But our little Nevada City is really into this thing. They're about to host the 50th anniversary Nevada City Classic in June--a race that Lance Armstrong won last year. Bike people know about Nevada City.
But yesterday (Sunday), Stage One of the Amgen Tour of California started here (http://www.amgentourofcalifornia.com/). One living in this area could only fail to be made aware of this sometime in the last several months if one were in a deep coma--and even then I'm not sure it would be possible to escape the orgasmic excitement of locals for whom this event is a true Olympics-grade event. OK, then. We'll check it out.
The Tour (as we now refer to it around our house) is an eight-stage, eight-day race. This is the fourth annual Tour and it is the biggest, baddest bike race in the US since it started. Each stage is 100 or more miles long. Stage One began in Nevada City and ended in front of the Capitol a little over four hours later. The last stage is a circuit race in the Thousand Oaks area, where the primary sponsor, Amgen, is located (Amgen makes treatments for cancer and other life-threatening diseases). The other stages take place all over the state. There are 16 teams, eight riders to a team. 128 athletes.
Lance Armstrong and Levi Leipheimer (last year's winner) ride for Team Radio Shack. Our favorite Team is Team Jelly Belly. They have the funnest (sorry) RV (see photo below--from after the race) and passed out a lot of free Jelly Bellies (my allegiance can be bought with surprisingly few beans). Also, they are riding to raise funds for our local organization, Women of Worth (WOW) who are very active in the prevention/recovery of domestic violence here. Go Team Jelly Belly!
So, Tom and I just hopped in the car with no plan, parked in the first open spot we could find and inadvertently walked into the center of the activity as the team buses/bikes were arriving. All the teams have those giant apartment-sized RVs (with the riders inside), plus lots of cars trailing behind, each with, like $50 grand in bikes on the top. In the first photo, there's a photo of Team Radio Shack arriving. We then walked the short distance to Downtown Nevada City, to the Start line, and scoped out a good spot on the curb from which to watch the start of the race (second photo).
Big crowds. Lots of support vehicles--CHP cruisers, about 50 BMW motorcycles with "Photo" or "Marshall" signs, a sign-pick-up car (like they roll up the race after the last rider), a "broom" vehicle with whisk brooms decorating the grill (clean-up of some kind, I guess--I don't know-it's not like they're riding horses), ambulances, neutral bike-parts cars (with spare wheels, etc.), and so on. Pretty interesting, actually.
So, the race started. The riders, moving uphill, swooshed by in a few seconds. Then, we skittered to a spot half a block away from which to watch as they made a turn going downhill on another street before heading off to Grass Valley and beyond. We snapped a whole lot of pictures. As I processed them afterward, I saw that we each got a random shot or two of Lance and Levi, not knowing where in the pack they were riding at the time. In the first rider pic (you'll have to mag in by clicking), Levi is the first Radio Shack guy at the front (red/gray jerseys), just to the left of blue Team Garmin guy and Lance is right behind him. Lance has the white helmet. In the second rider pic, Lance is the rider at the extreme right of the photo.
And that was it. Over by lunch time. I think we're still somewhat less-than-avid bike race enthusiasts, but there's nothing like some local excitement to lure us into that world for a few hours, anyway. Maybe we'll check out the Classic (as we're calling it around here now) next month...
