Another Very Exciting Day!

Heehee. Today I had the last laugh on Mom and Dad. They went on a bye-sickle ride, like usual. And they knew that there was a pretty good chance that they'd get to see part of The Tour of Utah, a professional bike race that, well, if you can't tell from the name, goes through Utah.

What they didn't know was that as soon as they left for their ride, I was picked up by the Tour organizers (knowing Lance Armstrong comes in very handy - I've now got All Sorts of Pro Cycling connections), and got to start the race and ride in the lead car for the entire race.

Anyway, Mom and Dad stopped along their ride to watch part of the beginning of the race. (The race started on Main Street, and then the riders leave Park City for a whole bunch of mountains, and end up climbing up to Snowbird Ski Resort. 96 miles, and something like 10,000 feet in climbing!).

Here's Dad waiting to watch the racers come by.

Imagine Mom and Dad's surprise when they saw this (you have to click on it to biggify it to be able to see anything... Mom only had her phone with her):

The racers were still in the neutral zone (they do a rolling start, so they follow the referee's car for a while until I wave the flag and zoom away from them so they can start racing) at this point.

It was really Quite Cool! (And equally cool was the helicopter ride I got back home from Snowbird. Alas, I didn't get a picture of that, because we didn't have another helicopter flying beside us to take pictures of me...)

And to cap off the day? When it finally cooled down (it was REALLY HOT today - it was 90 in Park City, and 101 in Salt Lake) a bit, Mom took me on a walk.

C'mon MOM. Let's go!!!

'STOP'? Surely they don't mean ME?!? *ahem.

Very cool day, today.

Oh, and if you want to see a picture of Boring Snobby Cindy, you can see how boring and snobby she was - totally running the other direction. What a boring snob.
*ahem.

*kissey face*
-Fiona, Cycling Referee Extraordinaire

A stop before heading back home

Petey is a bright guy. Not that I'm telling you anything you don't already know, but I'm going to reiterate it for effect. In his inestimable wisdom, he suggested that before AirFiona makes the trip back to the Colonies, I might see about hitching a ride in the Tour de France.

Originally, I had planned on going to the Tour to help Lance Armstrong with the extra bacon grease that I had left over from the British Open, but apparently the International Cycling Union has some Pretty Strict Rules - about pretty much everything, it turns out. And bacon grease is high on the list of no-no's. Right after amphetamines, it turns out.

So, I was about to give up on the Tour, even though I knew that Mom and Dad would be watching every second of the teevee coverage to see me. And then, Petey gave me the brilliant idea of a bicycle basket!!! I just needed to find a rider who would be interested in a little extra ballast for the downhills.

I put in a bunch of phone calls, and called in a few debts, and was finally put in touch with Johan Bruyneel, who thought that Lance Armstong, who is such a good descender, wouldn't mind a little extra weight on the downhills. The downside, of course, was that he was going to have to haul me up the hills, but after doing some advanced math and applying some slightly questionable laws of physics, we all decided that I would be more of an advantage on the downhills than I would be a disadvantage on the uphills.

So!!!! I had The Basket Lady overnight me a bicycle basket, and the team Astana techs got it all set up on Lance's bike. It looks a little unwieldy, but it's really WAY more aerodynamic than it looks. Besides, with my very aerodynamic schnozz, I am able to help create a super-aerodynamic position for descending big hills.

And boy was it AWESOME!!!! I got to ride with Lance. And give him directions. And talk strategy. And help him finish his lunch! This was So Cool that I think I might stay in Europe a little bit longer!!!!



That said, I'm a little worried that I might have jinxed Tom Watson, so I think I'll give Lance a break tomorrow, and see if I can just ride along in a team car. Or work with the commentators...

*kissey face*
-Fiona, the almost-in-the-yellow-jersey-Goldendoodle