Treasure Valley Cycling Club

I like this race as the weather is mostly great. Kerry and I have attended the tail-end of this race the last 3 years in a row and enjoy the thrill of watching a high-end race like this. I have an aunt that lives next to Brooke Sheilds in Pacific Palisades so the lodging is great. I got a little braver this year with getting into the personal space of some of the racers. Pretty much every racer (except for 'superstar' names like Lance or even Mario Cipollini in 2008) is pretty accessible to getting in close for a few pictures.

A relatively unknown like Thomas Rabou, Netherlands, (King of the Mountains winner) of Team Type 1, still in podium jersey, was pretty easy to grab as he was just hanging outside Starbucks waiting for his team bus to pick him up after the Time Trial in downtown LA. Check it out, for me being close to the same height, I look pretty portly next to him. I could stand to lose about 30 lbs to get close to his body frame. How fast could he climb Bogus?

Big George Hincapie was on his way past the crowd after the time trial with his warm up bike. He is pretty tall. (Check out that Olympic track bike with the shaggy guy in the background. I got closer to it but the dude did not know much about the age of if. (He got Lance Armstrong's autograph on it from last year.) I'm thinking a mid-90s kind of bike?)

Then, on the final day, Mark Cavendish and another team mate, I believe Mark Renshaw, pulled out of the final stage after the first lap, probably since it was not a sprint finish sort of circuit. That last stage was more like one of us doing four 'Dump Loops' so he pulled out, got changed and was mulling around when I got his shot. He is a good looking chap.