Road Bike Racing - Tour of California- Stage 1- Feb. 20, 2006 (Place all Spoilers here!)

Stage One: Monday, Feb. 20
With the start on the Marin side of the San Francisco Bay, Stage One will cover roughly 84 miles from Sausalito to Santa Rosa. On its way up Highway 1, the course will run through the Marin Headlands, flanked on both sides by national parkland, before leaving the Point Reyes National Seashore for the race’s first sprint competition line in Point Reyes. After crossing into Sonoma, spectators can watch the race for the stage win unfold as the field completes three laps of a technical finishing circuit in downtown Santa Rosa.

http://www.amgentourofcalifornia.com/docroot/images/stage1_profile.gif

United Pro Cycling is off to a nice start. Haedo took the sprint finish in stage 1, Levi keeps the yellow, or gold or whatever the leaders jersey is.

Loads of fun sweeping my street corner and answering questions. mostly when are they getting here? Answer: wait til you see the helicopters then wait 10-15 minutes. Great spectacle multiple squads of CHP and local motor cops, then the yellow Mavic support car motor bikes, officials, team vheicles, one bike with the passenger standing with his camera as they went thru 3 quick turns and the peloton. A lady who was not paying attention thought 4 men in the same jerseys and a hanger-on were a breakaway. She did not understand that likely a team captain was in trouble and 3 mates were pulling him along with another teams rider with them. My wife and several others did not like my cackling glee as the tow trucks pulled parked cars off of the course. We marshalls had knocked on every door in three blocks; no drivers. As the city officer assigned to that section explained: $ for the time wasted writing the ticket. $$ for the illegal parking (He noted that the no parking sign next to the car had been torn down), $ impound fees, $ towing fees, and as the tow operater noted they were in park $$$ potential damage to the transmission. Several people who walked by heading to the finish line came back because of the crowds blocking their view. Our corner had signs saying: LEVI 2006 and I (heart) men in SPANDEX.

My girlfriend and I staked out a pretty good spot on the barriers just past the finish line. At the second lap, a man and a woman come up behind us and ask if we could squeeze them in. We had been setting there for an hour to make sure we had a good spot. We weren't about to give it up for people who just showed up.

So, I told the guy (politely) that we had been waiting for a long time to secure the view. Besides, it's already crowded. He said that it was cool, but the woman scoffed as if she had just been affronted. Plan ahead next time.

Pretty impressive for Haedo to take the win in the first mass start day ever for the United Pro team-- apparently glommed onto another train and popped out the front at the finish.

I went to the other computer to watch the stage (Windows Media Center is a wonderful thing), only to find that someone had turned the computer off last night. :eek: :( :mad: :crash: :crash: :crash:

Drastic measures will be taken to ensure this doesn't happen again!

The results just after the race had Hincapie listed as 4th or 5th for the stage.. did he really try to win the sprint?

The results just after the race had Hincapie listed as 4th or 5th for the stage.. did he really try to win the sprint?

That's what the local race announcer was saying as they were in the circuit. I think a second place finish would have given him a 6 second time bonus and the leader's jersey. First would have been 10 seconds and third only 4 seconds.

specialized put an angel at the top of the climb...and here is Levi with his boys controlling the pace of the race at the muir overlook.

Bah - ESPN2's coverage started 10 minutes late due to a College Basketball game s I missed the last 750m or so because my TiVo cut it off. I've added padding to the recording to remedy this, but does anyone know where I can find a video of the finish?

You really didn't miss much, it was a sort of uphill finish from a static camera, and you really didn't see who was leading until Haedo raised his arms...both Paul and Bob were pretty flabbergasted that he (of all people) won, since it seemed that T-Mobile had a strong leadout.

ie: not a Tour de France sprint finish with Hamilton hooking O'Grady with his head.

ps...it was Gonzaga, and (shiver) I'll watch Adam Morrison over a slow group start this late in the season.

/NCAA B-Ball kicks ass.

specialized put an angel at the top of the climb...and here is Levi with his boys controlling the pace of the race at the muir overlook.

Ha! I saw that in the background and was wondering who was nutty enough in the US to show up in costume to a bike race! If this was an Alpine stage of the TdF, I'd almost expect it.