Headwinds and tailwinds: Watching the Pros

Today I'm writing from the illustrious city of Boulder, CO where I'm patiently awaiting the arrival of some relatively famous men. Haha

The USA Pro Challenge (a sort of US equivalent to the Tour de France, one could say - though that is probably really the Amgen Tour of California... but whatever) passes through today on their 6th and final stage of the race before heading down to Denver for a final time trial stage tomorrow.
I decided to volunteer and so now I find myself maybe 1/2 mile away from one of the sprint points, which is pretty neat...and not too far from the finish either.

Volunteering was pretty exciting. I had a race marshal right by me so... I took pictures when the peloton came by. Oops. There was also a picture of the lead group, but it's not as good.

So after my hours of sitting, and standing, and directing spectators were over, I headed to the center of it all: the race expo on pearl street where I bought myself this sweet poster I'd been eyeing ever since Garmin Sharp put it up on facebook.

I'm glad to say it was only $10, even though it's $20 online. Ohhh yeaahh

I also bought a great commemorative t-shirt that Pearl Izumi made for the event. All the US Pro Challenge tees were $26!! Pearl Izumi had the right idea - they're a local CO company and made sweet men's and women's tees for $20. The crowds flocked to their tent. Plus it's super cute! But quickly Pearl St got aggravating and I was unbearably hungry and feeling pretty tired. I had gone from one end to the other, so I headed back to my car while eating an apple. One of the spectators had extra wrist bands to get to the finish, so I took it and thought "well, let's see how close we can get to Flagstaff." So after driving around a little confused, I found a good parking spot and starting hiking up Flagstaff. Yeah... I couldn't get too close. I was glad I worse sneakers because I think I ended up walking a good 1.5 miles away from my car and up a mountain. There were SO many people who had already made the hike (or bike) up earlier. I was greeted by this as I turned a corner:

Ultimately I stopped and walked back down to the 4k marker because I decided it was the best place to get pictures. I think I got some pretty cool ones:

Including one of George Hincapie, which was neat because it was his final pro road race stage:

He's a local. The company Hincapie is based in Boulder. Everyone knew who he was and was cheering GEORGE as he passed. I then saw him later as he came back down the mountain.

That was good fun, though by the time I got home I was INCREDIBLY hungry.

The next day I biked around Denver a bit, trying out a new trail, but finished downtown to watch the TT. I have lots of pictures, but high lights include: