The 2012 Tour of Elk Grove - Photos 1, Time Trials

The start and finish line with Tour of Elk Grove banner and international flags at Audubon Park on Elk Grove Blvd. This was taken in Friday afternoon before most people arrived at the event.

One of the large screen monitors at the TOEG. The image on the screen is the starting block since this was time trial day.

There were plenty of nice looking spare bikes on hand here. This type of scene was not at all uncommon at various locations. The larger teams have their own spares but the event organizers provide spare bikes, wheels, etc. (at the neutral support stations) for the smaller teams to even the playing field a little.

The time trail count down at the TOEG starting block. The time trials were not quite as exciting as the races (imo) but it was actually interesting to see how this worked and to be involved in the event from the very beginning.

This was during the women's time trails on Friday afternoon. I was fortunate to be able to be here on Friday afternoon but there were not nearly as many people here on Friday as there were on the weekend, of course.

Scenes from the men's time trials a little further east on Elk Grove Blvd.

The nice thing about watching the time trials is that there are cyclists flying by every few minutes. I actually had a conversation with a friend later about this and when we compared being a spectator at the TOEG compared to the Tour de France you get a big advantage with this type of event since there are multiple races and time trials and the track is a closed loop and in a smaller area. With this type of event you can see the races and time trials throughout the day rather than waiting most of the day for the cyclists to pass by one time and your done (as with the stages of the TDF).

Bikes everywhere! Here's another stack of bikes at one of the neutral support stations. I talked with a guy from New Zealand that explained to me how the neutral stations provide support for individuals that do not have large team support in order to keep the race fair.