2012 Rolling cycling thread -- US Pro Challenge edition

Re: 2012 Rolling cycling thread -- Giro/Tour of Cali edition

Spent the last three stages in a team car, as some of the riders were staying at my house for the Big Bear/Baldy/LALive stages. And you know what, the AToC has a lot of Nascar governance mentality, for sure. That's not a good thing.

The TT in Bakersfield was universally scorned by riders and teams. Bad location, bad pictures, bad course, stupid uphill finish that, in the matter of about 200 yards, overturned days of racing.

The Baldy stage may or may not return...it's a good barometer for the riders, and the Euro teams like it because it's a good training day, but it's terrible for fan logisitcs, and the sponsors who pay to participate in the Festival Village basically lose a day, as their village is completely inaccessible at the top of Baldy. You could shoot a canon through there and only hit the dentists who rode their Dogmas up from Rancho Cucamonga. And those guys aren't buying sweatshirts and hats to haul back down the mountain. It's generally agreed that a Palomar stage provides better training/competition, and generates a ton more fan interest.

The Beverly Hills start was a good idea on paper, but in reality it proved to be rather low-key in terms of fan support. But the circuit was a winner, and it proved to be second only to the Big Bear solo breakaway as the best stage of the race. The riders loved riding down Hollywood Blvd and also racing past Disney Hall. Of course, they liked most that it was a short stage! Speaking of, it's a blast for the CHP and the course marshalls and team drivers to drive that last stage...running 80 MPH down Fig is not an everyday-thing.

It's great that the Continental teams like Bissell, Bontrager and Exergy got in the race and made a good showing for themselves, but it would make for a better race if the courses proved to be a little less difficult over all, and the TT was held maybe a day sooner, and at least one more ProTour team (I'm talking to you, Sky!) was in attendance.

Got to meet Tom Boonen yesterday. Dude is a rockstar who carries himself like he knows it, although he's universally liked by all the riders. Same for Levi, and same, of course, for Hincapie. Never realized how much of an outsider Horner really is, as I wasn't aware of his background before falling in with Lance a few years ago (his background being that he wasn't involved with Team USA). From what I could tell, the riders felt Sagan was amazing, and yet they were all happy for Gesink, and Rabobank.

And to come full circle, I heard more than once people say that the inaugural USPro race in Colorado last year was better organized, and treated the riders better, than this 7th edition of the AToC. So maybe they're more like Nationwide than Sprint Cup?

 

Re: 2012 Rolling cycling thread -- Giro/Tour of Cali edition



What a terrific weekend you had. I envy you.

 

Re: 2012 Rolling cycling thread -- Giro/Tour of Cali edition

TV, please, please, please post some stories from the team car.

I'm always amazed the team director can manage to drive in that madness while listening to race radio, the team radio, talking on a cell to the other team cars, reading the course map and elevation profile and plotting strategy.

 

Re: 2012 Rolling cycling thread -- Giro/Tour of Cali edition

The fact that the team cars are not covered in "Darlington stripes" after every stage is pretty amazing.

The AToC has no rider radios, so that helps keep the confusion from going to an 11. But, the AToC does have Vaughters driving, and he's as crazy behind the wheel as he is on Twitter (there's a mention in Velonews.com last week of a fight between him and another driver). Cars are assigned in the order of the riders at the stage start...but if Garmin's not in the top 2 or 3, Vaughters regularly inserts his car there anyway.

One hairy thing happened when one of our best climbers flatted (tons of flats this year, due mostly to the heat and lack of rain, which caused the roads to have more debris because CalTrans hasn't swept them post-rains like last year). As he was, ahem, picking up a bottle from our DS on the way up to Big Bear, the OP-QS car came tearing past, literally bumping our rider's thighs, sending him banging against our car and sending the water bottle flying. The rider never really regained his composure after that.

Speaking of water...it's amazing how much water bottle math goes on. Do we have enough? How many did we use last 20K? Where can we get more? Who should we send it up with? Can we grab some from another team, etc. The mechanics spend far more time dealing with water than tires or anything else.

And what goes in, must come out...the GreenEdge guys have no shame...at Ontario, there was about a 10 minute start delay due to a car crash on the course, so Durbridge and another guy ride through the start line, pardon-me their way through a crowd thats 5-people deep...go about five feet, kneel down along a shrub row smack in the middle of all the action, whip it out and let their pee fly while giggling fans take photos. (The first day, dozens of riders peed on front lawns while they rode, and as a result they got warned by CHP so after that the nature breaks became a little more organized while riding).

There's a ton more rah-rah going on then you realize...even some top riders, when it's 4 hours into a day and the car temp says 97, need the director's demands to stay in the race, carry the water up to their teammates, don't quit, etc. Reminded me of a boxer's trainer, between rounds...flurry of activity, encouragement, medical diagnosis, nutritional advice, and psychiatry...then the rider's gone again and we go back to listening to the race director radio, who is a woman who says everything in French, Italian and English, all in the singular tone of a subway conductor.

And my no. 1 takeaway from being inside it all? You have no idea from TV how steep and long the climbs are, how much energy they really require and yet how fast the riders spin them...and on the flip side, you really don't get the full picture of just how dangerous the descents really are. You can hear P&P talk about it, and you can see riders sometimes nearly skitter off the edge...but 50 guys on carbon rims 4 hours into a race on the 6th day doing 55 mph down a 2 lane badly paved road really is nerve wracking and it's simply a miracle there's not a death every race.

 

Re: 2012 Rolling cycling thread -- Giro/Tour of Cali edition

Re: Nature calling. During one break, the motorcycle camera caught a rider pulling down the front of his bib and then sliding to his right on the saddle. They cut away before it became blatantly obvious to the uninitiated what he was getting ready to do.

How many bottles did they go through in a stage? I imagine a huge sack of them in trunk.

 

Re: 2012 Rolling cycling thread -- Giro/Tour of Cali edition

Quick, somebody go check our former poster Idaho's garage...thieves broke into women's Team Tibco trailer last night in Boise, and stole 14 bikes and all their wheels, ahead of the Exergy Tour event starting today...which is being billed as the biggest woman's race ever.

 

Re: 2012 Rolling cycling thread -- Giro/Tour of Cali edition

Phinney loses out on a chance to win the final TT and challenge for a top spot because the motorcycle rider makes a wrong turn?????????

If it was the Tour, I'd swear the frogs did it in purpose. At the Giro, someone is just an idiot and needs to be kicked in the nuts.

 

Re: 2012 Rolling cycling thread -- Tour de France edition

Big George Hincapie, arguably the most beloved rider in the history of the sport in America, announced today that the Tour and the USProChallenge in Colorado will be his last races.

http://www.velonation.com/News/ID/12093/Hincapie-announces-hell-ride-just-two-more-pro-races-before-retiring-from-cycling.aspx?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+velonation_pro_cycling+%28Cycling+News+%26+Race+Results+%7C+VeloNation.com%29

 

Re: 2012 Rolling cycling thread -- Tour de France edition

Maybe I'm off-base, but I'm not feeling this route at all. No Alpe, no Ventoux, grand depart in Belgium? Just doesn't seem terribly sexy as Tour routes go.

 

Re: 2012 Rolling cycling thread -- Tour de France edition

No Ventoux blows. Also, I'm not looking forward to three days of TT, for over 100K. Boring.

 

Re: 2012 Rolling cycling thread -- Tour de France edition

Kicks off tomorrow.

My Top 3:

1. Wiggo
2. Van De Broeck
3. Cuddles

Look for Menchov to surprise, look for Van Garderen to win the white jersey, and look for Sagan to win the green.