The Luck of the Tour
By Leslie Varsha


Luck doesn’t begin to describe what it feels like to be a part of this year’s Tour de France crew.  On Wednesday, I arrived at the Nice airport to glorious sunshine, picked up a citroen sedan rental car, and made my way to Monaco for Stage 1.  Because our production truck wasn’t ready until late Thursday afternoon, I actually was able to take a dip in the Mediterranean and while walking around Monaco, saw Prince Albert through the window of the Lexus in which he was being escorted.  The first 48 hours is always the calm before the storm that is the Tour and Monaco is a fantastic place to feel the calm.

 Around Five O’clock on Thursday, our crew of Belgian engineers had masterfully set up our production and studio truck and the storm had officially rolled into town.  We only had a day-and-a-half to get ready for the three week race so we worked until 10:30 PM until the officials cut off electricity to the TV compound which they do every night.  Organizing for the Tour involves loading graphics, ingesting hours of video into edit systems, and making sure all the technical kinks are worked out before we hit air for the opening time trial. 

In the midst of the pre-production mayhem, I was able to catch a bit of the team presentation in which the riders paraded down the main drag in Monte Carlo.  Last year’s sprinting star, Mark Cavendish of Team Columbia, looked confident as he rolled slowly donning old school ray bans.  His teammate, American George Hincapie, also stopped by for an interview.  It is in moments like this that the storm clouds of chaotic work involved in the Tour de France part to reveal a supernatural “Je ne sais quoi” of the Tour de France.  It keeps me coming back every year.