Mike Jacoubowsky said:Chris Horner was in the row in front of us as my son & I returned from
France on Monday. E+ section on UA 943 (Paris-Chicago). I've come across
Chris a few times before, and he always comes across as a genuinely nice
guy.
He had some interesting stories to tell about the Roach Motel they stayed
in; it had apparently been bombed (fumigated) a couple days earlier, smelled
like it, and had dead & not-quite dead roaches all over the hallways, with
staff at the hotel making no attempts to clean them up (just went to some
trouble to avoid stepping on them). Sounds like a far cry from the palatial
hotel the Disco boys were staying in while in Pau (had to pick something up
there; pretty heavy security, as you'd expect).
My son didn't think it was Chris at first, even though he'd met him a few
days earlier in Pau. When I suggested to him that's who it was, he told me
"No way, that guy looks really old." Had to explain to him what years of
riding in the sun does to you. :>😉
At customs in Chicago, Chris was just ahead of us in line. When it was our
turn, I mentioned to the agent that the guy he'd just helped was one of the
riders from the Tour de France. He seemed totally unimpressed by that. Guess
it could have been worse; what if the agent had been on the take from
L'Equippe?
Overall we had a great trip. My son (14 years old) tackled the Port du Bales
and Col d'Aubisque and actually had a good time doing them. Quite a change
from where he was two years ago, devoted to TV & video games.
--Mike Jacoubowsky
Chain Reaction Bicycleswww.ChainReaction.com
Redwood City & Los Altos, CA USA
When I flew out of Paris, I saw all the top French BMX riders, as they
were headed off to Vancouver for BMX worlds. The self-supported riders
were quite pleasant, as were their parents. They knew
everything there was to know about their sport including all the track
riders who started out of BMX, as did their parents who were
accompanying them. It's quite amazing to hear a middle aged French
housewife talking about Jamie Staff's palmares. She was from St.
Etienne, and was claiming that Raphael Geminani's brother was working
at her bank, which I found a little hard to believe, since I estimated
Raphael Geminani's age as about 83 at least, and the French have a
pretty much universal retirement age of 65. Anyway, things were
radically different when the French national team showed up. First
came a truck from the F.F.C. with 3 technicians carrying in all the
team member's packed bikes, and then checking in for the riders who
only had to wait as everything was being done for them. I was tempted
to ask them whether they had started paying the damages
they owed to the guy who got paralyzed at 1995 track worlds.
As is usual for national teams, I got a clear sense of ignorance and
stupidity from the
riders, as opposed to the independents were pleasant and seemed fairly
clever. In my
experience with riders up for the national team (all Stanford
graduates), the national bosses avoid
independent thinking like the plague. However, among the national team
members was Anne-Caroline Chausson who obviously does not fit in with
my blatant stereotype. In the following week, I never heard
anything about the event anywhere on the 65 cable channels at my
disposal in my hotel.
-ilan
