Just Another Cyclist

The evening after the crash that completely disrupted the start of Stage 5 of the Amgen Tour of California, reports were coming in about some of the other riders.  Of course, news of Lance Armstrong was quick to come to light.  In fact, Bicycling magazine even came out with video of the conversations between Lance Armstrong and Johan Buryneel – filmed from the team car – from the point of the crash to the decision for Lance Armstrong to abandon.

Unfortunately – but not surprising for the Lance-centric American media coverage of cycling – details on the other riders were few and scarce.  Sometime after 9pm, details on another Radio Shack rider that was taken out in the crash – Chechu Rubiera – appeared on twitter from the @TeamRadioShack stream:

Update: Chechu is very banged up & covered with road rash, but he was managing a smile at dinner and looked to have a good appetite!

Not long after that – Viatcheslav Ekimov posted a photo of the very much road rashed Chechu:

Chechu's road rash after Stage 5 crash.

At this point I’ve not been able to find out the status of Stuart O’Grady – another rider that abandoned – or to get a list of all the riders that were unable to complete the stage due to injuries in that crash.  Unfortunately I think the noise created by Floyd Landis and his accusations of pretty much anyone in American pro cycling that he has ever had contact with probably derailed the coverage of thiseven more than the fact that Armstrong involvement normally would have.

After some unfortunate logistics I was forced to resort to Vs. television coverage of Stage 2 from Davis to Santa Rosa.  However, I got back on track for Stage 3 – heading out by bus, then train, then another bus from Sacramento to Santa Cruz for the finish.

One of the first things I noticed – Santa Cruz is “way bikey.”  In fact, just from my impressions that one day, I think Santa Cruz has Davis beat in daily bike usage.  It is also a little more relaxed on the bike front – more “european” if you will.  By that I mean there is a bigger emphasis on the utilitarian nature of the bike.  A lot of casually dressed (read: no lycra) hat headed (read: no helmet) cruiser and cargo bikes with riders going about their daily lives.  After meeting up with local bike celebrity (or maybe that is celebrity bicycle tracker) Cyclelicious, I asked him if the amount of bike traffic was normal for the town, or more a result of the fact that a major bike race was in town.  He assured me that the bikes were a completely normal part of everyday life.  I believe that is true – especially after I started to look around and noticed how many places in town had bike racks or bike lockers available.  Clearly there was demand for places to keep bikes – which means clearly there are folks out on bikes.

But on to the racing…

Finish line - Santa Cruz Boardwalk

It was an interesting course to the finish line in Santa Cruz.  There was a final, sharp turn at 150m before the finish line.  It is actually probably good that the groups broke up going over Bonny Doon about 30Km or so before the finish.  I imagine this corner could have been really really nasty for any bunched finish.  After some scouting from the cargo rack of a particular Santa Cruz area resident’s ride, I ended up passing on photo spots further up from the finish and parked myself at the 200m mark – just before that final turn.  Unfortunately, my love the using the bowling alley as a backdrop for my photos overrode my “sun sense” and as a result most of my photos turned out washed out and riddled with lens flare.  I opted for stills instead of video with my GoPro hero – a decision I now regret.  All that said, however, it was a fantastic finish.  Zabriskie, Leipheimer

Team Type 1

and Rogers came in first as a group of three going full boar.  I did manage to get a grainy shot of Jens Voigt (yes – I’m a Saxo Bank fan) at the front of the chase group, and also caught some great photos of one of the Team Type 1 riders.

Finally, the Team Radio Shack once again did their “Turn around and cool down by riding backwards from the finish line” gig, resulting in this shot of Jose Luis Rubiera Vigi:

Jose Luis Rubiera Vigil

As well as a mostly blurry shot of Mr. Armstrong:

Lance Armstrong

All in all an awesome day – great racing and an exciting finish.