TOC stage 3: San Francisco - Santa Cruz, 182.9 km

[Moose McKnuckles]

The ToC is rivaled in excitement and difficulty only by the Tour Down Under.

 

[max_powers]

Whatever the reason TV aircraft won't fly, don't they have tecnologies available to provide some video:

1 Digital video on moto cams
2 upload to internet or other digital network
3 distribute to world, repeat


point is, fix it for the later timeslot broadcast, if they cannot do it live

 

[Ferminal]

The ToC is rivaled in excitement and difficulty only by the Tour Down Under.

You only have to sit through two live stages Down Under, so the ToC wins.

 

[tgsgirl]

1 Digital video on moto cams
2 Uplink from moto to helicopter or airplane, distribute to TV vans
3 upload to internet or other digital network
4 distribute to world, repeat

There, fixed it for you. You were missing the one phase that went wrong yesterday.

 

[Jamsque]

The real question for today's stage: can Retirement Shack wrest leadership of the Most Important Classification away from the international powerhouse that is the Unitedhealthcare Presented By Maxxis Team?

 

[Polish]

Non-Native Winner of the ToC this Year?

FrenchMen won the first 6 editions of the their TdF....
ItalianMen won the first 33 Editions of the their Giro holy crap...
And CaliforniaMen won have won the first 4 editions of the their ToC...

It seems having HomeBoys winning the HomeTour is a leading indicator
for future Grand Tour Status.

But is this the year an "outsider" will win the Tour of California?

There ARE some strong contenders from Colorado and Northern Alaska.
Maybe Oregon?

We will see, we will see....

 

[doddy13]

Yes,
4) the tv pictures going down and them showing stage 1 AGAIN

But that stage was the highlight of the entire race.

I seriously think todays stage will be good. Would have been nice to see San Francisco as a stage finish with them going over the golden gate bridge in the final few KM. As one of CA's landmarks, we're not going to see it on TV.

 

[santacruz]

I want to see Ryder Hesjedal smash everyone to bits and then ride over Lance's corpse, all in the name of glorious Canada.

the weather in santa cruz is very muggy, like Alabama/Florida, the clouds look very moist.. but the weather says no rain. I'm gonna go ride down to the boardwalk and check out the clusterfrack that is the finish.

and yes they did repave a big chunk of westcliff, it's like smooth as butter, sooo nice for riding.. ahh.. my gf who does roller derby loves it for her roller skates, and those things are fickle.

it's so unreal to think I will be able to regularly ride past a location where perhaps Dave Zabriskie hocked a loogie...

 

[Polish]

nooooooooo...

and yes they did repave a big chunk of westcliff, it's like smooth as butter, sooo nice for riding.. ahh..

It has become De Rigueur for a Grand Tour to have crappy sections of road surface - it was a BIG mistake to re-pave

The packed dirt roads of Tuscany are no match whatsoever for the vicious "California Cobblestones".

So CalTrans decides to repave now?
****ers!

 

[Mellow Velo]

Lance probably complained it was unsafe, then wouldn't talk to the media for...............oooh.....20 minutes.

 

[tgsgirl]

Lance probably complained it was unsafe, then wouldn't talk to the media for...............oooh.....20 minutes.

After spending a full hour explaining to the media why he won't talk to the media, that is.

 

[Anonymous]

I want to see Ryder Hesjedal smash everyone to bits and then ride over Lance's corpse, all in the name of glorious Canada.

the weather in santa cruz is very muggy, like Alabama/Florida, the clouds look very moist.. but the weather says no rain. I'm gonna go ride down to the boardwalk and check out the clusterfrack that is the finish.

and yes they did repave a big chunk of westcliff, it's like smooth as butter, sooo nice for riding.. ahh.. my gf who does roller derby loves it for her roller skates, and those things are fickle.

it's so unreal to think I will be able to regularly ride past a location where perhaps Dave Zabriskie hocked a loogie...

I didn't think we would ever agree on something, but I would like to see that also.

 

[red_flanders]

yah I recomend parking on hwy1 at the beach, and riding your bike up, there will be tons and tons of cars there if you get there close to arrival time... parking up the mountain should be fine if you get there early enough.. want to team up and moon lance?? or we could shotgun beers and shout obscenities..

Hell yes! I'll paint my *** in radioshack colors. Wait...is that weird??

 

[krebs303]

I was looking at the route in google earth and just past appox. km5 there could be some trouble
ve

 

[Moondance]

FrenchMen won the first 6 editions of the their TdF....
ItalianMen won the first 33 Editions of the their Giro holy crap...
And CaliforniaMen won have won the first 4 editions of the their ToC...

It seems having HomeBoys winning the HomeTour is a leading indicator
for future Grand Tour Status.

But is this the year an "outsider" will win the Tour of California?

There ARE some strong contenders from Colorado and Northern Alaska.
Maybe Oregon?

We will see, we will see....

You're right!

German Men won the first 11 editions of the Deutschland Tour and it's been a GT fo...... Oh.... Shit

 

[krebs303]

Hell yes! I'll paint my *** in radioshack colors. Wait...is that weird??

For me yes. For you, who am I to judge?

 

[Anonymous]

FrenchMen won the first 6 editions of the their TdF....
ItalianMen won the first 33 Editions of the their Giro holy crap...
And CaliforniaMen won have won the first 4 editions of the their ToC...

It seems having HomeBoys winning the HomeTour is a leading indicator
for future Grand Tour Status..

the first tour of britain winner in 1945 was french.. Robert Batot has a lot to answer for..

The modern tour of britain has been won by a columbian, a belgian, a dane, two frenchman, and a norwegian..

maybe sky should focus on producing the first brit to win the tour of britain before worry about the tour de france

 

[Francois the Postman]

If the second biggest weather front in the world strikes again, can someone pm me so I can just go to bed.

 

[Cal_Joe]

If the second biggest weather front in the world strikes again, can someone pm me so I can just go to bed.

From the National Weather Service Technical Bulletin at 1040 am PDT Tuesday may 18 2010


"widespread lower level cloudiness cover most of the district this morning...with a few isolated and light residual showers still occurring. These should generally end within the next couple of hours...followed by a cool and partly to mostly cloudy afternoon. Highs won't be quite as chilly as they were yesterday...but will still be confined largely to the 60s...even well inland. "

 

[maltiv]

From the National Weather Service Technical Bulletin at 1040 am PDT Tuesday may 18 2010


"widespread lower level cloudiness cover most of the district this morning...with a few isolated and light residual showers still occurring. These should generally end within the next couple of hours...followed by a cool and partly to mostly cloudy afternoon. Highs won't be quite as chilly as they were yesterday...but will still be confined largely to the 60s...even well inland. "

So no TV-coverage then!

 

[santacruz]

I was just at the finish, and the last bend is 150m before the finish line, whats the point in that??.. they should make a long straight finish for some action to take place.. bah.. instead they have a vicious left hand turn with really bad pavement and "safe" rubber road furniture that you can ride over if coming at it straight, but banked and taking a hard lefter could easily send someone flying straight through the front door of the boardwalk and onto the dance dance revolution machine. the final kilometer has crap crap crap pavement, they were actually just throwing asphalt down on the train tracks 30 minutes ago... do they have to jack hammer that afterwards to get it off?? but seriously, if they take the final left turn at full speed they will hit rubber road furniture... this is where Ryder Hesjedal will fulfill the prophecy and bunny hop into a wheelie on Lances skull..

go RYDER for the win!! or peter sagan breaking away on bonny doon rd would be awesome...

 

[Anonymous]

I was looking at the route in google earth and just past appox. km5 there could be some trouble
ve

Okay, now I have a reason to watch.

 

[Anonymous]

Okay, now I have a reason to watch.

5km gone, or 5km to go?

 

[krebs303]

5km gone, or 5km to go?

From the start.

 

[theswordsman]

57 kilometers raced, five guys took a flier on the descent and are ahead by 1:30. Boily (Spidertech), Frattini (Team Type 1), Jacques-Maynes (Bissell), Anderson (Kelly Benefit) and Routley (Jelly Belly)

Biciclismo said the sun came out at the finish line.