Over the course of 8 years I've been cycling seriously, I've had the opportunity to cross paths with some pretty nifty cyclists. Now, as that I have absolutely no problem being an autograph or photo seeker, I have had an equal number of opportunities to capture those events. What we have here is a short recap.
So, a bunch of our photos came from the 2004 Tour de Georgia. It was a spectacular event, though logistically speaking it could've been a bit crowd friendlier. That climb up Brasstown Bald was epic - for riders and spectators! Anyway, We started by watching at the finish of stage five in Dahlonega. Sure enough, who do we see, but The Lion King himself, Mario Cipollini! Now it's not a secret that Super Mario is my favorite Pro, so we had an eye out for him. Still, it was pretty spectacular to see him in the USA. He is exiting his camper (yes, camper) and is walking away when I called out, "Mario! Por mi nene! Por mi nene!" He turns around and there is Matty, on my shoulders, right at his eye level. Mario signs his shirt, Ian captures it for all time via camera and, as Mario is walking away (I got a handshake, too), Matty calls out, "Ciao!" The entire crowd around Mario cracks up! Mario laughs too and says, "Ciao!" right back to him. Awesome experience.The next day is the incredible climb up Brasstown Bald. It is hot. There are NO stands or services with water. At all. Ian isn't with me, so it's me and my tyke. Matty doesn't want to walk up a mountain. He's 4 years old -- who can blame him? So, I'm carrying him on my shoulders to the top of the mountain. Honestly, I was getting weird out worried about the water.
Fortunately, at the top, there wasn't water, but there was this park station with bathrooms and I filled up our water bottles and we were good. After we got the water, we saw none other than OLN's Bob Roll! I'm a Bobke fan, so we had to get the photo! Anyway, they had been handing out fans that read, "I'm a Lance Fan." I can't think of a bigger Lance fan than Bobke, so I had him sign it. Ha!Now, in the recon of the mountaintop, I noticed the team vans all to one side. So, without asking anyone, I went walking with Matty and showing each van to him. Yeah, the signs said don't do that, but what are you going to do when you have a cool option like that? So, that's what I did.
We come upon the Navigators team van and there's this girl getting the team's gear and food ready. She starts talking to us and gives us both Navigator's caps! How cool is that! So, we tell her that we met Henk Vogels the previous year in Shelby. She tells us to come on back after the race and say hey to Henk again, so we did! Note the bear is wearing his TdG shirt, autographed by the entire Domina Vacanze team. Between that and his glasses, he can't be touched.As an interesting follow-up, I ran into Henk a third time, a couple years later. I was flying out of Charlotte for business and he was flying out from the previous day's Charlotte Invitational. He is nothing but a nice guy.
Finally, during the 2004 'cross season, Matty and I ran into Ryan Trebon in Burlington. Now, Ryan didn't want to take a photo 'cause he didn't want a fuss. I, being the pushy guy I can be, had him hold my son and told Ryan that he was riding like a superstar. FYI, Ryan is a two time National CX Champ. So, there.
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