Thank you Frontier Airlines for flying my bike case from Denver to California for $20. After paying international flight fees to fly with a bike, it was a pleasure to travel with my bike for such a low baggage fee. Although it did take me about an hour to pack up my bike last night; seems I am a bit out of practice. My bike is still in it's box but don't worry I did get in a beach cruiser ride today along the boardwalk in Newport Beach with my brother Tom.
I am arriving mid-race this year and will catch up with the Tour of California when it reaches Bakersfield. As much as I have enjoyed watching the scenery roll by on TourTracker, I am very excited to get out there as a fan and see the race in person.
Stage 3 today of AToC included Mt Diablo, one of 3 big local climbs for Bay Area cyclists: Mt. Tamalpais in Marin (2,571 ft), Mt. Diablo (3,849 ft), and Mt. Hamilton near San Jose (5000 ft).
Mt Diablo
Average: 5.7 % Length: 17.1 km Height start: 178 m Height top: 1155 m Gradient: 977 m Maximum: 19 %
Tom Boonen is on Twitter!
Big news of the day - you can now follow Tommeke on his website (http://www.tomboonen.be) as well as on Twitter: @tomboonen1
Catching up with Greg Brown
How is Greg doing on his week long journey to ride every stage of the Amgen Tour of California as part of the CTS Amgen Tour of California Race Experience group? Fine. The team of riders have successfully completed 3 stages. Wednesday the group heads into a long ride to Clovis, CA with lots of climbs. The best coverage of their journey so far comes a teammate of Greg's, Canadian Alain Lambert, who is posting on his blog titled Sharing the Passion. View images and read their story and see their daily schedule on Alain's blog: Tour Of California Starts In the Morning: “What a difference a year makes”, Stage 1: Santa Rosa to Santa Rosa: “Wow", Stage 2: San Francisco to Santa Cruz County, and Stage 3: San Jose to Livermore. (Read more about Greg Brown and CTS)
Jersey Winners
- Amgen Leader Jersey – Peter Sagan (SVK), Liquigas-Cannondale (ITA)
- Nissan King of the Mountain Jersey – Sébastian Salas (USA), Optum Powered by Kelly Benefit Strategies (USA)
- Visit California Sprint Jersey – Peter Sagan (SVK), Liquigas-Cannondale (ITA) (Heinrich Haussler (AUS), Garmin-Barracuda (USA) will wear the green Visit California Sprint Jersey tomorrow since Peter Sagan cannot wear three jerseys)
- Rabobank Best Young Rider Jersey – Peter Sagan (SVK), Liquigas-Cannondale (ITA) (Josh Atkins (NZL), Bontrager Livestrong Team (USA) will wear the Robobank Best Young Rider Jersey tomorrow since Peter Sagan cannot wear three jerseys)
- Amgen’s Breakaway from Cancer® Most Courageous Rider Jersey – Wilson Marentes Torres (COL), Colombia-Coldeportes (COL)
- Exergy Most Aggressive Rider Jersey – Jeremy Vennell (NZL), Bissell Pro Cycling (USA)
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| 2012 Amgen Tour of California route map |
Related Posts: Pedal Dancer: 5 Climbs I'd love to ride
From 10 February 2011: "Mount Diablo, California : I'd like to ride this climb with my nephew Kenny who won the overall Mount Diablo race in 2009
at age 21, with a time of 0:47:10, and came in 5th in 2010. He also
won Mt Evans Hillclimb race (SM4) in 2009 in a time of 2:05:31, but I'm
not saying I want (or could) ride Mt Evans with him!