Breakfast on the way to the Sands Expo Center was a Starbucks and an almond croissant. Being well rested, Jenette followed my lead. We took the long way to the expo center through the construction site along the way. The short cut was through the Venetian - but even shorter, especially since we were staying in the ghetto part of our hotel, was through the parking garages of the Imperial Palace and the Sands. I would find that sweet short cut on Thursday.
Off to will call for our badges, grabbed Show Daily magazines and maps for the exhibit. I scanned the floor for superstars and spotted Lynne Bessette. She would go on to win Cross Vegas in style. We sadly missed the event.
I buzzed around for all the free swag (I am the swag queen and major pro-cyclist groupie) and dragged Jdub with me. Later for the Vegas crit, she would be dragging me around!
We walked back to the hotel, grabbing lunch along the way at a Chipotle. Our legs throbbed from all the walking and standing. Jenette had some work she had to address and as she was making phone calls, I flipped through the show daily. Then I came across the full page add for FREE BEER and CAMERA from GoProCamera at 3 p.m. daily.
Brad wanted a helmet camera since the spring. He saw one in Excel Sports for $250. If I could get a helmet camera, it would be the best swag and surprise from my honey. I paced as Jdub worked the phone. She was to come with me to the show but the time ticked by and it was 2:55. Jdub was cool with me leaving as her back was trashed from all the swagging in the morning. She knew I had too much caffeine and she would not be able to keep up with my crazy energy.
I was off and running. Literally. I went through the Venetian as I didn't know about the garage shortcut yet. I arrived at the GoPro booth by 3:15, sweaty. They drew business cards for cameras and I had not dropped one in the "helmet" for the day. I hung out for the sales pitch and would come back Thursday BEFORE the crit.
I would wander for the next two hours as this was when the beer began to flow. I picked up more bags, bottles and multi-tools as I waited in line for beer. I met Magnus Backstedt. Most stands had American beer or a "light" beer like Heineken. The Speedplay booth had BELGIAN ale. I was so excited they had Belgian ale (and did not realized it was for staff only), I think I startled the guy tapping the beer. Doaph!
I checked out the Polar booth as they were giving away computers to the highest wattage male and female for the day. I watched in amazement as guys pushed the gears for two minutes. There was only one woman who had done the challenge so I had a 50/50 chance to win a Polar computer. The bike was too big for me as the "small" tri frame had too long of a seat post so the seat could not be lowered. Plus, I would have not touched an average of 400+ watts for two minutes as that was what the other woman clocked. Whew! I did not want to ride hard after a few beers in front of a bunch of people.Just before the first day on Interbike ended, I decided to take a chance to see if one of the bike companies would loan me a bike for tomorrow's race. My bike did not arrive and initially I was going to rent one from Las Vegas Cyclery. Kurt from Kinetic rolled me around on a
four-seater surrey. We rocked as the convention hall emptied. His rock and roll trainer also rocked. It was very cool to spin out the legs from all the walking on a trainer that was smooth and allowed the bike to rock back and forth. It felt like I was on rollers. We rolled to Colnago, Redline, Hawley Co. (Storck). They did not have frames small enough for me. Kurt gave me names of other sales managers to check in with Thursday morning.
It was 7 and we needed to eat. I had not organized a ride for Jdub and I to see VegasCross and I regret it. We had dinner at the Imperial Palace "Mings" and headed to the party of the evening - sponsored by Sinclair Imports (Thanks Rob for the passes). We stood in a huge line to enter a dark and thomping, pole dancing club. Humm. Not quite our scene. If we found our buddies to hang out with and socialize, it was too loud and dark to enjoy each other's company. We spotted Phil Liggett and Magnus. I heard Mario was there, too. We spent $15 for two 4oz Evians. Chugged them and left.
