Last Thursday, February 19th, Paso Robles very proudly served as Stage 5 Finish for the Amgen Tour of California! It was an incredible event, and our little town of Paso was honored to host these remarkable athletes and their teams. Phillip stayed back at the winery to bottle our 07′s (see post below), but Bede and I joined friends in town for a brief, but exciting glimpse of the riders. We positioned ourselves at the corner of Charolais and South River Road. Sure enough, after about an hour of speculation, they came whizzing by….they were here…and they were gone…that quickly! This is the only photo I managed to capture, you can see Lance Armstrong positioned third from the front with a yellow & black helmet (double-click on the photo and it will enlarge).
On a more sobering note, the very day of the race, Phillip’s older sister, Penelope, was diagnosed with Phase III cancer. She has a long battle ahead of her, and our Hart family is burdened and extremely saddened about the news. As Bede and I were waiting for the race, the Lance Armstrong Foundation’s van painted in his colors, yellow and black, pulled aside to pass out bright yellow chalk to all the bystanders with instructions to write notes of encouragement, dedications, remembrances, etc. to those we know battling cancer. They wanted the streets covered in yellow chalk for all to see. So Bede and I dedicated the race to his Auntie Penny.