Tour of California - spoilers allowed

[jobob]

Sorry I haven't posted!

Yes, Leebob & I rode up Sierra Road. I haven't ridden up there in quite a while (since well before my crash 2 years ago), and my oh my it showed. I lost track of how many times I stopped to catch my breath. We finally made it about 2/3 of the way up, to a part of the road that has a good view of the road below (we were right near the Belgian flags, you may have noticed them on the Versus telecast.)

Competitors who made it up in the early groups had started riding back down even before the (very large!) autobus made its way up. Most (not all) of the spectators waited until the broom wagon passed to start back down.

It was a creepy descent down Sierra Road. There were a lot of pedestrians walking down and timid cyclists tentatively descending, and the pedestrians in particular weren't very good at staying over to the right. We'd often get stuck behind them, but it was difficult to pass them because there were many corners with limited visibility, and there were plenty of cars already heading up the road.

And to top it off, there were lots of competitors bombing back down Sierra Road to get to their team buses parked at the bottom. On one hand, it was cool to see famous pros riding right next to me, but on the other hand, there were moments I'd be stuck behind some slow rollers spread out over the road, and due to the limited visibility both in front and behind me, I'd be reluctant or unable to to pull around and pass them. All I could think of was that I didn't want to be the one to take out Jens or Thor or Levi or Andy!!! (or anyone else of course)

Next day (Thursday) we headed down to Solvang. Paso Robles was along the way, we figured if we timed it right we'd stop there to see the finish. I had noticed on the course map that much of the route paralleled or crossed Highway 101. Our timing was superb. We stopped for lunch at a great little cafe at the outskirts of King City and finished our lunch right before the peleton came by. And then, we got back onto 101 and, thanks to some road work going on at the time, we were delayed enough so that we were able to see the peleton go underneath us at three of the four overpasses we drove over. There is no way we could have planned that. We continued on and rolled into Paso Robles well before the race arrived.

More later. I took lots of photos; I haven't had a chance to go through them yet. I'll see if there are any worth posting.

[Veronica]

You're so lucky Jo! I couldn't take any time off this year to go to the race. Stupid Open House at school.

Veronica

[ny biker]

Hahahahaha. Posted on twitter by Radio Shack's Ben King, with the caption "First stop."

http://twitpic.com/51aaet

The top five finishers were all from the US. Horner, Levi, Tommy Danielson, CVV, Tejay Van Garderen.

[jobob]

Here are some of my photos from Sierra Road:



One of the many places I needed to stop on the climb up Sierra Road to catch my breath. That's Leebob patiently waiting for me.



Killing time before the race arrived. It was a fun crowd up there.



There were many reminders of Wouter Weylandt, whose funeral was in Belgium earlier that day.



Chris Horner was well in the lead by the time he reached our location, and was looking super strong.


I missed getting a photo of Levi and Ryder, rats.



This was the second group after Horner: Andy Schleck, Tejay Van Garderen, Tom Danielson, and Rory Sutherland.



The next group back: Christian Vande Velde, Laurens Ten Dam, Linus Gerdemann.



Oscar Freire.



The cattle were fascinated.



The early finishers started to make their way back down Sierra Road ...



... well before the final group made their way up.



Notable riders in the autobus included world champion Thor Hushovd, Lars Boom, and Paris-Roubaix winner Johan Van Summeren. It was a hard day.


I didn't manage to get a photo of Jens, I was too busy cheering for him as he rode by. Darn.