Tour of California - The Bikes

Although the fearless riders, who literally risk life and limb everyday, are the heros of the race, to some, the stars of the show are the bikes they're riding on. While the riders are getting ready in the RV for the long day of racing, the mechanics line up each teams bikes for the public to drool over. The bright red Pinnarello Dogmas of the Bissell squad got a lot of attention. I love the Northwest Coast Indian inspired paint job on the carbon handle bar-stem combo.

The bike above is one of the first bikes that caught my eye, and certainly one of the most unique of the Tour. This is the custom Cannondale bike of Francesco Chicchi of the Liqugas squad. He's nicknamed the Sheriff and his bike has an old west, gunfighter paint job.

This bike was his reward from his sponsor for winning last year's Tour of Missouri. If you look closely you can see two "bullet holes" on the chainstay. The saddle even has fuax-cow skin. I wonder what he's gonna be riding next year if he manages to win a stage here.

Although not all of the riders have a customized paint job like Chicchi, nearly every team has the name and national flag or fun logo of each rider somewhere on the bike. This is Tom Boonene's Eddy Merckx ESX-5. Tom's nickname is Tornado Tom and his logo incorporates the World Championship stripes. The plain carbon, red and white color scheme is pretty subdued for someone as colorful as Boonen, but you can't blame that on the designers at Merckx bikes. The picture below shows the bike Tom was riding right before he crashed near the end of Stage 1. It has a beautiful Belgian tri-color paint scheme. I'm assuming it was unrideable after the crash because Tom didn't even cross the finish line with it and he didn't start Stage 2 with it.

Tour of California - Stage 3: Start

Today's stage started on the beach in San Francisco, right along Highway 1. Maybe it's the ocean air or the warm temperatures after yesterday's rain, but the riders all seemed relaxed and in a good mood this morning, which made for great picture taking. Lars Boom of Team Rabobank was out of the RV early and chatting with Dutch fans.

Tom Boonen was looking better today after his stage 1 crash and getting soaked in the rain during stage 2. He's bandaged up on his arm and leg but seems none the worse for it all.

Another day, another jersey for Mark Cavendish. Today he's in the green jersey of the overall points leader (the sprinters jersey). He lost the overall race lead yesterday but if he can finish all eight stages of the Tour he should be a threat for the point overall. He will certainly be gunning for the green jersey this summer in France!!

Tour of California - Stage 2

Today the Tour started out in Davis California, bike city USA. This city is bike crazy, and lot of folks turned out for the start, despite the cloudy weather and the unseasonable threat of rain. I took the picture above during the ceremonial start of the stage. That's Mark Cavendish in the race leaders gold jersey and J.J. Haedo in the green sprint leaders jersey. The riders are all smiles, for now.

Cycling is pretty unique among high-profile professional sports in the level of access that fans have to the athletes. Unlike other sports that you sit in the stands and the athletes are hundreds of feet away, pro cyclists compete within feet of hundreds and sometimes thousands of screaming fans. My favorite part of the Tour so far has been the pre-race time, when the cyclists are getting ready for the day. The teams roll up in big RVs and the riders get ready inside, then come out and sign a few autographs (like Cavendish above), chat with friends (like the American champion George Hincapie is doing in the photo below), tend to any final details with their bike, and head to the start line.

Some riders have a pretty big following and the crowds can be pretty thick when they first come out of the RV. Mark Cavendish is a very popular rider so he often has folks seeking autographs or wanting to pose with him for a picture. For most of the guys though, particularly here in the US, things are a bit more mellow for them, and by and large the fans are very polite when asking for a bit of the riders time.

I like this shot of Mark Cavendish in the leaders jersey. He seems genuinely excited to be wearing it for the stage, although he knows he will not keep it for too long.

Tour of California - Stage 1

Clare and I are in Northern California for the start of the 2010 Amgen Tour of California bike race. This by far the most prestigious professional bike race to occur in the US and this year's field is one of the best ever assembled for the race. Many of the biggest names in professional cycling are here and we got a chance to see all of them up close and personal.

Lance Armstrong is here, along with his entire Radio Shack team, including last year's champion Levi Leipheimer. I was more excited though to see the guys from Team Saxo Bank, including the champion of Luxembourg, Andy Schleck, and the champion of Switzerland, Fabian Cancellera. This race is gonna be epic!!!! Todays stage began in the little town of Nevada City, California. The streets were packed with people and it was exciting to be there. After a ceremonial two laps around town, the peleton headed out of town, on their way to Sacramento.

But the day belonged to Mark Cavendish, of the HTC Columbia team. He is regarded by many to be the fastest sprinter in the world, and today he proved it by easily out-sprinting the field for the win. He was celebrating well before he hit the line! That is him above being led to the finish by his teammate Mark Renshaw.

The day didn't end so well for everyone though. Tom Boonen, the champion of Belgium and one of my favorite riders crashed hard on the second to last lap around downtown Sacramento. He needed to be helped into the finish line by one of his teammates. Several top riders went down in the chaos including Stuart O'Grady from the Saxo Bank squad. Let's hope Tomke and O'Grady are able to start the second stage tomorrow!