I almost totally forgot that we actually went over to Italy last weekend to see this race, maybe since the following two days were spent lashing around the Riviera on the motorcycle. So before the news gets too old, here it is…Milan San Remo!

The first thing I can say about this race, and probably anything not the Tour de France, is that it was relatively low key. No hour-long advertising caravan, no naked northern Europeans running about, and no Lance Armstrong. He was sick and didn’t show up, which could explain the subdued turnout.

Anyhow, we had pretty good access to the bus area as a result and here are a couple of pictures from there.

We were about 3 hours early, so we walked out on a jetty…

…had some gelatto despite the wintery weather…

…then took advantage of the generosity of the cell phone guy and watched the race unfold with an ever-growing crowd. Notice the cops. In the beginning they pretended to be oblivious to the action, but in short order were glued to the tube with the rest of us.

Then the helicopters came, with the riders not far behind.

Four back from the front is Tom Boonen, who came in 2nd in the sprint a few hundred meters up the road, and tucked in behind him someplace is the winner, Oscar Freire. Following are, well, the kind of pictures you end up with when you go to a bicycle race, I suppose.