The Amgen Tour of California

The Amgen Tour of California

This week’s most exciting non-Mac news has to be the Amgen Tour of California. Sixteen of the world’s top Pro cycling teams will be racing 700 miles in eight days, from San Francisco to Redondo Beach in California.

The race started Sunday, February 19th with a short time trial prologue, then it will wind it’s way down the California coast. The tour is structured like the European tours with awards given for sprinting, best young rider and king of the mountains, as well as the leader’s yellow jersey.

On the official Tour website Adobe is providing the Flash and Premiere software that powers the Live Race Coverage window, and Google has provided their Google Local technology for the maps. For some unknown reason however there is no broadband access, as the writer of the play-by-play updates complains that he’s on a very slow wireless connection, so no real-time video is available. Velo News is also providing live text coverage. The race will be televised nightly on ESPN2, but not until 10:00 PM Pacific time. We will be recording the race on our TiVo like device which is NOT a TiVo but has TiVo inside, to watch the following evening after dinner.

The big question of this race of course is Who Will Be The Next Lance? There are some very talented riders in both the US and European peletons, but the Americans of course want an American champion. The familiar names of Levi Leipheimer, George Hincapie, Floyd Landis, Bobby Julich, Tom Danielson and Dave Zabriskie are being touted as having the talent. Several of these boys are a little long in the tooth to try for a seven year championship, though Danielson and Zabriskie might make a Tour champion one day.

Interestingly enough the tour sponsor, Amgen, is the world’s largest biotech company that pioneered EPOGEN, the recombinant form of erythropoietin that stimulates the body’s production of red blood cells. It is commonly known as EPO, primarily used to help heal cancer and kidney patients suffering from anemia. It has also been used illegally for the past 15 years by cyclists and other endurance athletes to boost their oxygen uptake. Lots of people have lots of different takes on this. My own take is that I’m glad someone has stepped up with a five year commitment to sponsor a Pro Tour in the United States. (Hat Tip to Velo News for the above tidbit.

There’s something about a hundred or more riders screaming down a highway in their tight little racing clothes that make a girl’s heart go pitter-patter. I for one am glad to have this bright diversion to finish up what could have been an otherwise dull February.