Hey Orange fans...remember me? Since nobody locked the door, I snuck back in to The Juice headquarters and decided
to share a special Father's Day I had.
My wife actually found out about the Nevada City Classic just last week
when she was researching places to take me for Father's Day. Then by luck, she also found out that Lance Armstrong,
Levi Leipheimer, and Chris Horner announced via Twitter that they will be participating in the race. No need anymore
incentive than that!
15,000 other fans must have saw that Twitter feed as well as the little, Julian-sized city was packed with fans looking
to see Mr. 'Juan Pelota' himself. Just a little background on this race. It is the second longest running
race in the US. Former winners include 3-time Tour de France champion Greg LeMond and California's favorite son Levi
won it in 1998. Lance actually raced this event back in 1991 when he finished 2nd. Nevada City is located in the
Sierra mountain foothills. It is a former mining town that has many small shops and great restaurants.
We got there early during the Cat 5/4/3/2 races. You can tell most of the fans there were not interested in those
races (well, except the Women's races :) ). Many fans were just milling around, crossing the race courses, drinking
while waiting for the Men's Pro race to start. However, when the Pro race started around 5pm, the sides of the roads
where packed.
Even though Levi and Chris are big draws, nothing compared to the crowd reaction everytime the guy in Black rolled
around:
Lance and Levi were tearing up the 1.1 mile circuit. At times they were doing 25mph avg. laps...so you only
had to wait about 2 mins to see them again. They dropped everybody but 2 local Pros who stuck with them until the
last 4 laps or so. Chris Horner was actually lapped by those 4! Lots of riders abandoned (or pulled off)
as I noticed the field of maybe 100 decreased as the race went on. I can tell many of the Cat 1 guys
went out way too hard in an effort to stay with Levi and Lance (and the guy from the Bissel team). They soon learned
what happens when you try to stay on the wheel of world-class pros....you pay for it and get dropped hard. So after
awhile, it was hard to tell who was on the lead lap as everyone was spread apart.
We were sitting on the only uphill section of the course. It provided a great view of a sharp right hand
turn at the Thai restaurant on the corner. The finishing straight on the next street over is a long downhill where speeds
reached 50mph+. It was too crowded in that area, so we stayed put on the hill.
The riders were so fast that I wished I had a real SLR camera. Unfortunately all I had was a point and shoot
which made getting the perfect shot nearly impossible. I probably took about 100 pictures...only a handful came out
decent! Lance came around maybe 30 times. With about 4 laps to go, Lance attacked and dropped everybody.
He won the race by 1/2 lap!
But no matter, it was a great experience. During the victory lap (Levi came in 3rd after he was beaten to
the line by a local pro - but really, I'm sure he let that guy win!) I was able to shake hands with Levi and Chris.
Unfortunately, Lance was on the other side of the road from where we were when they passed by. We then went to the finish
line where a mob of people surrounded Lance. This was as close as I got to the 7-time Tour champ (was actually closer
when he was on the course!):
There was no way I could get any closer without causing a riot. I was already too close for comfort with
a bunch of guys that I rather not be! My wife was hugging me which I thought was sweet...but she was only doing that
because she was being pushed by the mob closing in and didn't want to get knocked down!
No matter, it was a great
way to spend a Father's Day afternoon. Hard to beat going to a local race and seeing Lance and Co. in person.
But anyway, Happy Father's day to all the MMCC dads!
P2
