Thoughts On the ’09 ATOC Solvang TT Course
The 2009 Amgen Tour of California time trial will be held on a 24 km (15 mile) course that starts and finishes in the Danish village of Solvang, CA. I had a chance to ride it 3 times today and here are my thoughts.
* The first mile will be the hardest. After .3 miles of flat, the road climbs madly for about 1/2 mile with grades around 9%. I hit a kilowatt every time on this section, the pros will likely hit 1.3 - 1.4 kw.
* The course is very technical with four 90 degree corners coming after fast downhills.
* Ballard Canyon is a twisty, short yet steep climb on a very crappy road that looks like it could have been paved my the incompetent folks at the Colorado Dept. of Transportation.
* There are very few flat and fast sections. I rode with a Cat. 1 who was riding a Specialized Transition TT bike and though he could drop me on the flats, his TT bike was no match for my road machine once the road tilted up.
* The course offers a lot of natural protection from the wind.
* My best time was a little over 35 minutes and that was riding with the guy I mentioned above. I think the winner can go sub 30.
I'll be taking pics and will post them here. [UPDATE 2/25/09] Finally got my pics up here.
February 23rd, 2009 - 07:38
I’m so glad you took the opportunity to experience attending this race – good for you, and kudos to you too Amy for being such a good sport about it!
Nance
February 23rd, 2009 - 08:40
cool that you got to race. just watched your doggie videos trying to get them to wear their boots. mr. puggle won’t wear them no matter how hard we try. i put a link to your dog licking flash on my blog.
February 25th, 2009 - 17:57
Hmmmm Levi won….so I guess we know the name of our grandson to be then don’t we!!
February 25th, 2009 - 18:26
Haha, well, we don’t even know it’s going to be a boy and I was just kidding when I was twittering about naming a boy after the ATOC winner.
But ironically and independently of that statement, Amy told me she liked the name before she ever heard of Levi Leipheimer. We’ll see!