Davis to Santa Rosa

This past weekend I escaped to San Francisco with the intentions of sightseeing with Esther and then catching a little bit of the Amgen Tour of California in Santa Rosa on Sunday. A change of plans meant that I was flying solo as Esther decided to stay at home and fight a nasty cold.

Esther doesn't mind going and watching the occasional race for a short amount of time but this gave me a chance to get real nerdy and bike geeky. I agreed to facebook status my way through California and upload pictures as I took them which I dutifully did on my mobileme gallery. Some ended up on facebook as mobile uploads so you won't find them all. 

This is my pride and joy for the weekend. Okay, I'll admit that Tom may not have been able to fully read the shirt but being able to get 'Tornado' Tom Boonen's signature on this shirt made me happy. He's a pretty nice guy too. Put a pen and something to sign on in his hands and he will do it. Even 3 minutes before he has to be over at the start.

And even though it is not a super crisp shot (I've cropped it way in to get details), seeing Mancebo pull of that stage win after his solo breakaway (minus that little stint with Timmy J and Kemp) was unreal. The weather was just down right awful for spectating so I cannot even imagine what it would have been like on a bike. I crammed in ten feet back from the finish line to a point where I could see the giant screen. Watching Mancebo take off away from Nabali and Van de Walle as they crested the small rise and then see him sprinting all the way down the last 300 meters to the line was pay off for his ride. It left him with 3 of the 4 jerseys he could have won-- the GC yellow, the red KOM, and the green sprinter's jersey.

Trying to shoot decent pictures in the rain is a challenge but I have pulled out a few decent ones and thrown the into my Tour of California Gallery.