I want to ride my bicycle bicycle bicycle

This week is the Amgen Tour of California, a 7-day, 700 mile, bike race from SF to Long Beach. All the big names are here, and it's exciting to see Levi Leipheimer and Ivan Basso riding in familiar Northern California scenery. This is only the second year, but it's already the biggest bike race in North America, and they're aiming to make it a major stage race like the tours of Italy, Spain, and France.

I watched some of the prologue on Sunday in SF. It was a short 1.9 mile jaunt from the Ferry Building to the Coit Tower, but they were riding as fast up Telegraph Hill as I could ride downhill with a fair tail wind!

Yesterday's stage was from Stockton to San Jose, and it was fun to watch the riders on the same roads I bike occasionally. Just finishing the Calaveras Rd. loop is a major accomplishment for me, but the pros average about 20-25 mph and ride the ten miles in less than 30 minutes, before going on to an even more severe ride over Sierra grade to San Jose. When I'm in better shape in the summer, I top out at around 20mph on a bicycle. These riders average that over 100 miles!

Hopefully the tour will stay around and keep getting bigger. It is ironic that the race is sponsored by the company that makes EPO (the #1 banned drug in pro cycling). It's like the San Francisco Giants playing at Balco Park.