Conference noted::bicycle

I'm hoping to catch part of the race too.  While I don't know what the route
will be in Massachusetts, I do recall that the April issue of _Bicycling_ said
that the May issue will have details of the race.  Since this most likely be
out before the race I'm depending upon that to tell me.  I'm hoping that the
course is Rt 9 because there are some good hills in the Worcester area that will
slow them down a bit.

Rich

    
    
    I live very close to Northhampton.  I have checked around and can
    almost say with certainty that the race course will be Rte. 9.  All
    the way to Boston.  I would plan on seeing the beginning, middle or
    end.  There is no way that you could watch the beginning and then
    continue to watch as the race progressed.  Rte. 9 is the only east
    west route in the area.  I'm sure all the side streets will be used 
    by the locals as an alternate route.  Rte. 9 is fairly well traveled.
      Possibly you could watch the beginning and then take Rte. 91 south
    to the pike and then to Boston.  What kind of seat would you get by the
    time you got there though?
    
    						Norm
    
    

Somebody a while back suggested that a good place to watch would be 
from the top of Belmont Hill in Worcester next to Worcester Memorial 
Hospital. That is one steep climb.....

I am not sure where the most interesting part of the race will be. I 
plan on seeing at least some small part of the race.


JC

>>Somebody a while back suggested that a good place to watch would be 
>>from the top of Belmont Hill in Worcester next to Worcester Memorial 
>>Hospital. That is one steep climb.....
  
It sure is. It will be the spot to get some good photos of the peloton if they
are really going to ride on Rt9. What a nightmare it will be for taffic control
when they ride through Framingham/Natick. Here's a question for MATT and other
euro noters. How much time does it take for the peloton and support/TV crew to
pass through an area in a large stage race?

Tom

    
       I followed the tour de trump all the way out to Harrisburg PA
    last year.  The last stage that I followed endid in Harrisburg.
     My wife and I watched the start in Allentown. Picked a spot about
    70 miles into the race and beat the race there by about 15 minutes.
    we were taking our time getting there.  We then drove the remaining
    50 miles into Harrisburg,  found a parking spot and located the
    finish line out on a bridge.  We still had to wait about half an
    hour before the race came in to town.
    
       So what am I saying?  you can watch the race at various points
    on the course and still see the finish.  The best part about this
    type of event is that if you are at the start or the finish line
    you can walk up to the riders introduce yourself and say high, 
    get your pictures taken whatever you want.  I had a great time meeting
    all of the 7-11 guys in new yourk city and actually talking at length
    with andy Hampsten, Ron Kiefal and Sean Yates.  I also met all ofmost
    of team USA and a couple of the russian riders (did'nt have much
    conversation there) Its a real good time !!
    
      BTW Lemond was hidden the whole time and I only caught a glimpse
    of him as he headed for the start line.
    
    John C.
    

    It only takes the peloton a little longer than it would take you in
    your car (including traffic lights) to go down a road like Rt. 9.
    Still, the police (in Europe, at least) like to clear the roads 
    long before the riders arrive.  Last year, during the Tour de France,
    I was able to hit the road on my bike more than two hours before the 
    peloton arrived, and there wasn't a car in sight.  Of course, this
    is in an area where watching a bike race is a big thing, so there 
    are hundreds of thousands of spectators that the police have to 
    keep off the roads.  I doubt that that's true in the 'States.
    
    (Sigh)
    
    Why in the **** am I coming back? 
    MATT

    The most exciting part for me will be the Devil's Kitchen Stage.
    This is a dirt road (actually part of a hiking trail) in the Catskill
    mountains in upstate NY.  I grew up 30 minutes from this area and
    am planning on heading over for that part of the race.
    
    When I was a kid, one of the major family events was hiking in this
    area....and these guys will be racing road bike there....Kinda neat.
    
    Jim
    

    There is a official program guide available in large magazine sections
    of your local news stand.  $3.95 to Mr. Trump.  Each stage is layed out
    with approximate times.
    
    The last day goes through Worcester from Rt 9, it then takes a few
    side streets for a sprint preem in front of Holy Cross College,
    estimated time of 11:45.  The course will then somehow get to Rt
    135 and follow the Boston Marathon route into Boston.
    
    Too bad about Belmont Hill not being on the course, this would
    have been a good spot to watch.
    
    steve
    
    
    
    

    I have the Tour De Trump "Official 1990 Race Magazine in front of me,
    and it looks like the racers come down Memorial Drive on the Cambridge
    side of the Charles River cross the Longfellow Bridge down Charles 
    onto Comm. Ave for a block to Arlington to St James to the finish
    at the Copley Plaza Hotel.
    
    -Arthur

Just a few more days till the start of the Tour de Trump. I was looking at the
map guide (got one free with Bicycling mag this month) and noticed stage 2 is a
"Timed Criterium" 1 hour and 15 minutes. Anyone ever heard of such a race?

I hope NBC does a good job. TV times are

May 5, 3-4 pm EST
May 6, 4-6
May 12 3-4
May 13 4-6

May 13th is the finish in Boston. The course is going to be 2 miles from my
house. The course is going right down Rt9 to Main St Worcester -> Hope Ave->
Southbridge St -> 146 -> Rt135 to Boston (Marathon route)

There is a feed zone on 135 somewhere near Westboro. A good place to get a free
souvenir, ie musket bag

Tom

    I read in USA Today that Greg Lemond retired in the "race for Baltimore"
    (or some similar small race) because of a viral infection and dehydration. 
    He was off the back for 11 laps before retiring (maybe he was pulled, I
    don't recall all the details).  
    
    Sounds like Lemond is in Jeopardy for the Tour De Trump.  From what
    I've read elsewhere, Greg started the season overwight and out of shape
    and now has been hampered for a long time with this virus.  Definitely
    an unfortunate start for SI's Sportsman of the year!  I wonder if his
    new team's sponsor (the French Z team) is starting to sweat over what
    they're paying him with not much to show thus far?
    
    Dave

                      <<< Note 1494.11 by IAMOK::WESTER >>>
                 -< Lemond still sick.  Is TDT in his future? >-

LeMond was in the Bay Area last week do some of the local mountains.  I heard 
he was going to race the Sausalito Criterium yesterday...don't know if he did.

In regards to .10, a timed criterium runs for a specified amount of time (in 
this case one hour, 15 minutes).  At the end of that time, they normally have 
a bell lap and the leader on the next lap wins.

    	Tom,
    
    	I think it's called a musette bag.
    
    	ABC had a short piece about LeMond when they had their
    	short piece on Paris-Roubaix. Kathy LeMond said he had
    	some kind of virus and the team had decided there was
    	no point in Greg riding while he was sick. That short
    	interview took place at Boston's Logan Airport.
    
    	Scott

>May 13th is the finish in Boston. The course is going to be 2 miles from my
>house. The course is going right down Rt9 to Main St Worcester -> Hope Ave->
>Southbridge St -> 146 -> Rt135 to Boston (Marathon route)


	Somethings wrong here... Rt 146 doesn't intersect with Rt 135. Does
the course turn onto Rt 20 and then follow that back to Rt 9 - to - Rt 135???
Or does it follow Rt 20 right into Northoboro Center to pick up 135?

JimH

>>    	Tom,
    
>>    	I think it's called a musette bag.
  
	Musette - Musket, well you have to admit I was close.

>>	Somethings wrong here... Rt 146 doesn't intersect with Rt 135. Does
>>the course turn onto Rt 20 and then follow that back to Rt 9 - to - Rt 135???
>>Or does it follow Rt 20 right into Northoboro Center to pick up 135?

The map is a little sketchy after Worcester, but it does show the course
leaving Worcester on Rt146 and ending up on Rt135. After looking at an atlas, I
am totally confused. According to the race map the course stays south of 90
after leaving Worcester and heading straight to 135. After 146 it looks like it
follows 122a for a while and then takes back roads from Grafton to Upton to 135
near Hopkinton. I'm sure the local news papers will have a detail route when
the race day nears.

Tom

    	Here's the TV coverage for the TdT:
    
    	05 May 3:00-4:00 PM  NBC
    	06 May 4:00-6:00 PM  NBC
    	12 May 3:00-4:00 PM  NBC
    	13 May 4:00-6:00 PM  NBC
    
    	All times are Eastern Standard/Daylight/Whatever.
    
    	Don't forget 13 May is Mother's Day.
    
    	Info taken from Velo-News, Volume 19, Number 6
    
    	Scott

>leaving Worcester on Rt146 and ending up on Rt135. After looking at an atlas, I

i believe it goes 

146s -> 20e   out of worcester
20e -> 122s  into millbury (a couple of miles)
122s -> 140n  past the millbury pike entrance (a couple of miles)
140n -> 30e   in grafton (about 2 blocks)
30e -> 135e  past tufts vet school into westboro center (anout 5 or 6 miles)
135e -> to hopkinton center and continuing (about 5 miles)

i forget where i saw this but sounds reasonable to me.
craig

    Todays Boston Globe mentioned that Greg Lemond was still 
    hanging around at home as of yesterday in Wayzata, Minnesota.
    
    Hey...it only takes a couple of hours to fly to Deleware from
    the Minneapois airport..but...Greg...aren't we cutting it
    alittle close here?
    
    I hope he makes it to the opening Prologue TT on time!
    
    -Arthur
                     

    	Interesting to see the Russians doing so well. I wonder
    	how Ekimov woulda done if he hadn't slipped on the first
    	corner of the prologue.
    
    	Alcala looks tough.
    
    	Lauritzen has a broken hand.
    
    	On the stage to Charlottesville, where some of the serious
    	climbing started, LeMond lost 15 minutes. He was already down
    	by 2 or 3 minutes, so that puts him way back on GC. Of course,
    	he's probably just using this race as preparation for the TdF
    	down the road. In an interview, LeMond said that he thought
    	he was about a month behind everyone else.
    
    	I enjoy watching the racing when you never know who's going to
    	be leading on GC, or winning a stage.
    
    	Anyone every hear of Viatcheslav Bobrick? He seems to be pretty
    	tough. Too bad the Russians couldn't get it together for the
    	TTT.
    
    	Enough rambling,
    
    	Scott

    	As an auto racing fan, I'm used to TV race coverage being less than
    optimum.  But Sunday's coverage of the TdT was incredibly Bad! 90%
    filler (er, make that 50% filler, 40% commercials - the same ones over
    and over!) and 10% race coverage, and not very good coverage at that.
        The TdF coverage has spoiled us, I guess...   - Chris

I have to agree about the lousy coverage.

I taped the whole two hours. Last night I watched and fast 
forwarded through the commercials and non-bike junk. That
saved me 40 minutes. So take another 10 minutes to watch that 
useless stuff in fast forward that leaves you with 70 minutes
of bike stuff. Now take away about 2/3 for filler and you have
a little over 20 minutes on the race itself. It may have been 
less.

This made it very hard for my wife, who does not read bike
magazines or notesfiles to understand what was really going on. 

The low point as far as she was concerned was the Crit. We 
watched the 3 minutes they spent on that and she said "I have no 
idea what that part of the race was all about". 

I feel that if they are going to bother putting this on the tube 
they should show the race. How are the US viewers going to learn 
about the sport this way? IMHO this kind of coverage is not 
helping as much as it could be.

JC

    	Not to mention that much of Sunday's 2 hours contains the
    	same stuff as Saturday's hour.
    
    	I'd like to see new info on Sunday.
    
    	Scott

    I too taped the coverage and watched it last night.  By the time I
    watched it I was vombie-like so I may have missed something but...

    Doesn't the team time trial count in individual GC?  I'm sure it does
    in most tours.  The Russian amateur (I won't even try and spell his
    name, but you know who I'm talking about) took the lead after Saturday
    mornings stage, but his team disintegrated in the TTT and he lost 5
    minutes but he shows up the next day still the leader.  Similar with
    Raul Alcala and Steve Bauer who were tied going into the TTT, Bauer's
    team beats Alcala's team by 50 seconds and they are still tied.

    Allow me to add my personal opinion here.  TTT's are fantastic things
    to watch but I don't think that they should be included in tours. 
    Having a strong, supportive team has its own rewards already.  A strong
    team can pull you on the flats, pace you in the hills, chase breaks and
    slow the pack.  TTT should only count towards team results.
     
    I liken it to giving style points to ski jumpers.  The object is to
    jump the furthest, having good style should help you go further, but
    looking good alone should not be rewarded.

    I'm not sure whether the TTT counted for the GC standings but, if I
    remember right, the USSR national team didn't do that bad.  I think
    they came in 4th or 5th at 1:XX behind the best team.  
    
    I think the NBC commentators (which, with the exception of Phil
    Liggett, should be "promoted" to giving out musettes) made a lot of
    noise about the riders that got blown out the back.  On the positive
    side, though, they did recognize that the team was keeping a very very
    fast pace.
    
    All in all, it's fairly poor coverage.  They should allow Liggett to
    serve not only as commentator but as consultant/producer so that people
    unitiated in the sport can make heads or tails of this race.  The
    graphics, though, are great....
    
    Alfonso

    Boy, am I glad I'm not the only one that thought the coverage stunk!
    
    Last year was the first TdF I ever really paid any attention to, so I
    didn't have anything to compare it to.  But, watching this thing, I'm
    really impressed with either the great job they did on the TdF or the
    lousy job they're doing now.  
    
    I especially couldn't believe they wasted the first hour of coverage
    yesterday telling me about basketball games, hockey, golf, and god
    knows what else!  And, of course, rehashing the stuff from Saturday.  I
    spent the whole time changing from the Winston 500 on ESPN, and NHRA
    drags on TNN, and the TdT.
    
    ESPN and TNN did better!  On the bright side, I got out and did about
    65 miles this weekend!
    
    D

I've said it before, and I'll say it again.  The network's coverage of bike 
races is not aimed at us, the cycling public, it's aimed at the usual weekend 
afternoon sports TV audience, which is decidedly not US!  Mixing in other scores,
showing travelogue-style sidebars, etc are what they feel is necessary to keep 
the usual audience tuned in.  If they succeed, they just may contribute to a 
more cycling-aware, cycling-oriented general public.  And as a result of 
increased awareness and interest, maybe we'll get more and better coverage.

If they got too technical early in the era of bike racing coverage, they'd 
probably lose most of the people they're trying to keep interested, and we'd 
lose what coverage we now have.

So be patient, and give these guys a break.  Trust that they know their job.  
They built tremendous interest and viewership for all of America's professional 
sports.  Maybe they can do it for bike racing.

    I've skimmed thru the previous replies, but didn't notice any times.
    
    Can someone make a gues-timate as to the times the riders will pass
    thru different sections of the race on Sun?
    
    I'ld like to make it into Boston, but my wife has other plans (for me),
    so I'm trying to squeeze it into the schedule.  
    
    
    Thanks, Tim

According to the pamphlet sent with the last issue of Bicycling,
the race starts at 10:00 am in Northhampton and finishes in 
Copley plaza around 3:00 pm. Since the race is fairly flat you can 
probably fairly accurately predict the approximate times they
will be passing through the various towns.


I will be going to Boston to watch the end. I plan on getting 
a good spot by at least 2:00. I imagine there will be quite a few 
people there.

JC

    
       The race start time in Northhampton has bee changed to 11 A.M.
    because of T.V. coverage restraints.  The race should be getting
    to the Sprints in Worcester around 1 P.M. and head out from there
    on rt 146 to Rt. 20.  There is a good hill right after the turn
    onto rt 20.  from there it will go to rt 122 then to rt 30 into
    westboro center.  There is a feed zone on a small hell in front
    of Tufts School of Vetinary Med. they should arrive there about
    20-25 minutes after they go through Worcester.  From Westboro center
    the race follows rt 135 to Hopkinton center and then follows the
    marathon rt from there.
    
    Maybe that will help a little with the times.
    
    John C.
    

    
       Speaking of NBC's coverage...
    
       Did anyone else notice that the computer-generated bicycle
    wheel graphic at the beginning of the show has quick-release 
    levers on both sides of the hub? I wonder if this feature
    allows them to make wheel changes in half the time.  8^)
    
       Pretty soon we'll see it in the Nashbar catalog!  8^)
    
    
                                              Steve

I gat a detailed listing of the race route from the Bicycle 
Barn last night. If I remember I will bring it in tommorrow 
and type it in. They will be doing a loop past Copley plaza
and back into Cambridge a second time before completing the 
race. This may allow you to see the race twice if you pick 
the right location.

JC

The finish is getting close and a Russian amateur still has a sizable lead. 
The tour organizers must be getting a little worried.

I have it from reliable sources that in last years tour after Ekimov, then an
amateur, took the lead the organizers went into a panic.  They have hopes that
the tour will become a major international race.  A major PROFESSIONAL race. 
It was important to their image that the race have a "proper" winner.  So they
gathered the major pro teams (7-Eleven, Panasonic and PDM) together and
impressed upon them that someone from one of their teams should win.  Tried to
get them to even work together if necessary.

Another interesting story from last years tour was after the final TT where
Erik Vanderaerden went off course, thus insuring 7-Eleven Lauritzen the win,
there was the possibility that Vanderaerden and the Panasonic team would cry
foul.  The very image conscious folks at Southland/7-Eleven had several of their
top brass on a plane from Dallas within minutes and it is rumored that they
made a cash payment to Panasonic just to show how sorry they were that poor
Erik went off course.

	I will be in Albany this weekend to see the TDT. Can anyone suggest 
	a good place to view the race?

	Paul

    re: .33
    Sometimes I think professional cycling is as honest of a sport as
    professional wrestling.
    
    What a shame.
    
    steve

    	Well, I haven't heard any updates, but VNS indicated that
    	Bobrik is still the leader.
    
    	I wonder how much scramblin' the race organizers are going
    	to do (if any) to get a pro racer to the top.
    
    	Personally, I think it's great that a Soviet amateur could
    	lead, and possibly win, this race.
    
    	Looks like Russ Brown (he of RAGBRAI fame) and I are going
    	to the final stage into Boston, although we're not sure
    	where we're going to be.
    
    	Scott

    Re .33 - off course in the TT:

    I had wondered about that, after reading somewhere (maybe Winning
    or some such) that Vanderaerden had gone off course, and Peter
    Post was very mild mannered about the mishap, which certainly
    seemed out of character!  So it's quite plausable.

    I'll probably cycle out to Amherst and get a glimpse of them, there's
    a double C course I like riding up thru Princeton and around the Quabbin.
    They said it'll be nice weather this weekend...

    - Jim

    I watched the procession come through Worcester, on the last leg
    of the tour.  Weather wasn't bad at the time.... cloudy, with
    more than a hint of rain, but reasonably dry roads and nothing
    coming down out of the air....
    
    I was impressed at the organization that was evident.... 
    Listening to a police scanner, I got periodic "updates" on
    when the group would arrive at the Worcester border (listening
    to Worcester Police, naturally that's the time they want to
    know about!).  State police were passing the estimated arrival
    time to Worcester....  I never did hear State Police units
    with the procession.  Worcester Police didn't do much more
    than check on who was where (according to the plan and lists
    made up ahead of time...) and pass on arrival times.  No
    last-minute assignments, panic about things left undone, etc....
    When it came close to 1:00, I loaded up the car with wife and
    son (he was the most interested.... and the reason we went!)
    and drive to Southbridge St. and Cambridge St., where we parked
    in a supermarket parking lot and walked all of 150 feet to
    where the course came under I-290, and turned East past
    Holy Cross.  
    
    Race marshall(s) were in evidence, several orange-coated
    Worcester Police, and about 75 spectators sat or stood at
    various spots around the intersection.  Nothing happened
    until the police got "the word" (one of them talked in his
    walkie-talkie, then spoke to the others), then they all
    moved to block traffic.  Several minutes later the State
    Police light show drive through.... car(s), motorcycles,
    lots of blue lights and sirens....  you knew they were there!
    Nice "Tour de Trump" marked motorcycles right behind...
    and ONE bicycle with a guy in red white and blue outfit
    zipped around the corner.  I don't think half the spectators
    were aware that there WAS a bicycle in there....  I think he 
    was drafting on a couple of the motorcycles, he was that 
    close "in the group" of vehicles.  He got some applause...
    
    More Tour motorcycles, a couple more police cars, then the
    BUNCH came whizzing around the corner.  Some of the spectators
    (obviously watching their first bunch of bike racers...) were
    impressed at (1) the speed (2) how close together they were
    and (3) the colorful bikes and clothes.  A bunch of vehicles
    with bikes on top, etc., then the van with a bunch of brooms
    on its front bumper (the "sweep up after the group" idea
    got across to some of the spectators...), a couple of police
    vehicles, and suddenly it was "traffic business as usual"
    through the intersection.  
    
    The Worcester Telegram article (Friday?) quoted a police
    officer saying it should only take 15 minutes for the
    procession to pass any point on the course.  I forgot
    to check exactly, but I think they were closer to TEN
    minutes than fifteen.  That's from "stop the traffic"
    to "resume traffic".  If they did the sort of things I
    saw at EVERY similar intersection on the course, I am
    more than slightly impressed!!  
    
    Oh, yes....  my son DID pick out "Greg" from the bunch..
    I suspect he did, but I couldn't swear to it.  I was 
    busy clicking a few pictures - and hoping they don't come
    out as blurs!  
    
    Afterward, we drove back home.  At 4:00, we watched the NBC
    coverage of the Tour, and found out (about 5:45) who had
    won...    No, they didn't show any footage of Worcester.  
    I would say they didn't spend more than a minute on the entire
    Northampton to Boston section!  Definite bummer....
    
    I did get it on tape.... editing out the commercials.  
    Just for fun, I may watch it again later this week.  
    
    				- Ed -

    Though the organization was very good (I was a marshall in Westboro),
    the publicity was very poor.  Many people at my intersection didn't
    know what was happening.  At the volunteer party last night it occured
    to me that if they do this again it would be nice if they could give
    the marshalls a pad of information sheets to hand out to people that
    ask "what's happening?".
    
    Rich
    
    P.S.  "Marshal" is spelt with one "l", but the t-shirts spell it with
    two.

    I watched the end of the TdT at the finish at Copley Square. The
    big screen TV was a real bonus, where you could watch live pictures
    of the race. I snuck up onto a flatbed truck where the "dignataries"
    from Prudential Insurance had a spot right by the finish line. 
    Luckily the security guy wasn't looking the time I hop'd the fence.
    
    I saw the peloton file threw the finish line twice on the 4 mile 
    last lap. I saw Greg flash by twice...that made my day. At the end
    of the race I saw the Russian amatuer Bobick by the team car...and
    I pop'd my head in the PDM's car to wish Acala a very quick congrats!
    The crowds were real intense around the team cars at the end of the
    race...I would have liked to hunt down Team Slurpie but for me the
    crowds prohibited that. I raced home and watched the 4pm NBCs report.
    
    I didn't see Donald.
           
    It was real exciting...
    
    -Arthur

    
    
       I ended up playing marshal at the feed zone in grafton. there
    was a decent amount of people and a lot of media people there.
    the one man break came by with lead of 4 minutes 30 sec. he did'nt
    even slow down to pick anything up at the feed zone.  When tho main
    pack came through it was actually a little calmer than I thought
    it would be.  I got a really good look at Raul as He almost touched
    me on his way by riding at the front.  I was kind of watch the race
    and the people at the same time so I did'nt see anyone else.
    
      Right after the pack went by I sent my biddy Dave out to find
    whatever he could on the side of the road.  He said that the scavenger
    competition was pretty heavy but he did manage to scoff 6 water
    bottles.  We split the water bottles up evenly.  I got one team
    7-11 bottle and two Gatorade Tour de Trump 1990 Bottles add my Marshal
    t-shirt in and I did pretty good for souveniers.
    
       Can't wait till next year
    
           John C.
    

    	Well, John and I must have been near each other. I was
    	also at the feed zone.
    
    	I was taking pictures as fast as I could shoot, advance
    	film, shoot, advance film. It woulda helped if I had had
    	a motor drive on the Pentax.
    
    	There was a trio on down the hill picking up everything
    	they could find. However, they missed the Gatorade/Tour
    	de Trump water bottle under my car.
    
    	Hope to get the pictures developed tonight or tomorrow.
    
    	Loved the Broom Wagon with all the brooms tied to the
    	front bumper.
    
    	Scott

Well, with the number of notes in here and in CYCLE_RACING as of today 
about the TdT, I think most every aspect has been covered, except....

WHO WON? WHO PLACED?

I have some clues about the first, altho nobody has come out & said so, 
in either conference..... :-)
                                          ken

    	Ken,
    
    	Raul Alcala won. He rides for the Dutch team PDM. I don't
    	remember the other placings. I'll have to look at the
    	tape and write down the placings.
    
    	I do remember that Greg LeMond finished about one hour and
    	30/40 minutes down.
    
    	Scott

    I'll add my two cents. I was a marshal in Newton right near where the
    Sheraton Tara sits above the Mass Pike. Got there about noon with about
    15 other marshals. Got assigned my corner, stood there about 2 hours
    and the whole thing was over in about 30 seconds. I figured the riders
    would be strung out over a certain distance but it was one big pack
    that blew by and that was it. 30 seconds later came the broom wagon. 
    Very few spectators but most of those there seemed to know what was
    going on at least.
    After the pack went by I hopped in my car and drove to Copley square.
    They were finishing as I was sitting in traffic waiting to get into the
    parking garage. After parking I went running over to see as much as I
    could and as I was coming down a side street there were a couple of
    riders and their trainers and equipment truck. I didn't really pay
    attention but just as I came up next to them (we were right alongside
    the Copley Plaza) one of the riders started walking next to me heading
    for the entrance to the Plaza. I then looked over and realized it was
    Lemond. I asked how he was and shook his hand. Then people started 
    recognizing him and flocked around him asking for autographs and he
    graciously signed a few and then ducked into the hotel.

    Anybody read that article in the Sunday Globe. I did understand how
    they can print a article like that since the writer doesn't seem to
    know what cycling is all about. I would like to see him get on a bike
    and pedal up Devils Kitchen and then maybe he would have wrote the
    article a little differently.
    
    Huey

I also went to Copley for the finish. We got there around 1:00
and staked our claim for a good vantage point. We ended up having 
about 6 layers of people behind us. It was a lot of fun to see the 
race so close. We got really good views of the "Tour De Tots". That 
was fun. Three and four year olds doing 30 foot time trials at the
finish with the big announcer over the PA system.

There was a lot more stuff set up down there than I expected. As one 
of the previous replies said the 20' by 30' TV screen was kind of 
interesting. I was pretty impressed at how well things were run. It 
went off very smoothly.

I was lucky enough to be about 5 feet from the awards podium right 
behind the TV crews. I don't remember all of the awards, but Davis 
Finney came in 2nd for the stage and got as big a cheer from the 
crowd as Alcala did at the end. He was somewhat taken aback by the 
unexpected warm reception from the crowd.

Alcala was pretty funny. I think he genuinely enjoyed soaking the 
crowds with the 3 liter bottle of champagne. The PDM team also got 
their dibs in with bottles as well. You should have seen the crowds 
go after the team hats when the team threw in.

All in all it was worth going in to see the race.

I didn't get to meet any of the "big guns" I did ride home on the 
"T" with a guy who could't finish because of a separated shoulder. I 
looked on  the tape of the coverage, sure enough the guy groaning in 
pain holding his shoulder was the same guy.

Lot of fun,

JC

    	RE: 1494.43
    
    	Ken,
    
    	Looked at the tape again last night. Here's what I remember:
    
    	Raul Alcala      --
    	Atle Kvallsval  :43
    	Eric Breukink  1:4?
    
    	Bobrik ended up about 30:?? down.
    
    	Funniest line came from Alcala after stage 12: "He was cooked...
    
    	in the Kitchen," referring, of course, the the Devil's
    	Kitchen. Pretty funny line.
    
    	Looked at Bauer's crash again. Just before he went down, he hit
    	a small pothole at a driveway. He might have kept the bike
    	upright if he hadn't hit that pothole. Then again, he was
    	swerving to the right, toward a telephone pole. Nasty thing
    	to hit at 30 MPH.
    
    	Scott 

    After marshaling the TDT in the Newton area (didn't see much of
    the riders, since they went through the corner so fast), the marshals
    were treated to a free buffet a "Champions" sports bar. The food was good,
    and there were free raffles where marshals won accessories, and even
    a TREK 1000.
    
    Andy Hampsten showed up at Champions to thank the marshals and sign
    autographs. I was first to spot him and got my pink marshal shirt
    signed. He stayed around for about 1/2 hr, then disappeared.
    
    I got a hot tip that the racers were having a private semi-formal
    party at the Copley Plaza, so a group of 6 of us headed over.
    You could get inside; in fact there were lots of T-shirts and other
    TDT stuff for sale, but the room where the party was was guarded by
    4 or 5 security guards. But ... we got in! One of the head marshals
    with the tour sweetalked the guards for us, and they "looked the other
    way" as we passed quickly inside. I talked to and got signatures on
    my marshal T-shirt from: Raul Alcala, Andy Hampsten, Davis Phinney,
    Roberto Gaggioli(sp?),Phil Liggett,and other assorted PDM and UK team
    racers. They were all very friendly!
    
    Mark