Whatever sacrifices were made to the weather gods to ensure a successful inaugural Amgen Tour of California paid off.

What could have been a week of pneumonia-inducing wind and rain instead turned into an extended postcard of spectacular scenery and generally nice weather.

The highlight was stage four, along Highway 1 from Monterey to San Luis Obispo. A leg that could have been ruined by a winter storm instead featured helicopter shots of cyclists cruising far above the blue Pacific on a crystal clear Big Sur day.

The weather and scenery in Redondo Beach yesterday may not have been quite up to that standard, but an estimated 100,000* people turned out to watch the race’s Los Angeles-area finish.

My son, the Junior Administration Official, and I watched most of the race from several locations at the southern end of the circuit, on the hill from Torrance Beach toward Palos Verdes.

Pre-race worries about street closures and the size of the crowd didn’t pan out. There was street parking within a few hundred yards of the course. There were several hundred spectators at the top of the hill, but on the long straightaway back down toward Riviera Village the crowd was much more spread out.

Out at the curb, internet-enabled onlookers peered into their phones to get updates from the race web site. Blocked in by the race, many neighborhood residents had parties. Everyone seemed to be having fun.

A few photos (click to enlarge):

Aaron Olsen (USA) of Prodir Saunier Duval leads a four-rider break up from Torrance Beach to the turn onto PV drive …

… followed over five minutes later by the crash-delayed peloton

… the next time around, the break saw their lead reduced by about a minute …

The peloton in pursuit down PV drive toward Riviera Village.

Let’s hope the ToC becomes a February tradition here in the LA area. Race organizers AEG will just have to budget for the annual sacrifice to the weather gods that worked so well this year.

—
* this seems awfully high … perhaps this is supplied by the same folks who figure a billion people watch the Oscars? Redondo Beach police told the Daily Breeze that their number was 30k - 40k, which seems far more reasonable.

Technorati Tags: cycling, Redondo Beach, Tour of California

This entry was posted on Monday, February 27th, 2006 at 10:30 am by A Senior Administration Official and is filed under Cycling. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.