Tour of California Week, Part II
Having found a comfortable spot on the corner to watch the race, I waited patiently for the coverage to begin on the screen that was across the street. When 2:00 PM rolled around, we had no video and there was no sound. Desperately wanting to know what was going on, I called my parents to ask. My mom wasn’t much help. Luckily, a man sharing the corner used his fancy phone to look up what was going on in the race. (I could have done that had Verizon gotten my fancy new Palm Pre Plus working, but no such luck after a week of trying.) I was excited to hear that Paul Mach was in the break.
Shortly before 3:00, we still had no video and little idea what was going on, but I did get to watch Kathleen King (@bikechik) create one of her fabulous bike scribbles.
Happily, shortly after 3:00, the video started working, but we still had no sound. No use worrying about it. The boys rolled in at about 3:45 to complete a few laps of the circuit before the big finish. On the ground with my camera poised, they flew passed. Kelly Benefit leading the charge followed closely by the HTC-Columbia train.
HTC-Columbia setting up Mark Cavendish for the win
With my finger pressed to the shutter release, my camera fired off photo after photo, working exactly as it should have been.
Levi Leipheimer and Chris Horner of Team RadioShack
After Cavendish took the stage win, most of the riders made there way by again. I was able to get some additional shots at this time when the action slowed down. Turns out some of my favorites were in that group.
Chris Butler of BMC Racing... one of my favorite shots for the day
A hairier than usual Andy Jacques-Maynes of Bissell
When the riders had cleared the course, I headed down the block and a half to the podium to try to get a few shots of the presentations. This was the first time I ever bothered to do this. While I missed the presentation of the “gold” jersey to Cavendish, I did catch the King of the Mountains presentation to Paul Mach. He had many supporters in the crowd that day and it seemed to be a truly proud moment.
Paul Mach would start stage 2 in Davis (where he calls home) sporting a fancy red jersey
At the conclusion of the podium presentations, it was time to hunt down D’Andrea (@deedee315) who would be the first of several “tweeps” I’d meet during the course of the week ahead. We joined up with Martha Van (@marthavan of Action Wipes fame), whom I’d actually met briefly before at Levi’s GranFondo and headed to get some drinks. They are both absolute sweethearts and I enjoyed a relaxing evening with the ladies before being forced to head back to the parental unit’s home to pick up my car and bike and make the long drive home.
Additional stage 1 photos from Sacramento here and here (Lifestyle Festival, including some serious bike porn).
Hmm... I think I might finally be getting the hang of this photography thing.
Next up: Tour of California Week, Part IV: Memorable Modesto
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