tour of california

I just received a sneak peak of the official guide to the Amgen Tour of California. It looks awesome and I wish I was good enough to race in it, especially when the roster is loaded with ex-teammates and fellow competitors. The first thing I noticed was a flat TT for the prologue. Last year it was up that steep hill where yourcycling.com member Jason Donald took second. The next thing I noticed was the addition of a new course on stage three with a defining climb up MT Hamilton which will help sort out the GC guys.

I caught Jason Donald (team rider for Slipstream) on the phone after he returned from the Tour of California. We talked about the incredible race atmosphere, what it means for the future of American cycling, and the effect his break-out time trial performance has had on him and the rest of the cycling world. This is part one (catch part two tomorrow!):

While out on a ride today, I ran into BMC rider Jonathan Garcia. We chatted about his experiences out in Cali during the big race. He spent 23 days over there getting ready and ended up having multiple flats during the race.

12:03 PST 62km/151.4km to go
We've got T-mobile sitting behind the Discovery team - there are a few Gerolsteiner riders up there, too. We've gotten word that another rider for the US National team has pulled out, this one is Tejay Van Garderen (USA National team) - that leaves two guys riding. No word on why they're pulling out, but the team is mostly young riders, and the furious start to this race today might have simply been the last straw for their tired legs.

As told by Tejay to Marcel

The wear of racing at this level is starting to show. Stage 2 was a relatively uneventful stage with the pack cruising along at a blistering pace to keep the breaks from accumulating too much time.
As they entered Sacramento the sprinters teams had the pack strung out around the finishing circuits. Most of the guys on the national team were somewhere mid pack. Noel kept telling Tejay to move up incase the pack split; that way he would lose no time. That proved much easier said than done. “…I have been in some fast crits in my life but this was just a whole new level of fast, moving up was not an option…staying on barely was…”

Did you see Omer Kem in the lead break during yesterday’s stage of the Tour of California? I have raced with Omer many times including down in Mexico when I had my big crash. He is a good racer and is riding for Priority Health this year after a stint with Monex.

My buddy and ex-teammate, Jason Donald, surprised everyone today with a second place finish in stage one of the Tour of California. That's right, the Tour of California. Jason, if you're reading this, say it to yourself: The Tour of California.