Manual for Speed covered this year’s hellacious Giro. We got some sample pics and a short interview with a very tired crew during and after the race.

AS: First of all, what is Manual for Speed and how did you get started?

MFS: MFS is a long term, embedded study of Professional Cycling.  It started as an idea to document an American team at the Tour of California. We pitched our idea to a team, but it didn’t work out. The following year, we pitched a similar project to Castelli and they were in. That was the first year they were sponsoring Team Exergy, so it was a no brainer that we would document their first year as a Pro team along with Garmin whenever they’d give us access.

AS: You definitely have your own point of view covering races. How would you describe it?

MFS: The MFS POV is a mix of our experience, and but more importantly, wherever and whenever possible, the athlete’s (or DS or mechanic or official or police or soigneur, etc) experience. We document the experience as honestly and as vividly as possible, and we try to provide insight. We love professional racing. We love the pursuit of speed. We love the humanity of speed. Manual for speed is about the humanity of speed.

AS: Is this Giro the first grand tour you’re covering beginning to end? How’s it going?

MFS: The Giro was the first grand tour we covered. It was also the first time we published day-to-day in lock-step with a stage race. Because of unreliable internet and lengthy transfers it was physically and mentally and spiritually exhausting. In addition to, like, the actual work which was gnarly enough and demanding enough on its own. From a straight-up full-grown human perspective, covering the 2013 Giro d’Italia sucked. That shit is hard on a human. From a anthropological, documentarian, lover-of-cycling perspective covering the 2013 Giro d’italia was the single greatest event/experience to date. Italy, its geography and topography and cultural nuances, as well as actual Italians themselves, make what is essentially the greatest conceivable "theatre" imaginable in which to feature a race, plus the race was long and strange and difficult. Plus watching the athletes walk and talk and ride on a daily basis, under those demands and conditions, was unforgettable. 

That said, MFS will NEVER do another Grand Tour again. It’s too hard and expensive. Until next year.

AS: That had to be one of the nastiest Giro’s, weather-wise. We forget that the support staff have to go through it just as much as the riders. Can you walk us through one of those days from your perspective?

MFS: The weather was discussed a lot – by riders, teams, staff, other journalists, spectators, everyone. Everyone was talking about the weather. It was as wet if not wetter than it looked on TV and in photographs. At times it was biblically wet. Puddles, standing water, hydroplanning, waterfalls, cascades of water running down the steeper sections of road, the peloton huddle-up inside a warehouse before the start, etc. I wore a poncho on the wet days and if was possible, I asked a friend to hold an umbrella over my head when the race passed by. When I was on the inside of the barricade, crouching below the fencing so the spectators could see over me, often I chose my exact spot based on the size of a spectator’s umbrella. Sometimes I’d pantomime my intentions/hopes and they would lean over me a bit more than they technically needed to to help out. Often when I needed to change cards or batteries I’d stop wherever I was, suck my head in through my poncho, crouch and tent-out the poncho as much as possible with my arms and shoulders, put my on my iphone (for light) in my mouth, and do whatever I had to do that way, in damp little cave like a witch mid-melt.

AS: Having been on the inside, what has been the most surprising or unexpected thing you’ve discovered?

MFS: I had no idea just how much time riders actually spent on the bus until the Giro. Maybe it’s just a Grand Tour thing, maybe it’s the Giro, whatever it is, riders are on the bus way longer than I thought. It’s stunning. They ride to the start in the bus, which commute may take as long as thirty minutes or an hour. or longer. They arrive an hour early everyday and except for sign-in, they’re on the bus the whole time. They’re on the bus after the finish. They’re on the bus for the transfer after the finish, another hour to two hour commute. Basically they’re on the bus for ALL of the transferes, and there is SO MUCH TIME spent transferring. The time spent checking into and out of any given town, start, finish, hotel or whatever, is staggering.