Amgen Tour of California

After watching the bicycle race around San Francisco in the years it occurred, and then witnessing the start of the Seaside stage of the 2007 Tour of California at very long range from the lounge, this year, having followed the race on TV all week, I decided to go see it in the flesh.

Today's stage left Seaside and went down Highway 1 (the Pacific Coast Highway) 135 miles to San Luis Obispo. I figured I could head just a few miles down PCH and watch the riders go past, then head back up home and carry on working - the plan worked out.

Being the photo geek that I am, I took my cameras with me too. Below is a long range shot of the pack, streamed out on a shallow down hill as they approach my location, a mile or so north of Bixby Bridge.


When the riders got to us, there were a couple of small breakaways trying to get away from the main peleton. The second of them contained the two guys below. The first guy is Dominique Rollin, who as part of a small breakaway, managed to get a couple of minutes lead on the main pack for most of the stage - later he managed to wear out the rest of the breakaway and pulled away to the stage win.

The second rider is Jackson Stewart, who led over the (relatively small) climbs during the day to get more King of the Mountains points, but faded and apparently retired later in the stage from hypothermia.


Hypothermia? in CA? Yes, it was a brutal day for the riders. I was standing at the side of the road with two fleeces and a wind breaker on and I was just OK - it was trying to rain (these guys basically got rained on for most of the 135 miles they rode) and there was a strong wind - directly at them.

Below, the main pack follows the breakaway up the small hill where I was watching from - the front of the pack headed by the Astana team whose leader, Levi Leipheimer is leading the race, so they have to get going to make sure that no-one in a breakway gets too far ahead to take away his overall lead. Levi is in that pack somewhere, sheltering from the wind and rain.


Finally, on the right you can see Dominique and Jackson round the next turn as the peleton round the turn next to where I was.


Even though you only get to see these guys for a few seconds as a spectator, it's still fun - they're just going so much quicker than you know you could. They managed a paltry 18 mph average for the 135 miles, which is really slow by pro standards, a testament to the rain and the vicious headwind they were riding in to all day.

I can manage a good 15 mph average on the flat with no wind - heading into a wind like they did today, I know I'd be down around 10 mph and only able to go for around 90 minutes max at that pace - these guys can ride!

Hitting the Slopes Again

I caught the snow bus from the Surf Shop again and got to go snowboarding for the day at Kirkwood. The weather was a little too warm, but the snow held up well and I had a fun time.

According to the GPS, I covered right around 40 miles going up and down the slopes. The GPS data is here.

This time, I also got the point and shoot camera out and put it into video mode and took a run down probably my favorite Kirkwood run, Elevator Shaft, which is a longer run on the backside of the mountain.

I normally top 30 mph on this run, but from the GPS data, it looks like I topped out at 27 mph with the camera in my hand - I guess I was wary of crashing with the camera out after all!

Note the deliberate pan to show my shadow at a couple of stages of the video - amazing I got myself in the frame as I certainly wasn't looking at the camera when I did it. Beginner's luck!



At the end of the video, you can see the mass of people waiting for the lift. The lines were a lot better than last time I was here, but still, I'd prefer no lines! Talking to different folks on the lifts, it sounds like during the week, there were no lines and on the weekends, when the "locals" such as myself come out, the lines appear.