A Rider’s Almanac

It was rumored a few months ago and now it’s official. The 2009 Amgen Tour of California is coming to San Diego county; in fact, the final stage takes place here.

The 16 official stage start and finish cities that have been selected for the 2009 race include eight new locales – Davis, Santa Cruz, Merced, Clovis, Visalia, Paso Robles, Rancho Bernardo and Escondido – that will join Sacramento, Santa Rosa, Sausalito, San Jose, Modesto, Solvang, Santa Clarita and Pasadena as host cities along the route. (1)

“This year is a year of exciting firsts for us,” Messick continued. “For the first time, the Amgen Tour of California will take place over nine days, we will make our first visit to the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada and visit San Diego County for what promises to be another exciting conclusion to the race.”(1)

The 2009 race will include stops in 16 host cities over the course of nine days from February 14-22.(1)

Check out the full story here.

(1) Source, www.amgentourofcalifornia.com 

Is it just me, or does there seem to be an extremely biased shadow being cast upon our beloved Tour de France?

Why is doping the center of attention when it comes to the Tour de France, but buried deep when it comes to other sports such as Baseball, Football, Gymnastics, Weight Lifting, Body Building or Track and Field (to mention a few). Why is the only sport that seems to be taking the doping problem serious getting the worst of it? I know of no other sport that undertakes the level of testing and enforcement that cycling, specifically the Tour de France does.

When a doper is caught in The Tour, it becomes front page news and talk of The Tour’s demise surfaces. When Barry Bonds and Mark McGuire are obvious cheats, the worst one hears is that there might be an asterisk by there name in the record books, or worse… they won’t be admitted into the Hall of Fame… ooh… ah… how can they allow such harsh punishments? What about Marion Jones or the countless 100m cheats? Granted, Marion ended up doing a bit of jail time, but where is the talk of the demise of the Olympics?

I for one am sick and tired of seeing the media focus on the few riders that continue to try to cheat to win. I’m tired of turning on Versus each morning to be inundated with focus on the latest doping cheat. I’m tired of hearing all this talk about how this could be the demise of The Tour. Are the commentators actually looking at the pictures of the event they’re covering? Have they noticed the millions of people that line the route for three weeks every year to get a 10 second glance as the best riders in the world whiz by? The Tour de France is a spectacle matched by few other events. Fans of cycling love this event and will not allow it to die, no matter how much the media would like to make it happen.

I’ll admit it. I am very disappointed when a rider that has inspired me turns out to doping. It was heartbreaking when Riccardo Ricco turned out to be a cheat, but at the same time I’m glad he was caught.

I applaud the organizers of the Tour de France and the various cycling federations for taking it upon themselves to cleanup the sport. One certainly can’t say the same for Baseball or Football, which seem to be doing everything in their power to cover it up or deny it. Saying that there isn’t cheating, specifically doping, in just about all major sports, is like saying that water boarding isn’t torture.

As Rupert Murdoch will attest, the media is an extremely powerful influencer on public opinion. When the media decides something is a certain way, it has a way of making that belief a reality. There once was a day when the media simply reported on events, now they are in the business of making and changing events.

I long for the old days. Just leave my Tour alone!

I heard from a guy who knows a guy who has a friend, whose sister said that the Tour of California may be coming to San Diego next year. Rumor has it that The Tour Organizers are thinking about potentially holding three stages in and around San Diego.

Stage X: A road stage that incorporates the South Grade of Mt. Palomar.

Stage Y: A time trial along the coast

Stage Z: A criterium in downtown La Jolla that utilizes the old La Jolla Grand Prix course.

How totally cool would it be if this happened. Can anyone confirm or deny?

Once I decided to get back into racing, I new it was only a matter of time before I would go down (i.e., crash), but I didn’t think it would happen the way it did. If you race a bicycle long enough - especially on the track or in criteriums - you’re going to be involved in a crash. More often than not, it’s of no fault of your own; nevertheless, with the high speeds and close proximity of the combatants (i.e., riders), it is inevitable. Just watch the Tour de France - with the best riders in the world - and you’ll see what I mean. It doesn’t require much to go wrong for there to be a massive pile up.

Last night I raced at the LA Velodrome. I’ve spoken of this place in a previous post. Just as a reminder, the LA Velodrome is an indoor wooden track that is 250m in length with 45 degree banking. When your up to speed - remember that part - riding on this track is like, well, riding a bike. The track may be intimidating to look at, but when you’re cruising around, you really don’t notice the steep banking.

Most mass start track races start from the outter rail of the track on the relatively flat straightaway. Riders line up from the start finish line, which on this velodrome is just before turn one, and continue as far back as the number of riders requires. All of the riders line up along the rail and the referee provides instructions for the upcoming race and then blows the whistle to get the race underway. Experienced riders realize that one cannot be too high on the banking at the start of the race as they do not have enough speed to maintain grip on the track. In fact, most ridres head straight for the apron and hop back on the track after turn two on the backstretch. 

I’ve raced on the track many times - albeit not on tracks as steep as the LA Velodrome - so I really have no excuse. Regardless, at the start of the 70 lap 1/2 Points Race, I found myself a bit higher than I should have been on the entrance to turn one (reminder: 45 degree banking). It all happened so quickly, so I’m not completely sure it was my fault - although I think it was. I tried to correct my position, but I was surrounded on all sides by other riders. To cut to the chase, one of my wheels slipped down the track (or perhaps I was knocked over by the rider on my high side) and the next thing I know, I was down - slidin’ on the wood - along with two or three other riders. We weren’t going very fast at this point so no one was hurt (aside from a bit of track rash), just mad. We all picked ourselves up and reentered the race. For the points race, we were allowed up to 5 laps to get back into the race without being penalized.

So you might wonder what crashing on a wooden track does to the body. Does one simply slide to a stop without injury? Does one get road rash like crashing on the street? The answer is that you end up with what I can best describe as a rug burn of sorts. When you slide on the track, you kind of stick, so what you end up with is a relatively clean skinning. The track is relatively smooth so your skin doesn’t get torn up like it does on the road. I ended up with tiny strawberries, one on my knee and one on my upper thigh, and a larger one on my lower arm. Unlike road rash, the track rash - at least mine - really doesn’t bleed; in fact, none of my injuries bled and almost looked immediately healed. In all honesty, the biggest injuries I suffered was a bruised ego and a ripped skinsuit (and that’s no minor thing ).

Aside from my early mental mistake, my evening was quite a success. I signed up to ride in both the Category 1/2/3 group and the 40+ Masters group. The result of this was that I ended up riding in 7 individual races which covered over 40 miles (including warm up laps). In the 70 lap 1/2 Points Race, I lapped the field with four or five other riders, but later gave the lap back as I petered out. In the 40+ 15 lap Scratch race, I think I was 3rd. In the 40+ 30 Lap Points Race, I scored points in each of the thee sprints - winning the first one, taking 4th in the second and taking 3rd or 4th in the final sprint. That should place me in the top 3 overall for that event. I completed all of the other races to little fanfare - but atleast I finished