ToCalifornia Stage 8: TO/Westlake/Agoura Hills 134.4km

[benpounder]

The final stage; interesting in that most of the sprinters are gone. That could affect team tactics.

Four laps on this. Obviously HTC is now focused solely on placing Michael Rodgers atop the podium (convenient that Cav missed the cut friday nes pas). But the lack of sprinters means the teams with various podium desires will have to do the work. I expect controlled chaos...

Reminds me of this Dave Matthews song.
[edit: my mistake, tried to embed the audio]

 

[saganftw]

i think columbia will control the race to keep rogers on top and maybe eisel will try to win the sprint finish,liquigas can help them considering top sprinters are gone sagan can win another stage

 

[benpounder]

HTC will try to control, but Garmin, Radio Shack, and Liquigas will most likely interupt. I see both Tommy D and Chris Horner putting serious pressure on. And perhaps Sagan will be inspired by his teammates in Italy.

 

[Lance Armstrong]

That climb has 300 meters up @ 3 km. That's 10%. 4 times. Forget about Eisel or any pure sprinter.

 

[craig1985]

Sagan FTW.

 

[Moondance]

Sagan will win this....

 

[kjetilraknerud]

I'll gamble on young norwegian sprinter Alexander Kristoff if Hincapie leads him out. He probably won't win it, but he did actually beat Hushovd in the norwegian championships in 2007 so he's quite fast.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

That hill is pretty steep and it's a circuit race. I don't think we'll see the likes of Kristoff or Eisel in the final lead group

 

[kjetilraknerud]

That hill is pretty steep and it's a circuit race. I don't think we'll see the likes of Kristoff or Eisel in the final lead group

Probably not, but it depends on the pace set by the peloton. Or, the pace set by Tony Martin that is.

 

[Jamsque]

The Inter-Sagan express will make it's final stop in California before heading back to Europe.

 

[Cal_Joe]

And just to make things more interesting, today's weather forecast:

A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Windy. Highs in the mid 60s. North winds around 15 mph shifting to the west 15 to 25 mph with local gusts to 35 mph in the afternoon.

Very atypical weather for SoCal this time of year.

 

[tgsgirl]

And just to make things more interesting, today's weather forecast

More interesting?

 

[Cal_Joe]

More interesting?

As opposed to less interesting. My apologies if I seemed to project an attitude.

 

[Jamsque]

If they pedal softly round the whole crit course like they have been doing then we could see more big crashes.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

As opposed to less interesting. My apologies if I seemed to project an attitude.

She means 'more' is redundant in the sentence, since very little of the AToC could be described as interesting.

 

[Jamsque]

According to the tickers there is already a big split in the field, group of 25 or so off the front with Rogers, Zabriskie, Leipheimer and Sagan in it, all with team-mates.

 

[tgsgirl]

She means 'more' is redundant in the sentence, since very little of the AToC could be described as interesting.

Thanks for being my interpreter

 

[Mellow Velo]

More interesting?

Irony is banned in the US.

Now thats more interesting.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

I know about the irony ban in the US, but I thought that was sarcasm rather than irony. Though the two are sometimes intertwined betwixt one another.

 

[tgsgirl]

I don't know about the irony ban, so let's say it's sarcasm

 

[krebs303]

video stream up

http://tracker.amgentourofcalifornia.com/

 

[Libertine Seguros]

This is a mini Alpe d'Huez according to Liggett.

Everything is an Alpe d'Huez. Big Bear was 'comparable to Alpe d'Huez'. This miniscule climb is 'a mini Alpe d'Huez'. You'd think Liggett had never heard of any other climbs.

Also, how cringeworthy. I wonder if tweedledee and tweedledum have much to say about the Giro d'Italia stage to Zoncolan.

 

[zapata]

This is a mini Alpe d'Huez according to Liggett.

Everything is an Alpe d'Huez. Big Bear was 'comparable to Alpe d'Huez'. This miniscule climb is 'a mini Alpe d'Huez'. You'd think Liggett had never heard of any other climbs.

Also, how cringeworthy. I wonder if tweedledee and tweedledum have much to say about the Giro d'Italia stage to Zoncolan.

the italian alpe d'huez, you mean?

 

[krebs303]

This is a mini Alpe d'Huez according to Liggett.

Everything is an Alpe d'Huez. Big Bear was 'comparable to Alpe d'Huez'. This miniscule climb is 'a mini Alpe d'Huez'. You'd think Liggett had never heard of any other climbs.

Also, how cringeworthy. I wonder if tweedledee and tweedledum have much to say about the Giro d'Italia stage to Zoncolan.

It's more a mini Isle of Mann TT most weekends with all the sportbikes.
I've been over it many times on the motorcycle

 

[Moondance]

I have to say... Whatever you say about the quality of the race itself, the scenery is absolutely magificent. Despite two weeks of Italian beauty (and I'll never forgive the weather gods for robbing us of the chance to admire the Tuscan scenery on stage 7), California is really unparalled.