Yesterday I joined thousands of people in downtown Paso Robles to watch the finish of Stage 5 in the Amgen Tour of California. I drove north from San Luis Obispo to Paso Robles around 1:00 PM (it's a 30 minute drive) with my neighbor, Jim.
I was a little nervous about parking, so we drove to the 24th Street freeway exit, figuring we could pay for parking at the Paso Robles Event Center (Mid State Fairgrounds) and take a shuttle if we had to. But Riverside Drive turned out to be wide open, and we were able to park near its intersection with 14th Street.
We walked to the Clayhouse Wines Tasting Room at the corner of Pine and 13th Streets. I stopped to visit with the staff there: Kari, Stacey and Chelsey. Jim headed out to the town square park, where the race was to finish, and where booths and entertainment were set up.
The tasting room was a bit busier than I expected. Only a trickle of visitors, but steady. I'd figured everyone would be waiting at the finish line. But there were people wandering the town. Some of them were associated with the race or the racers (one woman pointed out her son's butt on the big screen TV ... the Versus camera caught only his backside!).
After nibbling some cheese from Di Raimondo's (Kari had a couple of lovely platters from them on the tasting room bar), I walked over to the town square park to check things out. It's a big park, but it was busy. Each of the racing teams had parked a big RV near the square ... their encampments for the afternoon. There were tents set up around the square, with lots of bike gear companies displaying their wares. Big screen televisions broadcast live footage from the race (no commercial interruptions ... not the Versus feed we had on our tasting room screens).
Then I walked back to the tasting room with about an hour to go before the riders would arrive in downtown Paso Robles. We did a little work, Kari and Stacey and Chelsey and I, catching up on various projects and plans. Then I was back to the park for the race finish. More people than ever were on site. The announcers were working VERY hard to drive the crowd into a frenzy, as it became apparent that the breakaway leaders were going to be caught by the peleton just before it entered Paso Robles city limits.
Mark Cavendish of Columbia High Road won a group sprint to the line for the second stage in a row. I met Jim back at the Clayhouse Tasting Room. And we drove back to San Luis Obispo.
It was a splendid afternoon in breezy, sunny weather. A nice day to show off Paso Robles to the world of cycling.
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