diphthong

looks like all three stages have some decent climbing. glad they're making it back to san diego.


Tour of California 2016: Stage 1 Preview | Cyclingnews.com

Tour of California 2016: Stage 2 Preview | Cyclingnews.com

Tour of California 2016: Stage 3 Preview | Cyclingnews.com

calamarichris

Hot diggity! Definitely going to take some time off work for this!
Thanks for posting those, will get them up on the SoCal Events Calendar pronto.

diphthong

usually have m/tu off so looking to make a little la/santa barbara "weekend" of it on that 16th/17th along with catching an early part of the san diego
stage one action before work. stage 3 is intriguing. dunno if i'd rather catch em early at the mulholland/23 junction or somewhere along gibraltar.
casitas pass could be underrated. not especially hard (they'll be zipping by vs laboring) but a possible launching pad/attack spot for an enterprising
rider or two.

nesdog

Sorry that the TO start is mid-week, rather than being a stage 8 weekend finish. Would be fun to get up on Mulholland and watch them again. Unfortunately, TV coverage won't start until the race is well past the Santa Monicas and closer to SB so won't even get to see that.

f4rrest

Stage 2 goes through my favorite local riding areas. Nice!

jsigone

I'll have to drag the family out to watch the stage 1. Pending weather will be where we set up shop.

Nachoman

I'll probably watch the start of stage 1, take a nice long ride, stop for some pizza and beer, and then pedal over to watch the finish.

calamarichris

Sounds like a winning game plan... where is this pizza & beer?

diphthong

^most likely a pizza port-either the one in ocean beach or in solana beach. i believe you are well acquainted with this pizza port thing-yes?

Nachoman

Yeah, pizza port in OB has to be only a mile or two from the finish line.

Rumpled

I'm thinking about riding the train with my bike down to Old Town with my bike (or downtown if necessary) and going to watch the start or something.
Pizza and the end sounds like a good plan.
Might have to make this a group event.

TrojanHorse

Wut? It looks like they finish at or near sea world.

diphthong

yah. the finish looks to be at a dead end park just north of the san diego river/ocean beach/8 freeway and just west of sea world.
if you're driving to the start/finish area, i don't recommend parking north of the 8 freeway-west of the 5 freeway-south of garnet avenue.
park outside those parameters, ride in and make a day of it. parking within those parameters is asking for trouble and praying to
avoid auto gridlock/traffic hell. on the other hand, it is on a sunday so if you're feeling blessed or in "good standing," rock on.

i think the ob pizza port is abo 1.25 miles away from the finish.

Nachoman

You know the more I think about bringing thousands of dollars of high end bikes to pizza port in OB, the less I like that idea.
Lots of sketchiness going on right around there.

diphthong

there is always round table on the corner of friars & via los cumbres. i like their pizza and taps better than pizza port. pizza port wins the atmosphere/vibe category tho.

Nachoman

Expanding the radius would also get you to Old Venice and Venitian. Both have great pizza. I know. Given the amount of times I've eaten at both of these places over the past decade, I'm pretty sure I've put the owner's kids through college.

diphthong

joe & julie at the venetian are awesome people

brownfield

Just rode up Gibraltar on Friday. I'll definitely be hanging out around there May 17th.

vertical bob

Mine too. I'll be up in Little T proly at Bear Divide

bykemike 

I just picked up a couple of sets of Specialized 'tour of California' bar tape , white with the California bear logo on it.

Anyone ever see this?

Nachoman

FYI, the race will start at 11:00 or 11:30 a.m. at Ski Beach in Mission Bay, and finish at around 2:30 or 3:30 p.m. at Marina Village on Quivira Way.

Rumpled

My basic plan is to ride from Santa Fe Station to the start and see the area and the start.
Then, so far Pizza Port in OB sounds like a decent idea. (I will have a lock)
Hopefully there or somewhere else will show the race, maybe big screens in the start or finish area?
Then, try to catch the finish.
I should have a couple of hours after that before my train - gotta fill that time with something. Thinking of maybe riding up to Pt Loma, never been there.

diphthong

^definitely ride up point loma to cabrillo national monument.
the 3+ mile stretch on the top of the peninsula running
through the national cemetery is (imho) the most scenic road
in the metro sd area. $4 gets you into the monument and you can
climb up to the lighthouse and/or descend to the tidepools and rock
the .7 mile climb (6-6.5% grade) with multiple repeats.
monument is open 9am-4pm.

pterodactyl

@calamarichris and I might ride to High Dive on Morena Blvd in Linda Vista before the race starts. Its a small bar, they have limited outside seating with a view of Morena and a big screen tv that usually shows sports. They open at 9am for "gourmet" greasy spoon breakfasts, fantastic bloody marys, and a good beer selection. It might be a good spot to see the race begin because Morena is narrow and straight along that stretch where the riders will be racing but there is limited parking around there. The race finishes somewhere around Sea World which is about 3 miles away from High Dive.

Anybody else interested in getting a breakfast beer at High Dive?

diphthong

^it is my understanding (looking at the map) that the race will be heading directly north on morena-right past high dive-at the end of the race and not at the beginning.
looks like they will be going thru the old morena home furnishing district at the beginning and at the end of the race. i think they are crossing over the 5 fwy at tecolote
and then heading south thru old town before the laurel st. ascent into balboa park. high dive is about a half mile from that shell station on the corner of tecolote &
morena where the race should turn to head south at the start. it could also be that i can't read a race map.