Happy Valentine's Day!
Well, we're up and we had our free breakfast downstairs. The dining area was standing room only, but we managed to get a small table for basic hotel eggs, yogurt, toast, and "seasonal fruit" (i.e., melon, which is apparently seasonal at every hotel in every season). It looks blustery out, but we're ready. I think. While we were in the dining area the Astana chef kept whizzing in and out of the kitchen and whisking eggs and muffins off to wherever the team was having their breakfast. No sign of Garmin, though.
We have to be out of the hotel before the race begins so I won't be able to update until our next hotel in, I think, Santa Cruz. Hopefully the wireless is faster there--the one here is, as near as I can tell, "High Speed Internet for People in No Particular Hurry."
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Well, we're now at the Sheraton Petaluma and the internet connection is "High Speed Internet for Really Laid Back Dudes In Even Less of A Hurry." Oh well. You make do. It beats a 1200 baud modem--if any of you can even remember a 1200 baud modem and text only internet, well, good for you. I remember when the 1200 was an upgrade....
We had a really good day. No rain! It was cold and windy, but it was dry up until the end of the race so that was good news. I haven't seen the official results yet but I believe it was Fabian Cancellara in first and Levi in second. We got to see all of our favorites, even my personal fave, Karl Menzies from Team Ouch! (formerly Health Net) by way of Tasmania. He's a really cool guy and a hell of a bike racer. All the big guns are back this year: Tyler Hamilton, Floyd Landis, Ivan Basso, Lance, Levi. It's a really good field of riders.
We wandered around a bit after breakfast and saw a few riders out for their training rides. We had to officially vacate the hotel at noon, so we headed back to bring our bags down to the front desk. They kept them there for us. It was a good thing we came back when we did because as we were leaving Lance was coming in from his morning ride. Joan was oblivious and kept walking and missed it completely. I got a photo but he wasn't stopping this time around, just saying hi and thank you and all that. Got the picture though.
We wandered a bit during the race and rather than our original intent of scoping out the start and then running off to the finish area when our favorites went. The start and finish areas were so packed you couldn't see a thing. I miss those VIP tents we used to get with Health Net! We found that the long straightaway on the far side of the course was quite open. We wandered up and down and free reign to photograph any rider we wanted. It was nice and the fact that the lead motorcycles had each rider's name on the front it made it easy to know when a favored rider was coming. Unfortunately, while we walking along some mysteriously sharp, painful, invisible particle landed in Joan's eye. It was bothering her so much we ended up going back to the hotel so she could use a good bathroom with a good mirror to try and clear her eye. Joan went into the bathroom and Chris Horner came through the lobby. I took his picture but didn't bother him for an autograph. But I should have. I bought a $3 bottle of Visine from the hotel "Marketplace"-- you know, the size of bottle that like two drops in it. It didn't help much. Whatever was in Joan's eye must have scratched her eye because it never stopped hurting.
After the race we headed back to the lobby of the hotel to get our backs and lay in wait for returning riders. There wasn't much happening in that regard so we went out to the valet, which was a madhouse. While I was waiting for my turn I saw Levi ride by so I ducked around the corner to where they had a makeshift shop stop set up and got a quick pic. As he came up to the hotel I also got his photograph. We hoped Lance would not be far behind, but we never did see him. We eventually had to pull up stakes and move on.
The drive to Petaluma was interesting. Joan drove, blind in one eye and unable to see out of the other. I was, as usual, exhibiting signs of highway narcolepsy so we decided it was better to have a blind person driving than a sleeping one. The rain finally found us while we were driving and it kept it up most of the drive. It was mostly clear, but wet, when we arrived at the hotel. It's a huge hotel and it sits on some kind of bay. I'll know better what it's like in the daylight, but I do know there are boats docked in a harbor right outside our window.
We're supposed to have the "wine" package--bottle of wine and cheese plate. We checked in to a room with two little beds and no wine or cheese. We called down about the wine and, well, we're still waiting. I guess we'll just go out and find something to eat. I'll check back in tomorrow. We're supposed to do some wineries in the morning. That should be fun. Then we make our way up to the finish line in Santa Rosa--that's Levi's home so I'm sure he'll want to win that stage if possible.
