The Third Stage of the 2010 Amgen Tour of California Still Dogged by Unusual Weather Pattern

The third stage of the 2010 Amgen Tour of California, from San Francisco to Monterey, found the cyclists continuing to cope with slippery streets and drippy hills as the El Nino weather pattern continued to bring showers to Northern California for the second day in a row.

Despite the drizzle, children from Woodside Elementary School got to skip class for a short time to see the cyclists race by. They excitedly clanked their cow bells and cheered the racers on as they sped by, followed by miles of support cars, vans, police, and ambulances. All the race activity created quite a commotion on the usually serene Woodside Road, the only road in town. It took quite awhile to untangle the residual traffic in this upscale, quiet wooded area. Laura Hovden, a Woodside resident who was excited that the race went through her town, worried about the slippery steep roads, saying, "It must have been treacherous coming down Kings Mountain Road," a steep grade of 16% with numerous tight switchbacks that descends 1540 feet in 4.3 miles.

California enjoys a Mediterranean climate, which normally means mild, rainy winters and warm, dry summers, with little rain falling between May and September. This May has been unusual, with weekly storms continuing to rolling through, bringing needed rain to a drought-ravaged state, while creating some challenging conditions for the bicycle race. The West Coast has been experiencing the El Nino phenomenon this year, which is a weather pattern precipitated by a warming of the tropical Pacific ocean resulting in wetter than usual storms.

The TV coverage being provided by Versus has been unusually uneven, drawing criticism yesterday from seven-time Tour de France champion, Lance Armstrong, via Twitter. Coverage for Stage 1 inexplicably started mid-stage skipping the scenic Sierra mountain start in the historic gold-rush town of Nevada City, instead beginning coverage in the flats of the Central Valley heading into Sacramento. Stage 2 began with a light rain in the Davis to Santa Rosa leg, preventing the airplane from flying that collects the video feed from the ground, essentially "grounding" veteran cycling commentators Paul Sherwin, Phil Liggett and Bob Roll. They managed to fill time with reports from the field and scenes from Stage 1, showing only the finish of Stage 2. For Stage 3 Versus prematurely cut the finish to break away for the opening of a hockey game. Armstrong, of Team RadioShack, sent the following Tweet at around 5 p.m., "Who's the [person]@versustv that cut off @AmgenTourofCali coverage w/ a mile to go for pregame hockey?? #pathetic."

Stage Results
The stages so far have produced a variety of stage wins for riders who are entitled to wear the coveted yellow jersey the following day, so no one racer has dominated. However the stage winners have featured well-known cyclists from around the world.

Stage 1
The Stage 1 winner, Isle of Man resident Mark Cavendish from Team HTC-Columbia, was favored to win this mostly downhill leg from Nevada City to Sacramento due to his sprinting skills. He won the stage in 4 hours and 4 minutes.

Stage 2
On the second stage of the race, Australian Brett Lancaster from Cervelo TestTeam won the yellow jersey on the section between Davis and Santa Rosa. His time was 4 hours, 38 minutes.

Stage 3
American cyclist Dave Zabriskie, from Garmin Transitions won the third stage from San Francisco to Monterey in 4 hours and 26 minutes. He posted a Tweet after the win, writing, "Thanks for all the kind words everybody."

Stage 4
Francesco Chicchi of the Italian team Liquigas-Doimo won Stage 4 from San Jose to Modesto in 4 hours and 55 minutes. Zabriskie kept the overall lead, followed by Michael Rogers of HTC-Columbia in second place, and Levi Leipheimer of RadioShack in third. Armstrong began in 12th place but crashed on the final stretch, and was given the same finishing time as the group.

Next Stage
The fifth stage will cover 121.5 miles from Visalia to Bakersfield on Thursday. The race will conclude on Sunday in Thousand Oaks.

Resources:
Tour of California: www.amgentourofcalifornia.com/
Twitter:
Tour of California (twitter.com/Amgentourofcali)
Levi Leipheimer (twitter.com/LeviLeipheimer)
Lance Armstrong (twitter.com/LanceArmstrong)
Dave Zabriskie (twitter.com/dzabriskie)
Bob Roll (twitter.com/bobkeroll)
Phil Liggett (twitter.com/PhilLiggett)