This morning I am off in a ROAD magazine kit to pick up my press credential, taking the long way to downtown along Bennet Valley Road, a beautiful ride past windy lanes and overhanging oaks. Its a narrow road, treacherous with rural traffic mixed with high speed commuters - but the racers will of course be escorted front and rear when they begin Stage Two.
Santa Rosa sits in a valley surrounded by a convolution of hills rocky and volvanic. The "wine country" surrounds the city limits, but the wet winds that blow up from the San Francisco bay and over Coleman Valley from the ocean have made the area better known for dairies. Its a historic city, once flattened by earthquake, with a town square that makes a perfect criterium finish for the stage. A huge mall and redevelopment almost took this quaint downtown, but fortunately the planners were stopped just short of a complete modernization. In the last decade small shops, narrowed streets and new circulation plans have made the historic core blossom.
The route in is incredibly beautiful; the peleton rolls past ocean, green fields, rocky bluffs and hillsides and then after its run up the coast it turns inland. There the famous climb up Coleman yields spectacular views for the crowds and an opportunity for the mountain angels to break from the sprinters that will likely dominate the fast downtown circuit.
Off to the races...
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