Race Details and My Responsibilities

So it's early morning on Race Day!! I've been up since 5am...I know shocker, but I don't think my system has adjusted to the time here. I took my last ceremonial LOOOONG and HOT shower!! I was organizing all my gear because ok so most impt to me is how am I going to keep the computer on the Prevost at all times. I have to stay in touch!! And I know some friends are following along closely. Today is different than most days in the race. We cannot have a follow van on the route for the first 15 miles then after that you can only have leap frog support until like mile 80 something. Parts of today I don't understand because I know I don't have to be involved, so I haven't really paid attenton.
So the race starts at 2pm CA time. We will all go to the start line to watch. Then we all go to the vans or Prevost as been assigned. I go to the bus for the first 100 or so miles. It's at that time the real support of the riders begins.
So here are the nitty gritty details of our plan to cross the country. The team is made up of four riders, Michele, Steve, Virgil and Lee. We've broken the crew down so that we always crew for the same riders. I will crew for Michel and Steve. My fellow crewmates for them are John, Andrew and Clyde.
We have two vans that will always be out on the course. So always on the course are two riders, one on the road and one in a van. There are two vans. The follow vehicle which obviously follows closely to the rider. It contains a driver and a navigator. Then there is the leap frog van. It contains a driver , navigator and a rider. The leap frog van goes up the road a ways then when the rider on the road arrives at that point we do a rider exchange. We leap frog back and forth until we meet the bus at a Time Station. At the time station, we do a full exchange. The other half of the crew and riders that has been on the bus comes out to ride and the other half goes on the bus to eat,rest shower...me I will be uploading photos, blogging and emailing.
I hope that gives a better picture of how we operate.
So basically my job is to protect the riders as we cross the country!!
It's really cool to be a part of someone's dream. This ride has been a dream for these riders and I feel special that I get to be a part of something so great.
Please be in touch
Take care
judy