kyle16

Looks like the Northern California sections of the Tour of California will be the same again.

Mercury News article: https://www.mercurynews.com/sports/ci_13618099

TOC website: https://www.amgentourofcalifornia.com/Route/stages.html

Maybe I will get to attend this year. I wonder if the route from SF to SC will be exactly the same or will the incorporate new climbs into it?

spingineer

One difference ... we won't be battling rain ... at least we hope not in May. The race across GGB should be much better.

uspspro

Those guys are lucky I am not designing this thing...

SJ to Modesto would do the Quimby route up Hamilton for sure.

SF to Santa Cruz would involve something like Alba to spice things up... Tunitas? Those guys were practically sprinting effortlessly up that thing... pfft.

scorpio516

Except for the start in Nevada City...

I'd really rather another TT prologue - very good for spectators. But they'll be hard pressed to be more than 10 miles away from my place for most of stage 1.

DiabloScott

I liked the bad weather...
But three years of the stuff was probably going to start affecting the rosters. This race needs the big names and recognizable teams from Europe.

spingineer

I liked it when they went to Mariposa ... too bad they aren't doing a repeat there.

kyle16

Oh, sorry. my bad.

loopybunny

Already planning on catching the finish of stage 1!

Unfortunately, I'm going to miss the stage here because of work. I was off work during the week of the tour last year so I got to actually watch it in town.

I'm wondering what's up with stage 1 though. Seems like such a short distance. Does anybody think they'll have some sort of round about way of getting from Nevada City to Sacramento just to add some miles? Perhaps a really long circuit finish?

BurnsRubber

They need to do a mountain top finish in the Bay Area, Diablo or Hamilton.

loopybunny

Anybody happen to notice the guy from New Jersey trash talking Modesto on VeloNews.com?
https://velonews.com/article/99610/ma...s-and--modesto

I wouldn't say the Tour has squandered a day. There are a different set of challenges riding on these roads in the heat with the smell of cows!

nachomc

I'm tempted to park 10-15 miles outside of Nevada City and ride down that day. I do not want to deal with parking in that town.

Pizza Man

How far is a direct ride from Sacto to Nevada City? I think it would be fun to ride from Sac to NC, watch the start, then ride back direct & watch the finish. I assume the tour route will add quite a bit, so it should be doable.

scorpio516

~60 miles

nachomc

It has to be 70 miles or so one way by car from Downtown Sacramento to Nevada City. I'm not sure how you would safely ride up there and back. I don't know the routes/area that well, and depending on road closures for the tour, it could change things up considerably.

My thought was to drive up 80, come down Hwy 20 and park above Nevada City. You could probably road ride down 20, but there's not much shoulder and there's a lot of truck construction traffic from the work they're doing to rebuild 80. I would probably do it on my mountain bike, as there's a dirt road/trial that parallels or stays close to 20 all the way down to Nevada City.

JoelS

There are a lot of potential routes they could use. Hills to the West of Auburn, hills to the East as well. They might route down through Folsom. Maybe they'll just take the highway.

However they come, they probably won't come very far from my house, so I'll get to ride out and watch.

caloso

There are tons of little roads back up in there. They could skip over Hwy 49 a few times and include some real leg breakers and some cute little towns like Ophir and Dutch Flat, loop over the top of Folsom Lake on Salmon Falls Rd., and pass through Folsom down into Sacramento. At lunch, I'll try my hand at doing a route on Google Maps.

loopybunny

I wonder if there is a chance they'll use any of the same route used for the California Intl Marathon. Folsom, Orangevale, Fair Oaks...

Pizza Man

I don't know about that, but supposedly they will be following the Bay to Breakers route in SF. At work I have a window that faces Howard Street, so I could see them go by as I sit at my desk, but of course I'll be out sick that day.
I think I'll watch them come up the Hayes Street Hill, then jump in the car and drive down to Half Moon Bay and ride ahead to the next hill they do after that (Tunitas?)

monmon

I'm tempted to park 10 miles outside of Nevada and ride down that day. I do not want to deal with parking in that town.


...

loopybunny

I was thinking about my comment about the marathon route...

First, I'm going by what I remember the marathon route to be. I don't know if it's changed and how much since I don't live in the area anymore.

Second, last time I rode in that area I noticed that some brainiac had the bright idea to put in huge speed bumps all over the place in Orangevale. Slows down traffic in front of the schools, but is there really a need to have them in the bike lanes as well?

Regardless, don't think they'll be using some of the streets I was thinking about originally.

scorpio516

CIM Route this year:

loopybunny

That's pretty much the same route I remember. Maybe I'm remembering incorrectly and there aren't a load of speed bumps along Oak Ave and it's just the other streets in the area. Maybe since they put a traffic light in front of the high school they didn't add speed bumps too. I wouldn't think they'd have marathon runners run over them either.

Any ideas when they announce the route details?

I was talking about it with some coworkers and they all seem to think I should just suck it up and use part of my 430 hours of leave to catch the end of the stage here. I seem to be the only person there that doesn't use my "sick leave" for recreational purposes, which is why I have 430 hours of leave available. I have months to decide...

caloso

Okay, just for fun I came up with a 99 mile route from Nevada City that goes through Grass Valley, Lake of the Pines, Auburn, around Folsom Lake, through Folsom, and then picks up the CIM route into Sacramento.

https://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&sour...,0.307961&z=12

loopybunny

That looks pretty cool. Should throw in a few circuits in downtown Sac. (I'm going to want to see them more than once!)

Rumpled

I think the Euro big names will be at the Giro.
I hope to follow the whole ToC camping in my popup this year.