Pics from the Tour of Missouri

The Fam went downtown on Sunday to catch a little of the Tour of Missouri as it was wrapping up. Me being a bike geek and all, of course I was beside myself and fidgety and had the hair on my arms standing up. Penny and Aiden were a bit more collected. So we get there pretty late since Kieran desperately needed his nap (as did AB) and we could only catch the last lap. That sucks, but it's better than nothing. We went down to the Power and Light (or Power and White, as it's affectionately known around here) to watch Those Whose Thighs Are Greater Than My Waist (and that's no small feat). We lined up about 100' past the Sprint line, and it was a lot of fun. I could tell Penny started getting excited when the lead out motorcycles and race officials were hauling ass past us and she couldn't believe how fast they were going for a BIKE RACE. I'm like, "oh yeah, they are moving this fast and this is going to be awesome" and then I melt into a pile of squealing girlishness.

Several seconds later I regain my composure and you can see a couple lead out guys trying to steal the stage, and about 10 seconds behind them is the peloton, probably 120 dudes tightly packed and trying to reel in the breakaway. This is all coming at us downhill, so a few more motorcycles and patrol cars going hauling past us, and then the breakaway guys ride by us, obviously suffering. Cowbells are everywhere and I'm giddy. I'm shooting my camera as quickly as I can, hoping for one or two great shots. Then the peloton gets to us. More like hits us. The wind from them is UNBELIEVABLE and feels like a semi truck just narrowly missed hitting us at 60 mph. These dudes were moving.

And then all the team cars came by and it was over. Yea, it goes by that fast. Next year, we need to try and get there for at least 4 laps. Speaking of next year, Missouri Governator Jay Nixon wants to pull the state support for the Tour. I think he could certainly make a wiser choice. And not just because I'm a cyclist and because I live here and think that the mundane Midwest needs exotic, international events like this, but because the state puts in about $1.5 million, and in 2008, the event generated $29.8 million in economic impact. How can you turn those numbers down? Anyway, here are the pics. Hopefully some of them came out ok!