George, Will You Sign My Monkey?

After a minor detour, which led us very close to the wrong city, we corrected our route and got ourselves to Stage 8, the Final Stage, in Thousand Oaks, with plenty of time to spare.  We parked our car close to the team buses and bumped right into Patrick Dempsey outside of the BMC team bus (this is George’s team bus!).  Mandatory photo snapping!!  He is handsome and looks better in person than on TV.  See for yourself – photo posted!  Knowing that George was coming out of the bus soon to sign autographs, we waited around with the crowd.  Anna asked “do you have the Sharpie”.  Shit.  We left it in the car.  “Besides”, Christie asked, “What would we have him sign”?  Anna replied, “Have him sign the monkey”!  Within moments George came out and looked quite rested we might add.  Christie pushed through the children, borrowed someone’s Sharpie, and yelled “George, will you sign my monkey”?  He didn’t flinch and signed his name on Luca’s vest.  At one point GEORGE TOUCHED CHRISTIE’S FINGER while they held Luca, together.  Sigh. We couldn’t believe it.

Still in awe, we walked over to Saxo Bank’s bus next.  We patiently waited and occasionally caught glances of Fabian Cancellera half naked in the bus while he chatted on his cell phone wearing very cool sunglasses. Jens came out first.  He signed a bunch of swag.  Fabian came out after him.  Anna said, “He’s so cute!  He has such nice legs!!!”.  Christie yelled out “Fabian, will you sign my monkey?”  He did.  Gasp.  Andy Shleck came out next.  Anna yelled,  “Andy, will you sign my monkey?”  Full laughter from the crowd.  He chuckled and replied, “I’ll sign your monkey”.  Really.  We couldn’t believe the future Tour de France winner signed Luca’s vest!

This put us in a great mood and energy to watch the kick off of the final stage of the race.  Anna swears she saw Lance Armstrong in the back seat of the Radio Shack car.   That will remain a mystery (unless he posts something about it on Twitter).  We drove over to the end of the race close by in Westlake Village, Thousand Oaks.  We caught the boys racing by a bunch of times and agreed they put on a great race!  Yay!

Patrick Dempsey Loves Cycling!

Luca with George

OMG!  George Signed My Monkey!

Luca gets passed through the crowd to Fabian

Andy Shleck chuckles after signing the monkey 

(that's Luca's head in the corner)

Stage 7 Time Trial (TT)...This is LA!

We love the Time Trials because it is the BEST opportunity to see the riders up close, within handshaking reach.  Naturally, we wanted to get an early start to get as close to the action as possible.  We arrived in LA just before 9AM leaving us four hours until the TT.

Before settling in at the starting gate, we wandered through the team parking area, grabbed the free water bottles from Team BMC (that’s George’s team!  Christie’s boyfriend!), left Luca behind a couple of times (we are BAD mommies, especially since Christie has had Luca since she was like 9 years old!), and after realizing that none of the riders were out yet, we chose a spot to camp in the starting gate area.

The sun was bright and the Traveling Gals were without sun block.  Christie went in search of some and, of course, free bike swag.  Christie wandered the lifestyle festival and found some sunblock at Hincapie (that’s George’s company!) but they weren’t open for business yet.  "10 more minutes", they said.  Within 15 minutes, Christie got a couple of stickers, free canvas bag, purchased sun block, and while on the lookout for more swag, got her feet tangled in a clear plastic bag and took a MAJOR fall.  !@$#$#@*&$^#@*&#$@#!!!!!  Four cycling fans ran to her aid, helping her up while she said, “Someone should remove that bag, it’s a liability!!!”.  The fans recovered her glasses and her wallet (yes, they flew off as she landed hard on her knees, hands, and elbow) and after Christie assured them she was OK, she started walking back.  Well, it was more like a hobble.  Within moments Christie thought “I’m not OK” and realized her knee was throbbing.  She lifted her pant leg and was shocked to see a golf ball had grown on her knee!  Good grief!  Feeling wounded, both her body and her ego, she texted Anna to let her know what happened.  “Don’t text and walk!”, Anna wrote.  Christie finally managed to get back to Anna who decided, along with the staff of Amgen, first aid was in order.  This in between “can I see your knee”?  Marcus, a cool cat from Colorado who helped Amgen set up the start gate, and Anna stuck Christie in the offical Amgen truck and headed over to First Aid.  An ice pack and several band aids later, we finally settled back into our seats and had an amazing great time watching the riders approach the starting gate.  Here are a couple of highlights:

• HTC rider with his hand in a box attached to a cooler.  Another rider sits next to him, laughing, and says “what the fuck are you doing?” 
• Christie yelling “Hup Holland” to a German rider from RaboBank.  Dummy. 
• Seeing our favorite riders up close:  George, Cancellara, Andy Schleck, Jens Voigt, Marc de Maar, Popo, and so on.  
• The absence of Lance Amrstrong was felt.  Heard in the crowd “Mommy, is Lance going to be here?”

Luca!  Wild Night?  

Luca in front of George's Bike!  

Christie at First Aid!

I'm OK!  And I Ride For Life!  

Fabian Canellera!  

Smile Andy!  

Big George!  

Michael Rogers!  

Stage 6. Friday May 21

We lost our mojo.

The 2010 Amgen Tour of California Has Started!!!

And, that means the Traveling Gals are gearing up for amazing days at the Races.  We are leaving for Pasadena on Thursday so be sure to stay tuned and keep an eye open for our posts.  Our adventures are sure to be interesting, hilarious, and surprising.  Curious about our route?  Check out the map below.