MORE STAGE 3
As the day wears on the riders keep rolling in. The rain has now picked up from a sprinkle to a light drizzle. I was not really wet yet at this point. A side note to this stage: The cops in Rome were kinda rude and inconsistent. There were at least four times when they jumped all over me and told me to either leave where I was or not to go where I was going. Since there were other people at all of these locations and I was wearing an official media badge I thought this was kinda goofy. At one point I was trying to get in a good position out on the course and a cop just went off on me. I showed him my pass and said it was supposed to get me anywhere I wanted to be. His response was that his boss had said to not let anyone over there and I couldn't go no matter what pass I had. Since there were two guys in the same area setting up a tent to protect themselves from the rain and several folks in lawn chairs I asked him how they got over there. He said he didn't know but I wasn't going to go there and really showed some attitude toward my question. For a moment I thought I was going to get thumped on the head. He was really upset at being questioned.
I have dealt with cops at big events all my life including South America and the Tour de France and never been so consistently treated this way. I have had many cops tell me "no" but usually they are nice about it and I move on. In Rome they were just plain rude and in my opinion had no excuse because I was being nice and had my media badge. The really dumb thing about this entire deal was the press photo area right at the finish line. It was barricaded off and had "media only" signs posted everywhere. Much of the time in this area I was having to fight to get a decent picture because there was no one posted at the entrance to check I.D.'s. It seemed like half of Rome was inside this area by the end of the race and it really made things tough for those of us trying to work. I am sorry but leaning out in front of me is not going to help anyone get a better picture with their cardboard disposable camera. Remember that if you get any real cool shots of this stage or have a comment to pass on to the peanut gallery please send it to bicycling@coolbicyling.com.
MORE GUYS MOVING THROUGH THE FINISH
THIS YEARS TEAMS LAST YEARS TOUR
