Today's stage rolls 109 miles (176 km) from Davis to Santa Rosa. Word on the street is that Levi lives in or around this Santa Rosa place! Who knew... Unlike yesterday's downhill parade to what appeared to my eyes to be a very expensive office-park Cat 4/5 crit, today's stage promises some real racing complete with climbing (yeah) and vineyards (yum) and rain (yuk)...
Three, count-em, three climbs! Not easy climbs either. I've personally ridden the Trinity/Oakville grade from Sonoma to Oakville, in both directions, and they are doing it the hard direction. The road up out of Oakville is a solid 17% for a mile. Ouch. The fine folks at Williams Wheels even put together some nice video of couple of skinny guys riding all three climbs. Check em out here. And the even finer folks at AEG and Amgen, who are putting on this excellent event (thanks!), have more details here and here. And don't miss the live tour tracker coverage here (not actually live until 2 Pacific time). Oh, and Gav posted this Bonnie Ford link as well (thanks Gav). So many links, so little sunshine. Now, where did I put that rain gear from last year?