Nevada City Classic bike race

On Sunday I took a half day break from work to see our local bike race, the 49th annual Nevada City Classic. I’ve been wanting to go for the last several years to take a few photos but never made it happen. This year Lance Armstrong and Astana teamates Levi Leipheimer and Chris Horner decided to race, .. that, I wanted to see. I feel a bit of kinship with Lance as he’s from Austin, TX, about 65 miles from Lampasas, where I grew up. It had been 20 years since Armstrong raced here and he finished 2nd then. The Nevada City Classic is the 2nd oldest bike race in the nation and one of the most challenging with 110 feet of vertical climb and drop over a 1.1 mile, 7 turn circuit, 35 laps total. Nevada City’s population of about 4,000 increased by 30,000 enthusiastic bike fans who came to watch the race. They weren’t disappointed as Lance poured it on the last few laps and beat 2nd place finisher Ben Jacques-Maynes by 20 seconds and won his first victory since his 3 1/2 year absence from the sport. His Astani teamate, and winner of the Tour of California the last 2 years, Levi Leipheimer finished third. Wow, those guys could really pour on the coals! Very exciting to watch the top cyclist in the world in person! Lots of camera were out that afternoon and I got a few shots of them, too. Here are a sampling of the photos I took.

101 cyclists in the pack on the first climb up the hill