yeah, so I'm being a bike geek...

http://www.velonews.com/

Just reading about these guys without seeing it on tv gets me amped. fyi, stage 2, and an American is in the yellow jersey (Levi Leipheimer - Team Discovery). Dave Zabriskie of Team CSC is out for the rest of the race. Ivan Basso (Discovery) is pulling his weight.

Cool crash pictures from yesterday's stage here:
http://www.velonews.com/tick/html/stage123.html

They're leaving Stockton tomorrow at 11, about 6 blocks from my work. I'm hoping I can get over there to see it, even though I don't give a rat's patootie about road racing.

Maybe I'll take a pic or two & beat VeloNews to the punch.

Maybe so, but I think it's pretty cool that you're THATCLOSE to world class cyclists that normally don't ride in the States (aside from Tour of Georgia). The mere idea of even witnessing Ivan Basso in action sends shivers down my spine. The only other rider that might take it to the orgasmic level is Tom Boonen of Quickstep, but that little cricket Paolo Bettini is riding instead.

Huh?

Well, I got to get over there to check it out. Pretty cool to see this happening in my town. Weather was gorgeous (for Feb.!), and there was a good turnout for a town not known for knowing what a bike is.

The only bike personality I knew was Lance- he was sitting in one of the chase cars, or whatever you call it, surrounded by people, signing autographs.
[img][375:500]http://img517.imageshack.us/img517/9159/glance1750fh5.jpg[/img]

Here's the start. I thought it was going to be a balls-out cluster f$%* (like mountain biking), but they proceeded at a leisurely pace, passing in front of us two times before heading out of town.[img][375:500]http://img529.imageshack.us/img529/1198/thestartcg7.jpg[/img]

Here are the Jelly Belly cars & bikes. I wonder if they took the riders on a tour of the factory- it's about 45 minutes away. Free jelly beans, I mean, c'mon!

Thanks for the pics.

Cool pics, Finch. Yeah, Lance was riding with Johan Bruyneel in the team car. He does co-own the team, so it IS his right! As for the leisurely pace, yeah, supposedly they did a couple of circuits through town and then headed out. It was a pretty hilly climb from what I saw on tv, and luckily no major headwinds as they predicted.