The circus comes to town…

The Tour of California made its way through Point Reyes Station yesterday. Folks from far and wide converged on town to watch the race wend its way north on Highway 1. Lots of cyclists rode took the day off (or had the day off due to the President’s Day holiday) to ride out to town to catch the race first hand.

Here’s a shot of Jackson Stewart of BMC, who spent most of the day off the front (he was well over 10 minutes clear of the peleton coming through Point Reyes) before being swallowed up before they got into Santa Rosa.

Twelve minutes later, the peleton rolls up the hill out of town with the CSC boys firmly controlling the race and their leader, Fabian Cancellara.

After the race went through town, several of us and our kids drove up to Santa Rosa to catch the finish. Before the race went through town, I figured out how to use the continuous shoot mode on my camera (not bad having owned it for about 5 years). In the past, I would shoot film cameras with a motor dive attached to the base. Digital cameras typically shoot one frame, save it, and then allow you to shot another one after a several second wait. Not good if you are shooting a bike race flying past.

So, with my camera in continuous mode, I positioned myself on the inside corner and just held the shutter down, accepting what ever made its way through the lens and onto the CF card. I was quite surprised when I downloaded the photos to my computer later in the day.

Hey, how’d those Rock Racing guys get in the shot and next to Cancellara. It’s too bad their boss is such a … well, let’s just say he rubs folks the wrong way with his attitude.

World Champion Paolo Bettini. How fortunate was I in catching this shot as I just snapped away? Very!

This rider (Steven Cozza) gets the award for best mustache of the peleton. If the cycling thing doesn’t work out for him, he’s got a bright future in law enforcement or fire protection or… I also noticed other photos of Dave Zabriske sporting a sweet ‘stache. Must be an argyle influence.