Last GOBA Post

 Part One - Donuts, which was the theme this year

Part Two - water towers

made me feel like I was in college

Part Three - RAAM (deserves its own post, sorry)

We were so close to seeing two riders,
but missed them both.

I felt so lucky that we made a pit stop with about ten other cyclists and met up with a Swiss rider, Matthieu Lossel. We cheered him on 

and were told by his support crew that we were the largest crowd he had seen!

You can see him riding in the Rockies here.

It was a full week!

The Tour

Even before the Tour began we started celebrating with Tour-themed birthday gifts.

I found a game and a book to add to our cycling collection.

The gift that I bought that I sort of kind of wanted to keep for myself was a sticker album and some packs of stickers for this year's Tour. This same company makes stickers for soccer tournaments, too.

Not-so-brief aside - I thought we would buy stickers in every country at every store. I was surprised not to find any in Copenhagen and only at the toy store in our old home town (already on sale!). I could do a whole blog post about stopping all over Lithuania (toy store, grocery store, bicycle store, candy/lottery ticket kiosk) and every other country. I never found a single pack for sale, even at the store in Stockholm that had a whole display of Panini stickers and albums. I wonder if Denmark will still be selling them when arrive. We also thought every cyclist on the cruise would be watching the Tour and maybe there would be a room set aside to show it on a big screen. Ha.

Here are a few snapshots of my highlights, but maybe D. will do a guest blog post and share a different perspective.

Because we were in town early we watched the team buses and cars
arrive (glad I didn't have to park while dealing with cyclists and onlookers).

Later that evening we watched the parade of teams through
Copenhagen and streamed the festivities being held in Tivoli.

The next day we visited our old town and I loved seeing the yarn bombing (only some shown).

Before the stage begins the sponsors drive through and often toss freebies - hats with their log, energy bars, and tchotchkes. We did not catch anything but had already picked up free t-shirts and hats the day before.

On the first day of the Tour a time trial was held, meaning each cyclist raced against the clock. One benefit for spectators is a chance to see each person zip by over the course of many hours instead of an entire peloton (group of cyclists) zip by in one moment and that's it for the day. On the other hand, what am I going to do with pictures of 176 different cyclists? Here are two.

Magnus Cort is a Dane known for his mustache and sense of humor. He rode well this year, including winning a stage, but dropped out after testing positive for covid. We hope to see him race in PostNord Danmark Rundt.

Kevin Vanmaerke is an American riding his first Tour and he's less than three years older than A. They met when Kevin was on a training ride and A. was cycling home from Goleta. We were sorry to seem him crash and break his collarbone in a later stage. 

All the rest of my Tour pictures are of us sitting and watching it from afar.

ETA - oh, wow! since I wrote this we opened more stickers and one contained both Demi Vollering, who finished second in the women's race, and Jonas Vingegaard, who finished first in the men's race. Instead of selling them for $30 or so we stuck them in the album.

To Do and Not To Do

 

We did not drive 50+ minutes to the Long Beach area

to do the 2.25 mile CicLAvia event, even though I love them!

Instead we did a family ride

and a couple of us went out for coffee.

I went to the farmers market and did some chores before we all sat down to watch the highlights of

the last time trial of the Tour of Denmark, the first stage/time trial
of La Vuelta, and commentary. We are taking a break and will see some
of the Ladies Tour of Norway (maybe they wear skirts and sit side saddle?).

The afternoon was capped off with a dip in the cold tub. Ahhh.

Race Day

 Another 5 a.m. wake-up, another race day. Here are some random pictures.

First Time

This is A.'s fourth year of racing and I had never been to one before today (D. had been in charge of cycling and I was in charge of other activities, like speech and debate and soccer). I don't know how many more races will be held this season so I thought I better go today.

We decided not to camp or stay in hotel and instead we slept in our own beds until 5 a.m. Good choice! It was so cold when we arrived that the water had turned to ice in the buckets used to stabilize the EZ Ups.

Registration was easy.

There was plenty of space to wander until the start.

And then they were off!

D. got some good shots of A. racing.

If you look carefully you can see that I tried, too!

And then it was over!

A.'s summary

A great day! My only complaint was that the

beautiful portable toilets were locked
until shortly before the race started!!

Bonus picture, just for fun

Offbeat Tour Entertainment

I could hear the announcers talking about Landart - a cyclist from Louisiana? probably not. Or maybe it was some sort of cycling term, like crit or big ringing. D. pointed out they were talking about land art, the art in the fields that I had been taking pictures of. I have only a small sampling because I don't usually get to see a whole stage and for some reason when they show the highlights they show only the actually cycling portion of the event.

The announcers were told by fans that this was the way to score the art.

• Scale - 2
• Color - 2
• Movement - 2
• Originality - 4
• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

Which would get your highest score?

A bonus photo - not land art but I loved that this person was on international television. The commentator pointed out that they had a fabulous view of the race from their rooftop patio, which was true. I loved that having their laundry out was a normal part of life.