Tour of California thread

Stage 4

I'm thinking about driving up and checkin out stage 4.

My family has some property right outside of Mariposa. The race is going to go right by the turnoff, to our property on highway 49! Thought it would be an awesome spectacle to see these guys race past a very important part of my life.

I think we are pretty close to one of the ends of the 4 KOM's.

 

FYI, the sun is out in Sacramento for the Prologue. If the weather holds should be a great day.

 

Luke that is a night you'll remember the rest of your life. Man, I wish I could of done something like that.

 

attended the prologue today...awesome as usual and even cooler with VIP passes. i felt bad holding a beer at the finish line with all of these guys riding by. anyway, i took a ton of pictures. i have a video of lance finishing that should be uploaded to blog in a bit...so check back. in the meantime here is the flickr gallery.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/35431415@N06/sets/72157613797296153/show/with/3280319552/

 

Make that two.

 

Time trail was very exciting at the end. I think Lance came in around 15th.Levi got second and Fabian got first.

 

I just got to watch my DVR of the prologue. So good racing. I'm glad to see Fabian and George rock it out.

I did notice tho that Lance is wearing #2 on his bib. Is there a reason he's wearing a bib number that high that he didn't earn? I saw Levi with #1 which makes sense since he won last year.

Yes, I am a little anti-Lance.

 

I think it went something like this .... Lance all time cycling legend walks into room...Levi gives him little pleeeaaaaseee look...Lance gives him a little subtle nod of OK....then Lance says .... "I want number 2...anyone got a problem with that"....room is silent...done!

BTW not anti-Lance...

 

I follow lance on twitter he actually updates it all day long. He said this morning someone broke into the team truck and stole his time trial bike! Bastards!

 

That seems to be happening a lot...another team had their entire team set of Bianchis stolen just a few days ago...I think that officially rates a "That Sucks!" from this college grad.

 

Floyd was disappointing.

 

I offered to volunteer and just got notice that I'll be a course marshall at the Rose Bowl. Is that good? I just don't want to get stuck directing traffic in the parking lot.

 

Speaking of Lance..somebody jacked his bike last night.

http://www.bikeradar.com/news/article/lance-armstrongs-trek-time-trial-bike-stolen-20405

Lance Armstrong's one-of-a-kind Trek Equinox TTX 9.9 time trial bike was stolen from the Astana team truck last night, according to a recent Twitter posting from the seven-time Tour de France winner who's racing the 2009 Tour of California.

 

Why in the world would you steal that bike. I mean you can't really ride it and you can't sell it. WTF man some people are just complete a$$holes!

It was fun to watch last night although they could've easily cut out the first hour of programming. i love the two normal announcers but that third guy was getting on my nerves. I've got the DVR set-up for today and will watch later tonight.

Do you have the link to Lance's Twitter, that'd be pretty cool.

 

http://twitter.com/lancearmstrong/

 

Here's some photos from the other side of the course. I snapped some pics and videos from turn 2 and 3 and the straight leading into the turns.

Cool stuff man.


Exit of turn 2


Lead into turn 3



It was pretty neat seeing the different lines they took into these turns.











Dam this guy exited really wide from turn 2.

 

Lots of folks and odd bikes interesting bikes. Though it was pretty funny seeing people cruising around on $4k+ road bikes with road pedals wearing running shoes and jeans.



You can't see it, but this was a painted titanium Eriksen tandem with couplers so you can break it down for travel.


Back to the racing!

 

On the straight away after the big U-turn leadning to turn #2.







Saw a lot of guys mouths hanging wide open sucking air!










Rock Racing's bling'in Team car.



Rock Racing's blinging team kit.




Team Highroad.



Team OUCH/Maxxis. Man look at that position on that TT bike. OUCH is right.


Compared to this position.

 

Some stars.

Boonen


George Hincapie


Tyler Hamilton


Christian Vande Velde?


Aussie Michael Rogers


Floyd Landis coming by.





Levi



No racing photos of Lance Armstrong. But I did shoot this grainy video.

[youtube]4SFgEbk35Qc[/youtube]

More video. Here's a guy negeoting turn 2 and 3.

[youtube]IjjvpmAYtyo[/youtube]

 

Some random photos from the team area.

Bissell van full of Pinnarellos.


Pinnarello TT bike.


Team OUCH RV


Floyd coming back to team area.


I thought the GTs on the Jelly Belly team was pretty sweet.



Sportbeans anyone?


Holy crap. They were loading the BMC truck. There was probably $100k in equipment in there.



Bruyneel talking to Lance at the Astana tent while he cools down on the trainer.




The madhouse at the Astana tent.


Tried to capture the super aero knifey profile of this Cervelo P4.


I guess our state representatives were still in there Saturday trying to agree on a budget.


Alright that's all I got. Hope you folks enjoy. I'll admit getting decent photos out of a point and shoot camera, overcast day, and guys riding by at 30-35+mph wasn't easy.