Le Tour de Langkawi
Day Three
OOC: Since we are never actually given a name for our main sponsor, I decided to have a little fun with it to make the story more interesting. Also going to input the doping/injury thing sometime tommorrow into the game.
“No….Absolutely Not!”
My voice didn’t come out as confident as I had hoped. As I took a sip of coffee from the black cup, I hoped my hand didn’t shake.
“ You don’t seem to understand my friend, … this isn’t exactly a request”
“No. it is you who don’t seem to understand ( I paused as I took another drink from the cup before setting it onto the desk before me. I made a point to narrow my eyes, in hopes it would convey a level of determination.) It’s not going to happen, not now…not ever. Do you realize exactly just how much the commission is cracking down upon the doping of riders.”
The chair creaked as I leaned back in it and continued to stare at the two suited gentleman standing before me.
“I do what you ask and we get tested, it’s game over. Everyone looses, including your BOSS. Then everyone’s time and investment is lost. “
“He’s a little worried that your performance isn’t exactly granting the …..returns…..that he had expected.”
The chair creaked again as I shifted my weight. Setting my elbows upon the armrests of the black leather chair, clasping my hands before me.
“ And he was told there would be highs…and lows. He wanted to increase revenue, while making it look clean. Just off of our performance at Down under….he was able to say sales doubled. But I’m not going to risk my dream…just because he wants to be greedy.”
I slowly stood up and began making my way towards the door as I continued.
“ Your boss wanted a way to begin down a path of becoming legit…. I gave him that.”
“But your returns…shall we say….have been less then great…”
“ Yes. However it is still early in the season. He needs to learn patience. He’ll get more then even he expects…but has to wait it out. “
I stop at the door, hand upon the doorknob.
“You need to inform him I can not grant this…..request ….of his. Doing so would put everything we have built in jeopardy and ruin any chances at future success. California is coming up soon and a good showing there should triple his income….
“You better hope so..”
I chose to ignore the veiled threat, and instead opened the door …
“Now if there isn’t anything else gentlemen…. I have a team to run…”
It was only once that they were gone, that I allowed myself to breath a sigh of relief or the actual stress I had been feeling to show. Fricken Loan sharks! But what choice had I had. I’d been a simple hard working stiff with no chance of financing my own team on a barely above minimum wage job. Not with a wife and three teenage boys to support. I’d always been told if you wanted to follow a dream, sometimes you had to take a chance. So I had contacted an old family friend in Pittsburgh who’s family had run with crews ever since the days of Capone. It had taken some convincing, but they’d put me in touch with the right people in Jersey. In essence after a lot of talk, a deal had been made. However it came with a price…the team HAD to do well. Otherwise there probably would be no TMR…or me for that matter come 2010. Top ten finishes, that’s what the man wanted….not 21rst like Peneau had done the day before. A long sigh escaped from my lips as I made my way back to my desk. All of my secondary sponsors were perfectly above board… and my primary one was…or at least looked that way on paper. However the man behind it wasn’t exactly 100% that way. I let another sigh loose as I found myself hoping that in my rush to follow a dream….that I hadn’t instead just signed my own death warrant.
My thoughts were brought back to the present with the ringing of the telephone. Finally a bit of good news. Waldsworth was ready to return…and 5 days ahead of schedule. I immediately informed the training staff and told them to get him back up to speed as quickly as possible. With that completed it was time to focus upon that days race.
Day three would find us racing a punishing 207k basic straightaway with the days heat yet again sure to be a factor. Pineau had the best shot of catching up, being that he was only 38” back. The bad news was he was only of 118 riders total also at 38” back. This meant one thing….Risk. We couldn’t afford to continue to play it safe any longer. If we were going to have even a chance at redemption….I was going to need Pineau to go all out and take every sprint he could…and hope….hope that he could continue at the end to be around the yellow jersey come finish. I kicked myself for not going for the earlier ones.
And had been the case in the past few days….once again I watched my carefully thought out plans…totally go south. The day was again 93f/34c and Penuea burst forward from the get go…. However he would quickly find himself not alone as Putsep would soon join him.
By the time we reached the first sprint marker, the points had gone to Putsep, Westra and Madison. There was 25k left to the next and as the riders prepared to attempt to take it, however I told them to stand down because of the distance. We would watch that one go to Gufler,Brink and Kilun….and I would find my frustration growing yet again that another game plan hadn’t worked out. (truly was…I hadn’t had this much problems previously when I played,…prior to writing this story….lol) With 35k to the third and the breakaway group having a 4.5 minute lead…it wasn’t hard to see we needed to go back to the game plan of sticking with the pelaton. By the time Gufler, Moletta and Brink would take the final sprint, they would have a 6 and a half minute lead. However the Pelaton was beginning to close the distance. As owner I found there was nothing I could do but sit and wait out the next 100k to the finish line. I found myself wondering how the dry weather was affecting the farmers as the riders passed a field of dry crops.
From 20 k out to 13 were nothing but a blur to me due to being distracted. But that will happen to a man when his wife steps out of the executive bathroom, wrapped in nothing but a towel…opening it to ask you to look at some scratches from the dogs. After that point it was extremely hard to refocus upon the race.
Luckily Pineau had taken the initiative to move forward towards the front of the group. It was at this point the charged towards the finish line.
I have to admit it was a valiant effort on his part. But as the final sprint was made, the wear and tear I had placed upon him so early in the race had taken affect. But it still was a great effort and gave him his best win at Langkawi yet….
Stage Results
1) L. Paolini
2) B. Traksel
3) E. Vona
4) M Pederson
5) J. Tombak
6) M. Biondo
7) A llesic
8) M. Marcato
9) B. De BAcker
10) M. Reihs
Current Standings
1) B. Traksel
2) L. Paolini 22”
3) M. Biondo 26”
4) Y. Trofimove 38”
5) M. Gnezda 40”
6) M. Vona 42”
7) G. Visconti 44”
8) L. Westra 46”
9) K. De Kort 46”
10) J. Elridge 46”
Team Results
12) Pineau
131) Chedhomme
135) Gilmarten
137) Del Biaggo
145) Dawson
146) Hoag
It's ok. That's a good reason to be distracted. 
