California Day 7, Part 1 - Tour of California

On Sunday we drove up to Thousand Oaks for the 8th and final stage of this year's Amgen Tour of California bike race! I've been a big cycling fan since 1999, when a guy from Austin started winning the Tour de France. It was so exciting to see a cycling event live and in person! I had no idea what to expect at the starting line - turns out fans could wander around the parking lot with the team buses and wait for a peek at favorite riders. How cool! We opted to hang out by the Team RadioShack bus. We were surprised how we were able to get in so close to see the cyclists - Joel pointed out it may not have been so easy if Lance hadn't crashed out of the race a few days earlier...!


We saw Popo...


And Jason McCartney (I took this one for Lisa!)...


Jani Brajkovic (who I've learned, thanks to Twitter, has THE CUTEST little boy!!)...


A roughed up Chechu - he had crashed a few days earlier with Lance, but stuck around to finish the race. I had read he "had no skin left" - ouch!


And Levi - yay! This photo cracks me up, it's like the kid is saying "Can I touch you?".


Here's some fans waiting at the HTC-Columbia bus. Mick Rogers, who ended up winning the tour, was in there.


The BMC team car - they'd be helping to take care of George Hincapie along the route.


Carter & Courtney have a new favorite - Team Jelly Belly!! And yes, they were handing out free samples! We also got some free t-shirts from Team RadioShack, yay!


Jens Voigt! (Truth time - I had no idea it was Jens until now when I was looking up the numbers - note to self, next time you go to a bike race, bring a roster so you actually know who you're photographing! But yay, how cool that it was Jens Voigt!)


The ceremonial starting line...


The cars lined up, ready to go...


After the starting line we had lunch then found a spot along the route to watch them fly by. As you can tell, Carter and Courtney were so excited... (ha ha)

Here come the leaders, George is supposed to be one of these?


And the peloton. Recognize anyone? They went by so fast...


And the cars, rounding out the "cycling parade".


YAY! Fun day. Now let's hope I watch a live stage of the Tour de France someday... :-)