Stage 8 of Vuelta Mexico

After reading the sports section of a Mexican newspaper on Saturday, I discovered that the Tour of Mexico’s last stage was taking place in Mexico City Sunday morning. In addition, they were riding through Mexico City’s El Centro which is where most of Mexico City’s tourist attractions are located. Since I was planning to go to the city center on Monday afternoon, I figured I should just go Sunday morning and watch the event as well. Also, with stage 8 scheduled to last around 2 hours, I would have just enough time to make it to the start of the first World Baseball Classic game which was scheduled to start at noon.

The Event
My cab driver dropped me off at the Palacio Nacional and I walked the course as the cyclists would ride by every 10 minutes or so. Rather than a typical stage in which the cyclists ride from one city to the next, this stage was a circuit where the riders complete a pre-determined number of laps. Floyd Landis was racing in his second event after completing his two year doping ban. The last time I saw Floyd Landis race was in the 2006 Tour de France where he failed his famous drug test. The event was over in one hour and 36 minutes which gave me plenty of time to get to the World Baseball Classic.