On our light day of the camp, we rallied for a 30-mile ride that included a ride-through of the TT course as well as a quick out-and-back trip up Foxen Canyon Road. For those of you who don’t know, Solvang has become quite the hot-bed of cycling in the last few years. Lance made the area quite popular during his reign with Team Discovery Channel. Strangely enough, he really liked to ride up Mt. Figaro (5,000 ft climb), a few mere miles from Michael Jackson’s (now defunct) Neverland Ranch. But I digress…after the peppy ride — which included a full on sprint that (almost) ended in the back of a van backing up at the 1K to go mark — we had to avail ourselves of some high quality recovery nutrition…something that the folks in Solvang have been perfecting for many decades.
After we re-fuelled, it was time to head up to watch the last few riders. In addition to seeing David Millar, Jens Voigt and Tom Boonen (he’s huge!), we got to see Levi race out of the start house. I think he was aero the minute his bike hit the street — Levi was 100% business today and his focus and preparation were represented in his finish!!
Popularity: 5% [?]
We ended up riding up the next two KOMs and then pulling the plug in Winters (70 miles on the day). Only downside for the A Group was an overzealous volunteer who did his best to put the kibosh on our riding plans. A good samaritan with a map and we were on a killer road…better than the race!!
