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Tour of California recap

Congratulations to Floyd Landis for winning the Amgen Tour of California today. He finished 29 seconds ahead of fellow American David Zabriskie to win the eight-day event along the Pacific coast. George Hincapie took the sprinters' green jersey, while Levi Leipheimer took the King of the Mountains jersey. Bobby Julich's Team CSC won the team championship.

From what I've seen, the broadcasts did improve greatly during the course of the race. The camerawork was awful for the prolouge and Stage 1, but improved greatly during the course of the week. VeloNews' Friday mailbag was filled with complaints about the coverage, most of them valid, but some readers were simply gratefuly the event got coverage at all. I'm sure the coverage of the event will improve next year.

Besides the racing, the highlights of the event were the incredible scenery of California and the Specialized Angel. Sure, the Angel was a marketing ploy, but it was a successful one because Jana Ireton got a lot of exposure. Some dismissed her because of her ties with Specialized, as opposed to the Tour de France devil, who does it for the fun of it, but I find the devil to be a bit on the self-aggrandizing side.

The lowlight for me was the green jersey segments by Clif bars. While I admire Clif's efforts to make the race as environmentally friendly as possible, I found Dylan and Paul's spots rather annoying -- even more annoying than Bob Roll's pronounciation of Tour DAY France.

Roger 1 comments 7:33 PM

Comments:

Yeah, go Floyd! I was rooting for Zabriskie myself, but he also made a good showing. Hincapie and all the rest I'm happy for their results.

# posted by  Yokota Fritz : 9:45 PM

 

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