ToC Prologue

Woke up this am to find that my hotel was kinda in the middle of the action.  There's High Road Popup and Motorhome out my front door.

Across the street was the Rock Racing Motorhome.  Today's Bad Boys of cycling with all the glamour and portended 2nd chance program you can imagine.  Doping history?  No prob.  Tax Evasion?  Again, welcome aboard.

Rock Racing Escalade.  Surely one of these in BHRT future.

You can tell that getting his pic taken w/ Big Jim eased most of the pain of not being allowed to race for Tyler Hamilton.

Jim's hotel street was lined with Tour of California banners.

The start line was 100 feet from the Cardinal Hotel.

Very cool was the Guarded bike parking available.

Complete with Bike Valet.  The Course started on Hamilton St, which is the street of the Cardinal Hotel.  It then turned left and left to mainly be on University Ave.

Check out the course here.

The start is right at the Cardinal hotel.  After 2 turns it screams towards Stanford.  The riders go thru the finish line and still have 600m to go.  

Starting straight.

Ironic to see a T-Mobile store on the course w/in stones throw from finish.   Jim was actually wearing a T-Mobile windsweater today with a Magenta "JANSTRONG" underneath.

The VIP pass is the key to really enjoying the event.

You get to go into a cool area covering the last 150m of the finish line.

The food served isn't too shabby sounding....

Or looking....

As with all good things there are silly things.  If you haven't seen the movie Idiocracy it is a must see.  This stuff is basically the premise of the movie propelling the decline of the US over the next 500 years.

Of course, for West, VIP tent has obligatory beautiful women in place.

And finally Jim can keep track of the Turk.  That Cowbell he's been looking for for her.  If you have to ask why there are 4 Cowbells, then you may not understand the concept of  "You can never have too much Cowbell."

If you don't have the VIP pass you can go to the bathroom.

But if you have the VIP pass you get to pee in style.  Outside.

And Inside!

Jim's vantage from the VIP tent was nice - 50 meter to go mark.

Very close to the riders.

Remember above in the course outline there is a 600m loop including Palm Drive Circle.  So we got to see the riders at 600m to go, and then again finishing.  The first 100 or so riders went at 1min intervals, the last 20 at 2 min intervals.   Jim timed Thomas Voekler and he took 1:05 to complete the last 600 meters.  So the 2 min intervals meant you kinda knew just where the last twenty were going to finish with respect to the leader because their time was up the whole while from when you first saw them come thru until they finished.  The Palm Circle Loop really slowed the riders up because the fastest times were around 4:00 (including Voekler's.)  This 600 meters was 1/5 of the race (3500 meters)  The 1:05 for the last 600m would translate to around 5:00 for the whole race.  Did I mention that the top speed was 33mph average?

150m past the finish line riders would bend right into the Palm Drive Circle

 

Around a beautiful Stanford Oval.

Then back out again.

With 150 meters to go.

The Team Slipstream Chipotle Felt Team Bike on display in the VIP tent.   (Felt Bikes are also ridden by our B-H Racing Team and on sale at B-H!!)  Wow has Felt and its bikes come a long way in what, 5 years?

David Millar, part owner Team Slipstream and star rider, tearing it up on his Felt TT.   Not to be his day but he did well.

Natch loudest cheers of the day were for Rock Racing's Super Mario Cippolini.  He killed it, especially for a 40 year old man who hasn't raced in 3 years.

Course he was probably propelled remembering this photo-op w/ the Turk at iBike a couple of years back.  Now why won't she show that much cleavage?

CSC's World TT champ, stage race winner and TdF Yellow Jersey wearer.  Cancellara sprinting for the line.  B-H also has sold Cervelo's (CSC's team machine) since it opened.  Are we spotting a trend here?  Top bikes, top bike shops.

Cancellara slayed'em at the finish line.  

Levi was the last one w/ a shot at Cancellara.  But no dice.  On a Trek.  Hmm more trends spotted, perhaps?

CSC pop-up.  They sponsored the amateur time trial today.

Amateur podie.  Women's winner on top.  Men's on left.  Biggest race supporter on right.  Oh, and that's CSC's Bjarne Riis (the original Mr. 60) not Jim on the far right. 

Pro podie.  Very cool to have Team High Road, Team Slipstream and CSC coming out on top today.  Think about all of that from a cycling enthusiast's perspective and you will really enjoy it.

Last pic of Fabian Cancellara, w/ Podie Girls.  For West of course.

Enjoy