Walking Tour of California

Damn, we walked a lot today. Since my little fender-bender set us back, we got into Santa Clarita with barely enough time to catch the ToC. The roads near the finish were already closed, so Ted decided that we should just get on the course and start walking towards the end.

We were about a mile from the car when the breakway group of 10 riders came by.

The team cars came next

The peleton was about 10 minutes back. The riders were so close I could almost smell the EPO.


We decided that, since we had already walked to far, we may as well check out the festivities at the finish. Every person we asked told us it was one mile to the finish. We'd walk a mile, and find out that it was still a mile away. Walk another mile...still a mile a way. It was like some sort of time warp.

We finally made it to the end in time to see some stragglers come in, as well as the awards presentation. There was a huge area full of tents from manufacturers. Lots of '07 eye-candy to see.

Stragglers

Hey...this is where my race starts!

Levi keeps the leaders jersey

This bear on wheels is the mascot for the ToC.

Look TT Bike

Velotron


After we were finished, we had to walk over an hour on busy streets with no shoulder to get to the car, which is always fun. Overall, it was a cool experience. Sort of anti-climatic, since we only saw the riders for about 20 seconds, but cool nonetheless. Hopefully we'll get to see some of the final stage tomorrow.