Doge

Which is better product placement? SRAM on the transports or DA on the Colnagos?

f4rrest

Grabbed a few shots of them descending Angeles Crest today.

joesch

Nics pics! Looks like you had a pretty nice viewing spot.

joesch

Id think the SRAM since the DA is not so obvious. The mech told me Colnago uses DA in the US.

eja_ bottecchia

@joesch those are great pictures.

I love those blue Colnagos. Team Novo Nordisk is near and dear to my heart. The riders in the team all have diabetes, as I do. Today I rode portions of Stage 5. I achieved a PR in one of the segments, I was pretty stoked, then I looked at the leaderboard, TNN rider Charles Planet completed the segment in 1:14. My time was just over two minutes slower.

joesch

That is awesome that you can do the same segment and be minutes close to a world class rider, especially being more senior.
I can only dream about doing those segments

eja_ bottecchia

My friend, two minutes is an eternity in bike racing. At 63 years young, with diabetes and wearing seven coronary stents I will take the time and enjoy it (btw he had a far more favorable tail wind that I had ).

Thank you.

Your photos are great. Those blue Colnagos are drool worthy.

2cam16

TNN gave out keychains of their jerseys on stage 3. Hope they did on all stages.

2cam16

I was thinking that too! I thought someone was going to crash. And I thought TdF crazies were bad.

Caretaker

Worse. At least the French moto-cops keep a certain amount of order and on TdF climbs the proportion of crazies to genuine enthusiastic but responsible fans is a lot less.

ooga-booga

i was double parked at cow saddle qom/kom approx 3.5 miles south of the mt. baldy ski lifts finish on stage six. there was no law enforcement stationed there on foot.
california highway patrol was mobile on motorcycles and in cruisers for multiple passes. there were no barriers present but there should have been for approx 200 yards.
the finish at the ski lifts was undoubtedly a hot mess, especially after the guy offering tequila shots made his way to the finishing straits.

Rajflyboy

What the hell is Amgen anyway?

7 days of watching bike racing and no mention of what the heck this company does?

joesch

Amgen headquarters in Newbury Park, CaliforniaFormerlyApplied Molecular Genetics
(1980–1983)

Type
Public

Traded as
NASDAQ: AMGN
NASDAQ-100 Component
S&P 100 Component
S&P 500 Component
SEHK: 4332

IndustryBiotechnology

Founded1980; 39 years ago

HeadquartersNewbury Park, California, U.S.

Key peopleRobert A. Bradway
(Chairman, President, and CEO)

ProductsAimovig, Aranesp, Blincyto, Epogen, Kineret, Enbrel, Kyprolis, Neulasta, Neupogen, Nplate, Parsabiv, Prolia, Repatha, Sensipar/Mimpara, Vectibix and Xgeva.

Revenue US$ 23.75 billion (2018)[1]
[2]

Operating income US$9.79 billion (2016)[3]

Net income US$7.72 billion (2016)

Total assets US$77.63 billion (2016)

Total equity US$29.88 billion (2016)

Number of employees19,200 (December 2016)[3]

Websitewww.amgen.com

Amgen Inc. (formerly Applied Molecular Genetics Inc.[4]
[5]) is an American multinational biopharmaceutical company headquartered in Thousand Oaks, California. In 2018, the company's largest selling product lines were Neulasta, a drug used to prevent infections in patients undergoing cancer chemotherapy and Enbrel, a tumor necrosis factor blocker used in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis and other autoimmune diseases. Other products include Epogen, Aranesp, Sensipar/Mimpara, Nplate, Vectibix, Prolia and XGEVA.[2]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amgen

joesch

Maybe a case of the writeoff (tax) is the purpose and not the marketing to the cycling viewers although Im sure they would not mind many investing in
NASDAQ: AMGN See details in above post ...

Doge

Can't remember for sure, but I think Bradway was just a cycling fan. So wanted to get something going.

2cam16

I heard Phil mention something about the company several times.
They have a few buildings over near where I worked in South SF.

Lemond1985

So the Amgen 2019 Tour of California, For Dummies, should read something like:

"Tadej Pogacar attacked decisively on Mt. Baldy, and won the race."



You gotta love how unassuming this kid is. At the end of the final stage after he'd clinched the race, people hardly even paid any attention to him, and he was out there congratulating everyone else.

Doge

The more impressive thing was ability to hide from the news and general attention of the teams. Or so it seems. He didn't spend his time off the front getting camera time, just getting really good time. That win would have been impressive alone, but that it put him in yellow is a comment on the other days.

Every race is different. I think he will need more mass to do well in general WT races. We shall see. He has been racing a while. I can't easily tell if he is that much better, or there were no races quite so well suited to his abilities as Baldy.

joesch

2019 is really looking great for Tadej with these wins already.

1st Overall Tour of California

1st Overall Volta ao Algarve

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tadej_Poga%C4%8Dar

Doge

If you like numbers this is a great site for stats. https://www.procyclingstats.com/rider.php?id=194619
Compare riders year to year etc. One thing is clear when looking at those of lower ages is things change a lot from year to year. They get sick, they get hurt, they find what roads work the best.

Edit Add:
Just saw my kid raced against him in 2015 and 2016.

joesch

Do many cyclists train on that Baldy ride or is there too much SoCal traffic?
@eja_ bottecchia probably also can answer this question?

eja_ bottecchia

I have done the Mt. Baldy ride, via GMR, only twice. Once I made it all the way to the Village but did not have the legs, or desire, to go any further up. The second time I made it to the ski lifts. Oh man, did I hurt.

I don’t live in LA County, so I don’t get out more often.

I am more familiar with the climbs in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties.

There are other riders on FB who go up Mt. Baldy on a regular basis. They are better qualified to answer your question.

Doge

It is pretty popular. The traffic is getting there. Motorcycle traffic is higher on the road than car traffic.
Most of the riding is on the lower part - Glendora Mountain Rd, Glendora.

My wife raced GMR way back. I've ridden it, can't remember exactly when/why. Son raced GMR 2-3 times and Baldy ride maybe 10X.

Cycling teams like to use it for a picture spot.

If you are looking for a just up ride in SoCal, Palomar is more a continuous grade. Baldy has a lot of semi flat sections and a few descents after finishing GMR.