limits of the city, about 9km, it became quite clear to me that they will keep me to this promise i.e - I was thanked for my efforts and a souvinier given in the form of a water bottle. The pace increased drastically to at least 45km/h up hill, and I dropped of gracefully, taking my final image of them.

To answer you MacMan, I did not realise until now that no-one is wearing gloves. Only one was wearing a helmet though....

Everyone who's ridden with pro riders, even for a short distance, will say that you can't really appreciate what these guys can do until you've sat in with them.

Poululla,
Antonio Cruz is based in Europe, Girona, Spain actually. He has rented the same flat in Girona since 2001 and Dave Zabriskie has been his roommate since 2002. As with the other European based Americans on Postal, Tony goes back to the United States in the winter. He also goes back to the States to compete in the USPRO championships. Like all of his teammates that are not doing the Tour in July, Tony goes home. For the Americans this obviously means the States. When Poululla ran into the Postal riders, some of the Americans had already been back in Europe for a week or two and done some races. Since Tony can ride the Classics, the Grand Tours, and American criteriums very well he had done the New York City cycling championships on August 1 and boarded a plane for Denmark that night. Poullulla happened to run into the Postal riders the day Tony had arrived back in Europe.

fantastic thread. great pictures and fascinating story!!! you are one lucky man...

So, Poullulla...Let me get this straight, you had the opportunity to ride with Team USPS, you had a camera, and you didn't get a picture of you leading the Posties??!!

What were you thinking?
LOL...Great story!

Good question. I thought of many things that morning, mainly do not crash whilst taking a picture over your back, do not look like an idiot (probably to late considering what I was trying to do...) I guess I was caught up in the momement of leading them out of town. Retrospectively I wish I had one of them take a pic of me, but I feel that I have asked enough on that day. Next year, for shure :D

Very, very cool. Thanks for sharing. Quick thinking and chutzpa on your part.

Great story - and happy birthday to your son !

Thanks for the birthday wishes :)