My First Bike Ride

Ok, not exactly my first bike ride. But today was my first bike ride on a road bike. Oh, and it was my first time on a category 1 climb. For those of you who don't follow cycling, they rate climbs on a scale of 1 to 4, with one being the hardest climb (technically, there is also an "HC" which means it's out of category because it's so hard). Basically, this was a serious mountain. We covered roughly three and a half miles of road with 1,800 feet of climbing in one hour and twenty minutes. I thought that wasn't that bad until the pros did it in about 20 minutes. Yikes! Here's the first picture of me at the top... don't I look invigorated and happy to be alive?

I Made It To The Top!

Mike also made it to the top (duh!). This is us after I've had some time to cool down and eat a PB&J!

We Did It!

The winner of this stage was Chris Horner. The poor guy rides for Team Radioshack, which also happens to have Levi Leipheimer. So, of course, everyone was cheering for Leipheimer, thinking he was Chris Horner. It wasn't until he was right up on us that we realized it was Chris! He finished a good minute ahead of anyone else... absolutely amazing!

Chris Horner Making The Final Climb

This one is of Jens Voigt - one of cycling's most loved people. Poor guy took a very nasty fall yesterday (see that big bandage on his knee?) but apparently didn't think to grab a new pair of shorts (check out his left upper hip!). I'm pretty sure my face looked like this all the way up the hill.

Jens Made It Too!

I did manage to snap a good shot of George Hincapie on his way back down the mountain to the team bus. This was probably the coolest part of the race - as we all headed down, the pros joined us! Apparently this is pretty rare (seriously, it'd be like professional football players heading out to the parking lot to stretch after the game).

George Hincapie On His Way Back To The Bus

Finally, the peloton came by - a good 30 minutes behind Chris Horner!

The Peloton

As always, there are the fun cycling fans:

Moose!

Finally, I left today with the mark of the cyclist - grease on my calf:

Grease Is The Word

We just watched the playback on Versus and Mike was on TV!!! Ok, my leg was too, but I'm going to let him have the glory. They caught us cheering for the 2nd group in. Woo hoo! What a great day - I'm tired and sore and going to chill out a little now! I definitely think I'll be getting a road bike!

I have more pictures - I'll post them to Facebook tomorrow!