stage 7

I spent Sunday afternoon walking around Crown Center (home of Hallmark), Penn Valley Park, Liberty Memorial and Washington Square Park taking pictures of the 7th and final stage of the 2009 Tour of Missouri. I was able to see a lot of my favorite riders and take lots of pictures. My favorite part of the afternoon might have been before the race even started.

No, not the LiquiGas girls.
It was seeing Paul Sherwen up close, visiting with the fans and posing for a few pictures.

Watching the riders ride up and down the avenue, warming up prior to the start of the race.

Here, George and a couple teammates from Columbia HTC have an impromptu team meeting.

The course was a little over 10 miles, and they did the loop 7 times. I walked down to where they would be at the end of each loop, which were taking about 25 minutes, and took some pictures with the Western Auto Building in the background.

I hooked around behind Union Station to the west side of Penn Valley Park and saw the race head toward the north end of downtown, Riverfront Park, Sprint Center, and the Power & Light District before heading back to Crown Center.

I then hiked up the hill into the park to wait for them to complete the loop and come through the park for the 3rd time. You can see the peloton in the foreground and Liberty Memorial and Union Station in the background.

I made my way back to the finish line with most of the other spectators. Unable to get close the barricade to have a shot at a good picture, I settled for ringing my cowbell and cheering the riders across the line.

Zabriske held on for the overall victory and made his way back to the podium. He pulled in to this area, thinking it led to the podium. When informed he still had a short way to go he looked right at me with a sheepish grin on his face before re-mounting his bike and heading off to his prize.