Final Road Notes

I hit my knee on the handlebars and can't take out the garbage.

Crashdan and Sui Juris are both fine men of culture, humor, taste, hygiene, and an abiding love of all god's creatures (with some exceptions for spiders). If you have the chance to catch a race with either, be not afraid. Let them drive too, especially if you are in a hurry.

Still, I don't understand why Sui Juris loves global warming...

Everyone from the Cafe was a pleasure to meet. Funny, if you think someone you talk to on a website seems very cool/fun/nice, they probably are.

One underrated aspect of cyclotourism is how hard it is to get everywhere, at least at the ToC. Now, maybe this was unique to the southerly stages, but each stage of the race covers a few hours' worth of driving, and that's before considering logistics (like road closures) and transfers. Speaking of transfers, I have an increased appreciation for the ink-stained wretches (proper journalists) who cover a race with, you know, responsibilities. It's a little difficult to imagine three weeks of chasing a race, constantly moving to catch glimpses and hoping to avoid the infinite potential for hitches. Bottom line: it was great fun for a few days, but considering in retrospect the 17 transfers in last year's Giro d'Italia, it's not the complaints that amaze me, it's the lack of violent outbreaks.

Speaking of proper journos, it's a pleasure to have a pro like Lyne posting here. Like I said, it's hard work what they do, much more than kicking back and writing a post. For more information about the journo's life, there's a really great excerpt from the Buzzati book which you can read here.

Solvang is kind of a silly place, but I can't imagine a much better course for the time trial. Just a nice mixture of climbs, flats, false flats, and a technical stretch heading home. It's generally pretty easy riding, which is about right for a chrono. But the run into Los Olivos, coming after five miles of mostly false flats into a headwind, was harder than it might look on TV. Anyway, this may not seem critically important, but the race has been settled by the end of the Solvang stage just about every year.

The rest of the Santa Ynez valley is just gorgeous. Cycling heaven. Very friendly, probably because there isn't much to be unhappy about. 

There is so much positive about how the Tour of California conducts itself, a strange byproduct of which is that the race will probably face endless speculation about how to make it bigger. More mountains! Move it to April! None of this makes sense to me. I previously blogged about how the riders don't want the race to get any harder (if a small sample of questions can be believed). Personally I can't see the race happening in April, or whatever the alternative suggestions are; in the middle of the European season, it's not easy to just jump seven time zones for a week. Too much is asked of the riders already [insert anti-doping rant], and an April race simply can't expect the same collection of stars. More likely, you could tempt some of the climbers out, and the American teams will be here even if they run it in the week between Christmas and New Years. But I don't think it can have the same impact in April. Accept what the race is now, this is good enough.