Had a really great dinner w/Adam and the Giant World Sports marketing guy, Tom Price and the guy who drives the Giant rig, William. We had dinner at a place Tom knew about since he’s from Spain originally and seems to have the world dialed in. I drank great wine while listening to Tom’s story’s of marketing Nike around the world - even in Eastern Europe back in the day. Amazing. Even listening to all the different accents keeps me quiet. I’d much rather hear them then my lame-o American self. I think that’s why people like to travel so much - you can loose who you are and simply concentrate on what other people are all about. It still kills me when I realize I’m hanging out with some of the best athletes and their teams - in the world. Whoever goes to the olympics for mt. biking - will be a friend of mine. Men and women. And I am starting to realize that for that reason alone - I’m stoked to have taken this project on.

j

Today is Friday. Got hooked up with Adam today and moved my stuff to his room - same hotel but Giant is paying for my stay now. Good thing too since I had to pay for my room last night and it was 220 euro’s - holy! Now I know why the breakfast was so kickass. Not much was going on today but I got a ride back to Camp Trek about 60k north of town in a little camp w/cabins. It’s really beautiful as the place is backed by a very abrupt mountain range and is covered by wildflowers. Big, beautiful wildflowers. It’s quite arid here and tho the sun was baking, it wasn’t muggy. Very pleasant heat tho Jeremiah did complain about it when I kept him out on some rocks to do an interview. Guess if I had just gotten back from a 60k training ride, I wouldn’t wanna be propped up in the sun either. But it’s part of my job.

Today I didn’t much like my job as I then had to interview Sue who said she was feeling terrible and looked very ill. I sat down on the porch of her cabin and told her how I hoped she didn’t mind my interviewing her while she felt so ill. Now you have to understand, I don’t know Sue very well and I know she knows much less about me. I’m no hardened journalist and I happen to have a world of respect and admiration for Sue. So here I am cowtowing around the subject of needing the bad days on film too. She tells me to stop. “Look, this isn’t going to work unless you just get what you need.” Ok, so I turned on the camera and started in with the questions. She answered one or two and she was talking very slow. She kept looking up and away from me. “How have you been feeling since your last race?” She looks down and I could see her eyes welling up. “I’ve gone this whole year without breaking down once from the pressure. Maybe this is it….”The water in her eyes spilled over and down her cheeks. She kept going,”…I mean my legs feel strong so that’s good. But today I woke up in a bad mood and it got worse from there. I’m not hungry, I’m not thirsty and I’m worried about this weekend. It’s a lot of pressure, you know?” She was clearly angry - and I couldn’t tell if it was at me or at the tears. She hated something and I didn’t know what to do. I kept filming. She stopped looking away and looked right at me. Almost waiting for an answer. I realized I was sniffling and hoped it wouldn’t get recorded. I pressed on with questions about the course. She came around and got back to her very business-like-but-laid-back-self, “Course is good, it’s dry and fast. Lots of singletrack.”

The interview was then cut short by Tyler needing to get back to the race site and he was my ride. I sheepishly thanked Sue and shook her hand. I walked away feeling terrible.

Don’t know what else to say.

j

I’m going to dinner now. Peace out.

It’s 4am. DC time. Sipping strong coffee in Heathrow. Seems odd how bad the coffee was in Ecuador (nescafe-style, ugh) and how good it is here.

So it’s on to Madrid in 2 hours. I missed 2 really amazing shots on the plane. One headed out of Dulles going up through the cloud layer shooting above it like one of those NASA shots. The sun was low so the colors were amazing. Also missed a cool shot of another huge British Airways jet going RIGHT beside us on the tarmac headed the other way. They drive jets on the wrong side of the street as well. Missed shots. Has to be my biggest fear during this project. Filming by script you can always reshoot a scene. Documentary’s are so stressful like that. I never know when to stop working - I hate missed shots. After a five years you’d think I’d be used to it.

I had planned on listening to a few new potential soundtrack tunes on the plane. Turns out I must not have hit “record” on my mini-dv deck and ended up with an old Eminem cd. I kinda don’t think that’s the best choice for soundtracks. Thought I might be able to use a tune by SEAL off his new IV cd. Glad I asked his publisher first. $2,500 base price w/o usage fees. This is why not everyone is out there making films. I’m sure to be pennyless and mentally ill by the time this is over.

Until Madrid, Jason