TOC stage 2: Davis - Santa Rosa, 176.2 km

[doddy13]

or july and go up against the tour de france.. imagine it, the two greatest races in the world on at the same time..

I would explode from the excitement.

 

[soOpOSMthanks!]

Seriously, Versus? Thank god I didnt have to stay up unlike some of you unfortunates. Bad weather? My ***. We are not looking so AmeriCAN now...

 

[Cobblestones]

To add insult to injury, weather underground calls it 'rain mist'.

 

[Anonymous]

I would explode from the excitement.

wife has just agreed to buying a second tv

 

[Publicus]

or july and go up against the tour de france.. imagine it, the two greatest races in the world on at the same time..

That would be teh awesome. Imagine seeing how conflicted Bottle/Gadzook/Levi would be over which race to attend. Choices, choices, choices.

I imagine they can rebroadcast the stage later. I mean the guys are out there on the motorcycles, so someone there should be SOMETHING to watch later.

 

[Moondance]

Messick's masterplan for the Tour of California; October 1st, 2009:

CN: If the race hadn’t moved would it have survived?

Andrew Messick: I’m glad I didn’t have to find that out. I really don’t know. Our owner and my bosses have pretty keen sense for long term value and their view is ‘how can we grow the race when it’s always raining?’ It’s a good question.

CN: It doesn’t’ just come down to weather though, does it? It rains at the Classics. It rains in Belgium.Stage three of the 2009 Tour of California went from Davis to Santa Rosa.

Andrew Messick: It does, but in the eyes of the world you don’t go to California in the winter to get rained on. So part of what we sell is California is sunshine and warm weather. The weather was really bad this year. We had three stages where it never stopped raining and was never above 40 degrees. The athletes don’t have fun and we want the Boonens and the Schlecks of the peloton to say it’s a great race.

Karma.... It's a bitch

 

[Publicus]

Apparently big crashes on the decent of the final climb. Looks like there is a 12 man chase group remaining from the peloton--which includes Levi and Hincapie, but does not include Cav, Cancellara or Boonen.

 

[thehog]

To add insult to injury, weather underground calls it 'rain mist'.

Its embarrassing they are not allowed to use helicopters to transfer the picture. Its a disgrace of a race. Poorly organised. What we never have rain in a bike race?

Looking forward to the finishing circuit and the crashes.

So how are the crowds today? Bigger than the Tour?

 

[Cobblestones]

Messick's masterplan for the Tour of California; October 1st, 2009:



Karma.... It's a bitch

To be fair, Andy did have fun yesterday. And probably he wouldn't have minded wet conditions either.

 

[Anonymous]

14 miles to go.. whatever that is... 20k??.. whats with all these miles.. :/

 

[Moondance]

To be fair, Andy did have fun yesterday. And probably he wouldn't have minded wet conditions either.

Ahhhh... Silicone

What pleasure you have brought to men worldwide.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

After the last three Giro stages, this is a joke.

Seriously, I thought this race was trying to sell itself to a new casual audience as a big thing. What the casual fan has seen so far is a long, tedious race in which nothing happened yesterday, while Phil and Paul proclaimed it incredible, some breakaways by domestic pros nobody in Europe has heard of, and now, even better, nothing at all. If I was trying to get into cycling via this race, I'd be having a difficult time doing it.

 

[doddy13]

After the last three Giro stages, this is a joke.

Seriously, I thought this race was trying to sell itself to a new casual audience as a big thing. What the casual fan has seen so far is a long, tedious race in which nothing happened yesterday, while Phil and Paul proclaimed it incredible, some breakaways by domestic pros nobody in Europe has heard of, and now, even better, nothing at all. If I was trying to get into cycling via this race, I'd be having a difficult time doing it.

meanwhile in Italy, the racing is fantastic.

 

[Dr. Maserati]

This must have been what it was like following racing during the Coppi/Bartali era.

 

[Cobblestones]

14 miles to go.. whatever that is... 20k??.. whats with all these miles.. :/

Imperial units. From some ancient empire. I wonder what happened to it?

 

[Anonymous]

from the official tracker..

yeh, thank you specialised

how can they not have pictures from the town?

 

[stefrees]

meanwhile in Italy, the racing is fantastic.

i presume this isnt sarcasm? i just got back from watching stage 7 (montalcino stage) only one word to describe it - EPIC! ill post photos tomorrow but it was out of this world. proper racing

 

[afpm90]

This must have been what it was like following racing during the Coppi/Bartali era.

People discussing in the Internet the lack of tv coverage.

 

[Moondance]

Live ticker says that Armstrong is now on the attack.

Hmmmm... Lets figure that out. First Armstrong attack of the year just happens to occur on the only time when there is no video coverage of the event. Very suspicious. I suspect a conspiracy of sorts.

 

[Anonymous]

twitter

PaulSherwen we might be getting pictures!! Hold on
2 minutes ago via web

 

[goggalor]

OMG

We're live!

...from the finish line.

 

[doddy13]

i presume this isnt sarcasm? i just got back from watching stage 7 (montalcino stage) only one word to describe it - EPIC! ill post photos tomorrow but it was out of this world. proper racing

Racing as it should be. Great.
The giro is a very special race.

 

[Anonymous]

WE HAVE PICTURES

of erm.. people with umbrellas

 

[Cobblestones]

This must have been what it was like following racing during the Coppi/Bartali era.

Oh the memories. First they only had still cameras. Then they had a few stationary TV cameras sprinkled around the course (finish line, cols, intermediate sprints etc.) It's actually only quite recent (in this old man's life) that there's motocams.

I know in the discussion of the Giro, it sometimes comes up that Giro used to be boring. Of course it was, because TV coverage wouldn't start until the last 30 min. No one would race in earnest until then. I think motocams have done much to change the sport of cycling.

 

[thehog]

This must have been what it was like following racing during the Coppi/Bartali era.

At least in that day and age they showd Giro footage in the cinemas each weekend.