Mark and Gail's Excellent Adventure: Tour of Oman

Gail, on our walk down the Sea Road

The start line before the craziness started

I want one!

Robbie Hunter

I woke up on our third day super excited. We had enjoyed the two previous stages, but today we got the chance to experience the pre-race ritual. This is something you really never get to see on tv.

The start line was at the Oman Opera House which was only about a two mile walk from our hotel. It's a really beautiful building, which I hope you can see from the photos. It was cool to watch the teams have their pre race meetings and go over the course. There is a lot of laughing and joking between the racers before things get serious.

When we first got there, the team cars were just pulling in. They had a police escort from their hotel and there had to be forty cars lined up. At one point we heard a car door open just behind us so we turned to see one of the team guys run up to the car in front of him and hose down the occupants with his water bottle! Good clean fun, right?

We got to see all the guys gearing up, and talked to a few of them briefly. You could see the game faces starting to come on as the start got closer. At one point I was standing near Tyler Farrar, and he was trying to extract his bike out from the middle of the pack. He almost knocked over another bike so I carefully held it for him until he got his free. Sounds funny, but it was pretty cool getting to hold one of the bikes for a couple seconds.

I worked up the nerve to walk up to Mark Cavendish and ask him to sign my magazine that had his picture on the cover. He didn't look super enthused, but after a nano second, which seemed like an hour to me, he grabbed the pen and magazine and to my surprise, asked "what's your name?" He signed it 'To Mark'!

After milling about for awhile, I took advantage of a once in a lifetime opportunity. Walking through the courtyard, all by himself was Eddie Merckx! Gail and I were the only people close so I asked for a picture with him. He was nice enough to say yes and I thanked him a couple of times and explained how the picture was going to kill my bro Tater!

Cav signing my magazine for me!

Christian Vande Velde

Gail at the Opera House courtyard

Not to be outdone, Gail grabbed a chance to get a pic with the 2010 "by disqualification" winner of the Tour de France! Amazing to be able to get so close to all these guys!

At noon the guys saddled up and headed out for a mountain top finish, and Gail and I headed out for our date with the pool. It was amazing to bake in the sun and relax for a couple hours. We honestly had no desire to go do anything. There was a fabulous breeze to keep things cool, so we read and talked the afternoon away.

One more day to go, and it was going to be a good one...but you'll have to read day four to find out more!