Mark's Notebook


	If you believe everything you read, better not read. - Japanese Proverb

World's best cyclists in 8-day, 600-mile road race

San Francisco Chronicle

Friday 17 February 2006, 12:51 pm
Keywords: Bicycle Accident , News Articles

by Steve Rubenstein, Chronicle Staff Writer

It's the Tour of California, an eight-day, 600-mile race from San Francisco to Southern California, modeled after the Tour de France and featuring more than 100 riders from 16 top teams. It's the biggest bike race ever to huff and puff into California, the sort of affair Lance Armstrong would be riding in if he hadn't broken every cyclist's heart by retiring.

It starts Sunday with a sprint in San Francisco. The next day, the pack pedals from Sausalito through the rural roads of Marin and Sonoma counties to Santa Rosa. After that, the affair proceeds from Martinez to San Jose before heading to Monterey, the Big Sur coast and the Los Angeles basin. The race is sponsored by Health Net and AEG, part of Anschutz Corp.

Leland Mew, a 56-year-old emergency room doctor, rode back and forth over the race route, from Lafayette to Moraga, checking his speed on his handlebar gizmo and lamenting that it was not quite the 28 mph that the pack of pros is expected to average. "But I'm doing OK for an old guy,'' Mew said.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/02/17/BIKES.TMP&nl=top

Mark sez: don't expect to see me in that pack.