Local racer and photographer Jordan Bush, of the Shirk’s presented by Trek Bikes team, is back in Lancaster this week after seeing the second half of last week’s Tour of California.
Jordan put his fingers to the keyboards to record his experiences at the nation’s largest bicycle race. These are his reflections:
Stage 4: Merced to Clovis
Upon arriving at stage 4 in the media parking lot, it was immediately obvious to this country boy as to how big this event truly is. The first team vehicle I came across was OUCH, the new home of our very own Floyd Landis. The crowd surrounding the OUCH RV was quite large. Eventually, riders have to come out of their vehicles. Here comes Bob Roll with the Versus film crew to interview Floyd. After a few moments of waiting, Floyd came out and the crowd went crazy. I got to exchange a few words with our local hero, and moved on to find more racers as he geared up to race. Next up was Rock Racing, including 2008 U.S. National Road Race Champion Tyler Hamilton, a personal favorite, along with Francisco Mancebo, Oscar Sevilla, and Freddie Rodriguez. I looked for Michael Ball but I didn’t see his black Bentley until later in Pasadena. Down the street was George Hincapie with the Columbia High Road team, synching up his cycling shoes and smiling for the press.
After that, it was off to the rider sign in. There’s (Mark) Cavendish. Short, muscular, fast, and 23 years old. Suddenly the crowd goes bananas. You guessed it. It’s Lance. Wearing his LiveStrong vest, helmet, matching Oakley’s and custom Nike shoes. He is the LiveStrong/Nike 10//2 poster boy to a “T”, and he commands an incredible respect wherever he goes. Lance has a lengthy discussion with the race announcer about his LiveStrong initiative as he signs into the race. He talks about handing out yellow LiveStrong chalk out to fans to cover the road in messages of hope, encouragement, and warm wishes. Then comes Levi (Leipheimer). More cheers as he shows up in his beautiful yellow leaders jersey. He’s all smiles, but you can tell by the way Levi carries himself that this man will not to rest until he wins this stage race.
As the racers line up to start, the field is amazingly full, and littered with UCI ProTour teams. In four years, this race has become a world-class event to reckon with. And this is still only stage four, my first day here.
Traveling along Stage 4 in the car proved to be quite difficult, as there was just one mountain pass leading towards the finish at Clovis. This is also where the crash involving Floyd took place. Most of the vehicles chasing got stuck behind the peloton for hours, (myself included) which had a FAST tailwind to the line. Tyler Hamilton was out front in a break, and Lance led Astana at the front helping to protect (Leipheimer’s overall lead), (and) reeling the break back in. I have never seen Lance do this much work pulling at the front of the field and not in a solo break away. It is surreal. He seems so calm and collected at the front. It is amazing to see Lance dedicate himself to his team after all of those Tour de France wins.
After the race, I made my way to the media room to get back to work; downloading memory cards, editing images, uploading files, contacting friends and media. And in this big room of hundreds of media members, there was Graham Watson, cycling photographer extraordinaire, seated just a few feet from my desk. I got to chat with him for a short while as he scrambled for an extension cord to power his 15.4-inch MacBook Pro. The magnitude of this race really hit me at that point…
Stage 5: Visalia to Paso Robles
The early morning weather for stage five proved to be a little cooler than the day before, and after figuring out how Astana functions, I was able to track down their team camp in the chilly California morning. All of the teams have one large designated area to set up shop. Everything is completely structured and well planned, from set up to tear down, from start to finish. Astana, however, does their own thing, and everyone seems to respect that. It adds an extra buzz among the race fans each morning, to say the least.
This particular stage route was a lot easier to follow, as there were many points of interest where alternate highways intersected with the course. There was a group of about six riders on this mostly flat stage that worked their way off the front, leaving Astana to again pull the field in pursuit of the leaders. Lance is at the front with Chechu (Jose Luis Rubiera), Popo (Yaroslav Popovych), and Chris Horner, as usual, cranking out the watts. Their precision and teamwork is unparalleled, and it is still so early in the season. I kept looking for (Viatcheslav) Ekimov, (Kevin) Livingston or even (George) Hincaipie to come around, but that is from an era long past.
In a very close effort to get to the finish, crowds filled the streets of Pasa Robles to watch Mark Cavendish take another stage win in a powerful sprint. This guy is my age, and literally the fastest sprinter in the world. He certainly knows it, too, and will do great things this year in the European races.
Stage Six: Solvang
Solvang. OK, so Solvang is one of the coolest towns in the United Stages. If you ever go to the Tour of California to experience any one stage, it has to be this one. Beyond the insanely cool aerodynamic gear, refined time trial machines, crazy helmets, and the grueling test of man verses time, this area is gorgeous. The completely European village was founded by the Danish, and is filled exclusively with Scandinavian architecture and snow capped mountains as the backdrop. Find a dark beer after the race with Bob Roll and you will really think you are in Europe. (Bob is the Versus TV announcer, former Tour de France great in the 80s/90s on the first US pro cycling team, 7-Eleven). Did I mention there was a ProTour time trial being held here? Needless to say, I was more excited to be at this stage than any other. The course start house was just a block away from the finish, so it was easy to see both. And I have never seen that many spectators at a bike race in all my life. More than the Commerce Bank Race in Philly, I think. At least in such a small area. The crowds were easily five-to-10 people deep throughout town. I decided to defend my spot in the photographers pit at the finish line as though my life depended on it, camping out good and early. The coveted blue photo vests were rare, only a select few distributed each day to some photographers with photo credentials, allowing direct, heavily restricted course access. Today the course was quite small, (one-tenth the size of the 130-mile road races), so all of the photographers would be looking for a spot at the finish around 2:30 p.m., when Lance would roll across the line. So from just 15 feet beyond the finish line, I was lucky enough to watch riders absolutely fly past, one right after the next. The time splits only got faster and faster, and the names of the riders grew more and more impressive.
A lot of spectators, race volunteers, and other photographers questioned that if Lance were to win today, would he go after the top spot on the podium? I was sort of amazed by the question, because there was no way anyone was going to beat Levi. It was clear Lance and LiveStrong Foundation have a lot of support, which is awesome, but if Lance did beat Levi this day, this is still Levi’s race. Plus, if you can’t tell in the photographs, Lance did put on a lot of upper body muscle. You can argue with me all you want, but he is definitely huge and it is ALL muscle. Lance is in great form though, obviously. More on this later.
One thing that became very obvious though: the Astana riders kept getting passed at the finish. Their split times were all around 33-34 minutes; they were holding a lot back. Johann was in control of this decision. A very blatant and smart move tactically, as there were still two stages with 5000 feet of Mount Palomar to get over with Levi in Yellow.
The most eventful moments in Solvang came with the last five riders. Chris Horner was the 104th rider set to leave. Z-Man (David Zabriskie) was next, followed by Lance, Michael Rogers and finally Levi. Z-Man posted an awesome result, then Rogers, and finally Levi, who turned it way up! Coming into the final stretch, the crowd was Tour de France size, and incredibly loud. You could just tell Levi was producing awesome power and a great result. The clock was just over 30 minutes as he rounded that last corner at mile 15. He was a man possessed! As Levi crossed the finish line, my camera buffer filled with 30 images in just 3 seconds. Then, of course, Levi makes a huge moment by throwing up three fingers to show he is going to win the Tour of California for a third, consecutive year. This is a big claim, my buffer is full. You have got to be kidding me. At this point, I didn’t hear the cowbells ringing or the immense crowd cheering; my buffer opens and I have just one more shot. Click. Got it. Levi and I are all smiles, as he grabs a towel at the end of the course and is bombarded by myself and the rest of the media. You can tell he has been working on this race for more than just the off season. He wants this more than anything.
Stage Seven: Santa Clarita to Pasadena
After arriving in Santa Clarita a good 90 minutes before the start, and passing teams like Jelly Belly and Rock Racing on the highway, I had plenty of time to get front and center at the Astana camp. Good thing, too, because there was a cancer survivor visiting Lance. It was really powerful and moving, as I have lost family to cancer, and watched other family members beat it. After Lance visited with this unnamed woman for a while, they rode off to the start with about five minutes to spare. The roll out includes the top dogs in the sport. Lance Armstrong, George Hincapie, Mark Cavendish, Francisco Mancebo, Levi Leipheimer, Tyler Hamilton, best young rider Robert Gesink of Rabobank, and of course, Floyd Landis. It was ridiculous! This is the United States? Where are all of these teams and spectators coming from? Ah, I love it!
This race was also quite difficult to follow, so most photographers who weren’t on a motorbike chose to cover the start and the finish. The carnival at the race was completely packed, and was easily bigger than the local farm shows hosted in Lancaster throughout September and October. I got a chance to meet the great folks at Hincapie Sports, who were also in attendance. Rock Racing was present, and I believe Michael Ball’s Black Bentley was parked next to Rock’s beautifully ostentatious black and red caravan of Cadillacs.
The stage concluded right outside of the Rose Bowl, and consisted of a circuit race absolutely jam packed with spectators who waited all day to see the finish. Astana worked to pull the break back in, this time with Lance and Levi sitting in at the very back of the entire Astana team. Lance was on Levi’s wheel, and neither did a lick of work that I can recall. Horner took point with Chechu (Rubiera) and Popo(vych) on this day. The lead break held off to the finish, and Astana came rolling in shortly behind. Tomorrow would be a big day in the mountains. They needed all the rest they could get.
Stage Eight: Rancho Bernardo to Escondido
Everyone knew full well that today would determine the winner of the 2009 Amgen Tour of California. And also that by covering the HC (Hors Categorie or beyond category) climbing on Mount Palomar, starting at around 750 feet and peaking out over 5,000 feet in ten miles, you weren’t going to see the finish. The race promoters estimate that there were 2 MILLION people in Escondido alone to see the finish. Last year, the ENTIRE Tour had 1.6 million people watching. Yeah. No kidding, that is a big increase. The roads were as loaded as when the Phillies got into the World Series, and you are trying to go down the Shurekill Express. Every street was packed.
From the top of Mount Palomar, you could watch the peloton ascend into the clouds. Literally, they ascended into the clouds. Levi was in a break off the front, sitting in the saddle chasing a three man break and working HARD to do so. The look on his face burned through me for sure. Shortly behind were Floyd Landisand Lance Armstrong in a group with a bunch of other Astana riders. Lance passed within two feet of me as he climbed up South Grade Road, and while his jersey was completely unzipped (it was chilly up there), I could hear that his breathing was really controlled. Every move was very intentional. From there, the field was split up, with big Karl Menzies chasing Lance and Floyd, and a bunch of riders scattered way beyond him. This was the last I saw of the 2009 Amgen Tour of California.
Exhausted, sick, and about an hour after the finish, I eventually made it into Escondido. While I waited for images to upload, I walked outside the media room. The sky was magenta, the evening breeze was fresh and warm. It was a perfect ending to a sleepless week of hectic travel, photographing, and editing images. I ventured further outside with a smile and everything became eerily still - something was up. A black Escalade was parked out back, with a team of security around it. I could hear camera shutters clicking, but no one said a word. And there he was. Donning all black and a podium cap sitting low on his head, there stood Levi. This was the only moment all week I decided to put the camera down and just be a fan. I raced into the media room, where Graham Watson sat as usual, working away at his MacBook Pro. I grabbed my yellow jersey, that I swore would never see Levi’s hands, sprinted right up to the man and got his autograph. He was fairly quiet, taking it all in I imagine, and after exchanging a few words with the three time Tour of California champion, he headed into the press conference. Absolutely unbelievable. Few could draft a better script for these guys’ careers.
Closing Remarks
In all sincerity, this trip was a blessing that I didn’t deserve. I grew up watching these guys race, reading about them in VeloNewsand listening to friends at Shirk’s Bike Shop talk about the big boys. Then there was the other side to it, too: getting made fun of in high school for shaving my road rashed legs, racing in spandex, and dealing with ESPN at 2:30 a.m.to catch a glimpse of the Tour de France. This was well before OLN/Versus aired the race, at least in this area. Comcast got tired of me calling, I suppose. I never thought in all my life I would get to see Armstrong compete, or even Floyd. But for those of you who didn’t get to see them in person, I leave you my images from the adventure. I gave literally everything I had to capture these photographs, and I do truly hope you enjoy them. Just do me one favor. I have no idea how stage 8 went beyond that last climb. I’d like to keep it that way, but I must wait for the DVD to see it. It is amazing what goes into covering this race, and what you miss trying to keep up with it. I did heard something about Floyd leading Menzies out at the finish? Gah, I can’t wait. Levi in ‘10? Let’s see what happens on the Champs-Élysées first.
Keep the rubber side down, and enjoy the ride!
-Jordo
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