During the Prologue

Estimated that we walked at least 10 km today overall, as not only did we walk 2 km or so from our hotel to the race start and back again, but we walked from the start to the end of the prologue course (3 km) in time to see the last few riders finish, then back to the start again. Interestingly enough, both times I've been to Coit Tower I've walked there and up Telegraph Hill ... but it seemed a lot easier today than it did 10 years ago, I guess I wasn't in great shape during my medical residency then (no time to exercise then).

As mentioned in "Before the Prologue", we noticed that some riders we were interested in were starting in the first half-hour, so figured we'd stay at the start for at least that long to watch. These included Ivan Basso at 13:26, Jens Voigt at 13:28, Henk Vogels at 13:29, and Nick Gates at 13:30.

I was thinking that it must be quite stressful to be the first rider up, as he had to stand there for a lot of talk plus a ribbon-cutting ... but I suppose they get used to it. The 2nd rider was Ben Jacques-Maynes, who ended up 3rd for the day; and the 7th rider up was Jason Donald, who ended up 2nd for the day - led the race right until the very end. Interesting that the commentators (not Phil, Paul and Bob for the public announcements) pointed out that a year ago Donald was driving a garbage truck for a living.

Surprised to see Allan Davis riding for Discovery (he wasn't on the start list of a few days ago, and I didn't know that he'd been "officially" signed by Discovery - must have finally sorted out the whole Astana/Saiz contract mess I suppose). The 2nd Discovery rider was Ivan Basso, winner of the Giro d'Italia last year but first race back after missing the Tour de France due to the Operation Puerto doping scandal (nothing yet has been proved against Basso so he's cleared to ride for the time being). Once Basso reached the end the announcer pointed out that Jason Donald must be excited to be ahead of Basso at such a race - little did the announcer realize then that Donald would be ahead of almost everyone! (and we didn't realize either until we got back to our hotel how anyone was doing overall).

The announcer made a big deal about Jens Voigt being "well-liked" and "the most aggressive rider I've ever seen" and "riding for the team". Then came Henk Vogels (last year on "my team", Davitamon-Lotto now Predictor-Lotto) and next his former team-mate Nick Gates.

After that, we started walking along the course, and the crowds thinned out considerably. Along the Embarcadero we got a much better sense of the speed at which the riders could achieve than we did right at the start, obviously. We saw Stuart O'Grady, Dave Zabriskie (wasn't really expecting him so soon, actually he went past and I had to think "who would be in a CSC jersey that looks like it has Stars and Stripes on it?" before I realized it was Dave Z, American time-trial national champion), and Michael Rasmussen along this straight flat stretch before the climb.

Some helpful course marshals with lists of the start times would call out who was coming next (or else you could sidle up beside them and look over their shoulder at the list... I'm still a bit peeved that the organizers couldn't be bothered to put up a list of start times anywhere that I could see - it did go up online, but *after* we left this morning so too late for us).

At the first corner we were trying (with others) to hang over the edge (inside corner) but were pushed back by the marshals - then when a rider came around and we realized how close they were taking the corner, we were quite thankful for their action.

More free stuff - Toyota had a lot of people giving things away, free cowbell and thundersticks (the inflatable things you can bang together, really annoying in a closed space like a hockey arena).

Then starting up the climb. Poor Mario Aerts - lost his chain just after the start of the climb, and no team car behind him to help so he had to get it back on himself. At least I know now that I'm not the only one who that happens to (happened to me last July and I sprained my wrist as I wasn't quick enough to recognize what happened and couldn't unclick from my pedals in time so I went down).

A bit further up the climb, we saw riders such as Hincapie, Dionne, Cancellara and Horner - seemed to me like Cancellara was flying compared to others (and afterwards I realized that he probably was, as those who came ahead of him except the winner hadn't reached their full speed when we saw them near the start). I overheard a course marshal telling someone nearby that Chris Horner is the "coolest" and that you'll always see him smile even up the climb.

Further still, crowds were getting deeper again - Vande Velde, Barry, Hushovd (seemed pretty fast), Bettini, Hesjedal. Amusing that someone tried to start a chant "Paolo Paolo" before Bettini rode by, someone yelled out "I'd join in if I knew what you were saying" (presumably some observers weren't exactly super-knowledgeable cycling fans).

Then from 50 m to go for the last few riders - including Fast Freddie, Bobby Julich, Gesink from Rabobank, Mick Rogers, and Levi Leipheimer - huge cheers when Levi crossed the line 1 second ahead to win the day. (in less than 5 minutes, I might add ... we were impressed at how fast they can ride up the steep climb!)

pics to follow when we get time ...