Amgen Tour of California Preview

By Mike Takeuchi

*Reprinted article.

As I expected, the first stage of the Amgen Tour of California was cancelled due to snow and ice on the roads. They will try again tomorrow.

With the Tour of California starting today in Lake Tahoe, a predicted snow forecast and the death of a rider in the Giro d'Italia are on the minds of many of the riders. But for three-time defending champion Levi Leipheimer, the concerns are understood.

"I think we as riders have a unique perspective, because we can do it (race) and then watch it on television," Leipheimer said. "On television it looks fairly docile and at times boring — we want riders to attack. But then, when we race, it's nerve-wracking and stressful, and sometimes, a moment of relapse or loss of concentration can be serious. When riders talk about safety or danger, we're not doing that to gain sympathy or dramatize our sport. I've been scared on downhills — in the Giro d'Italia the roads are small and steep and the riders have a lot of skill, but there is not a lot of room for error. Safety is a big issue for us. It's not so much about complaining — safety is a real issue."

That said, Leipheimer also added in a press conference that the race organizers "had their backs." Race director Jim Birrell said that they are monitoring the situation on a minute by minute basis.

"We've been watching the forecast and will continue to monitor the situation," Birrell said. Our team will come together (Saturday night) and will determine our action plan. Our concern is going to be what's on the road. If it's just wet, it will be all systems go. We'll look at all the variables we can to make the decision that's safest for these riders."

Race organizers will make a decision at 9 a.m. today on whether to conditions will be condusive to racing.

Rider safety is of paramount concern because the death of Leopard Trek rider Wouter Welandt in the third stage of the Giro has hit very close to home to some members of the peleton, including his teammate and current Tour co-favorite Andy Schleck.

"The loss of Wouter last week was personally a big shock for me," Schleck said. "He was a good friend of mine. There are no words to describe the feelings that were going through me, my brother and the team. The day after the crash, everyone at the Giro (d'Italia) showed respect and it was really nice to see."

"It has been hard for me to stay focused on training, but I'm sure he would have wanted me to stay in the race and do my best. The team is here and we ride for Wouter."

Schleck and Leipheimer are expected to take over the reins of the race after defending champion, Australian rider Michael Rogers pulled out of the race due to a stomach virus.

Weather permitting on Sunday, the biggest challenges of the initial stage will begin halfway through the first day at Spooner Pass (elevation 7,000 feet), and then culminate with a 1,000-foot climb at Brockway Summit toward the end. But just when the riders think they were done climbing, a short, steep 300 foot climb awaits them.

In stage two from Squaw Valley to Sacramento, what goes up, must come down. Going from the famed ski village and 1960 Winter Olympics Venue to the state's capital, this is a sprinter's delight, with the major concern being what a cyclist eats as they fly through the infamous Donner Pass. With HTC High Road's sprinting god Mark Cavendish and his gang of leadout riders racing in the Giro d'Italia look for Garmin-Cervelo's Thor Hushovd, U.S. national road champion Ben King (BMC Racing Team) or perhaps King's wily veteran teammate George Hincapie) to look for a stage win. Remember, it was Hincapie who took the sprint finish on Cabrillo Boulevard in the inaugural race.

After a relatively flat stage from Auburn to Modesto with sprinters again vying for a win in stage three, the next stage heads to the Mt. Hamilton Observatory in a steep climb to 4,130, but could be the ideal place for a young rider such as American rider Tejay Van Garderen, who supported 2010 champion Rogers in his win, to possibly try and steal the stage and take command of the race.

"Winning this year's Amgen Tour of California is definitely a goal for me," Van Garderen said. "The goal would be to do well or win, so I'm going to try to win. If I fail, I fail. I know it's going to be hard, but it's what I'm going to try to do."

After a relatively flat, yet long (at nearly 140 miles the lengthiest of the race) stage from Seaside to Paso Robles on Thursday, the long awaited stage for the local community arrives with the Solvang time trial. Despite its relatively short distance, this could be where the race is won...or lost. While sprinters are not enamored with the stage, time trialists like U.S. champion Taylor Phinney (the son of Davis Phinney) are practically chomping at the bit for this stage.

"I haven't really had a good test in the time trial yet, so Solvang will be my first big test before Nationals," Phinney said. "As a course, it kind of suits me. The time trial is my biggest goal here. I will be giving it my all for sure."

Despite not having Rogers, who is also one of the best time trial riders in the world, the all-around contenders like Schleck, who is Luxemburg's time trial champ, and Leipheimer, will pose stiff challenges for Phinney in the stage.

Following Friday's stage, despite being a relatively short 75.8-miles, what is considered the most difficult stage in the history of the Tour awaits. After a rolling first tough climb in the early part of the stage, the race ends with a brutal climb starting at the 50-mile mark and then proceeds to go nowhere but up, finally reaching the summit with 1,000 feet of climbing in less than three miles.

"This is by far the hardest edition of the Amgen Tour of California in six years," Leipheimer said. "I rode Mt. Baldy last April before last year's Tour because I had gotten word that it might be added to the route. That is a real climb — worthy of the Tour de France. Now, all of a sudden we have two mountain-top finishes with Mt. Baldy and Sierra Road."

The Hollywood Ranters

By Mike Takeuchi

VROMANS BOOKSTORE CAFÉ- I haven’t seen too many “grown-ups” throw temper tantrums throughout my life. In fact, I have only seen two in the last ten years and both of them involved people in “the business” or Hollywood. As a sportswriter/production supervisor aka glorified celebrity hand holder, I have had the privilege to be near some interesting people.

On the same token, the closer look revealed the warts. Of the people with the most distinctive blemishes, I would put Kobe Bryant at the top of the list of jerks that I have come across. Surprisingly, Barry Bonds wouldn’t even make my top (or bottom) ten list. Perhaps the few interactions I had with the recently convicted (of only obstruction of justice) ex-ballplayer, he seemed to be in a talkative mood.

But the one thing I have never encountered in a locker room or on the field was someone resembling Baby Huey when things didn’t go the large cartoon fowl’s way. I can’t say the same for my other job. Perhaps the machismo factor is involved when dealing with athletes. Showing anything other than anger followed by grim determination often gets one labeled a…well, a bitch. Internalize until you succeed and then say something like “I was disrespected” and sportswriters and fans will nod their heads knowingly.

It is the complete opposite in my other field of work Even those who do not get behind the camera, are often emotive to the point that they should honestly try out for a soap opera-if any of them are left.

The first occurrence happened during an awards tribute given to the great actor Geoffrey Rush. Oh, it wasn’t the gracious Australian who committed the faux pas’. To the contrary, he was a friendly gentleman who even took the time to thank this writer for “taking care” of him as he was being whisked away back to the airport. The night, which also included Academy Award winning best actor Colin Firth and the wonderfully wacky Helena Bonham Carter was a night for future Best Picture winner “The King’s Speech” and despite having to change some things, worked out pretty well.

However, the publicist for the actors didn’t think so. (Okay, I’m going to digress because I know now that although I have no desire to work in Hollywood, I don’t want to be sued for my debt and six-year-old 150 thousand mile Subaru. Therefore, I won’t reveal the culprit’s name-but I am sure if he read this, he knew it was him). In fact in his mind, he thought it was clear that the show had to end at a certain time. However, in everyone else’s world, aka reality, the actual stop time was to be later.

No matter.

The curmudgeonly clean pated publicist (who resembled a desert tortoise) voiced his displeasure to a co-worker of mine, bringing them to tears. While swearing, waving his arms, he stomped his feet like a little petulant child. My first instinct was because I liked this person I worked with was to slap him on the forehead with a “bitch slap”. My second instinct was to kick him in the d&^k as hard as I could to give him a real reason to throw a temper tantrum.

But my days when I was known as “Mad Mike” have been over for two decades. And although they threaten to come out from time-to-time, mellow Mike always helps his alter ego to come to his senses. Yet I was still in a rage after, I mean how a grown person can treat others this way. Yeah, he’s got a good job, and I’m sure he is competent at what he did. But it’s not as if a surgical resident dropped the one-sized scalpel that could remove the cancer from someone’s body or anything. This was the movies for Christ sake, just effing chill. Yet, regrettably I held my tongue and just kind of laughed at him from afar. Some of his peeps looked at me funny, but I didn’t give a crap.

And now three months later, I saw the scene again on an L.A. street. Going to some unknown film I was invited to and finding out that it was moved to yesterday. Sure I was pissed, because I had just met some friends at the Dodgers game (they’re terrible by the way), when I could have rode down with them and saved $35 in gas. Yet I drove separately to see this mystery film.

I had waited with another ear ringed guy who didn’t seem to want to receive a friendly greeting from me for about 30 minutes. When it became apparent nobody else was coming, he called the person that was both of our contacts. Yet because this middle-aged man was probably more important in the “business” than a seasonal worker at a film festival, the contact, who avoided my calls, immediately picked up.

As ear ringed middle aged guy listened to the contact from his IPhone 4 or whatever the hell version it was, I could see the hairs beginning to stand on the back of his neck as his skin started turning a crimson shade. I swear to Christ, I could see smoke, but it probably wasn’t true. After contact-on-the-other-end guy finished backpedaling, there was this long tense pause just like the final moments before Old Faithful blew at its regular interlude, or perhaps it even resembled Vesuvius before it wreaked havoc unexpectedly upon the resident s of Pompeii in 79 AD.

The release seemed almost as intense.

What followed was a torrent of expletives of epic proportions. The middle-aged earring guy blew his top that made the curmudgeonly tortoise look like Roger Williams addressing the Puritans. I hadn’t heard that many swear words in such a small amount of words since I watched the late George Carlin in his concert movie when he said “the seven words you can’t say on television”. It was perhaps even more expletive-filled than Tommy Lasorda’s rant to pitcher Doug Rau on the mound during the 1977 World Series that television microphones picked up. This is must-listening by the way, (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-mqXodn5mQ).

He jumped up and down higher than the tortoise wished he could and gesture wildly with his one free arm saying to the effect that contact guy ruined his day and that his boss was going to hear about it. As for me, sure I was kind of annoyed, but that emotion quickly went by the wayside as I watched this impromptu performance on a Los Angeles street. My emotions went from irked, amused, to nearly rolling on the ground in hysterics or LMFAO to ROFLMAOIT in a span of about five seconds.

. I don’t know why, maybe I was thinking of the tortoise, but this guy looked so ridiculous that my reaction made me realize that I had better go around the corner. Once there, I immediately went into convulsions as tears squirted out of my ducts. I was so tempted to take a photo of the ranter, but I was afraid that even though his relatively small stature, rage would overcome my hysterics and then people would be watching a murder scene on KCAL 9. Besides, I doubted I could hold a camera straight because I was shaking so much.

Just when I started calming down, Mr. TT turned the corner and saw me. I was immediately embarrassed, but he just glanced at me and kept walking without a word. Perhaps he realized what an ass he made himself out to be. But probably not.