The Tour de California wraps up this weekend and what a week it's been - rain, rain, and bit of sleet to keep things interesting. The die-hard fans are out there, of course, because despite the precipitation it's one of the best fields I've ever seen for the California stage race: Armstrong gets the headlines but Levi Leipheimer, Michael Rogers (AUS), Tom Boonen (BEL), Ivan Basso (ESP), Thor Hushovd (NOR) - it's a Tour de France field for sure.
One interesting trend in the race coverage has been that sports journalists are using the rider's Tweets as their source info. It's a great way of keeping up to date on the inner thoughts of the cyclists but...isn't the job of a journalist to synthesize information? If I want to read Lance's twitter feed, I'll follow it myself, thanks.
Andrew is, of course, one of the fanatics and braved the rain to see two stages, including the one that ended in Santa Rosa. He told me that the Astana team tent, where Lance and Levi were warming up after the race, had about 500 people gathered around including a middle aged lady screaming "I saw the back of Lance's head! I saw the back of Lance's head!" Meanwhile next door at the QuikStep tent, Belgian champion and European superstar Tom Boonen had about three people talking to him, so Andrew sauntered over for a quick chat. He asked for an autograph for the kids but Boonen said, indicating his cold-stiffened hands, "I sink it ees not possible."
In honor of the cyclists we are going old school in the music moment, both in the choice of song and the riding gear that Paul Weller and Mick Talbot are sporting in their Tour de English Countryside. Anyone want to guess why they flee in terror at the site of the dancing podium girls at the 2:50 mark? I think most bikers would stick around for that (as George Hincapie can attest.)
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