Getting the Finish Line Ready

The finish line is ready for Saturday's US Open Championship.
Dad was in Richmond, Va., over the weekend for the inaugural US Open Cycling Championships. It was quite an event - with two-and-a-half hours of coverage on NBC Sports. Unfortunately, his Toyota-United team didn't pull off the win. But it was an epic day.

The riders awoke at 4 a.m. to find snow falling in Richmond. The conditions worsened as they drove the 50 or so miles east to the start in Williamsburg. That forced the officials to postpone the start for an hour. In the interim, the team went to a Starbucks and bundled up for the race that would start with temperatures in the high 20s and snow falling at the rate of half-an-inch an hour.

Dad drove the Toyota Tundra team truck as the third team car. Here are a few pictures he took with his camera phone:



There were three helicopters and one fixed-wing airplane following the race (once the y rode out of the snow). At the finishing circuit in Richmond, the sun was out and there was no snow on the ground. Still, it was chilly and there weren't more than a thousand spectators (when 70,000 were expected).