7 Eleven celebrated at the Grand Hyatt Sunday night after the end of the race in Denver. The dinner was to benefit the Davis Phinney Foundation for Parkinsons’ research.
It was a great reunion and lots of old familiar faces were on hand including Jeff Pierce, Ron Kiefel, Doug Shapiro, Chris Carmichael, Tom Craven, Eric Heiden, Jim Ochowicz, Mike Neel, Muriel Sharp, Susan Ehlers, Danny Van Haute, Steve Bauer, Bob Roll and of course Davis Phinney and former Southland Corporation exec Sean Petty. Current BMC riders Cadel Evans, Tejay Van Garderen, George Hincapie and of course the day’s stage winner Taylor Phinney were also there.
George auctioned off his last BMC jersey from Sunday’s time trial to benefit Davis’ foundation. There was a bidding competition between Chris Carmichael and Ron Kiefel/Wheat Ridge Cyclery. I think Chris was relieved when after a nod from Eugene Kiefel, Ron offered $7500 for the jersey. Even Bob Roll commented that he didn’t know Carmichael had that kind of money!
Then all the former 7eleven teammates and staff sat on couches on the stage where they reminisced and told some fun stories. Like leaving Sean Petty on the side of the road in Europe and forgetting to go back to get him. He was the sponsor for Southland and had to walk 15k!
