Finally arrived at Selsdon Park at 9.50, having nearly left my shoes at home, but definately forgotten a drink
Cue my next stroke of luck. Chris and Lisa Scarlett were on hand to loan me a bottle which shall be returned washed and polished at tomorows showdown with the Paragon! 'Come to become a groupie' said Lisa, 'Hell Yeah!' is replied! I stood around gorping for 5mins while the Liquigas boys were rolling out of bed themselves. Im sure there must be some italian in me, not getting up early an all. So i got the bike out, got the shoes on, and rolled over to be greeted with a few slightly bemused looks coming from the Liquigas riders.
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So off they rolled while I was still grabbing the bottle from Chris, great, dropped before we even left the Hotel! So i hammered it down the drive way chasing onto the back of the peloton after a brief spell draughting the team car
Gruppo Compatto!
The first rider I spoke to spoke no English, and to be honest didn't really want to make the effort either. Fair enough i thought, after all i was this nobody trying to mix it with the big boys. After a while we got onto the lanes towards Westerham, where Manuel 'Triki' Beltran decided he wanted to change bikes. He started on a TT bike then switched to the road bike. Charly Wegelius later told me that Triki can be a little neurotic about his bikes! Anyway, about this time Chris and Lisa re-appeared, they tagged along behind us. At which point i got chatting to Triki himself. Triki used to ride for Postal and then Discovery and helped Lance in 4 of his Tours.
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He was such a nice bloke and from then on we were like best mates! He spoke pretty good english really and mi hablar un poco de espanol so we got on like a house on fire
Then we hit the first hill of the day, unfortunately Chris and Lisa dropped off at this point. I just about struggled up the hill keeping the team in sight. Ironically i towed supposed super moutain domestique Charly Wegelius back up to the bunch, pah, what a tart
So then shortly after the boys stopped for a pee, at which point Triki insisted that we had a photo together...
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He's such a legend! Then Charly asked me if i knew the area, i said yes. Actually i didn't have a clue, i hardly know the kent roads at all. But this was to good an opportunity to miss, so i blagged it. Triki said 1h45m more, i said ok. (very nervously) Charly was joking that the rest of the guys expected him to know all the roads like the palm of his hand, i mean christ he's barely british anyway! He said they think the south east is the size of Milan and that he SHOULD know! But hey, i 'did', so it was ok...ish.
So off we went, up Ide Hill. There I was drifting through the back of the bunch when 2006 Milan-San Remo winner Fillipo Pozzato came along side and gestured for me to give it a dig, then gave me a good old push to go for it! So dig i did, hard. I sprinted as hard as i could as the boys cheered, i just made the summit before being caught. Of course I was 'gifted' the win but man it felt good! Later on having been on the front a lot Triki rode up along side and said:
'A-dam, we give you wheel now'
I thought hang on a minute, I want at least a pair for leading you guys around! He could tell i looked confused then made himself clear,
'You follow our wheels, take it easy for a while eh?'
Oh right I laughed, so duly i sat on Pozzatos wheel. WOW! He's quite a big guy actually, doesn't look so big on TV but he is. Here i am on the wheel of a guy who's beaten Boonen, Petacchi, Freire et al. Amazing. Obviously I would have still kicked his ass in a sprint given the opportunity but they were just out for an easy ride today given the fact that the Tour was only 24hours away. So having now learnt left, right, and straight on in Italian i had succesfully guessed my way around the roads of kent and had them back to the A25.
Then it hurt, bad. As we turned right at Westerham i knew what was to come, a painful climb back up to Selsdon. So i gulped down the last few drops of Chris' drink (what flavour was it by the way!?) and settled in for the long haul. When Charly just said to me, 'If your struggling, just hang on to the team car!' Oh my word i thought, he'll let me do that!? Sure enough as i drifted back the mechnic in the car came along side and let me grab a hold of his window. FANTASTIC! So we chatted about how good his job was while the rest of 'em slogged it up the hill. He offered me more drinks and some food. What a top bloke.
So we eventually arrived back at the Hotel after what ranks as easily my highest moment on a bike to date. What a ride! Of course i demanded the obligatory team photo...
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After, Triki said, 'on the hills, [i'm] no good, but on the flat, you look strong!' I said, mucho gracias, so is my contract in the post!? He didn't understand, well, either that or he was just being polite!
As they gave their bikes to the mechanics and headed off for a shower i was left rolling around the car park just in a day dream. I felt like a pro for 3 hours, it was great! Having said that, i then had to go to work, at 12.30. The time was 1.15... ooops! How many times am i gonna get that kind of an opportunity though ay!? I still inspected everything the contactor had to offer though. So i didn't get the sack!
So after 100kms and 2hrs 59mins i felt as exhausted as if id just finished a 3hour race (well thats the sort of intensity i had to ride at to keep up!). But the weekend was young, there were beers to be had on Whitehall, Duffers and JaJa to meet, A girl to chat up, and then a fantastic jaunt through kent with another man who claimed to know where he was going... aka Paul 'TomTom' Tunnel!
But what a fantastic weekend, i will be on a high for sometime to come i think...
