Tour of California, with toddlers

This year the Amgen Tour of California rolled through our town. The start of the final stage was just a few minutes from our house. So what was a good sports loving family to do?

We made our way down to the start, we found some LIVESTRONG chalk, wrote messages to drew pictures for the riders,





We saw a cool BMX bike show with special guest skateboarder, and generally got into the spirit of things. Even at 10 am, two hours before the start of the race, there were a lot of people.

The boys were great, they held our hands, rode on our shoulders in some tight spaces, like anywhere in a 1000 foot radius of the Team Astana trailer, and rang their Amgen Cow Bells like old racing fan pros.

Right before the start of the race we found a great spot where all the racers came from their trailers to the starting line. It's from this spot that Scott caught this picture of the eventual winner's posterior. (and random guy running after him)

But, (ha, ha, ha) in his defense, he also caught this shot of fresh out of retirement, greatest American cyclist, super athlete, Lance Armstrong. It's a really great shot. And we were that close. I don't get star struck easily. I'm not a crazy fan kind of person, with a FEW exceptions. But I ACTUALLY got goosebumps. I wouldn't even call myself a fan of Lance. I think he is an amazing athlete, he's accomplished so much, he is an inspiration. But I like Levi Leipheimer better. But GREATNESS, you can feel it when you are in it's presence. It is palpable.



After we had our brush with greatness, Levi, Lance, et al. We ran, with boys on our shoulders, that's 30+ pounds on our my shoulders. to this spot. You can see one of the team cars, with all of the bikes on top, but we Evan and Ryan had a great view and I'm sure they saw the racers riding by. I actually know Evan saw them, because he told me later that he saw the "biking guys zoom by".Evan also spent the next two days telling us he was a "black thing" What "black thing?" we'd ask, "the black thing from the bike race" he'd say. "The cars?" We'd ask. "No". "The thing the skateboarder was on?" "No, that was a ramp." he'd reply. Finally, Scott asked the right series of questions, and we figured it out! At the BMX bike show, there was a large, black speaker, out of which came the announcers, voice, and music. THAT was the black thing. Now, Evan is a "Black Speaker" and he tells every one he encounters that "I am a black speaker." to many a confused person.