This is, as far as I can tell, a strip-mall town. Which makes it a funny spot for a stop on the Tour of California. I cruised around to the vendor booths in the morning and saw the chamber of commerce booth. The lady said, “Would you like some gum?” I took the package from her hand and looked at it. She said, “It’s Santa Clarita gum!”. Sure enough, the package said Santa Clarita. “Does it taste like parking lot?”. She wasn’t amused.
The stage was set up across the bike race lane from all the rest of the vendors. We were pretty bummed at first about the poor positioning, expecting no one to pay attention to us all day, but they had also put one of the big screens next to the stage so we ended up having a descent crowd. The day started without a hitch. We had less playing time today because of the tight schedule and the BMX demos. Which was fine with me. We were all starting to run a bit ragged with one more day to go on the tour.
We played, had some good sets, enticed people into buying our CDs. We broke for the cycle race, which was full of wonderful drama today!
After the cyclists past us they looped around three more times before the finish. A pack of 5 riders broke away from the pack fairly early in the ride and maintained a nice lead up untill Santa Clarita. When they first passed us they were a full minute ahead. On the next pass the pack had kicked it up a notch and were only 30 something seconds behind. On the third pass there was a great crash in the corner that knocked most of the Rock Racing team. Their lead man jumped back up, his bike mangled and twisted, and apparently grabbed a fresh bike from his team car and was back in the race. He surprisingly caught up with the back by their last lap. By that time the entire group had caught up with the breakaway, which was amazing and everyone pushed hard to the final stretch. The crowd was whipped up to a frenzy at the final stretch. Cowbells dangling in the air, eardrums nearly bursting. Britain’s Mark Cavendish finished first but was penalized for riding behind a vehicle! He was penalized 20 seconds and the second man through the line took the first. I can’t imagine how that must feel. And our boy Levi is still in the first place standings, after not placing today but smoking the time trial in Solvang yesterday. Good times!
February 26th, 2008 at 9:46 am
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