My Tour of Missouri Adventure: Day 3

This is the last of it. I might get photos up later. I have to upload them and someone is lazy. Previous days below, full photoset here.

Saturday I was a course marshal in St. Charles. I picked up my groovy volunteer shirt and had a few hours to kill before I had to be at my station blocking an intersection between the race course and a rich neighborhood. That was interesting.

Since we had time, we headed down to the Health & Wellness expo at the finish line. I poked around the booths, drooled on some bikes and convinced myself that Gert did NOT need a child sized leader’s jersey. Before we left we lamented that we didn’t have proper noisemakers for Gert.

Lo and behold, they have cowbells for sale for charity! Cowbells! Cycling! They go hand in hand! She could run beside the peloton ringing her bell and yelling! What could possibly go wrong?

Well, it’s a cowbell. I can still hear it. Sucker’s loud. But worth it.

While they purchased the cowbell I visited with Dave Shields and bought his Saul Raison book, Tour de Life. Dave’s a nice guy and a good salesman.

We headed off to my spot and argued with people in expensive cars about whether or not the state police closing their road was actually something that impacted them. It was.

The race came rolling by and Gert and a new little friend (rich daughter) banged thunder sticks, rang cowbells and screamed at the caravan. They were thrilled.

We packed up and headed back to the finish line in hopes of catching the sprint. Didn’t quite make it. But we got to watch the podium ceremony and Gert shrieked and clapped for George Hincapie, or as she called him, “Lance’s Best Friend.” I saw Timmy Duggan’s mom again and said hello and that she must be proud of her son’s performance in this race. She was. In fact, Slipstream (my current team of choice) had performed wonderfully at the Tour. These are guys to watch.

We headed back to the car, said hello to my Mavic friend who, it turned out, was ready to take Darby and me up on our beer offer that night but the girls and I were ready to collapse (sorry Darby). I shook his hand and thanked him for being so kind and providing us with so much fun at the time trial.

We had planned on seeing the final circuit race the next day, but as I said, Gert got sick. She’s still sick, laying in bed roaring with a fever like a furnace. She was really upset on Sunday because she wanted to go to the bike race. Poor kid. There were 55,000 spectators lining the streets of St. Louis.

Sometimes riding the streets and watching the scant coverage cycling gets on TV I feel lonely. Like I’ve chosen a sport that no one understands or cares about. And, I think that’s most likely true. However, St. Louis proved that I could be somewhat wrong. Or, perhaps, that it’s changing. That makes me feel happy.

There’s next year. I know this event will be back and I know Missourians, who really stepped up for an inaugural event, will be out in even more force next year. More importantly, now that the cycling world (yes, world—it’s an international event) knows what we can do here, the crowds will grow next year.

I’m looking forward to it.