Daytripper

According to many, the Amgen Tour of California is the premiere bicycle racing event on the planet. One reason for this may be that it’s the last event team Jelly Belly will be part of in California, except for the Sea Otter Classic and the mildly less famous Chevron Manhattan Beach Grand Prix.

Anyway, I went to see the finish of Saturday’s race in nearby Santa Clarita.

!@(TDCalif.JPG:L120 popimg "Bike Race")

I could almost feel the sweat, except it was a cold day and they weren’t sweating nearly as much as I’d seen before.

Instead of hanging out on the side of the road, I was near the finish line, at the 100m mark. I tried to watch myself on TV, but my TiVo improperly changed channels and I ended up with two hours of pretty exciting weather channel broadcasting. I tried, again, to catch the later showing, but the channel that showed the race started the program half an hour late, which meant I never saw the last half hour of the program which would have featured me and the thrilling climax.

The one thing I noticed this time, being on flat ground, is that the peloton, or group of 100 or so riders who are all bunched up, generate one hell of a lot of wind. It wasn’t noticeable the first couple times they passed (they had to do a few short laps to finish the race for some reason, probably something American), but on their last pass they were right next to the barrier that kept me from interfering with the race.

They generate, I’d say, as much wind as an eighteen wheeler.

The other big difference about being at the end of the race is that you can spend quite a bit of time and money buying souvenirs and crap from the many vendors, including Health Net whose team, ironically enough, was nearly all wiped out from illness. I bought a pair of bicycling gloves for the reasonable price of $5 and a thermal shirt for the less reasonable amount of $35. It says Rock Racing on it, another new, hip team, whose designer owner has so much money to burn his team’s support cars are Cadillacs.

Not that the other times use Toyota Corollas, mind you. Racing, at this level, is all about money and the burning thereof. It takes money to win, and winning is just about everything in this competitive sport.

We left before finding out who won. There was one of those incidents, one of those judge review things, that can take forever. Also, the rain was nearing our location, and while my UCLA knit cap has much to recommend it, sheltering one from the rain is nowhere among its many benefits.
If you’ve never seen a bike race, I’d recommend it. You get to spend hours eating chips waiting for a brief glimpse of what looks remarkably like lots of guys riding bicycles for a living flanked by motorcycles and cars carrying spare bikes, yelling managers, and first aid. Plus, sponsors come by and give you free shit. I snagged a can of Xcito energy drink, a product proudly produced in the USA by CytoSport, which I’ve never seen before.

One can expect it to stay in the fridge until someone really sleepy drops by.