There aren't too many of our favorite riders that we haven't met! Not too many people can say that and not had to travel far to do it. Last year I started a Twitter account to meet other cycling fans. Our family and friends were tired of hearing about it. I met a lovely lady Anita who introduced me to so many wonderful people in the cycling fan community.
This year two of our "tweeps" Jen and Heidi came to stay with us for two days. The race was going to be north of our home one day and south of our home the next day. We traveled to Clovis for the stage 4 finish which was a first for us. We waited all day by the podium in hopes to see one of our favorite riders on the podium. Then a man from the ATOC came up to the lady next to us and whispered to her, she suddenly moved. She came back to tell us he told her not to tell us but the riders wouldn't be right there. So we followed her to where they would be and waited. We couldn't believe that guy did that and were confused as to why?
We still were able to see the riders whizz by the finish and meet Peter Sagan, Seb Salas. The best part of the day was the local news interviewing Heidi and Jen for the 10 PM news. The reporter was amazed they were traveling to follow the race and that we had all met on Twitter none the less.
Then one of our favorite Twitter buddies Mary R. came to hug Conner and I. It was so wonderful to meet her since she was one of our first friends on Twitter. Then we met up with Mary T. from Colorado over by anti-doping. While with her we saw Vincenzo Nibali and Peter Sagan again. I got a great picture of Vincenzo
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| Vincenzo Nibali aka "Nibbles" |
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| Peter Sagan |
Yesterday morning we drove south to Bakersfield. It was the Individual Time Trial stage, yet another first for us. We found a prime spot by the start house and waited to see the riders take off. While waiting I went to the team buses to find (stalk) riders while Conner talked to mechanics. He wants to be a bike mechanic someday and his assignment was to find out info from mechanics. I tried to meet Ted King from Liqigas but may have scared him off with my tweet " I am outside your bus", I was a little over zealous.
I ended up having a dream come true instead, I met Christophe Riblon my favorite French rider from AG2R. This was the first time they came to the ATOC and my first chance to meet him. He was so shocked to see hear me call him by name and I told him in french that he was my favorite. They told me to walk up to him and kiss him if I wanted. I settled for a picture right next to him instead. It was AMAZING!
Conner and I were able to meet up with Sean from BMC who I tweet with often. We had been trying to find each other unsuccessfully. It was great to meet him and give him cookies. We baked cookies for our favorite tweeps and also for Jens. A few months ago, we had promised Jens cookies in California if he wished our twitter friend Melissa Happy birthday. He did and several of us were supposed to bring him cookies.
Conner and I seperately saw Jens riding down the road. He waved and smiled but couldn't stop. Later after the race we saw him walk by to the podium and he waved and smiled. I had a mission to get him cookies we promised him on Twitter in exchange for wishing our tweep Melissa happy birthday.
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| Jens waving to us again! |
I saw Mary T and she told me to run over to the podium. So I ran over to the podium and stood on the side. Jens had placed third and so I was able to see him on the podium for the last time in California ( in person at least) and he turned to wave and smile at me again. It was great to see our fellow Californian Dave Zabriskie take the yellow jersey and win the time trial. Also seeing the great young rider Tejay on the podium from Conner's favorite team BMC.
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| Jens, Dave and Tejay on the podium |
As we walked back to the car in the heat, a man stopped Heidi and Jen because he recognized them from the news the night before. We laughed so hard about that! It was hilarious! We said our goodbyes and helped them find the freeway. The kids and I met Mary R at her hotel for a short visit before we headed home. It was fun to chat with her in the air conditioning after a long day in the sun.
It was the hottest couple of days we have had in the valley. It wasn't fun standing baking in the sun but the experience was that of a lifetime. The best part of the race was meeting up with our cycling friends for the first time and enjoying the race together. Meeting some of our favorite riders and being able to cheer for them was fun as always.
This morning, I woke up to see that Jens tweeted about his cookies not being delivered. We were shocked he remembered and now are scrambling to get him his cookies. A bunch of people are trying to get him cookies including me. I will keep you updated and hopefully have a picture of him with the cookies. My Mom is taking them to Beverly Hills for me Sunday morning!
If you want to see the full set of picture go here to my Flickr page to view them
Here is a few pictures of our Twitter meet ups and Also a great picture taken by Mary T on her Twitter ( click the link) of Heidi, Jen and I
