Tour of California News
Slowly but surely, news of the second annual Tour of California will be arriving and over the past couple days a bit of information has leaked out. The tour will again take eight days, start in San Francisco and end in Redondo Beach. As many as 18 teams, two more than in the inaugural race, are expected.
San Jose, CA will be hosting another finsh, but will not be hosting the time trial as they did last year. The reason being, Floyd Landis put too much time into the other competitors and essentially won the race that day. The promoters want to save that type of excitement for later in the race and create a situation where the outcome won't be decided until the final stage.
It will be interesting to see which Eastbay city will host the start of the stage ending in SJ. Last year was my home town of Martinez, which made it even more exciting for me and my family. I'd expect a start somewhere near Martinez, but I wouldn't expect Martinez to get the nod again this year. One idea I have is to make the start in Benicia and race across the bridge into Martinez. I think this could work because a new bridge is being built next to the current bridge and it should be complete by next February so as not to hold up traffic. Ah, just a pipe dream on my part, huh?
The stage following the San Jose finish will begin somewhere around Monterey once again. So we can expect a stage similar to last years Monterey to SLO stage as SLO is confirmed as the finish host for the stage run on Thursday afternoon February 22.
That's all I've heard so far but I'll have to ask my brother to ask his friend, Officer Mike of the SJPD about getting the inside scoop for at least the SJ stage. As well, Amgen is expected to drop the lowdown on the route sometime during the Tour de France.
San Jose, CA will be hosting another finsh, but will not be hosting the time trial as they did last year. The reason being, Floyd Landis put too much time into the other competitors and essentially won the race that day. The promoters want to save that type of excitement for later in the race and create a situation where the outcome won't be decided until the final stage.
It will be interesting to see which Eastbay city will host the start of the stage ending in SJ. Last year was my home town of Martinez, which made it even more exciting for me and my family. I'd expect a start somewhere near Martinez, but I wouldn't expect Martinez to get the nod again this year. One idea I have is to make the start in Benicia and race across the bridge into Martinez. I think this could work because a new bridge is being built next to the current bridge and it should be complete by next February so as not to hold up traffic. Ah, just a pipe dream on my part, huh?
The stage following the San Jose finish will begin somewhere around Monterey once again. So we can expect a stage similar to last years Monterey to SLO stage as SLO is confirmed as the finish host for the stage run on Thursday afternoon February 22.
That's all I've heard so far but I'll have to ask my brother to ask his friend, Officer Mike of the SJPD about getting the inside scoop for at least the SJ stage. As well, Amgen is expected to drop the lowdown on the route sometime during the Tour de France.
posted by Tony Rocha at
6/21/2006
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