This afternoon the Tour of California Bike race came into Sacramento. Stage two of the tour started in Santa Rosa and finished with a few laps around downtown Sacramento. This is quite a significant race and all the big teams and the big names are here – Discovery, T Mobile, CSC, Rabobank. It's not quite the Tour de France, but perhaps the closest thing this side of the country.
Anyway, I took a late lunch and went down to spectate. I have never been to a major cycle race before and I was really impressed at all the organization and all the support that goes into making it happen. From the volunteers every few 100 yards to keep people off the course, the police to close of streets (there were lots of them), the motorcycle escorts (again so many of them), the lead cars, and then trailing support cars, not to mention the riders themselves. It was quite a production.
The trouble is that the riders all pass by so quickly. The peloton had chased down the breakaway by the time they reached downtown Sacramento and so they were all together when they passed me. It was just a blur of colorful lycra suits as they sped by. I couldn’t recognize anyone.
One of the more remarkable things was the following team cars, chasing the cycles through town at speeds way over the speed limit. What a job that must be to drive a team support car – chasing after the peloton, avoiding lagging cyclists, avoiding other team cars and the odd stray spectator. The whole thing looked very risky indeed. Not a job for the faint of heart.
Anyway, I took a late lunch and went down to spectate. I have never been to a major cycle race before and I was really impressed at all the organization and all the support that goes into making it happen. From the volunteers every few 100 yards to keep people off the course, the police to close of streets (there were lots of them), the motorcycle escorts (again so many of them), the lead cars, and then trailing support cars, not to mention the riders themselves. It was quite a production.
The trouble is that the riders all pass by so quickly. The peloton had chased down the breakaway by the time they reached downtown Sacramento and so they were all together when they passed me. It was just a blur of colorful lycra suits as they sped by. I couldn’t recognize anyone.
One of the more remarkable things was the following team cars, chasing the cycles through town at speeds way over the speed limit. What a job that must be to drive a team support car – chasing after the peloton, avoiding lagging cyclists, avoiding other team cars and the odd stray spectator. The whole thing looked very risky indeed. Not a job for the faint of heart.
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