The Amgen Tour of California is arguably the kickoff of the 2009 pro cycling season for American cycling fans.  And lucky for them, there’s lots of great coverage out there on the race. My three recommendations:
- Watch it live at the Adobe Tourtracker. Even if you don’t give a damn about cycling, you have to check this out. A brilliant use of technology. It’s only running from just before until just after each day’s race, so check in between noon and 4pm PST.
- Use Steephill.tv’s fantastic (as usual) Tour of California “dashboard”, featuring route info, video feed links, and highlights to find and follow the action.
- Read Lyne Lamoureux’s Podium In Sight for thoughtful analysis, interviews, and daily pictures.
I’ll be heading to watch the ToC later this week, but strictly as a fan. Any interesting coverage or good shots that show up here will be little more than a happy accident, so go check out the links above.
CG
In case you’re interested this 3000km trip in Africa (of my own interest = the electric bicycle) just finished. A 58 year old Chinese CEO of one of the main importers of electrics in the U.S, and a younger South African fellow.
Excerpt:
The first 100km flew past, broken only by a couple of stops where I tried to explain the rules of the road in Africa to Ching, who was riding in the middle. He clearly comes from a land where the humble bike is King Of The Road, after all, there are 9 million bicycles in Beijing. I pointed out to him that from an African motorists perspective, he ranked well below a goat in terms of his desirability on the road. He put on his helmet, and moved a little closer to the yellow line, so I took up position on his rear wheel and shouted whenever a car approached from behind. It sort of worked, but my timing had to be perfect because on my call, he would swing over to the yellow line, then, in the same beautiful, sweeping arc, head back into the road. Clearly my work here is not done.
Puff adders, hippos and I’m guessing dung beetles kill most people in Africa. They’re as big as tennis balls and as hard as rocks. On the last stretch into town I was hit by not one, not two, but three in the space of 20km. The first almost left me concussed as it smashed into my helmet. The second, luckily a small one has left a welt under my left eye, and the third almost garrotted me as it grazed my throat.
Starts here at the bottom of the page.
http://www.electricbicycle.iblog.co.za/category/katima-to-cape-ride/page/2/
Alexander Dombroff
In case you missed it, Armstrongs run from Merced to Clovis was great to see in person!