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Published: March 3rd 2009
Santa Cruz, and the 'Tour of California' continues. Not ours, I hasten to add, but the AMGEN 'Tour of California'.
Through a contact we had blagged some passes for the finish line hospitality tent. Most of the other occupants were a little surprised to find a pair of Brits in there, even moreso when they found out that we don't have an abiding passion for cycle racing. I did have a bit of interest though, mainly because it was the return of Lance Armstrong. Even if you know nothing about cycle racing you've gotta know about Lance, dontcha?
Apparently there's a Brit rider involved, Mark Cavendish. I know nothing about him (other than descriptions I've seen - 'brash, cocky, arrogant') but he's won a couple of stages and is getting some good press. Go Mark!!
I don't pretend to understand the intricacies of how you actually win stages in bike racing, but I do know that Levi Leipheimer came away at the end of the day with the yellow jersey.
Lance hasn't had a great start to the tour, his bike was stolen from outside his Sacramento hotel (duh, wouldn't you think it would have had a bit
of beefed-up security?), and he had crashes on the first two stages.
But he seems to have pulled back a little, as I type he's in 4th place just 30" behind the leader. Not bad for an old guy.
The hospitality tent was great, we went down to the finish area a little early, just to make sure that our names had been safely left so we could pick up our passes. Needn't have worried, everything went very smoothly, names where they should have been, so we found ourselves surrounded by complimentary food and booze at 11.30 am. It seemed churlish to refuse.
I did start off with a coffee, but the 'Fat Tire' beer on offer soon became the beverage of choice.
By the time the riders made an appearance in town I was completely plastered. Cheers Shawn.
The time we spent at the finish line was the only time in 3 days that it didn't pour with rain in Santa Cruz. Great town though, we had fun.
We're now in the SF Bay Area staying with friends till we come home, less vacation, more catching up with friends. Entries may get sparse from this point on.
1) It's a more personal time
2) Depressed because it's gonna all be over much too soon.
😞(
I wouldn't call Lance an old guy! I sure he wouldn't refer to himself as one either! Did enjoy the hospitality got chatting to quite a few people, and like Jon got pretty drunk. Actually the jersey bit was kind of too staged. Two women one blonde on brunette spent their time posing for the photograph with each winner in exactly the same pose, pretty robotic, plus the jersey's don't go over the riders head they hold their arms out straight and it gets zipped all the way up the back. Was bit strange seeing these riders have themselves 'dressed' as you would a small child. I was quite transfixed watching to see if the expressions of the women would change (it didn't) they were very good at ushering people off the stage - and out of their photo. Couldn't work out if they used the same bunch of flowers for each rider to pose with either, oh well, hardly important! Big thanks to Shawn for making it happen
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