Yesterday we were suprised with getting to see one of the most important stages of the Tour of California. The Time Trial. (For those of you who do not know of the Tour de France and the like, I feel sorry for, your missing out). 

At Salvang (where it was held) the road fan watchers reached a million people who had watched the tour thus far, and even though there was quite a few less than on other stages of the tour, it was still crawling with people. 

As the first bikers took off, we were standing to see them come round the first corner and so to get some good pictures and to have them go by us slowly (slower than the rest of the stage that is. They were still speeding by us). to see them well. 

When the first ten riders went by, we moved to within fifty meters of the finish line where some friends of ours were staking out. The first ones came just shortly after we got there so we were happy to have moved when we did. 

In the first group of no name riders came a man named Zirbel who was first out of the other twenty somthing riders that had gone by with a time around 30:35.98. He was not beat out until Jason McCartney came along with a time of 30:30.57 (or somthing like that). We didn't thing any one could break the 30 minute barrier after the big names like Ivan Baso, George Hincampie, and Pallo Batinne came along with times around 31 minutes. Little did we know.

At about 1:15 Vens Voigt took off from the starting line to try to come into the yellow jersey. Just three seconds off of Levi Liephhimer we all hoped he might be able to pull it off and be able to win the tour. When he came through to the finish line he was at the time of around 29:58.74 or so making him the first one to break thirty minutes. We were all excited that he was the first to do it and maybe the last to do it. But then came Levi.

Levi came just a minute and a half after Vens had finished putting him, when he rounded the final corner, with the fastest time. He sped down the race way and finished with a time of 29:49.43, making him the winner of the Stage and propably getting the yellow jersey for keeps this time.

The day was finished with an interview with the jersey winners, and awards for the first, second, and third place riders of the day. The day was done and we were all glad that we got to see the fifth stage of the Tour of California.