George Hincapie waiting for the race to start.Photo by Mark VandenBerghe.
Lap 1 - first up Fillmore hill is Jelly Belly's Kirk Albers (#81). Nine guys are in the lead group, about 20 seconds in front. US Postal has Kenny Labbe (#9) and Lombardi Sports' Colby Farrell (#122) are also in this first group. Also included are Saturn's Eric Wohlberg (#30), Harm Jansen (#24) and Trent Klasna (#25). Mercury has Mike Sayers (#15) and Gord Fraser (#12). Corona/Mastercard has S. Camil (#61, Mexico).
Lap 1 - Tim Noakes (Webcor/Alto Velo) finishing off the climb, ahread of the pack. Tim started the day off with the first attack. One of his teammates is N. Peter Armitage.
Lap 1 - the Pack finish the Fillmore climb. This sequence really shows how steep the final block of the climb is - about 20% at this point; the steepest of any race anywhere.
Saturn in the lead, lap 3. This looks like Trent Klasna.
Lance Armstrong - US Postal, has won the three previous Tours de France! Lance is now just 2 minutes behind the leaders (and he closed that gap fast on next two laps).
Kenny Labbe - US Postal, lap 3. This was Kenny's final lap after he was in the lap 1 lead group. Kenny is a letter carrier and a Cat. 1 from Chicago.
Note the Mavic support crew wheels just ahead of him. At this point he is exactly 2'41" behind the lead group.
Saturn still in the lead, lap 4, Trent Klasna again with Mike Sayers close behind.
Ekimov (Us Postal, #3), lap 4, leading Walters (Canada, Navigators) and John Kelly (Webcor/Alto Velo).
(John Kelly was the first non-pro to finish this race, he came in 18th overall)
This little chase group is just 8 seconds ahead of Hincapie and Armstrong.
Lance would join Eki on the next lap of course.
Lance Armstrong chasing (in the middle), lap 4, with George Hincapie at the left. Lance and Eki are about ready to install Hincapie into the lead group.
However the chase with Lance and George is still 2'20" behind the lead
group on this 4th lap.
Mercury in the lead, lap 5, Mike Sayers is King of the Mountain this time!
Dylan Casey (US Postal), lap 5, this is a local race to Dylan (from Mountain View, Calif.)
Tyler Hamilton (US Postal), on lap 6. Tyler is leaving USPS for Team CSC-Tiscali in 2002.
Klasna powering to the top! 
Lance Armstrong going to the top 
Lombardi Sports racer (local San Francisco Cat. 1 team) to the top. Is this Mike Taylor?
Trent Klasna and George Hincapie cresting on lap 7. These two guys had it all today.
Armstrong and Ekimov form an elite chase group with a Navigator and Saturns. Lance would eventually drop out after lap 8 while Ekimov went on to secure 6th place.
Tim Johnson (#26, Saturn), next to Eki, is a former USA Cyclocross Champ.
Armstrong and Ekimov with Davidenko (Navigators) and Mark McCormack (Saturn) coming off of the climb heading down Broadway.
The 6 Leaders climbing, lap 8. The grade is 20% here! (more than double
L'Alpe d'Huez)
Lance Armstrong, lap 8. Mark McCormack is right behind him; Mark won yesterday's race in San Rafael.
These two are 1'40" behind the leaders at this point.
Climbing Fillmore, The strong guys, like Lance, go straight up, other zig-zag ("paper-boy" it up).
This is 20 seconds after the previous picture of Lance and Mark. 20 seconds to go 50 meters!
Climbing/Zig-zagging Fillmore (large image), several have exploded here. What an awesome stretch. These guys are exactly 5 minutes back from the leaders now.
