Amgen Tour Stage 3 Start

Went down to the Stage 3 start of the Amgen Tour of California in SF this morning. The rains finally cleared and the peleton had a very nice ride down the coast. Levi tried to mirror his attack on Bonny Doon from last year, but this time he was well marked by DZ Nutz and Mick Rogers. DZ won the stage but nearly got pipped at the line by Rogers due to a premature celebration. Levi came across third, and the GC is now Zabriskie, Rogers and Levi. Nice ride by all three, but I think Levi has to be disappointed he was outkicked at the end.

Here are some photos from this morning.

Antlerman at the Giro!

I've been having a great time getting up early to watch the live feed of the Giro d'Italia on the Universal Sports website. I saw during today's video the infamous "Antlerman" pacing the peloton up one of the climbs. Love him or hate him, you gotta admit that Antlerman is one passionate dude. He is at every major race around the world. Does this guy work?

Last Year's Tour of California. Leading the peleton up Sierra Road.

Last week, somewhere in the Dolomites.

Pacing the Maglia Rosa group up the Sestriere just yesterday. This guy gets around!

The 2009 ToC - It's a wrap

Lots of rain, some snow over the climbs, then lots of sunshine as the tour moved southward. Levi takes his third GC in a row after fighting off a lot of attacks on a very hilly final stage. His Astana team wins the team GC. Jason McCartney takes the KOM jersey after Rock Racing's Francisco Mancebo (who had it in the bag) crashed out hard in Stage 6. Gesink wins best young rider (again), and Cav takes the points jersey (holy smokes he is fast). What I want to know is who the girls in the blue jerseys are.

Some notable crashes in this year's ToC too. In addition to Mancebo on Stage 6, Oscar Friere, Kim Kirchen and local Santa Rosa guy Scott Nydam wiped out bad on Stage 4. Kirchen and Nydam both ended up with some surgical work. Ouch. This was a tough race.

Lastly, what's up with all the dumbasses running alongside the riders and nearly taking them out? Today I saw the now famous "Antler Man", a guy in a fat sumo suit running about 15mph chasing the break, and a scary Borat-looking dude wearing nothing but a thong. The best was when Lance Armstrong stiff-armed the "LiveClean" heckler into a snowbank during stage 4. Classic move (captured, of course, on youtube). Here's the photo sequence.

Amgen ToC Prologue

My flight from Europe landed at SFO around 12:30pm today, so I jumped in my car and hightailed it up to Sacramento to catch some of the prologue time trial around the state capitol. I hit minimal traffic and found an easy parking spot near the courthouse. I had my bike in the back of the car, so I popped on my shoes and pedalled over. The first thing I saw was the Team Columbia / High Road tent. I cruised right up and there was Big George warming up for the TT. Sweet!

Next up was the Astana tent, which was mobbed with people trying to get a glimpse of Mr. Livestrong himself. I had my bike with me so I couldn't really fight into the crowd, but I did get a blurry shot from afar of LA working on the trainer.

The SaxoBank trailer had some pretty good riders milling about -- The Schleck brothers, Jens Voight, JJ Haedo, Jason McCartney and Fabian Cancellara (below, warming up). Even with the loss of Carlos Sastre this year, Bjarne Riis has put together a damn fine team. I'm guessing they will give Astana a run for their money in the team GC.

Next up, the BMC trailer. Since I ride a black and white BMC with DT Swiss wheels, I get pretty fired up when I see the back of a truck that looks like this. Holy smokes! Bumped into Charlie Livermore from EPTC outside the team truck and said hello.

I was heading over to the Garmin-Chipotle-Slipstream-WhateverThey'reCalled.com area when I saw the formerly moustachioed one, Dave Zabriskie, heading off to his start time. He ended up taking third in the TT, which is probably because my aura rubbed off on him as he rode past me.

Meanwhile, over at the team van, Christian VDV was warming up for his ride. From the schedule posted on the door, he's two minutes after DZ.

Having spent enough time ogling $15,000 bikes and watching dudes ride stationary trainers, I figured it was time to see some actual cycling.

The guys I saw fly by at 30mph were: Andy Schleck, Tyler Farrar, Big George, Dave Z, VDV, Lance(!), and Tyler Hamilton sporting the "love it or hate it" Rock Racing kit (for the record, I love it).

Lance

Andy Schleck. Look out for the brothers Schleck in the TdF this year. These guys are strong!

I had to get rolling up to Tahoe to meet my family, but as I was leaving down one of the backstreets I turned a corner and nearly ran into Tom Boonen. Naturally I followed him back to the Quick Step truck where he was having a quick photo op with a clearly stoked little Belgian kid. That's the biggest smile-to-face size ratio on that kid I think I've ever seen.

Tomorrow is Stage 1 from Davis to Santa Rosa and the forecast calls for heavy rain (heavy pain?). It should be miserable.

Astana Training Camp in Santa Rosa

A few miles north of here, the Astana team is doing a week long training camp. Lance and Levi are getting ready for the Amgen Tour, while Alberto is getting ready for the Tour de Algarve in Spain. Pretty cool that we have two TdF winners (including a 7x'er, and a guy who won both the Vuelta and the Giro last year) and the defending Amgen champ riding the local roads. There's a great photo set up on Flickr of a ride the team did this week over King Ridge/Coleman Valley with BMC's Scott Nydam. Check it out.

Who's the guy in the middle in the goofy black/yellow kit?