Belated Amgen Tour of California Report

Yes I know it's late but as they say better late than never...

A few weeks ago I went out to the Amgen Tour of California. This is the biggest stage race in the United States and it was great to see some of the cyclists that I have seen participate in the Grand Tours on television up close and personal.

Saturday, February 14 - Loaded up the family truckster and began the drive to California. The initial plan was to get to about an hour within Arizona and call it a night. But once we got to about an hour away from our hotel, I knew I still had a few more hours of driving in me, so we canceled our reservation and pushed on. Tucson, check, Phoenix, still feeling good, but should have checked the map, as after Phoenix there is nothing for about another 150 miles. Well there is nothing to do now but push-on unless we wanted to sleep in the car in the middle of the desert in Arizona. Um, no. So finally arrived in Blythe, CA at midnight Pacific time. Nothing like 17 hours of driving to get your trip started.

Sunday, February 15 - Woke up pretty early and luckily only had about 3 hours of driving to Rancho Cucamonga, where we were staying with family. Basically did nothing all day but lay around, and nap, and eat (including my first experience with In-N-Out burgers, and that was so amazing it will get its own post), and nap some more.

Monday, February 16 - This was supposed to be a pretty easy travel day of about 5 hours from Rancho Cucamonga to Ripon. The optimal word is "supposed" to be. Unbeknownst to me at the time there is really only one major way to get from southern California to Northern California inland and it is through the Grapevine. Well California was having terrible weather and the Grapevine (a twisty, mountainous section of Interstate 5) was closed because of snow and ice, so we had to detour and take a secondary route that was also experiencing weather and our 5 hour trip turned into about 8.5 hours. Luckily we made it through safely, and had a great dinner waiting for us at my Aunt's.

Tuesday, February 17 - This was our first day to pick up the tour, and the weather was still vile. Temperatures were in the upper 40s and it was raining cats and dogs. We arrived at the Stage 3 finish line in Modesto about 2.5 hours before the boys came in and after walking around at the finish line festival for awhile we decided to get out of the elements and watch some of the coverage on Versus. After about 30 minutes of this we headed back out and luckily the rain had tapered off. It was amazing that even with slick streets the riders still came barreling into town at such high speeds. After the finish it was another 2 hour drive to Fresno. After a few beers and some pizza it was time to turn in for the evening.

Wednesday, February 18 - The Stage 4 finish was in Clovis which is only about 15 minutes from Fresno so we were able to sleep in a bit. Also the weather had changed and the sun was shining and it was beautiful. Now this is what California was supposed to be like. Clovis really did it up right and they had a huge turn out. After walking around for an hour or so we posted up by one of the video boards about 300 meters from the finish line. It was here that I bumped into my friend Kevin, who I met last year at Pro Night at the Driveway Crit. He was driving the team bus for Toyota-United at the Driveway and was driving for Team Garmin-Slipstream for the AToC. He is such a great guy and it was great to see him again. So we posted up and watched the board until the riders came flying into town. Mark Cavendish of Team Columbia Highroad won the stage and clocked in at over 42 MPH in the finishing stretch.

Thursday, February 19 - Woke up pretty early in the morning and began the drive to Paso Robles which was the Stage 5 finishing city. After about 2 boring hours of driving we pulled into Paso and it was a really cool little town. Very nice people, beautiful weather once again, etc. Was able to post up at about 200 meters from the finish in front of a video board. Once again it is amazing to me the speeds these guys reach as they come into town sprinting to the finish. Cavendish won again. After Paso it was back in the car for about another 2 hour drive to Los Alamos (right outside of Solvang). In Los Alamos we found an awesome little dive bar right by our hotel. Had a few drinks, had the locals buying us drinks, buying locals drinks, it was just a great time. The hotel itself was a bit sketchy but whatever.

Friday, February 20 - Solvang. This was Stage 6 and it was a 15 mile time trial around the city. Solvang is an amazing little hamlet in the middle of California. It looks like someone took a piece Holland and uprooted it and place it in Cali. This was by far the most fun as since it was a time trial the start and finish lines were within a block of each other. Plus we were able to see the guys warming up on their trainers, walk out on the course to see the first turn, walk to the start house to see them leave, and then head over to finish to see them come in. Just amazing. Plus Solvang is such a cycling crazy city it seemed that everyone was a cyclist. After the time trials ended it was back on the road, and unfortunately time to sit in some traffic in L.A. Nothing like L.A. on a Friday, during rush hour. Oh well the day was amazing what is a little traffic.

Saturday, February 21 and Sunday, February 22 - On the road again back on the road to Texas.

All in all it was an amazing trip seeing some amazing cycling. Congrats to Levi for winning especially now that news come out he had a fracture at the time.

If you are interested in seeing my pics from the trip they are uploaded here.

Eventually I hope to get off my duff and make a movie of the footage I shot, but until then...

Enjoy the ride.

More Cycling Related Thefts

While the Web-based cycling community was all a-Twitter over the recent theft and return of Lance Armstrong's time trial bike, another cyclist has suffered a bigger loss of personal property, but did not discover it until he returned from the recent Amgen Tour of California.

Salt Lake City Police have issued an appeal for the public's help in recovering items stolen in a burglary at the home of Garmin-Slipstream’s David Zabriskie.

According to police, the break-in occurred while Zabriskie was in California for the recent Amgen Tour.

Three in a row for Levi

Astana’s Levi Leipheimer collected his third consecutive victory at the Amgen Tour of California on Sunday as Saxo Bank’s Fränk Schleck won the eighth and final stage, a 97-mile leg from Rancho Bernardo to Escondido.

Thanks for returning my bike.

Too hot to handle? Armstrong's TT bike reportedly recovered

Sacramento police reported recovering Lance Armstrong’s stolen time trial bike on Wednesday.

The custom Trek 1274/27.5 TTX vanished from a Team Astana truck parked outside a hotel after the Amgen Tour of California prologue, along with three road bikes belonging to Janez Brajkovic, Steve Morabito and Yaroslav Popovych.

Brajkovic's bike was found Tuesday at the hotel from which the other bikes had been stolen. Hotel employees told police that the bike had been in storage and there had been "a miscommunication between the rider and the hotel."

On Wednesday, a local resident who police said wishes to remain anonymous brought Armstrong’s bike to police headquarters. The department released a statement saying that "the facts surrounding how the person came into possession of the bicycle are not being released at this time due to an ongoing investigation."

"The bicycle is currently in the care of the police department and arrangements will be made to
return the bicycle to the owner."

That owner never had any doubts. Asked by VeloNews editor in chief Ben Delaney whether the theft bothered him, Armstrong replied: "Nah. Bikes are replaceable. I suspect that bike will come back. There’s no way you can steal a one-of-a-kind bike. And unless you keep it to yourself, or burn it, that bike comes back every time."

Forecasters say this year's Tour of California could be just as wet as last year's

Last year’s Tour of California was notable for its cool, rainy weather that combined with a nasty bug going through the peloton to produce a 41 percent attrition rate for the then-eight-day race.

This year, riders are hoping to avoid the infection. But there is little hope of escape from a longer, tougher, race and predicted cool, wet and windy weather.

Team OUCH's Tim Johnson, known for his ability to race cyclocross in brutal conditions, says he is preparing for the toughest race of his career.

"It's going to be friggin' brutal," Johnson told VeloNews Wednesday.

"It was already hard last year, and this year there's a harder course and a better field," he said. "And there could be epic conditions."

To read the whole story, click here .

I guess we all battle the same thing...

Minutes before the Astana cyclists began their 107-mile training ride in Santa Rosa, one of the world’s most famous athletes made what seemed an off-hand remark.

Standing by his bike in front of the Santa Rosa Hyatt, Lance Armstrong was asked his plans for this ride, part of a 10-day training session leading up to the eight-day Tour of California, which will blast into the city on Feb.15. The King Ridge route had been selected by teammate and Santa Rosa resident Levi Leipheimer for both its scenery and difficulty.

“Just follow Levi,” Armstrong said.

Was he nervous?

For more of the story click here.