IronCamp Day One Update

Marin to Santa Rosa: 97 miles in 6.5 hours.

Today was the first day of IronCamp West Coast 2007, and the first stage of the Tour of California. The course was set from Marin to Santa Rosa.

We rolled at 7:30, giving the group a 3.5-hour head start on the peloton. There were two major climbs on the day, the first almost right away in Muir Woods (1500ft) and the second just outside of Ocean View (1000ft). All in all, the profile looked pretty easy and we were psyched to be on our way.

Right out of the gate we were suffering in Muir Woods...it was beautiful, but it was straight up. No real time to check out the amazing scenery, it was just shift, stand, shift, sit, repeat. The descent to the ocean on Rte. 1 was awesome, with the banked roads setting you up just right for the next turn. Hitting the flats, we were psyched to lay down a good effort and were hit by our nemesis for the remainder of the day: the wind. Not so bad on the tidal inlets, it was enough to make you feel like you were working.

We then hit another solid climb of about a mile (500ft), and then we were off to the rolling seacoast...and the wind. Did I mention the wind??? Killer scenery blended into one big blur while we focused on the uphills and downhills. You almost didn't want to go up because you knew after the down there would be another up. This rolling terrain was finished off by four miles off full on 30+ mph winds off the water...we were all riding at a healthy angle into the wind!

Turning off the main road and finally putting the wind at our backs only meant that we were hitting the first King of the Mountain stage. Fans were all along this 3 mile stretch. Some were riding up, others riding down, many just camped along the edges. The roads were painted with pro names. Very cool, but very narrow. Later in the day, the peloton would hit this as one big pack of 140+ riders as the prevailing winds didn't allow the group to really split up. Killer part of this climb was that the KOM point was at the first of three total big climbs...we assumed that the first climb would be the doozy...not the remaining ones. Serious suffering was had here, and the funny cheers of the fans could only motivate so much.

After this section, there was some significant rollers that finally...finally...tapered down into Santa Rosa. We regrouped just on the outskirts of town and crushed some massive burritos while we waited for the peloton to show. Turns out they were over an hour late because of the weather...some of the fans were really ticked that the racers were later than scheduled. The peloton looked none-too-happy as they whizzed by. We rolled up to watch the 3 x 3 mile circuit of the town and were there to see Levi (and many others) struggle to finish with some serious road rash.

Tomorrow is 115 miles....stay tuned!!!

Patrick