Jake’s Journal: All in a day’s work at the Tour

It’s a valid question, really, and everyone always asks it delicately. “So… what exactly do you do while you’re at the Tour?” Since it only makes sense to use the Tour’s rest day to talk about my workday, the easy way to answer is that I’m either providing content or gathering content. But that’s a boring way of saying that I get to talk to the best journalists in the sport about the best technology on bikes today.

For example, before the race began in Rotterdam, I spoke with Versus TV, BBC Sport, Reuters, ESPN, Sky News, The New York Times, London’s Sunday Times, and Cycling Weekly, VeloNews, ProCycling and Bicycling magazines. We talked about the Edge 500 and how it helps the pros of Team Garmin every step of the way, from training rides to post-workout analysis on Garmin Connect. During the prologue in Rotterdam, I had back-to-back-to-back chats at the team bus with tech editors from Road Bike Action, VeloNews and Cyclingnews.com. Just like last year, in which I ended up shooting in-car video for Joe from Bicycling, it always helps to be in the right place at the right time. The next morning, I ran into the cheery Aussie crew from Fox Sports, and we squeezed in an on-camera intro to the Edge 500. At our next stop in Brussels, Zap from Road Bike Action shot pics of the new Edge 500 color schemes against the cobbles while getting my thoughts on being an American at the Tour. Moments after we wrapped up, I bumped into Bruce from Active.com and James from Examiner.com, both of which are among the many journalists using a nüvi to navigate a month’s worth of tiny twisting roads with start/finish locations that we provided. And finally, just as the peloton was lining up for the start of Stage 2, Robbie from Versus grabbed me for this quick video about the Edge 500 as part of their Tour tech features. My on-camera opportunities continued in Maastricht, when Denmark TV pulled me aside to shoot a Garmin Connect feature, in which we highlighted Ryder Hesjedal’s data from that day. While I’d like to say that we knew that Ryder would have a breakthrough ride on the cobbles the very next day to set up a remarkable Tour, it was just another case of good luck and great timing – two things that make my job interesting every day wherever I happen to be.

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