nerd alert!

Went to the 7th and final stage of the amgen tour of california today, and nerded the eff out. Got myself

• several "let levi ride" shirts from greg johnson
• a VIP pass to catch the final sprint which hincapie won, also from greg johson
• a rock racing umbrella (only people selling one, and it was raining cats and freaking dogs. i really dont care for their tendencies toward drama)
• A slipstream beanie
• a slipstream shirt
• a highroad shirt
• a highroad team poster
• various samples and knickknack type swag

but thats only where the nerding began my friends. Got a little inside info that team slipstream (faves of mine, second only to maybe highroad) would be at chipotle afterwards. Went their and lost it. Some dude said i had sweet tats. Christian Van de Velde told me to say hi to "toughguy" (johny bairos). Took a picture with David Millar. Got a sweet glossy photo-paper poster of the team signed by everyone who rode in the ATOC (minus dave zabriskie).

then the real nerding began.

Johnathan Vaughters, who as far as im concerned is the freaking man and is totally doing all the pulling when it comes to cleaning up the sport of cycling, was sitting at a seperate booth and i looked over at him and made a pantomime of a signature at him. He pointed over where the talent was sitting and i just kept looking at him. A couple of seconds later he said "oh you want MY signature" and i said "oh yeah" to which he replied "well i dont have a pen, go get a pen" so i went over, bother the talent for a a pen and went back, having him sign the poster. So i then ask "can i get a photo with you?" he said "sure, come on around." I went all the way around the back not wanting to disrupt the table and took a pic with him. I asked him if they would be at the redlands bicycle classic to which he told me they would but it would be the u-23 squad. I couldn't resist and said if he needed a haircut or anybody, i would set 'em up" One of the riders took interest and so did vaughters, so i gave them both cards. The one dude asked if id give him a discount, i told him we'd work something out. Then Vaughters goes, "here". Hands me one of his cards. It reminded me of the scene in American Psycho where everybody is freaking out over Jared Leto's card.

"It was perfect....raised lettering, tastefully textured....Is that a f*@$king watermark?"