2011 Amgen Tour of California - The Heat

Minden Airport with Lake Tahoe in background to the West

I've been looking at the first 4 stages of the Amgen Tour, and nothing will be decided in the first 3. The first stage in Tahoe is at about 6,000 ft of elevation, but the next two are downhill and low altitude stages respectively, so if you've been training at altitude, it won't help much because you'll have dumped most of those red blood cells before stage #4 when the going gets tough.

Of course, there is something to be said for the cardio development that comes with high altitude training, but the trade-off is slower recovery in thin air. If you want to keep the advantage of high altitude training I have a couple of suggestions. If you want to train in the coastal range, Patterson is cheap and provides great access to stage #4 climbs.

One, you can stay in Tahoe. Think France. Expensive and snooty. Or you can go over the mountain and stay in Minden, Nevada. Think Greece. Cheap, warm, and inviting. Minden is part of the high desert that forms on the back sides of the California Sierra Mountains, and as such, has heat to rival Phoenix. (hint, runway direction will indicate prevailing wind direction any place on Earth)

The last year we had a winter like this was '05-'06, and our long, cool, wet spring turned into a week of scorching hot 112-117 degrees of heat after a whole 3 days of 'spring'. I'm going to go out on a limb and say, this year, the big surprise of the Amgen Tour will be the intense heat - especially on stage #7, the Queen Stage in the San Gabriel Mountains north of LA - but also climbing Mt Hamilton.

I DNF-ed on Hamilton in 2008 in 100+ degree heat, having burned through 3 24oz bottles and 2 donated bottles from a rider returning on the Canyon Classic's Mt Hamilton ride - an out and back. I finished with ease the next year in cool, cloudy, rainy conditions. The road to Hamilton is very sheltered from wind, the asphalt is stripped of stone and pitch black (hellishly hot in the sun), and is gooey and pulled off the roadbed, forming an asphalt washboard. You should also be very comfortable with cattle grates for this stage.

The official stage description is pretty accurate, although RideWithGPS has the grade a bit higher at 9% on average. (drag the mouse over the bottom ride profile ribbon and you can select any arbitrary segment to zoom in on) This trace was taken in '09 in 1-Second mode with the Garmin Edge 305 mounted on a carbon tube zip-tied to my aerobars. The signal strength reported on every ride by the old Garmin site was always, without exception, 'Excellent'. This is as good as it gets.

The descent from 'The Junction', where Mines Rd meets Del Puerto Canyon Rd (last year's stage #3 took this turn and descent into Patterson) is 1,000 ft, and the road is largely straight, and fast, with good surface. There are some wicked twisting descents where there will be crashes, because the surface prevents adequate braking if you're out of position, so keeping your team at the front, or at the rear might be a good strategy.

As you descend, Hamilton will loom larger and larger, and the pastures on the right side of the road will get greener and greener. There are two lakes right at the bottom of the descent. Remember those. When you pass the 2nd one, you have 5km before the start of the approach climb, and 7km before the main climb. Time to bring the team up front, putting your strongman to work, with the goal of flying past the leaders right at the crest of the approach climb. This will stretch the peleton out and give you some maneuvering room while the road is still straight and wide.

Note that this approach climb is quite steep. If your team has a big, strong rider like Thor Hushovd, or George Hincapie, I'd want him at the front, pulling the team's climbers down the backside and into the initial part of the Hamilton climb. There's an intense switch-back at mile 5.6 on the trace. Don't be out of position there, or expect to get dropped. The pack will probably shatter and fall apart right there, as there isn't much room to cut the corner.

Have your climber out in front and he'll have a good chance to lead the rest of the stage. and perhaps, the race. (Tony would find a lot of fellow countrymen at the Minden Airport, as it has the best glider conditions in the world, and attracts many German glider pilots)

For training, I've put together two training rides, one out of Minden that takes in most of The Death Ride climbs (Kit Carson on hwy 88 is left as an option), and one out of Markleeville (or Picketts Junction, where 89 Ts into 88, has a nice parking lot) that includes Kit Carson Pass, but features the fearsome Sonora Pass climb.

Sonora Pass is signed at 26% grade, and has fantastic views. Once over the west side of Monitor Pass, the approach to Sonora Pass is lots of warm to hot 5,00-6,000 ft fast flat-ish hwy 395. The top of Sonora is 9,624 ft, but it's the tight, twisting, steepness that makes it such a great training route for coastal range routes like Hamilton. We had a lot of snow this year, so it should be scouted to make sure it's open, or check the CalTrans website.

There are some mom and pop stores/gas stations along 395, so you don't really need SAG, but the shoulder is narrow iirc, and truck traffic is plentiful, though courteous. There's a USMC mountain training center just after you leave 395, before Kennedy Meadows, and before the main climb. If the road is open that far, ride down to MiWuk Village, refuel at the general store, turn around and head back.

Ebbetts Pass is also packed with tight, steep turns, has a NE exposure, a nice USFS campground with good water and bathroom facilities, and is a climb similar to Hamilton. If the pass is open, you can go all the way down to Bear Valley ski lodge. Climbing Ebbetts from the west side is part of the Death Ride, and will make a worthy addition to your training.

To all of this year's Amgen Tour competitors, I wish you the very best of luck, and hope you feel a little more at home in our beautiful state after reading this. If more competitors knew about these passes perhaps they would find their way into the race. Cheers!

This is what Hamilton looks like with 500X the power. If this looks fast to you pros, this is how you look to us mortals! :)

Black Days

Woke up a few days ago with Sound Garden's "Black Days" running through my head. My mood was even blacker. Four weeks on I shouldn't be so tired and hurt so much. Turns out I was right. My dentist appointment turned up a molar in bad need of some TLC. Root canal and 2 weeks of antibiotics, but a week into the meds my energy level is much better. Didn't think a broken bone should be kicking my butt that bad.

About that. I happened to be looking at the X-Rays again and noticed there is a scale ruler on the bottom of the straight-on film. Based on that, the longitudinal break was almost 4" long. That's a lot more bone surface to heal up than a clean snap break (with two very sharp edges that caused all the bleeding seen in the bruising), so pretty happy it's been healing up well the last week, and I've gotten a lot of my mobility back. I can even interlace my fingers above my head - and it feels good too.

Will have to pull the back wheel off the bike this week and take it to Mad Cat to get the kicked spoke replaced. Find myself looking at the Performance Bike Shop spam I get emailed, so probably be riding again by the time the Pro teams show up to practice for the Amgen Tour of California again this year.

It's going to be the best one yet, with some super tough stages. The one I'm thrilled about will be stage #2 from Lake Tahoe to Sacramento. That's about 7,000 ft downhill. Don't know what the course is yet, but AFAICT, I-80 is the only way down in parts, so look for a scorching fast stage.

I enjoyed myself a 2-day grunge-fest, after which my spirits were much better, and like the song says, "I sure don't mind the change".

Amgen Tour of California: Stage 4

Watching the ATOC on the tracker today the terrain started to look very familiar, and then the announcer said those magic words, "Del Puerto Canyon Road", and I knew instantly that the tour was heading down the same patch of road I'd ridden on returning from Mt Hamilton on the Canyon Classic Century last year. A little checking revealed that the entire center section of today's stage was the first 60% of the Canyon Classic Century.

It was thrilling watching the entire Peleton strung out like a long piece of mozzarella cheese as the riders flew down those same rough, broken, narrow, patched roads I had struggled up going to Mt Hamilton, and flown back down returning to Patterson. The road cuts through the old crumbly rock like a gash. Walls of rock rising straight up from the road, inviting rock sizes from pebbles to boulders to fall onto a road littered with debris. Little wonder there were 3 wheel changes and 10 mechanicals on that 20 mile stretch of road.

Lets not forget the rim-shattering, bottle ejecting cattle grates, and steep, sometimes 16% grades that suck you right into hairpin turns on road so rough you have to stand in the pedals and use your calves for suspension to keep both brakes hooked up well enough to keep from flying off the end of the road - all 10ft of it - and down into canyons unprotected by guardrails. Road so narrow it has no center lane markings, but dishes out endless potholes and makes that flat, hollow sound when you roll over it. The sound of a thin crust that is loose but not yet dislodged from the layer just under it.

Then down, down, down in thrilling 3-6% grade to Frank Raines Regional Park where the road flattens into an endless false flat when climbing up from Patterson, but provides thrilling speed with just the slightest bit of power on the way down. Finally the road bends around the large stream that flows through the valley floor, where freshly planted fruit trees dot the hillside, marking the climb back out of the valley, across I-5, and into Patterson.

I remember well the "suicide squirrels" on this section of road returning near sunset - so many having lost their race across the road to oncoming trucks and cars, their crushed bodies still thrashing as I flew past. The calm, detached numbness with which I watched - induced by a long, hard day of riding - as one hit my chainring, spinning it, rolling like a log, its long body curling up into a ball instinctively as its tail flipping into my rear wheel, threatening to topple me into a heap just 10-12 miles from the finish. Then spitting him out of my wheel, looking back in vain, curious to know if any serious damage had been done, but finding he'd disappeared into the waist high tumble weeds overgrowing the edges of the road as fast as he'd appeared.

As for the race from Patterson to the finish, it offered so many plot twists I gave up trying to figure out what might happen next, or who might blow themselves up trying to do the impossible sprint to the finish, or stay out on a 1-man break. I have to say though, I think the long descent must have tempted many to greatness today, as there were endless attacks right to the end. Attacks that answered some questions for me about how any team could beat Cavendish.

Like a puncher with a substantial reach disadvantage who works over his opponent's  body until the head dies, Garmin Transitions attacked 3 times, as did Cervelo, and with nothing to gain Radio Shack left it to HTC to pull Cavendish for 3 long circuits around Modesto, disrupting their timing, and tiring the train that puts Cav in position to win 100 yards from the finish line on such flat, fast stages.

Like the defense collapsing on Kobe, everyone worked to thwart Cav today - and he almost beat them in spite of it all. In the end though, he settled for 3rd, and settled a bet I'd made with a friend. You can't beat Cav, but you can beat the body that supports that head, and he will go down with them.

This, the half-way stage of the Tour, was just fantastic. A play so full of surprises it was new in a way I've not experienced in many years. This move to May has paid such huge dividends. This is a field close to its TDF peak. A field of competitors.

It will be absolutely thrilling to see if Johan, Lance and Levi can pull off the biggest win short of the TDF. Big Bear is going to be a monster, and my guess is only 20-30 riders will be there for the final climb. The rest will have been shattered in the San Gabriel Mountains. The ATOC has arrived!