Tour of California final stage *spoiler*

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Comments

  • afx237vi
    afx237vi Posts: 12,630
    The only thing I would change is the length of time trial. It's too long and has too much of an influence on the final GC.

    The Big Bear "summit finish" was a bit underwhelming, but there was some interesting racing on the 3rd (I think?) stage where the 3 leaders made their move, and yesterday's stage which was a lot tougher than I thought it was going to be.
  • FJS
    FJS Posts: 4,820
    The fight for the GC was interesting, and in a different way than in most continental European tours. Like mididoctors, I think that's a good thing. Still, there was more excitement around the race in February, with the benefit of it being the first big race of the season - the excitement for Omloop Het Volk/Nieuwsblad is also much more intense than of that race would be held in September (see Paris-Brussels). The competition for attention is much tougher in May.

    The route could do with some exciting, spectacular elements, like a mountain top finish, some steep streets in San Francisco (Berkeley has some 30%+ killers too), etc. The biggest issue though is whether it will even maintain its position. There's the potential to be a annual feature of say Tour de Suisse status, and it clearly is already the most significant event in cycling outside Europe, but so was the Tour DuPont, and that didn't last

    .
  • mididoctors
    mididoctors Posts: 18,908
    FJS wrote:
    and that didn't last

    .

    I suspect the ToC may be in for leaner times too
    "If I was a 38 year old man, I definitely wouldn't be riding a bright yellow bike with Hello Kitty disc wheels, put it that way. What we're witnessing here is the world's most high profile mid-life crisis" Afx237vi Mon Jul 20, 2009 2:43 pm

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