Tour of California

What a great weekend in LA. It's been a long time since I've been up that way and spent any amount of time in LA or the SFV. Mark, Sydney (the dog) and I went up to Downtown LA on Saturday to watch the Time Trial for the Tour of California. It was such a fun experience. We toured the expo and even took a pic with Bob Roll. He was a great sport since Mark was stalking him so he could get this great picture of both of us.

We ran into many friends of ours from Sub 5 and even made some new friends from Wisconsin and Tennessee. The cycling crowd was fantastic and the energy unreal. Some of the riders at times rode so close to the crowd that you could just touch them. I've seen many bike races and I have to say

that the time trial was my favorite by far. It gives you the opportunity to see the riders one at a time and if your lucky you are able to see them multiple times in the event. Sydney seemed

to be very popular as well with the spectators. She felt like this show was all about her. It was very funny and I'll elaborate more on my Sunday summery. So, there we were watching the finish of the time trial and waiting for the top riders to zoom by and here comes George Hincapie riding his bike through the crowd and making his way to his expo tent for some PR time.

George seemed to follow us around after the event because when we were trying to grab a Starbucks at the plaza of the Staples Center he scooted around us and some worker yelled at him and told him to get off his bike......and we said to that worker... "do you know who that is that's George Hincapie". The man did not find this amusing and than he proceeded to let us know that dogs were not allowed in the outdoor plaza area. In all this commotion George got back on his bike and continued to ride through the plaza. Good for you George!!!! After all that getting out of LA and making our way to Woodland Hills was a breeze. Now on to day 2.

Sunday started with a gorgeous 6 mile run in the hills on Mulholland Drive on a dirt trail with Mark and Sydney. It's been quite a long time since I've seen so much of the SFV. Meaning that it was so clear. After a quick snack we headed to Westlake Village

to watch the final stage of the Tour. It was great we got there in just enough time to see the beginning of the race just after the neutral start. We than made our way to the expo area knowing that we had an hour before they were to return for their second lap. So as we headed towards that area we noticed that we suddenly became surrounded by Amgen people and they all had banners and flags and hats and shirts and what not. The people on the other side of the fence began cheering and clapping and the MC began to speak about the parade and at that moment it dawned on me that we (Mark, Sydney and I) had just crashed the Amgen breakaway from cancer parade. We started to laugh and Sydney started to strut. It was so funny.

So, after all the excitement of seeing Patrick Dempsey and others on the parade route we made our way finally to our destination...... the expo. From there we now have way too many reusable bags and a bunch of samples of sports beans. Mark was eating them like candy. Sydney was scouring the ground for stray popcorn and whatnot. It was great. Every hour we would go back to the race course and see them all come by and it is such an energy to see those guys. After a few more hours it was time to go and head south back to San Diego. Traffic was great (Surprise) and before we knew it we were home. What a great weekend in LA and SFV for the Tour of California. Next year I hope it makes it back to SD like the previous year. This is such a great sport and really has gained popularity as it should. VIVA TOC!!