# Stage 3 of Tour of California



## Mtn2RoadConvert (Aug 28, 2006)

Looks like the speculation is over on the route through the peninsula. Tunitas Creek up over Skyline and down Kings Mountain and back up over Highway 84, Pescadero Rd. to Cloverdale Rd., to Gazos Creek Rd. down to Highway 1. Looks like a pretty good route...

http://www.amgentourofcalifornia.com/docroot/media/2010/2010-stage3-map.pdf


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## mohair_chair (Oct 3, 2002)

It is a good route, but I'd love to see them eliminate Tunitas and instead take Stage Road into Pescadero, then up to Skyline via Pescadero Road and Alpine. Pescadero/Alpine is the closest thing we have here to the real climbs in the Alps.


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## Mtn2RoadConvert (Aug 28, 2006)

Yes, up W. Alpine would have been great, but how would the route get back down to the coast?


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## mohair_chair (Oct 3, 2002)

Mtn2RoadConvert said:


> Yes, up W. Alpine would have been great, but how would the route get back down to the coast?


Why bother? Half the course is already spent on the coast. Just cruise down Hwy 9 into Santa Cruz, or take Jamison/Alba/Felton Empire over the ridge and descend Bonny Doon to the sea.


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## chuckice (Aug 25, 2004)

Why do they never hit Tam or Hamilton or Diablo?  A TT up Diablo would be sweet.


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## makeitso (Sep 20, 2008)

I think they hit Mt. Hamilton in '07? Or I at least remember reading something about it.


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## HammerTime-TheOriginal (Mar 29, 2006)

In '08, they did Mt. Hamilton up from the Livermore side and down to the San Jose side (followed by Sierra road). 

Too bad the rumored Page Mill did not make the "grade" for this year's stage 3.


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## ukbloke (Sep 1, 2007)

HammerTime-TheOriginal said:


> In '08, they did Mt. Hamilton up from the Livermore side and down to the San Jose side (followed by Sierra road).


That was an awesome stage. Hincapie tried to break away descending Mt Hamilton but was caught. Gesink and Leipheimer rode away from the rest of the leaders and the hardest part of Sierra, and made a deal so that Gesink got the stage but Leipheimer got the time that he needed to win the GC. This was a much better use of Sierra than the current route, which just annoys the sprinters who then need to work their butts off to get back onto the peleton so that they can be there for the guaranteed sprint finish in the Central Valley.



HammerTime-TheOriginal said:


> Too bad the rumored Page Mill did not make the "grade" for this year's stage 3.


Yeah, that would have been awesome even if it is too far from the finish to be meaningful to the stage. They could at least have picked Old La Honda rather than just chugging up 84. I guess they made that choice for better TV accessibility - which will probably amount to less than 1 minute of footage on the Versus highlights.


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## goloso (Feb 4, 2004)

*a shot from said climb*



ukbloke said:


> That was an awesome stage. Hincapie tried to break away descending Mt Hamilton but was caught. Gesink and Leipheimer rode away from the rest of the leaders and the hardest part of Sierra, and made a deal so that Gesink got the stage but Leipheimer got the time that he needed to win the GC. This was a much better use of Sierra than the current route, which just annoys the sprinters who then need to work their butts off to get back onto the peleton so that they can be there for the guaranteed sprint finish in the Central Valley.


Here is a shot I took of Gesink sitting on Levi's wheel.


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## Number9 (Nov 28, 2004)

ukbloke said:


> That was an awesome stage. Hincapie tried to break away descending Mt Hamilton but was caught.


Hincapie on a solo break with about 4.5 miles to go before the bottom of the Mt. Hamilton descent. Nice when a major race passes by your neighborhood!


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## robwh9 (Sep 2, 2004)

So, how far into the race do you think a not-so-fast rider (~7 hour century) could watch the show and then beat the leaders to Santa Cruz to see the finish? Top of Tunitas? Bottom of Tunitas?


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## mohair_chair (Oct 3, 2002)

Number9 said:


> Hincapie on a solo break with about 4.5 miles to go before the bottom of the Mt. Hamilton descent. Nice when a major race passes by your neighborhood!


As I recall, Hincapie ended up solo not because he attacked, but because the group he was with couldn't descend Hamilton anywhere near as fast as he could. That had to be crazy fast.


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## Mtn2RoadConvert (Aug 28, 2006)

The anticipated time to ride Stage 3 is between 3:01 - 3:41 hours, so if I were riding I would try to catch at the start of Tunitas and ride down Highway 1 to Santa Cruz. Not sure you would have enough time to watch at the top of Tunitas and still safely beat the winner & the peloton down to the finish, or be allowed to ride on the nearby roads.


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## ukbloke (Sep 1, 2007)

Mtn2RoadConvert said:


> The anticipated time to ride Stage 3 is between 3:01 - 3:41 hours, so if I were riding I would try to catch at the start of Tunitas and ride down Highway 1 to Santa Cruz. Not sure you would have enough time to watch at the top of Tunitas and still safely beat the winner & the peloton down to the finish, or be allowed to ride on the nearby roads.


Those time estimates don't look right to me. It got to be more than 4 hours.

Anyway, Skyline and Highway 9 will be full of speeding cars with the same objective. I'm not sure that I'd risk it. Plus there is the problem as to how to get back home or back to the car at the end of it all!


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## mohair_chair (Oct 3, 2002)

robwh9 said:


> So, how far into the race do you think a not-so-fast rider (~7 hour century) could watch the show and then beat the leaders to Santa Cruz to see the finish? Top of Tunitas? Bottom of Tunitas?


There is no way you can do this on a bike.

About the only place you might possibly pull that off would be to watch at the bottom of Bonny Doon, then get on your bike and ride down Hwy 1 into Santa Cruz for the finish. Even then, you would have to be pretty fast to pull it off. But why bother? What's the point?


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## robwh9 (Sep 2, 2004)

mohair_chair said:


> There is no way you can do this on a bike.
> 
> About the only place you might possibly pull that off would be to watch at the bottom of Bonny Doon, then get on your bike and ride down Hwy 1 into Santa Cruz for the finish. Even then, you would have to be pretty fast to pull it off. But why bother? What's the point?


 I'll have to do some calculations.

Why would I do it? I'd rather ride and watch some racing than work, of course.

Edit: On further review, I think I can beat them to SC. They have about 80 miles to go from the bottom of Tunitas (if I'm reading the profile correctly), whereas I'd have only about 40. Plus there's usually a good tailwind.

Edit 2: I probably could see them at the bottom of Bonny Doon, too.

http://www.amgentourofcalifornia.com/docroot/media/2010/Stage3-profile.pdf

http://www.amgentourofcalifornia.com/docroot/media/2010/2010-stage3-map.pdf


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## Dr_John (Oct 11, 2005)

> The anticipated time to ride Stage 3 is between 3:01 - 3:41 hours


 You got that wrong from the site. That's the finish time, as in time of day. Start time is 11:15 am, so ukbloke is correct. About 4 hours.


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