Amgen Tour of California

The rain the forecasters predicted would come yesterday came early this morning. It did a fine job of soaking those of us waiting for the train, all except the four or five huddled in the inadequately sized platform shelter (with their umbrellas open). I suppose I could have driven in, but I can see the freeway from here and traffic isn't moving. If I had to choose between the two, wet but moving sounds good to me.

I don't know how far south the storm reaches, but if the Cycling Gods have anything to say about it, the rain will stop just north of Seaside. That's where Stage 4 of the Amgen Tour of California, an 8-day, 700-mile professional cycling race, begins. Today's stage goes from Seaside to San Luis Obispo, along the state's coast.

The Cycling Gods were definitely with the race yesterday. There wasn't a spot of rain as the cyclists raced Stage 3 from Stockton to San Jose.

Streets in downtown were shut down due to the race. We could actually see the finish line from the office.

A small tent city appeared on the plaza of the city hall yesterday morning. It was part of the tour's Lifestyle Festival. There were dozens of vendors on hand, a stage with live music, and two giant television screens broadcasting the race.

I started paying attention to the race just after two o'clock. One can actually watch a live video feed online or watch the progress on a map with little cars or jerseys indicating the progress of the peloton and any break away groups. The top racers and key event vehicles are tagged so they can be tracked by GPS.

When the lead pack was about a mile away, I raced to the window to watch the finish, except I couldn't see anything because the rest of the office was already there. (I had been wondering why it had suddenly grown so quiet around my cube.)

The first pack that came through had about 15 or 20 cyclists. Jens Voigt, a German cyclist from Team CSC won the stage, but Levi Leipheimer of Team Discovery Channel (Lance Armstrong's team) retained the overall race lead despite coming in second. Leipheimer was less than a second behind Voigt at the finish.

I hung around to watch the main peloton come through. I was expecting to be blown away by a mass of cyclists coming down the stretch to the finish line. There are more than 140 registered riders, but the biggest group to cross was perhaps forty strong. The race summary attributes the breakup of the peloton to the strenuous climb up Sierra Road.

Now, of course, I'm interested in seeing how the race will turn out, so I'll be keeping up with race reports for the next few days. Today they race from Seaside to San Luis Obispo; tomorrow they're in Solvang; on Saturday, they ride from Santa Barbara to Santa Clarita; and on Sunday, the race finishes in Long Beach.

Through it all, I hope the Cycling Gods are with them because I can only imagine how much it would suck to be out there riding in the rain.