MetaChat - YEEHA! The Tour of Califonia bike races are passing right in front of my home!

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14 May 2013

YEEHA! The Tour of Califonia bike races are passing right in front of my home! →[More:]Here on the frontage road to Highway 101 and the most direct route from downtown San Luis Obispo to the Bob Jones Bike Path, you get more bicycle traffic than car traffic. Which is kinda cool. When they started to try to clone the Tour De France in California, one of the obvious stages was going down Highway 1 through Big Sur, ending in downtown SLO (several miles north of me), but the route's slopes are steep and the road's condition crappy so it was ultimately dropped and the Tour of Cal became as remote as the Tour de Fra. Until this year.

When I first heard about this year's Tour, Stage 5 was announced as "Santa Barbara to Avila Beach", the road to which is 2 miles south of me. I pondered how to get my ass where I could watch. But with the event two days away and detour and 'no parking' signs being put out I realized they're routing it to hit the south end of SLO and RIGHT DOWN THE ROAD I'M ON! Imagine! Spectating a major sports event without leaving my front porch!

Okay, Armstrong has kinda ruined bike racing for everybody, but still... mile 110 of a 115 mile route on an uphill slope - that Leader Pack is gonna be fun!

post by: oneswellfoop at: 14:51 | 5 comments

That is my dream. Desperately wish the NYC Marathon went by my place!

posted by ThePinkSuperhero 14 May | 15:53

Fantastic! I've watched several stages of the Tour of California on TV over the past few years and really enjoy it. I've never seen a long road race like that live, but my favorite annual local event (period. not necessarily sports related) is coming up and I'll catch both of the weekend evening races for the fourth year in a row. So much fun.

posted by ufez 14 May | 17:27

That's awesome! Last year the USA Pro Challenge (aka the Tour of Colorado, except that a rec ride promoter has rights to that name) went right past our house twice, and then raced up to Flagstaff Amphitheatre for the finish, which is 2 miles from our house AND where we got married.

We watched the earlier laps go by from our neighborhood, then we had a nice 2 hour gap during which we rode up Flagstaff with ten thousand of our closest nutty bike racing fanfriends. It was INSANE, and very very fun. I got to see my biggest bike racing hero, Jens Voigt, like, thisclose (we have pics and video somewhere).

Enjoy! You'll be astonished at how fast they go by, hill or not. The pros in the lead group were hauling ass up the final few K on Flagstaff (an 8-10% grade) faster than I can comfortably ride on flat ground, and I'm still a pretty decent amateur racer for an old broad... plus by the time they got there they'd already been at it for something like four or five hours and several thousand feet of climbing.

posted by lonefrontranger 14 May | 19:26

The cyclists are expected to pass by my home between 3 and 4 PM tomorrow, so the road will be TOTALLY closed to all but Emergency Traffic. I'm at mile 110 of a 115 mile race, which has a BIG incline just after it starts - 2000ft between mile 8 and 16 - it'll be a relatively minor uphill where I am after mostly-downhill for 10 miles, so they'll certainly be going all out. It's the final leg of the only 3 consecutive races (Palmdale to Santa Clarita to Santa Barbara to Avila Beach) in the series. The only more interesting vantage point might be about 5 miles back at the south end of San Luis Obispo city where they make a 135degree left turn to get on Higuera Street, but there will be no parking and much security there. Or just before the finish line in very-small-but-touristy Avila which should be a madhouse-by-the-sea. THIS is why I moved out of L.A.

I will have cameras - old, obsolete cameras from dead companies - FlipVideo and Kodak EasyShare. I'll update with links & images after the event.

posted by oneswellfoop 15 May | 17:32

The Tour of California has passed by (as has most things in my life). Currently reviewing video, but the first obvious observation was... so many gasoline-powered vehicles to support the human-powered vehicles...

posted by oneswellfoop 16 May | 18:28

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