The real reason we went to Santa Barbara, Solvang, Ojai, Santa Clarita, and Long Beach last week was for the BICYCLING!

Here is one of the best blogs with photos I’ve found yet on all the Amgen Tour of California action. The saddest news to come out of the race is that two of my favorite racers, Utah’s Dave Zabriskie (riding for CSC) and Big George Hincapie (still riding for Discovery Channel) got hurt. Zabriskie was DQ’d with a concussion after crashing on a mountain road landing during the first stage. Hincapie broke his arm but managed to ride hurt through most of Stage 6. He’ll be recovering for six to eight weeks.

And naturally, Levi Leipheimer was a total stud. I always take pride in the fact that I am no star sniffer. I have no inclination, ever, to hover around the streets of Park City for the annual Sundance Film Festival snooping for stars or wannabes. Yet put me within a few hundred years of these lean and lightning fast pro cyclists and I go all liquid.

Case in point: We’re driving on Interstate 5 late Saturday afternoon. The road is jammed. And what are the chances we would drive right up behind a little Mazda sedan with four Trek racing bikes perched on top and the Discovery Channel logo plastered all over the car with the number 1 on the rear window?

“Is that him?” “Is that Levi?” we’re pretty much shrieking from inside our sensible rented mini van while trying to catch up to the car. Ted is the first to see the man’s shaved head and svelte profile and confirms it: “THAT’S LEIPHEIMER IN THE FRONT SEAT!”

He manages to zip up to the right side of the Mazda. We suddenly go all ape like a bunch of teenage girls watching the Beetles enter Shea Stadium 40 years ago. Except we have two men in the car, too. They were just as bad as any squealing female, believe me.

And that was my brush with fame.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 27th, 2007 at 11:41 am and is filed under All, Sports, Pretty Things, Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.