Monday, May 16, 2011

Tour of California

Because of the adverse weather yesterday, the first stage of the AmGen Tour of California around Lake Tahoe was cancelled. This morning, the starting point was moved from Squaw Valley to Nevada City. Nevada City got the call this morning at 12:30 and got everything ready in the next 12 hours for a 12:20 pm start today. Instead of the original 133 miles, today's ride would be 61 miles, a fast downhill followed by flats into downtown Sacramento. The route went through Wheatland then down Pleasant Grove Road, about 3 miles from Justin's house.I was able to follow the riders on their route online with a map that refreshed every 5 minutes. I left Justin's house about 1/2 hour before the riders were supposed to pass by.
This vehicle with a loudspeaker announced that the riders were 8 minutes away. A group of 5 riders would come through, followed 5 minutes later by the peloton.
The first five, support vehicles follow closely behind:
The peloton:


A support vehicle stops for the rider on the left to replace a flat tire:


They passed by around 2 pm,
and arrived in downtown Sacramento around 3:30. This stage was won by Ben Swift of Sky Procycling.

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