Here is the Map

Tour de France Route

I found the Tour de France 2006 Route today, here is the information: http://www.letour.fr/2006/TDF/presentation/us/parcours.html

It's snowing this morning.

Looking across the valley everything is white. It snowed all night. A nice two inches.
The feeder fish must be confused. Second snow and it is cold outside.
The snow is pretty. Beth's school is closed for a snow day and most of Steve' clients have cancelled. Kyle is still asleep. No chains for his van so he will be home. I might have to start a fire in the woodstove. Make hot chocolate.

dude...

here's some disturbing news...

. . . from the Associated Press.

T of Cali additional stuff

More of my pictures can be seen here: (click on the image to link to Flikr)




Thomas Peterson has his own blog called Life on Two Wheels.

And, some guy I talked to has a blog called hounddog and posts some pictures here.

It's all over!

The circuit race was fun because it went by everyone 9 times. From where I got to stand, it went by 18 times as I watched them go by headed south, and then north on their way back home to the finish/start line area. The predicted rain is still on its way, but the weather all day was perfect as it was for the whole week.



I couldn't get so close to the awards stage on Sunday.

Congratulations to Floyd Landis the overall race leader. George Hincapie was the sprint competition leader; King of the Mountain winner is Levi Leipheimer; Thomas Peterson is best young rider.

Instead of tossing his flowers into the crowd as is traditional, Floyd Landis handed his to his daughter (about 10 years old). Great crowd. Everyone was having fun. My feet hurt. We are home.

Sunday at the Tour of California in Redondo Beach

The riders whizzed by faster and faster each time the rounded the corner.


We found our places to fulfill our duties as volunteers. As you can see, Cindi is reaching into her suitcase of courage to do her job well.


I was moved to the corner where I worked because of the high pedestrian traffic. I had to toot my whistle loudly each time the riders came by as the pedestrians weren't sure if they had time to saunter across the cross walk as the peloton and the team cars came screaming to our intersection.

Friday post two: Race results in Santa Barbara

Floyd Landis remains in the lead for the overall time standings. We saw folks that looked like his family in the VIP tent across from where we were watching the race. The race officials are saying that there had been 700,000 spectators so far. They expect a cumulative total to surpass 1,000,000!



Levi hangs out talking to fans (and maybe some press, I saw one guy with a note pad) after the race. (Below)

Lots of people there for the Tour of California inaugural race event. The UCI director was introduced by the announcers. It was fun talking to Bob and Paul and some of the volunteers. Cindi got her ears checked by the Phonac hearing technician. Now I know she can really hear me.

More pictures, I hope, after the race on Sunday. We are staying in Camarillo tonight and looking forward to seeing Floyd when the overall GC.

Friday post one: TOC Fun in Santa Barbara on Friday, February 24

Not sure exactly where we would encounter the Tour of California on Friday, February 24 we headed north. We got off the highway in Santa Barbara for some snacks and a comfort break just after 10 AM then headed over to Cabrillo Boulevard to see where the finish line and the festival would take place. We ended up staying there the whole day and made it up to SLO to meet our friends later in the day. This is some of what we saw in Santa Barbara:

Before the race, hanging out on the beach are Bob Roll and Paul Sherwen. These are the same announcers who work OLN during the month of July for the Tour de France. For the T of CA they are broadcasting for ESPN2, doing a one hour program at night at about 10 PM.




More pictures from Friday coming soon.

Tour of California internet

It is very interesting to watch the race on the internet. I am not sure that both announcers realize that their off camera comments are carried live on the internet. Listening to them make body parts jokes and sing in French puts them in a different light.

700th post

this is the 700th post, which means we've reached the 700 club. hooray for pat robertson. assassinations are neat.

Stage One Photos

The main group enters Santa Rosa down Third Street.
The leaders make the last turn for the finish line.
Steve is a little dirty from moving barriers but happy to be a small part of this event.