Tour of Merced, I mean California

This is a bragging blog and I use the word "cool" a lot. I don't care, how can you NOT brag about this? It really was so cool to have the Tour of California come through Merced. Who would have thought that 8 professional teams and 8 continental teams with all their most famous riders would land here in Courthouse Park? By 8:30 in the morning the boys and I were headed downtown to enjoy the first day of sunshine in the race and it was evident that everyone's spirits were lifted. Matt came quickly from the office (as soon as he could dismiss his last patient) and made it in plenty of time. Luckily, the large crowds were drawn to the large cities and we practically had the streets here in Merced to ourselves. We walked around checking out the scene. You will notice that we are now Bike City, USA. We'll add that to our accomplishment of Tree City, USA. Security and Media motorcycles are lined up in front of the Civic Center. ><
Here is the starting line and some team cars.
We ran into Bob Roll, wearing cowboy clothes and prepping for a "color commentary".
The buses started arriving an hour or so before the race and parked in about a 3 block area. We waited outside the team buses hoping to get a glimpse of some of the riders. Here I am with Thor Hushovd, he won Stage 3, the previous day, that finished in Modesto. Watch for him in the Tour de France.
We don't know who this is riding for Garmin-Slipstream, maybe someone else can identify him.
At the last minute the Astana bus deviated from its' assigned parking space and pulled into an alley way. Go figure. Oh well, one of the security guys for Astana whispered in my ear where the bus was. The largest crowd, for obvious reasons, was around this bus. But really here in Merced we had front row seats. Here is V. Ekimov the famous Russian sprinter now team support personnel.
Check out the positioning here, it will be important in a later photo. So, while Doug, Scott and I waited out front for the famous Lance and Levi, Matt and Tom slipped to the back of the bus where the famous but less-popular riders were exiting towards the Start. Here Thomas is getting autographs and photos with Jose Luis Rubeira and Steve Morabito.
Here is Christopher Horner signing autographs, he was followed out by Levi and Lance. All 3 of them took a long time to sign autographs and visit with individuals in the crowd. It was really cool. Lance worked his way towards us. See how close we are? In this picture Lance is getting on his bike and Doug and I both pat him on the back and wish him good luck. You can't see me but from the previous picture, you know that I'm there.
After they left Merced, we raced to get ahead of them and waited for them at the top of the highest mountain climb of the day. We drew good luck signs on the road, played in the snow, ate lunch, and waited a little bit longer. Even Coloradoan fans were there. Finally, the CHP cars and media cars/bikes started to arrive. They had race radios and were able to give us the updates. We knew that there was a breakaway group of 3 which included Tyler Hamilton, so we were ready to cheer for them. Matt had prepared two flags which he and Stuart(a friend) carried up the mountain running next to the cyclists. We were all on TV, did you see us? Did you see them running with their flags? About 3 minutes later the peleton came through. So cool!
Then we jumped in the car and raced down Highway 41 trying to beat the cyclists to the finish and we made it, barely. We parked, and ran several blocks to the finish and were able to stand and catch our breath for about 5 minutes before they came sprinting down the street.
Mark Cavendish was the winner of the day. Here is Levi on the podium as the overall race leader.

Wow! This was so much fun. The drive was beautiful, the race was thrilling, and the company was excellent. For a long time, Matt and I have wanted to see the Tour de France. How lucky that they came to us.
I'm going to send Lance a note telling him this: I remember where I was when I first heard that he had been diagnosed with cancer. I was driving on M Street, just crossing the bridge at Bear Creek. Now he has crossed that bridge over a decade later. I think that is cool.