2007 Tour of California

Day one: The Drive to SLO

Pre-ride report

18 minutes behind schedule and ready to roll. Hans reluctantly had to bail out due to a case of the Flu.  Meal service was provided by Garo and Armenian Airlines with the traditional Armenian bread, cheese, and mortadella.

We made our way to Carpinteria to pick up Otto at the State Beach. We were glad we were not doing the Monterey SLO leg, it was pouring rain along the way.

At the campsite they wanted to charge us $8 to pick up the Hungarian dude. We misunderstood the hand signal from the camp host instructing us to leave the park and we went inside instead. She decided to call the park Police and reported us, that's ok, when the park police arrived, a couple of the crew members were urinating in public, that's not ok.
The police made everybody stand outside the car in the pouring rain while they checked out Julio's criminal background. Luckily for all of us Julio's warrants did not show up in the Carpinteria computers and we were set free to continue our journey.

By the time we reached Santa Barbara the weather was getting better, with no Presidente to set order here we might all need a bail bond tonight.

We wish we could tell you that our day improved, but no, destiny kept taking its toll. As we got to SLO we missed the peloton's arrival by 10 min, our Carpinteria stop caused this major delay. During our ride up Andres' front wheel fell on the 101 fwy, if you are coming towards SLO please look for it. As we hung out in SLO we were slowly getting back into the cycling mode when we visited the local bike shop to get supplies, however,

a brewery accross the street caught our attention and one thing led to another. Among foosball, darts and beer we were in heaven, we were home. The team would never be the same. After a couple of rounds we went to our hotel to check in and we started the night's festivities.

First, we went to dinner to another brewery, and after watching a replay of the tour on TV we went bar hopping around town.

Now we realize how important Hans is keeping things together, the team is not looking good, our start time tomorrow keeps getting pushed. We had a midnight meal at Taco Bell, that summarizes everything.

We are looking forward to the ride tomorrow.

Day two: San Luis Obispo to Santa Barbara