I managed get my lazy butt out of house just as a monsoon-like deluge ended around 4:30. Drove about 4 blocks, parked in a nearby neighborhood and sprinted to the intersection by the college where the peloton was to make a turn toward downtown and the finish. The Tour of California rode by, making the 90 degree right turn without incident. They had bunched up together by then, ie, the main group (peloton) closed the gap with the break-away riders.
The crowd started screaming, "Here they come!" just as I reached the intersection. Standing one row of onlookers back, I raised Loretta's point-and-shoot camera (mine stayed home due to the rain, bad mistake it turns out), and commenced to push the bottom repeatedly as they glided by around the corner. Unfortunately, the button I was pushing was the on/off button! When I finally noticed that the flash was not going off and the lens was moving in and out each time I pushed the button, I recovered from that temporary insanity and started taking pictures. Pictures of the pavement, the man's hand waving in front of me, and the old bag's camera who raised her's up blocking my view.
Nice shot, huh? One of those wheels may or may not belong to Lance or Levi. But, they were in there somewhere.
There's always next year when I can plan on attending more than one of the starts or finishes somewhere in California...and bringing my own camera.
