The 2009 ToC - It's a wrap

Lots of rain, some snow over the climbs, then lots of sunshine as the tour moved southward. Levi takes his third GC in a row after fighting off a lot of attacks on a very hilly final stage. His Astana team wins the team GC. Jason McCartney takes the KOM jersey after Rock Racing's Francisco Mancebo (who had it in the bag) crashed out hard in Stage 6. Gesink wins best young rider (again), and Cav takes the points jersey (holy smokes he is fast). What I want to know is who the girls in the blue jerseys are.

Some notable crashes in this year's ToC too. In addition to Mancebo on Stage 6, Oscar Friere, Kim Kirchen and local Santa Rosa guy Scott Nydam wiped out bad on Stage 4. Kirchen and Nydam both ended up with some surgical work. Ouch. This was a tough race.

Lastly, what's up with all the dumbasses running alongside the riders and nearly taking them out? Today I saw the now famous "Antler Man", a guy in a fat sumo suit running about 15mph chasing the break, and a scary Borat-looking dude wearing nothing but a thong. The best was when Lance Armstrong stiff-armed the "LiveClean" heckler into a snowbank during stage 4. Classic move (captured, of course, on youtube). Here's the photo sequence.