GPS Kids | Jake’s Journal du jour: Friendly faces of France

This won’t come as a surprise, but I consider myself a people person. I enjoy making new friends, swapping stories, sharing laughs, learning life lessons – and it’s an unbelievable bonus when the backdrop happens to be one of the biggest sporting events in the world. So as Team Garmin and the pros in the peloton powered through Monaco, France and Spain in the first week of July, my appreciation grew not only for the elite cyclists in the race, but also for the supporters (and reporters) joining me on the sidelines. Here are just a few of those friendly faces.

  I’ve enjoyed conversations with Julian Dean ever since he took a tumble on the second stage last July and said to me later that day in passing, “The nice thing about a three-week race is that all of this will be healed by the time we hit Paris.” So I wasn’t surprised that a guy so impervious to pain thought nothing of his eyes being gouged and cheeks being stretched – by the youngest member of his family. Carole Dean and the kids were some of the many family members to join us in Girona, home to many of the Garmin guys. Two of my favorite trailing companions were Jim and Diane Felt. If that name sounds familiar, it’s because you’ve seen it written on the Felt bikes that Team Garmin rides in every pro tour. The Felts aren’t just the name on the bike, though, they’re the brains and personality as well. Two of the nicest people I’ve met, Jim and Diane were in constant motion everywhere we went. Jim was always studying and seeking feedback on the bikes; Diane was chronicling the events with her great photography (some of which you can see at Garmin’s Flickr page). 

Also in constant motion was the Team Garmin staff – from the sports directors to the physiologists, doctors, mechanics and soigneurs to Andrea the bus driver, pictured here in a rare moment of relaxation. So while Robbie Ventura and the Versus crew (also pictured here taking a breather) share the action of the peloton at breakneck speeds, it’s important to remember that some of the finest people in pro cycling are moving just as quickly and constantly behind the scenes.

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