No Bull

No Bull.

End of a blistering day here in Nice. The event, the shoot, the first international two race endeavor was a success. It was smoking hot today for the fourth edition Ironman France. Logistically it was a challenge as Fabrice's Yamaha was a sport bike, sleek, fast and a beautiful blue, but it had no back rest and an interesting mirror/throttle/flight deck configuration that caused some early morning consternation and a creative application of the Fig Rig and just about every clamp he had available. We have to get the camera out front, he must have said to himself a thousand times over today's 112 twisting, climbing, curving, diving fast and furious miles. The quick bit of video he looked at after the race, while cooling off with yet another cheese panini and Heineken, looked very good, except for left turns where you only saw half of the arc, hence the need for the forward camera in order to show the entire road, all the time, regardless of the road font, or S. This needed to be fixed before Germany, now next up, and two weeks away. Options:

1) Perfect the mirror bolt assembly shoe.
2) Test the SD lipstick Visio cam for quality.
3) Come up with something else altogether.
4) Join the rodeo circuit.

As far as a something new altogether, he had no idea as to what, but was already reaching for the chalk to do some mental blackboard mechanical drawing. This might take the entire flight from Paris back to Seattle tomorrow.

He was determined walk the 5K to the airport at 4am. It was along the Promenade and should be OK at that time of day lugging the gear case and three bags into the Medeterrean sunrise . It was all paved and would allow him to get in some work before the long flight and save 29 Euro to Tony Lama.

It was a great having dinner with Darren on Saturday night. He seems to be settling in to the French style and liking the current assignment despite it's 24/7 demands. He looks great (see photo).

After all has been said (?) and done, he was guininely happy to have been able to make the trip. Some of the bike leg through the outback of Provence was absolutely stunning. He hoped that what he was seeing in the tiny viewfinder, sometimes at 40kph, would look as great as it did hanging on to the back of Fabrice's bike, one hand on the camera and the other like a bull rider cinched around the rope. They made the triathlon equivalent of 8 seconds. He was happy about that. And that ain't no bull.


Photos: Top to bottom: Christophe had the CT booth rockin to the Kona RCV
Can you hear this?
My roomies for the week at the ten star Chez Patrick, Kale and Regan
The first out of the water and ready for the killer fifteen star bike leg.