spingineer

I might go and watch the finish in Santa Rosa ... still unsure yet

xrusos

Just curious... I'd love to join the route, in FRONT of the race caravan until they catch up. Maybe a mile or so. How far ahead of the peloton are the rolling road closures? Or better yet, could my friend snap a photo of me and have a shot at getting some of the real racers in the same frame?

(obviously I'd want to (and have to) be out of the way of impeding any race progress)

SaiKaiTai

Once again, this year, they are rolling right through town. Hell, we could watch them (from a bit of a distance) come down Hwy 1 from my back yard.
Think we might go for something a bit closer than that, though. We'll either walk down and watch them come down the highway and slowly disappear to to south.
Or maybe watch them ride up the hill in Rockaway and then run over and watch them go down the hill toward Pedro Point. I could be really cool to watch them climb up Highway 1 leaving town. Gosh, I guess I just bdon't know...

gpelpel

You can ride the same roads ahead of the racers. However about 5 minutes before the first ones show up they are preceded by a caravan of police motorcycles that make sure everyone if off the road. The last thing you want is to have anything on the road that could jeopardize the safety of the racers.
If you want a photo with the racers in the same frame, bring a trainer, set it on the side of the road (not on), mount your bike when the show is on, show your most in plain effort/pain grimace and ask your friend to shoot without showing the bottom of your bike.

xrusos

Great advice. Thanks.

diphthong

unless someone takes a flyer & stays away, the contenders will likely finish together.
there are some gnarly mountains on the stage but there is no make or break
climbing in the last 15 miles or so; it is not a true mountaintop finish unfortunately.
the finish should be packed with spectators though and it will be-no pun intended-a bear to
get off the mountain afterwards.

Mhendricks

I'll be posted at the top of Sierra road then to my club party which is also on Sierra road. Sweet!!!!!!!

shiz702

screw it, I'm taking a break from studying around noon and I'm gonna catch them somewhere on Salmon Falls. I'm sure there's going to be a huge crowd on hwy 49 where the KOM points are so I'll try and avoid that. There's some steep stuff on Salmon Falls that will make for some good viewing.

nachomc

I got out today. My friend and I got out to Auburn at 8:30 this morning and started on a loop that I put together. We rode 17 miles, down to the Confluence at the North Fork of the American River where the KOM challenge for Stage 1 began. After the race, we rode back to the car, which gave traffic time to dissipate. We ended up with 23 miles and 2700-ish ft of climbing.

I packed some beers for the spectator part of our day..



Lake Clementine between the dams of Upper and Lower Lake:



The Foresthill Bridge:



"There's a four man breakaway, and they're about five minutes in front of the pack":



And here they are:







I've ridden down this road (Old Foresthill Rd.) on my mountain bike. We were riding the brakes to keep it under 35 mph. These guys were flying:





It was cool seeing the Peloton come up the climb like this:

nachomc

Here's a bunch of the support cars:

scottmorrison99

Broom wagon? Now that's funny!

FogVilleLad

Lake Clementine looks like a real gem.

That peloton-comng-uphill shot made me want to be there.

rydaddy

Good stuff, Matt.

I was downtown at L and 14th. Bummed to see Boonen limping by with major road rash.

JoelS

We were a block from you at L and 13th.

Boofage

My family and I were at about the 200m mark from the finish. Got to see them pass 4 times. What a great day!

redspoke

Aww Man! I was probably right next to you or across the street the whole time. I got there about an hour before and just planted myself against the barrier. Yard work kind of dashed my grand plans of watching the races earlier in the day. Got in 38 miles of strenuous riding today.

How'd you do yesterday? I sent you a message but it probably went to St. Elsewhere like that other message I sent you. I'm still waiting for the results. I honestly have no idea where I placed.

obiwan kenobi

We were at 10th and N street, opposite side of the finish line, one block from a right hand turn, they really picked up some speed coming down the straight. First pro race my kids have seen, they had a great time, as long as its not raining tomorrow, we're off to Oakville grade and Trinity to watch them in the hills then drive over to Santa Rosa to catch the finish.

alfredo

Nice pics!

We were on 9th near N. Had a great time.

caloso

We were on L and 17th. Tommeke went down about 100m down the street from us.

spingineer

I'll be on the lookout for you.

rydaddy

I had an ok race other than a near crash which ruined my chance for a decent result. Some guy went off the road on the last lap and decided it was ok to jump back in at half our speed. That's nothing compared to the damage I saw today, both in the Sacramento GP, and the TOC.

I'm feeling slightly feverish so I might see you tomorrow in Davis.

spingineer

Yeah, but there's 2 more cars after that, and then it signifies the end of the caravan (basically means you can now clog up the road). In the caravan, there's the race director, course marshall, media car, some guest cars, motor marshalls, 3 Mavic cars, 4 Comm cars, 2 sets of team cars, a race doctor, several staff vehicles, broom car, another police car, and one last CHP car, with a banner saying "End of Convoy" ... now that's one big production.

scorpio516

People were saying 50mph+.

I was just downhill of you, like around that next corner. Got a nice panorama of heads bobbing on the foresthill bridge, glimpses of them screaming down the road, then over the confluence, making the turn and starting the climb . Only got a few pictures cause my camera had a stupid error... But at one point, that blue helicopter was about even, pointing straight at me lol.

scorpio516

After leaving Auburn, I got down to 11th and L, at the 100m mark. Crazy crowds, couldn't get anywhere near anything, and even climbing on a newspaper box - one of the crappy plastic ones - I still barely saw anything

jonathanb715

Assuming my back cooperates, I'm riding down Mines Road with a couple of friends on Weds. We're figuring on grabbing some lunch at the Junction Cafe and watching the racers roll by around 1:30.

JB