The Man behind the Mask: Bobby Lea's Beijing Diary on GamJams, 8.14.08

(Bobby Lea is out in Beijing representing not just the USA, but the entire Mid-Atlantic bike racing community. He is racing on the track in Beijing, competing in the Points Race and the Madison. Back in the States, he is also a road racer with Rite Aid Pro Cycling. He'll be chronicling his Olympic adventure here on GamJams.

Questions for Bobby? Ask away in the comments and he'll get back to you. Remember that it's a 12-hour time difference though. And that he's at the Olympics.)

The Man Behind the Mask: A Dream Begins
by Bobby Lea
2008 USA Olympic Cycling Team

For those of you that didn’t know me before last Tuesday, and you can certainly be excused for that, I am sure you have at least heard my name once or twice in the last few days.  My name is Bobby Lea, and I am here in Beijing as a member of the 8 person track cycling squad.  My events are the points race and the Madison, which I will be riding with fellow Pennsylvanian Mike Friedman.  You can look for my events in the tv listings on the 16th and 19th. 

A Dream Begins

At 4.15am on Saturday morning, August 2nd, my Olympic journey began with the unwelcome ringing on the alarm clock.  I was told all I had to bring was my equipment, underwear, and any personal items I may want for three weeks in China.  That shouldn’t have taken any time at all to pack, right?  Wrong!  I horribly misjudged my packing time and went to bed way too late on Friday night, although I did have quite a nice sleep on the flight to San Francisco.  Upon arrival I was met by a USOC representative and I was whisked away to a waiting tour bus, along with several other Olympians, for the trip to San Jose State University for team processing.  Team processing is a fancy term for Christmas in August!  We were given a Home Depot shopping cart to use during processing to cart all of our gear around!  The clothing stations were set up in a gymnasium, and we moved from station to station trying on each item and collecting our Olympic Team gear one item at a time.  At first I was a little shy about stripping down in the middle of the gym, but quickly got over that once I realized that was the norm as I saw many other world class athletes bearing (almost) all while sizing their kits.

Monday morning, bright and early, a bus arrived to take us and the softball team to the airport where we met the synchronized swimming team.  We arrived in a private section of the airport, had our own check in and security line, and then we were off to Beijing!

Little did we know what awaited us upon arrival.

The flight to Beijing was long, very long.  11 hours and 45 minutes long to be exact.  It was daylight the entire flight, and in order to minimize jet lag it was recommended, in a manual from the USOC, to stay awake for the entire flight.  I was panicked!  Normally I make my international flights pass by relatively painlessly with a healthy dose of ambien, but 12 hours awake on a plane sounded terrible!  Clearly I had to adjust my strategy.  Instead of relying on heavy sedatives, I marched onto the plane armed with a few good books, some issues of Newsweek for light reading, and a fully charged iPOD with 2 seasons of Scrubs and more music than I know what to do with.  Oh yeah, and of course aspirin to aid against clotting and Excedrin in case I need a little caffeine hit to stay awake. 

There was tangible excitement in the air as we were waiting in the gate area for the plane to depart.  We were a mix of Olympic veterans and rookies, but everyone seemed equally as excited to meet one another, learn about the different sports, and get on to Beijing!  The flight itself turned out to be not as bad as it could have been.  I scored a great seat and had plenty of fellow Olympians to meet.  And finally, 11 hours, 5 bottles of water, 2 magazines, and 1 book later we arrived in Beijing. 

Upon arrival a few of us donned our USOC team issued masks, in accordance with the previously mentioned manual.  And that was the beginning of it all.

Mike Friedman at Processing, resplendent in USA boxer briefs and black compression socks.

The mask, er, Mask.

Comments

[Chuck Hutch]

Living the dream...Great stuff!

[Brian]

Great read!

[Bobby Phillips]

Bobby - Good luck from another BOBBY PS i sprained my ankle real bad walk on a rock. It is swollen pretty good.Bring me a large t-shirt back

[Mike H.]

Good luck Bobby!!! Kick ass and take names!!!

[Charles Archer]

Bobby-- enjoying your diary. Best of luck in the competition.

[Lance Lacy]

Great stuff.....Good Luck...and remember be the ball lol.

[Pete Custer]

I'm rootin' for you and Meatball!

[greg]

hey good luck. can you post more photos of meatball in various stages of undress? xoxox

[Jeff Petruno]

“We were called a disgrace to the United States team and were belittled and embarrassed by the very people that are supposed to be advocates for us,” Hammer said in a telephone interview Monday. “They treated us like we were just stupid athletes and like we didn’t matter.”

Hey Sarah:

A. You were a disgrace to your country.

B. You are a stupid cyclist.

C. You should have been forced to apologize.

Jeff in New York City.

[Mike May]

Hey Jeff-

Thanks for stopping by. We work pretty hard at GamJams to make sure everyone can speak up. Thoughtful, intelligent and informed people, as well as folks like you. Keep on keeping it real, dude.

[Bram Friedman]

Who da fuck is Jeff Petruno. His comments regarding Sarah along with Jenn, Mike and Bobby are as stupid as any I've ever heard. For this New Yorker to read another's ridiculous bullet points in both this blog and Meatball's shows me this idiot has no idea what he is talking about and is the most un-savvy New Yorker ever. I hope this guy Jeff figures out the big picture of life soon before it becomes too late for pea brains to emerge. For if he doesn't, he'll simply decay like un-picked tomoates that fell off the plant in a field in outer space. Oh-I see now, he's already decayed.