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If you don’t like seeing pictures of athletes or people wearing spandex today’s post might not be for you, ha!  Over the weekend Chris biked in his first century race (100 miles) to help raise money to find a cure for MS.  While he peddled his heart out I follow him and the rest of the Google team around snapping pictures. The route was beautiful and I wish I would have taken more pictures of the scenery but I was too focused on looking for Google team jerseys (a very difficult task when there were hundreds of bikers). Today’s post is a long one but I wanted to document the event and give all of you an idea of what the day was like!   If you want to see more pictures look up #waves2wine or @umichkuz on Instagram.

Team Google, happy to be off their bikes!

I dropped Chris off at the starting line in San Francisco at 6am.  He was ready to roll!

I waited on the Golden Gate Bridge for the bikers to come across.  For some reason I thought they would be riding on the road but they were on the bike lane on the far side of the bridge.  It was a very chilly 40 minutes before the first bikers started to come across.  As I waited I was able to see a few freighters go under the bridge.

Here they come…

There is Chris!

After he hit the first rest stop the course went uphill through the redwoods and over to the ocean.  It was a beautiful drive, I can’t imagine what it would have been like on the bike.  The other drivers were acting like wild animals, honking and flipping off the bikers which was ridiculous.  I decided to drive really slow behind big packs of riders so that no one could pass me giving them a little more protection.

I couldn’t catch up with Chris for about 2 hours.  I wasn’t sure if he was ahead of me or behind me and my cell phone didn’t have any service so I couldn’t get text updates from him.  I decided to go up ahead of where he could have been based on mileage and timing and pull over to wait.  As I waited I experimented with the settings on my camera and snapped pictures of a lot of strangers. Maybe next year I can be official press, ha!

Finally Chris showed up!  He rode alone for most of the race which must have been lonely.  Maybe next year more of his friends will sign up.

There he goes…

These Googlers were riding about 15 minutes ahead of Chris so I was able to snap lots of pictures of them.

The race was SO well organized and well marked.  The volunteers set up rest stops and passed out snacks and drinks to the riders.  Most of the stops had music, kind of like a little party.  Actually, the entire day seemed like a party for the riders which was cool.

The road sign in this picture sum up a lot of the ride.  Lots of hills and climbs.

Here comes Chris again!  This is the last stop that I saw him at until the finish.  The course was pretty hilly after this so I decided to take a break from stalking the riders and go into Petaluma to grab lunch and take a little walk.

I had the best lunch at the Wild Goat Bistro and wandered through this huge antique store…

After my little adventure to Petaluma I found my way back to the bike course and decided to settle in at the finish line.  Chris sent me a text to let me know he was about 20 miles away (about an hour and a half) so I sat and cheered on the riders and took pictures of Googlers and anyone else that seemed entertaining.  I love this guy with the Cal jersey on…

More happy riders…

Call me maybe?

Googlers…

Here is Chris!

After the finish line there was a huge bike village set up with tents, food, beer, and entertainment. The Google tent wasn’t that wild, probably because they were all exhausted.

There were portable showers for the riders to get cleaned up in.  I’ve never seen anything like them!

Talk about a parking lot!  Again, this event was SO well organized and the volunteers were great.

Google team picture!  Together this group raised over $45,000 to help find a cure for MS.  Amazing!  Chris was able to raise $800 and Google matched all of the donations so his total was $1,600.

After the team picture we drove into Napa to relax at the Candlelight Inn.   On Sunday we hung out in Napa and Sonoma, a stop at Mumm was a must.

The fog rolled in and we could barely see the Golden Gate on the way home.  Traffic was moving really slow which made me really nervous.  At one point you could hear the horn of a freighter and I thought it was going to hit the bridge.

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