When news broke that Italian police had searched the Radio Shack hotel rooms on the Giro d’Italia rest day, many people got a mistaken impression.
They assumed that police were looking for performance enhancing drugs, syringes, blood bags, maybe even the Dr. Michele Ferrari — the inventor of the EPO orange juice chaser — hiding in a closet.
Not the situation at all. Team manager Johan Bruyneel had called the police in himself to help locate some items the team had somehow misplaced.
After a quick and professional search by the Italian authorities, things were back on track. They successfully found Tiago Machado’s missing sock, Bruyneel’s phone charger, the keys to the Shack van, a ball gag that nobody is claiming, Philip Deignan‘s hair gel and a book of poems by Edgar Allen Poe.
Then there was a missing white lunch sack which police spend several hours attempting to recover. Thank goodness, it was found up on the closet shelf behind the extra blankets. It’s a terrible thing to loss your lunch on the rest day.
In addition, a quick peek in Yaroslav Popovych‘s suitcase turned up a hotel hair dryer, two sets of cutlery and a room service coffee pot. No charges were filed because the Ukrainian is already under enough investigations.
So, while the police search was a big help to the Radio Shack squad, nothing earth-shaking turned up. Certainly, nothing quite as exciting as the nine craziest things left in hotels — like the stuffed crocodile and the artificial limbs — but still, they were happy to help out.
Hahahahahahah!!!!! Thank goodness for people with a sense of humor.
Nice on the ball gag.
And good for Popo – if you can find a hotel hairdryer, by all means, TAKE IT! Who knows when you'll see another one….
Cynthia, I try to work a ball gag into everything I do. It just titillates me and since it's my blog that's important. Look forward to buying you a glass of french wine or two at the TDF. Matt
I heard somebody ran off with all their white lunch bags!
Ahh, the white lunch bags. Did winning the Tour de France come down to that? Matt
No one took the Gidion Bible?
Gidion? Is that French guy riding the Giro? I know Le Mevel is riding but I must have missed Gidion. Matt
I heard the Italian police officers are so big fans of Bruyneel that they waited at the hotel for four hours just to get his autograph! Unfortunately he did not turn up. Actually nobody has seen him since.
That's the thing about justice and powerful people. The need for an autograph and a conviction cancel each other out. Matt
Did anyone find Lance Armstrong's reputation? It's been lost as well..
A good point. That would be a longer search and I'm not sure the Italian police had that much time. Matt
I think the more pressing question is . . . What was in the lunch bag? 🙂
That would say a lot if we knew.
Lunch? WHat abotu breakfast and dinner? Plenty of big questions here. Matt