Stage 1 TOM 2008 St. Joseph to Kansas City

I think it was 4 am.....when I heard the first crack of thunder. Then I heard rain on the roof of the hotel. It rained like a cow peeing on a flat rock until our designated time to head out to St. Joe around 10am. We took off headed north with 59 degrees, a stiff cross wind and skies that looked like they were going to dump another load of water just any minute.

When we arrived in town we did the usual....lined the bikes up, change batteries in the radios, grab our supplied lunch boxes, and have our drivers briefing. The first day of a stage race is gel time....when all the things you have been talking about for two days starts to take shape. While we had a few bugs in the caravan, for the most part the day was pretty smooth.

As we rolled out of town, the group cruised 3.4 miles to the zero k mark where the race actually gets the green flag. Jono and I were about a mile up the road exploring a potential scenic when we heard fireworks! Never before have I seen fireworks at the race zero k...and today was no different...but we heard'em!

It didn't take long before we were introduced to beautiful rolling hills with lush green fields of the Midwest. We rolled along with it dropping back to shoot the group several times and jumping ahead to get some pass by's. The temp dropped into the mid 50's and stayed for the remainder of the day. Unbelievable weather...last weekend we about died with heat exhaustion and this week we are freezing our arses off!

Rain started with about 20 miles to go then eased off for our entrance into Kansas City. We hung out in the gap down to about 10 seconds and got some great shots of Columbia working off the front to close it down. In the process of shooting this scene, we managed to go saddlebag to saddlebag with TV and live up to the "if you ain't rubbin' you ain't racin' motto! Alex and Casey were just off the side of the road and at one instant we were all three trying to get a shot of the chase....nobody touched, but man we were all on top of each other....it was great!

Into the city, I think our arrival might have been a bit earlier than anticipated....folks were trying to move out of every side street it seemed, but the course marshals and the local law enforcement did a great job of bringing things to a halt. As we entered the circuit of 3 laps, the 1k to go inflatable arch lost air and covered the race course as the riders went under it stopping the caravan in the middle of the road! It was quickly pulled to the side and everybody pursued the group to catch up.

The crowds downtown were really good...especially considering the damp weather. Columbia's Cavendish turned it up and stroked the finish line for the win.

We hung out for just a bit then decided to hit Starbucks for a little warm-up. There were about 6 or 7 of us who sat around talking about what happened in everyone's day...winding down. Deano was fiddling with his crackberry and announced that Lance was coming out of retirement as reported by VeloNews....holy smokes!

Back to the hotel we hit the Cracker Barrel tonight for some simple hot food. We are heading out early in the am as we have a 95 mile transfer over to Clinton for the 11am start. Only gonna be 44 degrees in the morning with a high of 70, but no rain tomorrow! As for the rest of the week....I guess we will see what Ike will do.

Stay tuned as tomorrow should be an exciting day for everybody down to Springfield.