Tour of Missouri news and pictures!

Today is the start of the Tour of Missouri in St. Louis with a ~75 mile circuit race. I spend most of the midday baking in the sun waiting around the buses to meet some of the racers and meet them I did. I figured Columbia HTC would give me the most 'bang for my buck' in terms of seeing my cycling heroes, so I spent a lot of time hanging around their trailer. There was a mob of people who descended upon each racer as they arrived from the hotel but once they went into the trailer most people left. I stuck around and as the guys came out to get saddled up, I was able to greet George Hincapie, Mark Cavendish and Bernie Eisel. They also let me hold Thor Hushovd's bike (the same bike he rode in the TDF when he wasn't on the green bike).

Everyone around was really approachable-- the mechanics, the racers, the coaches. The Astana mechanic told me that each biker gets at least 5 different bikes per season. Lance had 8 different bike for the TDF alone :rolleyes:

Me holding Thor's bike! (all 6.2 kg of it!)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...souri_0007.jpg

The Cav!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...souri_0061.jpg

George! (the best picture I could manage)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v4...souri_0048.jpg

The race was exciting, but I'm not going to lie. It was more exciting to shake the hands of these guys!

Additionally, I got a sweet Columbia Omni-Shade hat for ten bucks and a warm up fleece for $30 too 8') They're selling last year's stuff apparently.

Wow. You like, got to put your hand on Thor's saddle!

ohmygosh! how cool is that picture of Cav??!!

ohsojealous

Some more pics

http://photos-h.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos..._3270063_n.jpg

Mick Rogers kept giving the fans the slip...
http://photos-b.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos..._3695392_n.jpg

but he looked great on the road:
http://photos-a.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos...2_578762_n.jpg

The turn out was awesome! I parked myself in a quieter spot to take better pictures, but it was nutso around the finish. People have come from all over the country to watch! Here's the view toward the finish:
http://photos-h.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos..._6547775_n.jpg

I'm working at it tomorrow when they finish in Rolla. I'm doing the Economic Surveys. Pyannyplayer...you gonna be there? Maybe I'll get some great pics also!

Make sure to go hang out by the buses/trailers! 8') I've been thinking about driving to St. Joe's for the start of the final stage, but it's a long drive out and a long drive home.

No pics today. That survey took all three hours. The finish was something else, though. No breakaways today. Couldn't even tell (until they announced it) who had even won. An exciting finish and they were at almost 40mph! Tomorrow they ride through our little town and everyone is gearing up, going after that spirit award! What a great event for Missouri!

The finish today WAS EXCITING! We didn't get pictures, although DH did get some video with his camera. Those guys went zipping past on our side and I didn't want to have ANYTHING happen to one of them with our camera. I thought it was great that the crowd waited for the very last guy to come in.

DH rode a portion of this stage (Cherryville to Rolla) and said it was TOUGH; there really isn't ONE flat area...at all...ever. They made it look easy.

Uforgot, are you going to St. James at all? I have to teach (couldn't today since they used my classroom for interviews and such!!), but I think DH is going to go to get George's autograph for me. I have several students that asked to skip class to go....yeah, I let them...as long as they bring pictures back. ;) They're all in the cycling club and are on the human powered vehicle team as well, so.... Besides, I think it's important for them to go since they have the chance and it's so close.

Lorie

You know, I heard someone telling the people in the Hincapie tent that their classroom was right over there, and point to Castleman. Was that you? Are we destined to just pass forever? I'm not going to St. James. It's coming through Belle, probably about 45 min after they leave St. James, so I'm going to be here. We are getting out of school early, though, so the buses don't get trapped by the road closure. The town is trying once again to capture the spirit award. Then I'm heading up to Jeff City to watch them finish there. I've been to Viburnum a lot, through Cherryville, and I HATE that trip, in a car no less. So hilly and curvy. I couldn't believe they rode that. But the scenery is stunning! Cherryville to Rolla had to be a rough bike ride!

Oh nice pics and recap!

Uforgot:

Yup, that was me! Geez, we really do just "almost" meet! :eek:

DH bought a pair of Hincapie bib shorts - $60 instead of $140!! I stayed away...I have Hincapie long bib tights coming in the mail - maybe today! We are going to ride until there is snow and ice on the road AND start riding earlier in the spring.

Are you riding in the Bike MO Foliage tour? We may get quite the group from Rolla this year; most everyone we rode with all summer is going.

Lorie

Yes, I'll probably do that ride again, but I don't think I'll work it, because then when I rode I felt rushed. Maybe we can pass within 50 feet of each other once again!

Hey, did you see Cavendish after the race yesterday? He was NOT happy about the finish, and he's out today with an "infection". I heard from a couple of people that were over there that he was throwing one heck of a fit behind the podium!

Oh, and guess what? Belle won the Tour of Missouri spirit award today. Several residents got out and put up balloons and flags. There were tons more people there this year and EVERYONE was yelling. The first van stopped several times to talk to the crowd, and you would have thought they were at the state finals in basketball. Took them a year, but they finally turned it on. Color me SURPRISED!

No pictures. I decided that I wanted to actually see the race through my own eyes and not a camera lens.

See you at the Fall Foliage Ride.

I've been catching up on the coverage on Versus.

I squealed like a little schoolgirl when they showed Jens during Tuedsay's telecast, and then I got positively giddy when they interviewed him at the end of the show. :o

So if any of you in MO happen to see My Man Jens, tell him jobob says hi. :cool:

I am only finding repeat videos on Versus. Online coverage says 4:00, it is now 4:50 est and I still cannot find it. Are they talking central time?

At least Levi posted a video of his TT which I guess was from today.

~ JoAnn

The time trial was yesterday. And the times listed are likely central since that is the local time, at least that is what I thought happened when I watched the time trial yesterday. But now that I type this, I realize I watched it through a Tour of Missouri site that Levi listed on his twitter page. Let me edit after finding that link.

Here it is for tomorrow, guess a little late for this tour. :)
http://www.tourofmissouritracker.com/

Thanks Possegal-I have been really busy for 2 months and out of the loop with updates forums and such. I follow Levi's twitter and must have missed that tweet.

Anyway, even though I am tuning in kind of late, thank you for you response.

~ JoAnn

I've been a bit discombobulated of late and when I first responded, I was so glad to be able to give you the link, but I didn't realize it was actually 7PM, so not much help to you for Saturday. Then I was all - at least I'm helping you out for the rest of the tour - then I realized that was only one day. Oh well. :-) At least it gave you the link for Sunday!

Now I've got to get my act together and make my Labor Day plans. Oh wait...

At what point will it no longer be a spoiler to cheer for the winner of the TdM? Has everyone seen the results at this point? He's one of my favorite cyclists and it's so exciting to see him on the podium...

Sorry, I can't help it...





Yahoo for Captain America!! :D

So none of the other DZ fans on the forum are following this thread...?

I was sorry I missed the podium, I read he planted one on Christian Vande Velde. :)

This was CVV twitter comment:
Had the honor of giving DZ Nutz his wine on the podium today at the tour of Missouri......he kissed me podium girl style.

I didn't keep up much with the TOM since it wasn't on Versus (and we don't even *get* Versus on DirecTV at the moment...grrrrrr!), but I was happy that Dave Z. won it! :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Possegal

I was sorry I missed the podium, I read he planted one on Christian Vande Velde. :)

This was CVV twitter comment:
Had the honor of giving DZ Nutz his wine on the podium today at the tour of Missouri......he kissed me podium girl style.

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Haha, I wish I could've seen that, as well! Velonews neglected to mention that in their report ;)

Here is one photo - looks like gearing up for the big smooch. :)

http://twitpic.com/hr3cn

another
http://twitpic.com/hsli0

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Possegal

I was sorry I missed the podium, I read he planted one on Christian Vande Velde. :)

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Aw geeze, I forgot to record that stage!!! :mad:

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y18...IMG_3309-1.jpg

Tour of MO mural in Farmington

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y18...w/IMG_3335.jpg

Thor

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y18...w/IMG_3341.jpg

George

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y18...w/IMG_3337.jpg

Mark

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y18...w/IMG_3338.jpg

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y18...w/IMG_3348.jpg

Franco

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y18...w/IMG_3352.jpg

Jens

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y18...w/IMG_3354.jpg

Jens--no worse for the wear

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y18...w/IMG_3358.jpg

George riding to the front

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y18...w/IMG_3370.jpg

Floyd near the start line

Thanks for sharing sundial - I'm so jealous.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by sundial

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y18...w/IMG_3348.jpg

Franco

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Bawm-chicka-bawm-bawm!!



Sorry, I had a momentary Tour day Schmalz flashback. Thanks for the great photos, it must've been so much fun to be there!

For Kalidurga :)

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y18...w/IMG_3346.jpg

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y18...w/IMG_3347.jpg

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Possegal

Thanks for sharing sundial - I'm so jealous.

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I really lucked out. I got there early and picked a spot where the cyclists walked by to sign in. So everyone was within 2-3 feet of me. Thor stood smack in front of me as he signed an autograph for a teacher that requested it for a special exchange student. Jens needed someone to hold his bike but I was too busy with the camera so he ended up leaning it against the rail. :rolleyes: There were only 2 cyclists that I really wanted to see but didn't get to photograph: Christian Van de Velde (crashed the day before and left) and Dave Z (who donned his street clothes and signed in way early).