Friday, March 9, 2007

Kuurne_Brussel-Kuurne part II

The team arrived. They started unloading the bikes and putting bidons on the bike. 
At this stage, I (and other fans) start inspecting the bikes. Sometimes I find something interesting, like new prototype equipment being tested or some peculiar things on the bike.

All the team bikes had Zipp full carbon rim (34mm or 58mm height) with "Pave & Cross" stickers on them with the hubs also marked with "Pave & Cross" and Vittoria Pave tubular with green color. Actually, Pave has to be spelled as a French word " Pavé".

I guessed that Zipp wanted the team to use this wheels through out the Spring including those so called Spring Classics known for their harsh paved roads. 
There was an article in Procycling where Team CSC riders 
(Allan Johansen, Lars Michaelsen and Fabian Cancellara) testing the Equipment on 
the cobble stones (which is Pavé).  Johansen had his wheel (Zipp) broken.

Everybody had the FSA K-Force light crankset (one of the lightest on the market) except for Lars Bak. He had a very special crankset (on his spare bike, too).

After that I went to the Feed Zone, about 50km away from the Start. It was about an hour drive. I don't have much luck getting what I want; bidons, sacoche and others that the riders dispose of. Sometimes I do get lucky. For example, in 2006 at Amstel Gold Race, Michael Blaudzun threw the sacoche at me. 
He was about to get rid of his sacoche when he saw me and threw it at my foot. 

I drove back to Kuurne and had a much needed sleep after all for about an hour in my car.
I woke up around 4:00 pm to see the riders come backand make the rounds. I did not go to the Goal, instead, I waited by the team bus. 

So a typical race day ended. "See you next time!" to the team staff and I was to drive 550km back home. 

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