I had a great time. It was good to meet up with the gang again. It was a surprise to see Taxi777 at the start, since he had declared he was wussing out. The irony is that cccorlew was one of the people who shamed him into coming, and we couldn't see a hint of him at the start!
We waited a little for USPSPro and his G/F Ruth. We were almost ready to take off, when I took a last look behind me and I recognized his jersey coming down the road. So, we rode down to Palo Alto together. Got there a little early; the race route along Palm Drive was still open, so we got to ride down the course for a little bit with some spectators along the side. I felt like such a pretender/wannabee
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Got the the finish line and saw the Versus announcers - Ligget, Bob Roll, and the other guy whose name I can't recall. Anyway, Taxi777 made a fool of himself fawning all over these celebrities:
We found the vendor tents and drooled over the bling they had. It took a lot of self restraint to emerge from that gauntlet without breaking the bank account! Pete and I found the computer simulated sprint race and had fun riding the .25 mile sprint course. I had to take my bike shoes off and ride in my bare foot. Ouch! Ended up .02 seconds off second place. Grrrr. Next time. Of course, then USPSPRO comes along and gets first place. He can crank the watts out, fer shure. The computer gave a reading of wattage, and it was the first time I had ever been measured for power output, so that was fun.
We got to the course and found a great spot at the top of the oval finish area. Had a great view from there. As you saw from Spingineer's photos, the riders were pretty much a blur when went by.
I left a little early 'cause I have babysitting duties, so I rode back along the Portola loop. Had a nice fast ride to get the old heart pumping. Got passed by a couple of pros on TT bikes like I was standing still. Wow. I restored my manhood by passing some grandmas on their cruisers and giving them "the look" as I whizzed past
. When I got to Roberts, BlastRadius and Taxi777 were arriving at that intersection at the same moment! They had left also and took the shorter Sand Hill Rd route. So, we ended up riding back Canada Rd together. Taxi777 was worn out from yesterday's 107 mile ride, so we were supposed to take it easy. But you know how boys can be boys when riding together, so I fear we went a little faster than was prudent for him, but hey, in the words of the famous Blutarski from Animal House: "he f*cked up, he trusted us."
Got stuck in traffic going back down Hwy92 to Half Moon Bay. Whenever the weather gets good, half of SiliValley wants to go to the beach. Took me about an hour to get back. Oh well, the price one pays for living in Paradise
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It was a great day. I was thinking that it's only February and we've already had bunch of nice BF rides. Bodes well for a great riding year!!!!