The Big Picture
Although touted as “America’s Greatest Race,” the Tour of California comes into 2013 with an inferiority complex. Much of the race drama of last year’s race was sucked out by the combination of the dominating performance of Peter Sagan, who won five of the eight stages (and nearly a sixth) and the fact that the race was decided in just a few minutes on the final pitches of Mt. Baldy on Stage 7 – hardly the nail-biting day-by-day battle that promoters and fans had looked for. The weather was grand, the crowds all along the route huge, but the racing itself was sometimes underwhelming.
For fans in California, there is no competition for this race – it’s the biggest and longest and this year the course stretches from San Diego to Santa Rosa. There are many great places to … More