Here comes the tour (of California) — Davis is going big —

Very excited that the Tour of California is starting in Davis this year (for Stage 1 on Sunday). It should be a good stage — from Davis to Santa Rosa.

And there are many many big names in the tour this year – even more than last year. In particular of course is Lance Armstrong. I have been a big fan of Lance for many many years — since I encountered him in Palo Alto when I was a grad. student. He had just won the World Championship and was in town to sing autographs and hang out at Wheelsmith, the best bike shop in the area. I was just getting into cycling and was going to Wheelsmith for some other reason and there was Lance. I got him to sign a few things and then thought, what would be coolest would be if he signed my favorite T-shirt (which I am wearing in the picture here). And he made my day by saying “Cool shirt” and asking where I got it.

Anyway — it is going to be a big big day in Davis tomorrow with Lance Armstrong, and a whole gaggle of big time cyclists here in the best biking town in the country.

And here are some links related to the race …

• Lance’s Twitter RSS feed (pretty entertaining stuff)
• Livestrong
• City of Davis information about the tour
• Davis Bike Club
• Bicycle Friendly Community – Davis

Author: Jonathan Eisen

I am an evolutionary biologist and a Professor at U. C. Davis. (see my lab site here). My research focuses on the origin of novelty (how new processes and functions originate). To study this I focus on sequencing and analyzing genomes of organisms, especially microbes and using phylogenomic analysis View all posts by Jonathan Eisen