Apparently, there are a few things that white people like to do. We like riding bikes, taking pictures, and flaunting as much culturally-acceptable spandex as possible. Today was a rare opportunity to do all three.

It was the Tour of California's opening prologue: an all-out, two-mile time trial in the heart of Palo Alto on the Stanford campus. It was SO AWESOME! All the big names were out in great form: Dave Zabriskie, George Hincapie, Paolo Bettini, and last year's winner Levi Leipheimer, to name a few. Cycling is one of those rare sports where you can get up close and personal with your heroes. Like George Hincapie here:


"Whatchoo lookin at, punk?"


George gets ready for his big effort. He ended up just ten seconds back on the day, in great position to make a bid for the overall win next Sunday, when the race finishes in Pasadena.


Big George is sponsored by Oakley, and they give him all the goodies. See those lenses he's wearing? Not available to the public. As Cat would say, "It's rough. Really rough."


And here's last year's winner, California native Levi Leipheimer. In stark contrast to the legions of rabid Lance Fans that would swamp the Discovery trailer, the crowd around Leipheimer was sparse and friendly. "The course is yours, Levi, go kick some ass!" I said. "Thanks, man," came the reply. He did really well on the day, and should be in position to kick some butt in the mountains this week.


The other advantage of the thinly-populated bus area was that they let me right in to take pictures! They were like, "sure, what do you want to take pictures of?" These are some really slick prototype aerobars not yet available to the public. Rough, man. Really rough.


Out on the course, the riders were FLYING. Here's Yaroslav Popovych Vladimir Gusev of Astana, looking awesome on the new bike. But he's not wearing his regular jersey here; as the Ukranian Russian TT champion, he gets the privilege of wearing his national colors whenever he pilots a TT bike. (Thanks to a friend on the WeightWeenies forum for correcting my mistake. Popovych now rides for Silence-Lotto.


Ditto for Edvald Hagen, the Norwegian TT champion. For the road stages, he'll be in the same kit as his teammate George Hincapie, above. But during any TT, he proudly wears the flag of Norway.


And here's Italian superstar Mario Cipollini. You can tell he's important because he has his own bike brand. Here he is making sure they spelled his name correctly.


This guy, on the other hand ... well, I have no idea who this guy is. Cat noticed that his grimace almost looks like a smile. Like "a man possessed," as Phil Ligget would say.


Ah yes ... the unmistakable beauty of the P3C bike, part and parcel of the CSC dynasty. You expect to see Dave Zabriskie aboard this bike, as he really built a career on it, and helped bolster its fame and popularity. But he's gone over to argyle with Slipstream, and now rides the less-exciting Felt DA.


Here's Cat, caught flashing a wry smile between riders. She got a kick out of the sheer athleticism of the event, but she deserves a lot of credit for putting up with a die-hard cycling lunatic who wouldn't stop taking pictures all day. Thanks for being a rockstar, Cat!


Like this guy, for example. The uninitiated observer cannot be expected to get excited about a guy in a goofy pointed helmet, wearing what looks like blue argyle underwear. To the geeks among us, this is Tom Danielson, the potential leader of Slipstream-Chipotle, and a powerhouse climber. He's one to watch this week.


It's funny to see who sponsors cycling teams. This one is a Bissell rider. Yes, Bissell vacuum cleaners. Whoda thunk it?


And good old Team Sport Beans. That's right, kids. Eat a lot of candy and you too can be a professional cyclist. Wait a second ...


Another Astana rider. Their colors are really slick this year, especially the TT bike's paint scheme.


Of course, not all the strange colors are found on the backs of the riders ... helloooooooo, boots!


Apparently some people think you need a humongous lens to shoot close-range cycling. Maybe he's compensating for something.

Anyway, the day was fast, exciting, and beautiful. Until next time, dear readers!

Love Love,
Nick

Jason invited me to come hang out with him in the city this afternoon. He and his friend Brian had planned to hang out on North Beach, which is not actually a beach. You see, the Northern end of the San Francisco peninsula is man-made; it's entirely landfill. North Beach is where the shoreline USED to be, before the new addition. It's a good half-mile inland from where the water hits now.


Outside the Powell Street BART station, a big gang of pigeons was lounging around, waiting for handouts from tourists.


Jason said he hates them, but their shiny green necks are at least interesting. He calls them "winged rodents," but that seems a little harsh.


Next, it was off to the Filbert steps, a steep group of stairways connecting the North Shore to the new land. This crazy old Cadillac was waiting at the start of one set of stairs.

But the most exciting part of the day was what we saw ON the steps ...


The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill!!! These beautiful Cherry-Headed Conures are part of San Francisco culture; their wild flock lives in the city year-round, scrounging food wherever they can find it. Apparently, the cold weather is no problem for them.


They're pretty tame, and will apparently eat out of your hand, if you bring some sunflower seeds. Next time!


Soooooooo cute!

After the parroting, it was off to Coit Tower, a monument to some woman who followed around firefighters all her life. The views were great.


There's the famous TransAmerica Pyramid, and the rest of downtown SF.


The top of the tower itself is exposed, and on a day like today, it was really nice up there!