AMGEN Tour of California

Produced by Discovergold

Tour of California Fun Facts

By Michael Sayers
Retired Professional Cyclist and Native of Sacramento

How to Enjoy Race Day

For my final entry, I wanted to lay out some of the keys to watching the race on Saturday. It looks like the city is going all out with race-day activities, so get downtown early. The Sutter Health Community Ride covers the course so you can feel the roads that the riders will race. There’s also an expo with many of the race and team sponsors displaying their goods. I am running the Speedplay pedal booth, which is the company I am now working at, so I will be floating around. But, of course the race is the thing, so here are my tips

Three Best Places for Viewing

My first choice is to watch from the center of Capitol Park so you get to see the riders pass two times. If that is not to your liking, the finish is great because you get to see the rider’s times flash on the finish screen and you can keep track of the leader board. Next would be to go wherever Dave Towle is announcing. Dave is the best announcer in the business. He really adds spice to the whole viewing experience. Often he is at the start where he gives a little background on each guy before they rocket into orbit. Trust me when I say Dave by himself is worth the price of admission…which is free by the way.

Now, I suggest you watch each and every guy, but the last 20 guys to race are the ones that are the super stars, the Lances and Ivan Bassos and Fabian Cancellaras. Those are the guys that will set the fastest times and those are the big hitters of the race so you don’t want to miss those guys.

Another great place to view is near the big screens. A lot of the riders will have camera motos following them so you can see them the entire way around the course. The Diamond Vision screen is a great way to watch it all go down.

After the Race

Now, Saturday is Valentines Day so after the race is all said and done I am sure most of us will head out for a nice meal with our Valentine. While the riders are enjoying their post-race massages and a nice hotel buffet, the rest of us can get a nice meal in town. One cool thing to watch is how fast the race organization can set up and take down the whole show. Remember, they have to put it all up, take it all down, load it up and move it all to Santa Rosa in about 20 hours. So if you watched it from start to finish, it would be cool.

Still Can't Get Enough of the Tour

On Sunday, you can get another view of the riders as they leave from Davis and head to Santa Rosa. The stage will take somewhere around 4 1/2 hours for the boys to race, so you will have plenty of time to see them off and then head for the finish to see them race around the streets of Santa Rosa.

Finally…

One thing I want to mention is that Santa Rosa always has the biggest crowd of the whole week. I know Sacramento can do better and the better we do as a community the more the riders remember it. So let's get out and enjoy the day. That is the great part of watching a bike race. You get to make a day of it with your family.