2011 Amgen Tour - Stage 3

Well, they're off, under cloudy skies in a spitting rain. This would normally be a very fast course, but they are headed right into the teeth of steady 15-18mph winds, gusting to 30mph. They'll be coming within 10 miles of Carmichael in an hour or so, and the winds here are in the 15-18mph range here at 11:00AM. It's not raining here, but the roads are wet from intermittent rain overnight.

This will likely be the first day of real racing, as the riders are anxious to put some time into the Peleton after two frustrating days. There's already a 7-rider breakaway group off the front, and the SRAM neutral support cars just went ahead of the Peleton. With the wind, they'll have to work well together, or get swallowed up again by the Peleton.

The wind is supposed to shift from SSE to SSW until about Sacramento, and then will be due south heading into Modesto. The course is roughly due south, and after Sacramento, in pretty exposed flat country. The E part of the SSE here in California comes from the giant Pacific storm's swirls being pushed east as they rub up against the Sierra mountains coming up from Southern California. The course, being at the feet of those mountains, is going to bear the brunt of those winds.

The scenery should be spectacular, especially around Camanche Reservoir where the route will be familiar with anyone who's ridden the Sacramento Bike Hiker's annual Party Pardee 100k ride. Before this storm system rolled in, we had 246% of our normal annual rainfall here in Northern California, so lush and green doesn't even begin to cover it.

Enjoy the coverage on The Shack Tracker  starting at 1:15.

PS: I'm doing a poor-man's live blog via the comments, as they are time-stamped. Enjoy!