Tour of California - Part 2

Well, I promised this a few days ago and here it finally is. The second installment of last weekend. Wow I'm a slacker. Sunday morning I woke up and found this on my breakfast plate to commemorate the day. J.R. is getting really creative with his pancakes. I'm not sure how he did this.


We headed out to my parents and the four of us made our way down to Escondido. We made it just in time for the start of the race and were thankfully able to get a pretty good parking spot. Unfortunately, we weren't able to see a whole lot. But it was nice to get to experience what the beginning of the race is like. Although about the only thing we saw was a mob of bikes here one second gone the next.

Start of Stage 8

After the race was off, we headed over to the car and drove to see them fly by yet again in another spot in the race. We were able to get pretty good positions to see everything. We actually got to see them come down a hill which was a lot of fun because they are so much faster.

Lead Motorcycle (you can see some riders behind)

We grabbed some lunch, then made our way to the end of the race to stake our spots. We found a good spot along the curb and ironically right in front of the 300 meter sign yet again. This time was much better because we were able to see the footage of the race while we sat there.

While we were waiting, my mom, J.R. and I decided to go through the booths again hoping a lot of stuff would be on sale because it was the last day of the race. We weren't disappointed. We picked up a few shirts. Then we were walking by one booth that is a patient advocacy group and my mom spotted a really cool shirt. She asked how much the shirts were and the man told us they were free to cancer survivors. We all perked up and said well, J.R. here happens to be one. My mom was disappointed she couldn't get one for my dad but was glad J.R. got one and for free to boot. We also got to see Lance's bike. It had been stolen at the beginning of the race. Seriously, you really think you can get away with that, like there's any other bike in the world like it? Stupid.

As we made our way back to our seats we decided to make a quick pit stop at the restroom, which were just port-o-potties. Then it happened. As I was getting myself ready to leave the little stall, I heard something fall. For a split second I couldn't image what could have fallen. I looked around the floor and there was nothing there. Then I saw it, my phone. It was in the port-o-potty. I stood there thinking for a split second, thinking "crap what am I gonna do now." I couldn't just leave it there. So I reached in and got it, trying not to think about how disgusting this whole predicament was. Thankfully it wasn't ALL the way in the . . . well you get it. So I didn't have to put my whole hand in everything.

I walked out with the phone between two fingers. My mom and J.R. started asking what happened. I just looked at them and said, "What do you think happened?" They both started expressing how grossed out they were. My mom even said she would have just left it, while I rinsed it off and wrapped it but good in a million paper towels. Thankfully, I was already planning on getting a new phone and had even gotten all my numbers down, though for the life of me I can't find that list.

We got back to our seats, minus a phone, and waited for the race to end. Thankfully, this is what we were able to see while we were waiting.



The longer we waited the bigger the crowd around us became. I am so glad we had our chairs there otherwise we would have been squished. I'm sure the people behind us didn't appreciate the chairs, but I don't really care. We waited there for a couple of hours. Then we got to see this.


This was really such a fun experience for all of us. It made us want to go to The Tour even more. (FYI racing fans refer to the Tour de France as The Tour.) Hopefully someday. I am really amazed by this sport. Not simply by the mere athleticism it takes to accomplish something like this but more specifically the team work it takes. It's unlike any other sport of which I'm aware. The entire team works so that one man on that team wins.

The team doesn't get anything, though cycling etiquette (Yes, cycling does have etiquette and if riders don't follow it they are looked down upon greatly by the fans.) requires the winner to share his earnings with his team. However, the rest of the team gets none of the glory for the win. It's really an amazing sport. And we all had an amazing time at the race. It was actually pretty fun having to track down the riders and race off to the next spot. By the way, Levi Leipheimer did end up winning the race. He later said he is going to happily support Lance in The Tour as Lance supported him during this race. Very cool.

Tour of California - Part 1

This weekend was quite unexpected. But before I talk about my weekend, a little background. Ever since I can remember my Dad has been a cycling fan. I can remember when I was very little him watching Greg Lemond race in the Tour de France. This was a yearly event in our house before the majority of the US even knew what it was. My parents remember watching Lance ride before cancer. Then I met J.R. and like many other things in our family, J.R. got suckered into it as well. It wasn't too difficult for him as he is also a cancer survivor.

A few weeks ago J.R. discovered that the Tour of California was going to be near. Especially since Lance is riding again he wanted to go. I wasn't quite as enthusiastic as he was about the whole thing. I almost opted out until I found out my mom was coming along. I figured at least I could spend some time with her while we went.

So Saturday the four of us (my mom and dad, J.R. and I) headed out to Pasadena, the Rose Bowl more specifically. We found a place along the fence and set up camp. My dad, J.R. and I decided to wander around all the tents as we had a bit of time to spare. We got back and we waited until we could see them all ride by. We didn't have to wait too long as a whoosh of bikes flew by. It was incredible how fast they went. If you blinked you would miss it. A few minutes later there was another whoosh as the Peloton* flew by. As they did the crowd around us (and believe me there was a pretty big crowd lined up) cheered and rang cowbells as they raced by.

We were actually pretty spoiled as they had to race around the Rose Bowl 5 times before the end of the race, which was just 300 meters from where we were standing. We were able to see them fly by a total of 6 times, highly unusual for a race. By the end of the race all hesitance of coming to the race was gone. I had a blast. We all did.

After the race, my mom and I headed over to Lance's team bus, which wasn't far from where we were sitting. I don't know if that was just crazy, stupid or a bit of both. There was a huge crowd surrounding this bus. We actually saw him just as he walked on the bus. We stood there and waited for a bit. I'm not sure what the point was because my mom and I are pretty short and even with her arm raised all the way up the only pictures she was catching were of people's heads and arms. As time passed more and more people crowded around and the throng of people started to push forward. It was a little scary. Then he came out and started to sign autographs.

Try as she might there was no way my mom was getting a picture from her vantage point. For heaven sake, the only thing I could see were the people around me. We stood there for a few minutes, we couldn't have moved if we really wanted to honestly. There was one man standing next to my mom who was a giant of a man. He must have been at least two heads taller than my mom. So my mom finally asked him if he was able to see and if he had gotten any pictures. He said he had, so my mom asked him if he would take some pictures for us. He was nice enough to do so and got some pretty good shots.

The pictures my mom was getting.

The actual picture.

Then it was time to go. However, there's a small problem with that as there were at least a hundred people behind us pushing forward. There was no where to move. Thankfully, a lady next to us decided to leave the same time we did and we followed her as we pushed through the wall of people. It was madness!

We finally found my Dad. But J.R. was no where in sight. He was lost in the crowd of people trying to see Lance. After waiting a few minutes, J.R. finally came walking towards us with a big grin on his face. Apparently, he was able to push his way to the front by playing the old cancer card. He got his shirt signed and even spoke with Lance very briefly. It made his day as I know J.R. is a pretty big fan for obvious reasons. It also made my day as I knew this was something that J.R. really wanted.

We all left excited and wanting more. We talked about going to the final stage in Escondido the next day. But we just left it as talk because we had church the next morning. We actually even said we were willing to ditch church for the day, but we had a meeting we had to attend after church. So we left it at that.

10:00 that night, J.R. received a call from my Dad. He and my mom decided to drive down to Escondido Sunday morning to watch the end of the race. We were definitely in for that.

Tomorrow I'll finish up our fun filled weekend. Until then here are some pictures from that day.

Team Astana (Lance's Team)

The guy in yellow at the back is Levi Leipheimer the race leader.

Team Astana leading the Peloton

Pushing hard on the last 300 meters.

The Peloton

(*For those of you that have no clue about cycling, the Peloton is what they call the main group of riders.)