Re: [Paddlewise] Amgen Toure of California Bicycle Race

Craig Jungers wrote:
> I am giving some thought to driving down to watch a portion of the Tour of
> California bicycle race in May. 
...
>  I'm aware of the fact that you'd wait hours for 5
> minutes of action (not including the antics of the crowd). The stage leading
> out of San Jose has a serious climb right off the bat and finding myself a
> spot on that climb would be nice.
I'm pretty familiar with the roads for the first part of the San Jose to 
Modesto Stage.  The Sierra Rd to Calaveras Rd section is a rural, steep 
and twisty road that I would expect not to attract much of a crowd.  The 
Mines Rd section is also very rural and quite scenic.  I've take the 
road over the top of Mt. Hamilton a few times where it turns into Mines 
Rd at the summit.  It's real easy to forget that there is a large 
metropolis just over the hill while traveling that road.  I've seen the 
turn off to Patterson Rd but never took it.   I used to live in 
Pleasanton, the nearest town to Livermore and although Livermore is the 
biggest town on the stage once it leaves San Jose it's hardly what one 
would describe as a "city" and I wouldn't expect that you'd see big 
crowds even if you were within the Livermore town limits.   Except for 
the start and ending cities most of this route is on infrequently 
traveled rural roads.

For the SF to Santa Cruz route there are many small towns along Hwy 1 
and the climbs on Tunitas, Bonny Doon, and La Honda are very scenic.  A 
base camp in Half Moon Bay would provide a good launch point for 
watching the race and a good area to paddle as well.

-- 
John Fereira
Cornell University
Twitter: _at_john_fereira
Google Wave: fereira_at_googlewave.com
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