I know there are some cycling fans here. Went out to watch the Tour of California go by today. Pretty cool. Break-away of 5 riders a couple minutes out front. Then Garmin leading the Peloton with Radio Shack directly behind. Saw Lance go by no more than 2 feet from me. Probably a 10% grade right here.

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Very cool.

It's good the organizers changed the race date from the February starts they were doing. Looks like much better weather now. I think it was last year that they went across the Golden Gate Bridge in a pouring rainstorm.

Paul

rained in woodside as they went thru, terrible traffic jam all thru town, huge back up. real mess. they need to plan it better, then another dealy as a biker wiped out on kings mtn road, creating a further traffic jam. hard to get to the top that evening. they need to plan this later in the year in better weather for sure, and get better routing and parking. lots of traffic!!!!

I wasn't thinking and took highway 49 back from WCR. Luckily I went through about an hour before the cyclists, however it was still slow going.

Boy am I glad I didn't leave an hour later!

I was thinking on the way back from WCR and went downtown Sac and watched them come into the downtown loop and finish. The big crash at the end was just a hundred feet or so from me. They create quite a wind as they go by at speed.

Since it is a relatively new bike race they are limited as to when they can stage it if they want any big name to participate. If the date is too close to a bigger more established race the big names/teams won't come.

Jim

I'm surprised they rescheduled it to when they did, as the Giro d'italia is happening simultaneously. Who would have thought the day would come in the US when I can catch live TV coverage of a grand tour (Giro d'italia) in the morning, and then watch live streaming video of the biggest race in the US (Tour of California) in the afternoon.

I still remember the 1980's when we were lucky enough to see one race per year on TV - The Tour de France, narrated by John Tesh with his cheesy synthesizer music and about 10 minutes of actual race coverage squeezed into what was edited more like a mini-drama than an actual sporting event.

I left WCR a little early to catch the race. They came right down our street. I parked my truck at the corner in the early morning and walked back later. Best seat in the house! Picture of Lance and me. I'm also clearly shown on Versus with the motorcycle cams on stage 1 at this turn. Cool stuff.

It's like a basketball game. You get a better view on TV but hard to beat the excitement and cheering.

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U Guys are Lucky! Versus cut off the race yesterday to show ice hockey, at 1k to the finish, and today the race went overtime by 3 minutes, and the show recording stopped at 3k.
Here's to Versus

Kinda bummed they didn't come through Paso Robles this year. We went to the time trials in Solvang, which is a much better spectator event. The date change was a good move. The weather in past years was not the best.
Cheers, Elliot

We went downtown on Sunday to watch the race finish in Sacramento. We were just down from the crash on the last lap. There is nothing like the peleton going by at full speed. I have seen it each year it has been here. The whole event is a blast.

They moved it to May to get the opportunity to have some mountain stages. It should make the race even more exciting.

That explains why my favorite windy road between home & work has been so clogged with cyclists the last couple of days. Everyone's all hyped up and training for next year.

I saw the race on Grant Line road on Sunday on the way home from WCR. Nolan, my 5 year old son, and I walked up Sierra Road in San Jose on Wednesday to catch some action.

This was the break away group that was ahaed as much as 4 minutes 20 seconds only to run out of gas one by one until all were swallowed up within the last 5 miles.
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I agree that moving the dates for better weather was a good idea... but during the Giro? Granted, cyclists have to pick and choose their races... they can't do them all...

Well, I take that back. I can make sense of it. The big gaps in the schedule are June and August. Those are recovery months between the Grand Tours, before the Tour de France and the Vuelta a Espana. If the Tour of California was in June, then those guys would not be able to ride in Le Tour. August would be too soon after Le Tour. So, given the constraints, I guess it makes sense.

I just wish the local posers wouldn't wear the butt floss so much...

Great shots guys and nice weather! Santa Rosa was the finish for stage 2, so I drove two minutes to downtown and took a few shots, though I arrive about two min after the main group came by. It was raining hard and the guys looked exhausted. These were taken just a few blocks from the finish -