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.
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.
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.
0 comments:
Post a Comment