Tour of California, Stage 5

So I took today (Thursday) off work, a vacation day from the last 2 months of pre-mission-madness. It was a pretty fun way to spend a day: chasing the stage! It was a game of "Catch" and I caught the stage FIVE TIMES!

First I drove up (about 20 miles) to the start at Pismo Beach. Had the gravel (road) bike in the car so I could park near the 101 freeway on-ramp (for quick egress) and ride my bike thru the throngs of pedestrians and vehicles to the pier, where the start was at.

 So here is the start. The riders were all lined up with the jerseys at the front as usual, and now they are just rolling out. Sagan is in green and you can barely see him, he dropped back into the 2nd row just about in the middle of the picture.

 The front of the peleton.

After the start and all the team cars, official cars, TV and photo motos, ambulances and whatnot had FINALLY passed I was able to zip back to my car and hit the 101 headed for home.

 Here I am in Old Orcutt, about 4 miles from my house. This is the sprint-point, and there wasn't a lot of players today. These are the only 2 riders interested. And this is my 2nd catch of the race so far.

 And here is the peleton coming thru the sprint point.

After the enormous caravan again passed I jumped back in my car and followed the race up Clark Ave where I jumped back on the 101 South (the race continued on Clark Ave out of town). They passed within 2 miles of my house as they passed Bradley Ave. I then went south to Los Alamos and a bit beyond where I turned onto Aliso Cyn rd that takes me over to Foxen Canyon (where the race is coming thru).

 Here I"m on Foxen Canyon, just a bit past Aliso Cyn where I am parked. I WAS going to ride my bike up this little cat 3 climb, but the Hwy Patrol officer yelled at me not to go. So I waited the 20 minutes or more for the race to come by (it would have taken me about 5 minutes to climb it). What really ticked me off is that a guy on a bike came thru about TWO minutes before the racers and kept going, and Mr. CHP didn't say a WORD to him! I don't get it...maybe he didn't like my bike? Anyway, this picture is the breakaway cruising along.

 The back of the break-away. That's Sagan 2nd from the back.

 And here is the main peleton blazing by. So this is my THIRD catch of the race so far. I then again got in my car and blazed back over Aliso to the 101 South, where I headed to Santa Barbara. The race was going up and over Hwy 154, and I really wanted to go up that (have never ridden it before) but it's been raining, AND instead of closing the road for several hours like they have done in years past, they are just doing rolling road-blocks (according to the AMGEN site). Ugh...no way I'm riding that with the traffic...it's a dangerous road for CARS! So I had to go with plan B: Play catch with the race.

 Here I am at the intersection fo Hwy 154 and Foothill Road in Santa Barbara. This is the PA announcer-guy vehicle. He comes up in front of the race to any group of people and stops and gives a nice race report, then moves to the next group. LOVED THAT! I don't remember them doing that before...good idea!

 

 And just a few minutes later here comes the breakaway...being led by, you guessed it: Peter Sagan!

 Here you can see the peleton coming down the off-ramp from Hwy 154, about to make the left turn onto Foothill Rd.

And the peleton is making the corner onto Foothill.

 Looking at the back of the peleton, now on Foothill. The first 2 of the team cars are in this picture. After this I jumped BACK in my car and zoomed down past Santa Barbara, hoping to turn onto Hwy 150 towards Lake Casitas, and catch the race for a FIFTH time as they turned left onto 150...but the 101 off-ramp was already closed...missed it by THAT much! So I continued on to Ventura for the finish and expo.

 There were 3 biplanes flying around, doing some simple sky-writing (big "V"s for Ventura I guess).

 And this is the winner of the women's stage (1) van der Breggen...she is the reigning world champ wearing the Rainbow jersey. She finished well ahead of the rest of the strung-out field.

 Here she's about to cross the finish line. I'm standing about 15 meters from the line...not a bad spot!

 And here comes the men (about a half-hour later). I had no idea who was leading, other than that Peter Sagan had dropped out of the lead group as they ramped up the speed for the sprint.

 Here's one of the leaders (in white) just leaving my frame...the co-leader sprinter was to his left and I didn't catch him in this shot (you can see them side by side in the previous shot). That is the rest of the chase-group coming up behind.

And looking at the breakaway and the finish line.

And that was that. I waited a bit for the main peleton to start coming in, but they were quite spread out. I finally made my way back to my car and headed for home. Total mileage for the day: 265 in the car, about 20 (maybe) on the bike. But today wasn't for bike riding anyway...it was for catching the race as many times as I could, and I think FIVE is a pretty good number. I missed six by just a bit (guessing)...but that one was an outside shot anyway...I didn't originally plan for it, just added it into my itinerary this morning wondering if it would be possible. It wasn't. 

AND SO. That is the extent of my 2019 Tour of California-watching.

Tomorrow morning I'm heading out bike-packing again (another 1 nighter, returning Saturday afternoon), further refining my gear. I've added some stuff, meaning I have even more weight than my maiden voyage 2 weeks ago (when it weighed 15lbs). But I should be that much more comfortable. We shall soon see. I just need to NOT sleep near a Coyote Super-highway this time.

Later gaters...game ON!