Wow, today was pretty long. We got up at about 8am worried that we were going to get to the stage too late to get a good spot to watch the finish; the peloton was expected at 3pm.
Got to the Olympic Stadium around 10am to see the finish line still being set up, the official tape was not on the ground yet. A crew was busily trying to paint over a pedestrian crossing so it wouldnt confuse riders, but they were fighting a losing battle. The pounding rain was no match for the blowtorch-brooms that they had on hand, they couldnt keep the road dry enough to put black paint down.
We stood in this rain until the caravan arrived sometime around 4:30. Yes, six and a half hours of solid rain in Barcelona in July. Has this ever happened before? Who knows. The rain died down when the riders had about 30k to go, as far as I could tell based on Alia's translations of the French announcements.
David Millar was going to be the star of the day.
5k to go, 36 seconds lead over the sprinters.
4k to go, 30 seconds.
3k to go, 25 seconds.
2k to go, 20 seconds.
And we see a mass of riders flying by, I see a Cervelo test team rider and Caisse d'Epagne rider at the front, turns out Mr. Hushovd won it.
Tomorrow we go see the start of the race, and I try to get a signature or two.
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1 comment:
Even for the cameras it was a blur! It was David Miller in the lead for so long, then all of a sudden there's this huge group and you can't tell who won. Exciting! Looked for you, sorry, couldn't see you.
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