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)