With the Tour underway there are many things to envy. One that always gets me is the team cars. This, to me, is the ultimate luxury (coupled with the relentless suffering, but hey, these guys are paid for this). No need to stuff your jersey with eight kilos of food and spares. A new wheel is at the ready – a whole new bike, should it come to that. Bidons are chilled and waiting. Tools are full-sized and plentiful, not folded little compromises. And if the V-tank goes to empty, there is always the back seat of that four-wheeled decal darling.
As of today, my envy can be put to rest. Today, AAA (yes, the Automobile Association of America) will extend roadside assistance to members in the state of Washington. Now, I have a team car… and it has hydraulics. And 700 ft-lbs of torque. And a reasonable chance of some canned beer stashed behind the front seat. Now I just hope AAA comes up with a sharp looking kit.
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Fantastic. I recently heard on KUOW about AAA providing this in OR and ID. Was hoping WA would follow suit.
Better World Club has been doing this for years and even has a bicycle only membership
http://www.betterworldclub.com/competition/aaa_chart.cfm
@Nate
absolute word! i have wanted to find the ole volvo sitting in someones barn..unused, buy it and refurb with paint to match molteni colors/decals...but then again, maybe that would be a bit over the top now a-days.
is that dedication or weird?? not sure myself, but since my girl is 17, its a sure way she would never drive the gas out of it
@Souleur
It may or may not be weird -- I have the same fantasy. In fact there is a similar vintage baby-shit beige one of these near my house and whenever I see it I think about doing it up as a Molteni team car.
@Souleur
Join us for Keepers Tour next year and you can touch and make detailed notes on its config for your build-up. The car is parked outside the Ronde van Vlaanderen Museum in Oudenaarde.
@Jim (Snuffolupogus)
Awesome. I actually have a AAA membership as part of ownership of one of our cars. Now the service has some value, provided I can figure out how to access the account.
I could have used this when I melted a pair of carbon clinchers at high speed in the Berkshire mountains of Massachusetts. Instead I drank for 4 hours before I was rescued.
@frank
What a beautiful thing that picture is. Somehow it is very reassuring to know that someone else values the more peripheral bits of history.
Now Pacific Northwest cyclists have no excuse but to do away with their European Posterior Man Satchels. Support vehicle = no more extra shit. I wish we had something like this in the PetroMetro. Bloody good idea.
@El Mateo
Hey, El Mateo, whatcha doing in Ft. Worth? I grew up there, which means I must know everyone in a city of half-a-million.
Does the West still begin there, or did it get too fucking bored and move to Dallas?