This past week many sports celebrities headed into town for the Tour of California which starts Sunday in downtown Palo Alto and ends at the quad at Stanford University.

We were fortunate enough to have babysitters for two nights this week so that we could go shmooze with the celebrities.
On Wednesday night we went to see Phil Liggett “the voice of the Tour de France”. He had lots of great stories to tell about his years covering the tour and professional cycling in general. He has entertained us over the years with comments like “he’s in a spot of bother” when describing a rider trying to summit a big climb Kevin begged his Mom to get a picture with Phil!

The evening with Phil was at a local Los Gatos winery located on the site of a historic Jesuit Novitiate It was a very cool venue high up on the hills behind Los Gatos.

Friday night, thanks to our local triathlon club and one our club members, Carl Guardino we got to see Ironman World Champion Chris McCormack do a radio show at a local station. Here is a link to where you can hear a repeat of the radio show. My question to Chris is 45:20 into the interview.

We heard how he got started in triathlon, quitting his job as an accountant in downtown Sydney to become a full time athlete. We heard about the dinner conversation that evening when he told his parents he was quitting his job to become a triathlete We learned that if they ever make a movie of his life, he wants Johnny Depp to play his part! It was a great interview and the audience really enjoyed being able to ask questions about his racing career and his training regimen.

Afterwards Macca was nice enough to pose with the triathlon club for a group photo.

A quick update. Below are some picturs from the Prologue stage of the Tour of California in Palo Alto.

Last night, Heather and I were invited to the grand opening of my triathlon coach’s new cycling facility in San Francisco. We took the opportunity to eat a nice dinner in the city at Betelnut and then went to the new indoor cycling facility. The big draw of the evening was last year’s Tour de France winner, Floyd Landis.

Floyd joined a group in a spin class and then sat down for a Q&A with my triathlon coach, Michael McCormack. They talked a lot about last years tour and how the press said he didn’t have “panache”. He said he tried to make up for that with Stage 17, the day he broke away from everyone! He also said that “It’s not my hip that’s currently preventing me from racing”.

Overall, it was a very fun start to the weekend!