TOC Stage 1: Sunday, May 16 2010, Nevada City - Sacramento, 167.8km

[Cal_Joe]

ok ok ok.. but second to the tour..?

Ive watched the closing laps again, 2/3 of the course was full, but i still say not second to the tour. I think maybe the "2nd best race in the world" "amazing race" "amazing crowds" "great spectacle" thing is getting to us..

Regarding the second to TDF comment, take that up with Andy - he said it, not me.

Would I agree with him? Probably not.

My interpretation of many comments in this thread is that those used to European races are being a bit provincial, having a negative reaction to the hype spewed out by AEG/ASO/Versus TV regarding the ToC.

Was today's stage a snoozer? Major frickin snoozer, but the snooze factor was no different than many flat stages in a TDF, Giro, or Vuelta. Anyone who looked at the course profile prior to the stage could easily call it a warmup prologue and a sprinter's stage, which is what happened.

As many posts regarding this year's ToC have noted, the organizers appeared to not have taken advantage of the weather differences between February vs. May to toughen things up a bit. Mountain top finishes would be great (Big Bear does not count), but a major thing to remember about stages in this race is that this type of cycling is relatively new to California. I think it is obvious that the organizers have set the course based on accessibility for the maximum number of folks to show up at a stage - MTFs tend to limit that.

So for the rest of this race, don't bash the hype. The course is set, so everyone knows what a stage will be like. No surprises, so don't bash the course.

Praise the cyclists and teams that do well. Bash on the riders who don't perform or the teams that screw up with tactics.

Oh, and anyone can bash on Cav with no reason to. I am still ****ed off that he won the 2009 TDF "Ugliest Girl in the Peloton" award. Based on numerous calculations, his whining at that race should have disqualified from any awards.

 

[Wallace]

About A. Schleck's commentary: he's a pro. Whatever bike he's currently paid to ride is the best bike he's ever had, etc. Whatever race his team tells him to race is the best, the hardest, most spectators, etc. Being a pro means working for your sponsors. The only exceptions are when something goes so horribly awry that a ****ed off rider vents for some interviewer in a rare moment of honesty. Which he then profusely apologizes for the next day and denies he ever said.

 

[dolophonic]

I believe the organisers went for locations they could get paid the most by.
I do not believe the spectator factor is the deciding factor.
There is loads of room for spectators on the road to Mt. Baldy and its close to major populations and it has some proper climbing but the finished in Big Bucks, i mean Big Bear... Yay tourism.. fail Epic...

 

[Cal_Joe]

I believe the organisers went for locations they could get paid the most by.
I do not believe the spectator factor is the deciding factor.
There is loads of room for spectators on the road to Mt. Baldy and its close to major populations and it has some proper climbing but the finished in Big Bucks, i mean Big Bear... Yay tourism.. fail Epic...

I think it is a combination of the two. Cities effectively "bid" with AEG, but AEG is adverse to MTF's in more sparsely populated areas, dictating the winning bids.

 

[Timmy-loves-Rabo]

The crowds were indeed good

I was in Sacramento for the finishing laps and the crowds were huge.

Andy Schleck was in Sacramento and, as noted, said the crowds were huge.

FFS, maybe try to ignore the hype and marketing and do not focus on that - yes, for most folks outside the US (and many of us in the US) that hype is not in the European style and is obnoxious and grating. Yes, this race is not on a par with a GT, despite the hype.

it isn't on par with lots of stage races, let alone a GT.

 

[flicker]

theHog - as usual, an excellent analysis. However, you left out your other favorite questions...

1) How is Lance's dysentery and poopshoot doing?

2) Was Lance's mom there?

3) Did Lance impregnate anyone during the stage?

4) How much money did he steal from hospitals today?

C'mon, quit slacking off with your posts. Nobody here would want to think that that you were getting lazy and avoiding the tough cycling topics.

It seems like hog could do better/ he could do a clamation piece ala The Karen Carpenter story except he could include all Lances family + his pets. Keep up the Lance infatuation hog. And get busy with the clay and the video camaras. Do something useful with your time.

 

[Cal_Joe]

The crowds were indeed good

it isn't on par with lots of stage races, let alone a GT.

You missed the point. You are focusing on the hype aspect. Most of the overblown comparisons are the hype - doesn't matter if AEG, Stapleton, whoever call it as comparable to a GT, a Euro stage race, or better than a local crit, or better than the local Saturday club ride. Ignore that crap and focus on the performance.

 

[Polish]

"@andy_schleck 1 stage done@ATOC,some crashes in the
final,hope everybody can start tomorrow!only one race can top the amount of spectators!TDF impressive!"

hmm.. so only the tour beats the toc for spectators.. another whos fallen for the idiot marketing.. good god.. from the tv it looked like there were a lot of thin gaps on that closing circuit, and just crowds on the main straight and corners..

guess andy has forgotten the crowds in flanders or roubaix (without mentioning the giro and vuelta)

I watched the race from the side of the road on the KOM climb, and the crowds were big when I arrived at 9am and huge by the time the race passed by!

The crowds were big in Nevada City and Auburn too on the run-up to the KOM.

The TV coverage did not begin until a half hour past the KOM however.
Already on the flatter run-in to Sacramento....

It was a great party today

so even though Italy has a larger population than California (41million vs 36 million), I would guess the California Tofusi outnumber the Italian Tifosi on a daily basis. The TdF is still the highest spectated says Andy. He has raced them all you know.

 

[Moose McKnuckles]

Yesterday's Giro stage >>> the entire Tour of California.

ToC is emblematic of the commercialism that pervades the American mentality. As was pointed out earlier, the stages were chosen for money, not for the sport.

Let's see, Zoncolan, Plan de Corones, Strade Bianchi. Pick one of them and they alone destroy the ToC.

Tour of Utah smokes the ToC and it's, what, one one-millionth of the budget?

Hey, look, they're going over Bonny Doon! Meanwhile, Evans the the crew at the Giro went over 10 Bonny Doons on the way to the climb.

 

[theswordsman]

The televised portion of today's stage was boring until the final 5K. The four guys in the break had no chance to stay away, and I hate circuits. I'll admit this was the first time I've ever seen guys in a crash get lapped. But it was probably better than a 4 Km Prologue. But part of the reason I enjoy watching cycling is the scenery and history. Today the lecture was about the Gold Rush and the Pony Express, so we covered maybe a couple of decades of the 1800's. In Europe we would have seen castles and monasteries and things that had been around for centuries, plus art made from hay bales, or mowed into a soccer field, or whatever. Today it looked like the same roads I've been driving forever. It's the reason I never bother watching the Tour Of Missouri (it's like where I live, but with armadillos), and I'll watch 21 days of the Vuelta but not make the short drive to see the St. Louis stage. I'm totally cool with sprint stages, but if you've got eight days to promote California tourism, show me the Pacific Coast Highway or something. Compare the scenery from Monday's Giro stage to ATOC.

 

[tgsgirl]

Any news on Boonen? How bad is his road rash?

Quite bad it turns out, if the first reaction is "yes! nothing's broken except for his helmet!". They're gonna wait and see what tomorrow brings and try to finish the race, but they've no guarantees. A Liqui guy touched his front wheel and Boonen flipped over his bike, Sporza says.

The TdF is still the highest spectated says Andy. He has raced them all you know.

Yes, that was a stellar performance he put in in Ronde van Vlaanderen and Paris-Roubaix.

 

[PACONi]

I watched the race from the side of the road on the KOM climb, and the crowds were big when I arrived at 9am and huge by the time the race passed by!

The crowds were big in Nevada City and Auburn too on the run-up to the KOM.

The TV coverage did not begin until a half hour past the KOM however.
Already on the flatter run-in to Sacramento....

It was a great party today

so even though Italy has a larger population than California (41million vs 36 million), I would guess the California Tofusi outnumber the Italian Tifosi on a daily basis. The TdF is still the highest spectated says Andy. He has raced them all you know.

Give the Italians only one race to watch all year and I bet their numbers would be greater than those at ToC!

 

[Moondance]

The idea that there were more spectators in the ToC today than at, say, the Tour of Flanders, is laguhable and patently false... No matter what Schleck the Younger says. That's not a diss to the California crowds or anything. By all accounts Sacramento looked pretty crowded.

 

[auscyclefan94]

I'm starting to really appreciate the Tour of Qatar.

What about the tdu?

Good ride by Kristoff for 3rd. Burghardt was 6th as well. Still not convinced about Cav.

 

[Barrus]

small question, I recorded it yestarday, is it worth it to watch it, or should I just deleted the entire race? I was reading the first few pages to see but I only read commentary on the commentators. Thank god I can choose on Eurosport between dutch and UK commentary, will probably go for the latter

 

[khardung la]

Comparisons are odious

so even though Italy has a larger population than California (41million vs 36 million), I would guess the California Tofusi outnumber the Italian Tifosi on a daily basis. The TdF is still the highest spectated says Andy. He has raced them all you know.

Italians are more than 60 million, not 41 million (they are about that number in Spain though). Anyway the point is not total population, it is more how many people in California are really into cycling and/or into the road cycling culture. There is no comparisson possible, and it is easy to check this out by going to any of the Classics or the 3 GPs in Europe.

Furthermore, for me it always looks like Europe is really the perfect playground for professional road cycling and for its spectators: the landscapes, the historical sites, the legendary cycling references shaped after decades and decades of cycling, the obvious cultural differences observed on Tv after some few kilometers of the stage....well all these add to a great show.

The stage today was boring, I did not get a clue of why California is such a nice place. The first stage usually should call for attention, so probably a prologue, a TTT, or simply a regular stage passing by spectacular areas would have beeen a great idea. Instead of that they picked a downhill in a grassy undulating area...I know that probably the beginning of the stage was more appealing, but it was not covered by the TV. That was not a good idea.

As for ToC to be the 4th biggest race.....Well, I don't think it is even the 4th GT. Let's give them time, but for that I would like to see the big guys (and not only Leipheimer) to try hard there. Most part of them say it is a good preparation for the TdF. It will not change their palmares to win the ToC, I think.

BTW, what a difference with the Giro de Italia that we are enjoying this year. Comparisons are odious.

 

[Mellow Velo]

Entertaining thread, unlike the actual event. Mile wide, bendless roads, do not a bike race make. An unpolishable turd.
Fell asleep around 60kms out, was woken from time to time by all the high pitched whooping and holl'ring.
Big crowds, as you would expect, sure. Must have turned up to see the crashes. Nice of that conti rider to get on the deck, just inside the 3km mark, so two-thirds of the peloton could sit up and stroll to the line.

Hard to believe that a motorbike had to swerve on those avenues. Lack of experience?

What was really odd was seeing French being used on Eurosport, for race info.
Must be the ASO at work.

Can only get better...........can't it?

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Also, while there may be more people in Italy than in California, look at where the Giro puts its stages. Places like Zoncolán, Aprica and Bormio are pretty small places in the middle of nowhere, yet they're packed to the rafters with fans when the Giro comes to town.

Yesterday's stage was a hell of a turnout, sure, but they were downtown in a big city. A lot easier to tempt people to go to the city centre to watch the race than to drive two hours to somewhere they may or may not have access to to watch it.

As has been said before, this race isn't about providing a spectacle, it's about providing the popular and/or expected winners. It's about PR. And because the race is about PR, I don't see why we shouldn't be allowed to call that PR out on being utter garbage. AToC isn't one of the top half-dozen races in the world, as Liggett keeps saying. It might just about make top 20, considering half the 'stars' who are there are there because of sponsor's commitments, not because they want to be or care about the race.

And we have to have SOMETHING to talk about while they ride in a straight line down a very long flat road on which nothing happens, right? At least the Tour of Qatar had wind...

 

[auscyclefan94]

Because the giro has been going around for yonks, it is in the same country every year and there are many other big races in italy the crowds are not comparative. LA's attendance is a big factor and people who don't have a clue about cycling are going out to watch but the general person in italy has tonnes of bike races to go out to see so not seeing the giro is not a big deal.

 

[theyoungest]

small question, I recorded it yestarday, is it worth it to watch it, or should I just deleted the entire race? I was reading the first few pages to see but I only read commentary on the commentators. Thank god I can choose on Eurosport between dutch and UK commentary, will probably go for the latter

No, just delete it. Or watch the last 10 minutes, which were vaguely entertaining.

BTW, Dutch Eurosport commentary for this race is not too bad, yesterday they had Huub Duyn co-commentating. It's not the usual Nelissen-Blijlevens combo.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Martijn Berkhout and Huub Duyn yeah. I work for Berkhout (he's the one managing those riders, like Huub Duyn). He sure as hell is better than Nelissen. (Who i know and worked for as well)

 

[Susan Westemeyer]

Martijn does tv commentating? I didn't know that.

Susan

 

[Barrus]

No, just delete it. Or watch the last 10 minutes, which were vaguely entertaining.

BTW, Dutch Eurosport commentary for this race is not too bad, yesterday they had Huub Duyn co-commentating. It's not the usual Nelissen-Blijlevens combo.

So, it's not the usual Armstrong swoonfest (don't really know if it is that way otherwise, but everytime I had it on with Blijlevens-Nelissen the only thing they were talking about is how magnificent Armstrong is) Oh well, will watch a few minutes waiting on the Giro to start this afternoon and decide how the commentary is, so that I can decide for sure this evening with the more exciting race, I hope

 

[craig1985]

I have to say seeing Cantwell come 5th has made my day.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

So, it's not the usual Armstrong swoonfest (don't really know if it is that way otherwise, but everytime I had it on with Blijlevens-Nelissen the only thing they were talking about is how magnificent Armstrong is) Oh well, will watch a few minutes waiting on the Giro to start this afternoon and decide how the commentary is, so that I can decide for sure this evening with the more exciting race, I hope

Could you link us to the Berkhout/Duyn commentary at race time? I swear I'll throw bricks at my laptop if I have to put up with Sherwen and Liggett again.