CLEAN BOTTLE

There are two kinds of people in the world: those mostly interested in helping themselves and those mostly interested in helping others.

Bill Walton is one of the latter.

If you all don’t remember, I met Bill back in February 2011 at a NBA game.  I knew that Bill was a cyclist, so I mustered up the courage to ask him if he had heard about Clean Bottle.  I was pretty nervous to approach Bill.  After all, Bill Walton is a Big Deal.  He is an NBA Hall of Famer and iconic NBA announcer.

I sent Bill a few bottles, expecting never to hear from him again.

I ended up with a great friendship with one of the most selfless people I know.

Here I am showing Bill the photo of Bottle Boy to prove I am not just a deranged fan.

Instead of getting expected radio silence from Bill, within a few days of me sending him bottles he sent me an email thanking me.  You don’t know enthusiasm until you’ve met Bill Walton.  He just didn’t tell me he liked the Clean Bottle, he wrote “I LOVE MY CLEAN BOTTLE”.  And the more I sent him, the more effusive he became in his praise.

During the Tour de France I emailed Bill to ask if he had seen me running along the road and if he was playing my “Spot the Clean Bottle” contest.  Not only did he tell me he had seen the contest, but he also offered up memorabilhia and NBA tickets as prizes for the event!

Once I got back from the Tour I kept in touch with Bill.  He mentioned that a charity he works with, the Challenged Athletes Foundation, was doing a 2 day, 200 mile ride near my home in the Bay Area. He invited me to come along.

On this ride I really got to know Bill and his story.  6’11″ and running on hardwood floors do not mix very well.  So, Bill has a lot of wear on his body.  He’s had 36 orthopedic operations and his back and both ankles are fused.

You wouldn’t blame him if he sat at home all day moping around.  Not Bill.  Not only does he ride 100 miles on a regular basis, but he approaches each ride, each day, like he is a child riding his bike for the first time.

It really was amazing to watch.  Each morning, each rest stop, each evening, Bill would raise his arms and shout “I get to ride my bike.  Today is an AMAZING day”.  Here I was, lost in my own worries, thinking about the future.  Bill’s booming voice shook me out of all that.  His attitude reminded me to stop worrying about my problems for a minute and step back and soak in the beautiful ride, the beautiful scenery and the amazing people I was with.

"I get to ride my bike!!"

Bill is incredibly busy, but he always makes time to encourage me and support Clean Bottle.  Its amazing, because he has absolutely nothing to gain from everything he does for me.

I’ve also gotten to know Bill’s wife, Lori, as well as his sons.  They are unbelievably kind and generous as well.

Thank you Bill for everything you’ve done for Clean Bottle.  But more importantly, thank you for being such a great example for how I should lead my life.

Ride Clean!

Bill has given me so much encouragement, I wanted to return the favor. So I surprised him on one of his rides.

Hey guys – here are the winners!  I will be emailing each person.  Unfortunately all we collected was an email address, so we don’t have each person’s full name, so I am just putting the first part of their email address below so you can see if it is you.  But we will also be emailing each person as well.

Thanks for playing – I can’t wait until next year!

When you watch the Tour on TV you only see part of the actual event that is Le Tour.

About an hour and a half before the riders come through there is a large caravan that drives by.  The caravan is basically a parade of companies that have paid to advertise at the Tour.  There are hotel chains, soft drink companies, grocery store chains.  Even the Luxemburg Tourism Bureau has a few cars in the caravan.  They all drive by with crazy floats, blast music and throw trinkets to the fans.

One company, Etap Hotels, throws out an orange head scarf.  Maybe it was the sun, maybe it was the wine or maybe it was the noxious fumes that were fermenting in our van, but one day I decided that the head scarf would double as a great mini-skirt / euro trash bathing suit.  I undid the knot, put it on and voila!  It worked.

So, to entertain ourselves, Reed, Alan and I would dress up in our head scarves / euro-trash swim trunks and dance for the caravan as they went by.  Their reaction this silliness was priceless: some would gasp, some would laugh uncontrollably, some would start dancing in sync with us.  It never got old.  After a few stages the caravan began to recognize us and our legend grew.  Just as Bottle Boy was the entertainment for the Tour viewers, our alter ego, “Party Boy”, became the entertainment for the caravan.

The most ridiculous part is that, because we were so outlandish, the caravan would usually shower us with the trinkets and samples that they throw out.

We made it rain.

Some people will do anything to get free stuff!

We didn’t need any of the stuff, and even if we did we couldn’t bend down to get any of it!  So we would just leave it on the ground.  Quickly, the kids near us would realize this and they’d gather near us like pigeons waiting for bread crumbs.  Picture it: two half naked guys, dancing for the caravan, with a bunch of kids scurrying around them.  My parents would be proud.

Reed still may want to run for public office some day, so we left him out of the photo, but here is Alan and I doing our thing.

Thanks for reading!

Today Alan and I travelled to the Col d’Angel, the first climb of the stage.  We were planning to drive up the back side, down the climb and park on it, but when we got to the foot of the mountain we were told by the French Police it was closed.  It was too late to drive around so we camped out for the night.

As we set up our tent we heard a guitar playing and saw people singing around a camp fire.  Not ones to miss an opportunity belt out a few tunes, Alan and I grabbed a bottle of wine from the car and headed over.  There was a group of about 10 people gathered around, including the two French Police officers.  Hey, maybe the French Police aren’t that bad.

We sung a bunch of songs and even led the French in a spirited rendition of God Bless America.  The French Police had to run off every now and then to stop cars that tried to go up the mountain.  One time, one of the officers even gave his jacket to a lady in the group and had her run up to the car and stop the person!  We all laughed when that happened.  I was seriously considering getting the Bottle Boy costume out and putting the French Police jacket over it.  That would have made for a good photo.

Us with the locals

We had a good night, but because we were on the backside of the climb we had to bike 6 miles up it with our costumes.  Alan and I ground out the climb, which took us well over an hour.  It was so windy we were blown over twice.  And it was COLD.  Alan even put on the Bottle Boy gloves for warmth.

Alan trying to stay warm!

We descended about 3 miles, where it was open enough for us to run.  So after we ran we had to climb ANOTHER 3 miles in the howling wind and cold.  What a day!

We are now off to the Galibier, the last climb of the Tour for us.  Its been a long trip, but hopefully you’ve had some fun watching us.

Thanks for Reading!

Today Alan and I headed into Italy to camp out on the climb leading into the town of Sestriere, which hosted  the winter Olympic games.  The French Police were hot on my trail so I was happy to be across the border for a day.  That should be one rule in the Bottle Boy handbook: whenever possible, run in a country other than France.

Alan was pretty knocked out from the saddle sores he has been dealing with so I did a ride by myself.

Being in a country other than France has its advantages from a criminal prosecution standpoint, but it makes it even tougher trying to communicate.  Just when I had started to pick up some French I now had to speak Italian.  Now all my “Boungers” became “Boungernous” and my “Mercis” became “Gratsis”.  I did get a proper Cappuchino though, which was nice.

Also in Italy I had my first Clean Bottle sighting!  I had gotten back to my car when I saw a guy, I believe his name was Michael, biking by with one!  Last year I made a promise to myself: “I am going to get on TV every day and make Clean Bottle so popular that when I come back next year I will see someone using one.”

Next year I hope to see even more of these!

It was honestly an emotional moment for me.  It is a really hard feeling to describe: Clean Bottle is something I had been putting my heart and soul into for 3 years to get it right before I launched it last year.  To see something that was once an idea in my head, now in use halfway around the world, is a very special feeling.  It lets me know that, in my own small way, I’ve had a visible impact on the world.  I’ve made a mark.

To all of you aspiring entrepreneurs out there I have a message: launching a new product or service is UNBELIEVABLY difficult.  Chances are you will fail.  But you HAVE TO TRY.  You can’t sit back when you are 70 with regrets that you didn’t go for it.  And if you do succeed, even in a minor way like have with Clean Bottle, it will be one of the best feelings in the world.

That day I ended up running with the riders as long as I ever have.  Maybe it was the adrenaline from seeing Clean Bottle in use, maybe it was the gentle grade, maybe it was that there were no French Police to shove me in a ditch, but it was a long run.  And hopefully Clean Bottle will have a long run as well.

Thanks for reading!

Team Clean Bottle is really limping to the finish.  Reed flew out today so we are without our French speaker.  Alan has saddle sores so bad that he needs to see a doctor and my computer just died.  And to add insult to injury, the French policy motorcar pushed me into the gutter as I was running with the riders today.  After he did, he shouted something to me in French an put up two fingers.  This could mean a few things:

• It is the French sign for giving someone the birdie
• He is exasperated by the fact that there are two of us
• He is giving me my second and final warning.  I also got chewed out yesterday as I was running

In any case, I am ready for tomorrow’s rest day.  And I hope the motorcycle police guy doesn’t follow the Tour into the Alps, or my next post may be from a French jail.  Which, by the way, is looking a lot better than the van I have been sleeping in every night.

Au Revoir!

We camped out last night at the base of the Col d’Agnes, the second to last climb of the day.  The morning of the stage we walked into town to get some coffee.  In France coffee is a sit down affair.  No Starbucks here.  You go into a restaurant and they serve you.

Reed, our only French Speaker, was in the bathroom when the waiter came by.  Alan asked for coffee by saying “café” but he didn’t know the word for milk so he did a hilarious pantomime of him milking a cow’s udders while simultaneously mooing.  We may not learn much French on this trip but we are going to be AWESOME at charades by the time this thing is over.

We are becoming famous in America with the Bottle Boy costume running around on TV every day.  But we are also becoming equally as famous with the caravan that proceeds the race.  Think of it as a long parade of companies that make giant floats and entertain the fans by throwing free trinkets at them and blasting music.

Every day when the caravan goes by we stand on the side of the road and dance our tails off.  I think they are beginning to recognize us by our disheveled appearance and horrible dancing. The caravan rewards us by throwing A TON of items our way.  I am now the proud owner of 80 key chains, 30 hats, 12 pocket ashtrays (yes you read that right) and 15 shirts. Today Reed chased after the Vittel (water company) caravan and asked the driver for her phone number, which she obliged.

After the stage we headed to Narbonne, an awesome town near the Mediterranean.  The town square actually had a nighttime criterium race going on at one side of the town square, and a country music dancing show on the other side of the town.  These Narbonnians really know how to party!

We ate dinner at a restaurant that served meals in the middle of the town square.  I had gotten my dancing in for the day, but Reed wanted more, so in the middle of the meal he asked a group of Algerian ladies sitting next to us to dance with him.

Tomorrow is a flat stage, so we are heading to the only hill of the day.  Wish us good luck with our dance moves and running!

Au Revoir!

Today was the first stage in the high mountains.  Its crazy how back ended the Tour has been.  It seems like I have been chasing it around forever and this is the first day with a true mountain-top finish.

The phrase that Alan and I taught ourselves today was “Darling, will you marry me?”.  Unfortunately, since I am actually married and Alan has a girlfriend, we probably won’t be trying this one out on people too much.

It has been an incredibly rainy Tour and our drive in the night before the stage wasn’t any exception.  It was raining frogs and snails and the temperature got down to 42 degrees by the time we parked.  42 in July?!

We found a huge parking lot halfway up the Tourmalet, the same parking lot I camped out at last year.  We ended up pulling in next to a camper van full of Americans.  What are the chances?

The next day dried up, thankfully.  But it was still vey cold in the morning.  Being the highly prepared person I am I had neglected to bring any type of cold weather gear whatsoever.  So I chattered my way about 12 kilometers down the base of the climb.  Alan was kind enough to lend me his socks that I could use for gloves.  Then Reed, Alan and I spent the next few hours climbing the 17 kilometers to the top.  On the way we came across some epic views and also spotted the Devil!

Even the Devil Rides Clean!

I then chattered my way down to the car, quickly washed off, and went down the hill to find a good “runway” for Bottle Boy.  It took a little while and we ended up finding a spot about 5K down the hill, which meant I had to tow the dang thing up 5 kilometers after we finished.

I didn’t do as much climbing as the peloton, but it felt like a lot.

Proof that I actually did the climb.

We’re off to find some food now before we head up to the Aubisque.

Now that we have Alan with us, our two-man wolfpack has grown to three.  Alan is a great guy, even though he wears Capri shorts.  He is a cyclocross and road racer down in Southern California.  He came up to race in Northern California last year.  I raced with him and then afterwards I dressed up as Bottle Boy to cheer on the riders (my wife loves it when I bring the costume everywhere and randomly throw it on).  He saw Bottle Boy and got his photo with me and we started talking from there.

Alan and I know zero French.  Reed speaks French, but he leaves in a few days so Alan and I have been trying to learn a bit.

I have a translation guide and I was looking through it only to discover an entire section dedicated to the most ridiculous pick up lines I’ve ever heard.  These include:

• “I am horny”
• “My place or yours?”
• “I’m married . . . but”
• “I’m lonely tonight”
• “I am rich and single”
• “Lets have fun like idiots”
• “Can I change your mind?”
• “How does this feel?”
• “You are my most beautiful souvenir”
• “Darling, will you marry me?”

I am not making these up.  I am just not that funny.

Alan and I did a bike ride on the course before the riders went by.  Being bored and American we decide to make asses out of ourselves.  Every time someone shouted “Allez!” to us (which means “go”) we had to get out of our saddle and sprint as hard as we could.  Then, when we saw a woman on the course, we had to use my favorite pick up line in the book: “I am disease free!”

So what ended up happening is we’d sprint up to every woman on the course, totally out of breath, and then yell “I am disease free!”.  The reactions were pretty comical.

Maybe it was the oxygen debt, or maybe it was that I was dehydrated, but when we got back to our car I also told the 5 retirees in RV next to us that we were, in fact, disease free.  For some reason they really responded well to this!  They invited us over to the table they had set up, gave us coffee and we chatted / used hand signals to communicate for the next half hour.

Us with the retirees.

Since I didn’t have any diseases to give them I hooked them up with a Clean Bottle instead.  I explained that the Clean Bottle is also disease free.

We got a good run in, and got on TV, so all in all it was a good day.

Wish me luck for the rest of the stages and that I can stay disease free!

Its been raining almost every day this trip.  Not the kind where it rains for a few hours and then it is done with, the kind that rains, then clears, then rains, then clears . . . .

One minute it looks like a beautiful day and the next it looks like Seattle in February.  This makes it difficult when you are trying to get in a bike ride before the stage, or worse yet, trying to keep a 5 foot tall mascot clean and try so that it looks like a bottle running along the road and not a giant soggy turd.

Thankfully today the weather cleared up a bit.  Reed and I had a good run and are now headed out to enjoy a well deserved rest day.  We are also going to pick up my buddy Alan from the train station.  Reed is only here a few more days so Alan is going to help m out for the rest of the time.

Thanks for reading!