Tour of California Stage 4

Site Admin Joined: Sep 23, 2004 Posts: 95

I hope everyone is watching the Tour of California on Versus weeknights at 5 PM. (DVR it and fast forward through the commercials). Stage 4 was one of the most outstanding mountain climbs I have ever seen. Chris Horner on Team Radio Shack blew the field away by over 1:15. Second was a not too shabby climber named: Andy Schleck. Chris Horner is the second oldest rider at age 39. If nothing else, the high def pictures are beautiful!!! Very Happy

Posted: Fri May 20, 2011 9:09 am

And we do know who the oldest rider is? LOL.

Actually, it was interesting to see Tejay contesting the climb most of the way up then blow up. Hard to imagine how it must feel to go totally into the red zone and still have a mile of 10% grade to go.

Posted: Fri May 20, 2011 9:11 am

oops, just checked CyclingNews and Jens abandoned. He rode the whole stage yesterday (Thursday) with a broken wrist after a crash on Wednesday.

Site Admin Joined: Sep 23, 2004 Posts: 95

Yes, it was sad to see Jans crash out. But we all know "old men" who love to cycle, never die! Exclamation

It is nice to see a lot of really good young talent -- Sagan, Phinney, Tejay, etc. As cycling gets "cleaner" the future looks really good! Exclamation

What's up with the Brits (Team Sky), they seem to come out of no where? I thought you would be on the top of Mt. Baldy watching that stage. That is going to be an awesome stage! Exclamation

Rooting for Horner on that one, to school the boys again! Exclamation

Posted: Sat May 21, 2011 6:45 pm

I watched the stage. Thought it was great to see that the majority of spectators at the finish had ridden up themselves!

Posted: Sat May 21, 2011 10:02 pm

If you are talking about Mt. Baldy then I'd be surprised and humbled if the majority of the spectators had ridden up. Maybe walked their bikes. It is impossible to see from TV how steep that top section, past Mt. Baldy village is. I have ridden as far as the village (where they did that last left turn) a number of times but never even would consider trying to ride up the last 5 miles. I've driven in a car up to the ski area too, when you go around those switchback corners you are almost vertical.

Very strong cyclists can make it but the majority? I think not.

Site Admin Joined: Sep 23, 2004 Posts: 95

After seeing the climb, I have put it on my bucket list. According to the broadcast, Andy Schleck switched to a bike with 36x32. If he had difficulty climbing it with that gearing, then you know it is steep! Exclamation

Chris Horner was very honorable in letting Levi take the stage win. It is nice to see such honor among teammates (remember the rivalry between Armstrong and Contador -- speaking of which, he is doing awesome climbing in the Tour of Italy which in my opinion is a tougher race because of the number of stages and distances they are riding on a daily basis). Laughing

Posted: Sun May 22, 2011 10:15 am

Laugh out loud. I know it's steep without knowing Schleck's gearing. You could see it yesterday when they showed the other riders besides Leipheimer and Horner. They were all going sideways.

http://www.socalvelo.com/sub/mount_baldy_road.htm

That's the best link to a profile that I know of. Actually, the way the ran the route yesterday was the easy way. If they came to Baldy from Claremont and or Upland they would have had about 6 to 8 miles at 8% average with two miles at 9+% before they even got to the village where it gets steep. I think they did that portion (the lower part) earlier in the day but I'm sure they were "taking it easy" at that point. I've got pictures of most of it in Albums in the Gallery here.

This March I was up right where the finish was held. There was still a bit of snow piled around at that time and the parking lot surface was a mess. The surface looked rough yesterday but they must have cleaned it up quite a bit for the Tour.