He started his day by shakin' hands with Robin Williams in San Francisco. He ended his day with a stage win in Santa Cruz, and the overall lead in the Tour of California.
Dave Zabriskie out-kicked Michael Rogers of HTC Columba, and RadioShack's Levi Leipheimer to take the victory. Those three got away on the final climb, and the peloton just couldn't catch 'em.
Sadly, you didn't see this great finish on TV. Yesterday, the weather kept the Versus cameras grounded...today, they had to dump out before the end of the race and go to a hockey game that hadn't even started yet!
Disgraceful.
DZ, Rogers and Levi go 1-2-3 on the day, and they're also the top three in the overall standings. Stage 4 starts tomorrow in San Jose, with the monster climb over Sierra Road, before the finish in Modesto. Let's hope we get to see the whole thing on TV, for a chance.
Want to see what it looked like at the start today in sunny San Francisco? Check out the best photos from this morning, below...
How bad was it out there? It was so bad that if you watched the race in North America on the Versus network, all you saw was the crowd at the finish.
The low clouds and constant rain make it impossible for the TV guys to get any coverage out on the course.
But trust me...it was epic.
Cervelo's Brett Lancaster won the stage, and grabbed the overall leader's jersey. But his celebrations were short-lived...he skipped-out early on the podium presentations because he was shivering violently, and had to get warm ASAP.
The real story today was the performance of Lance Armstrong, Levi Leipheimer and the rest of the Radio Shack team. There were four Shack guys in the lead bunch behind Lancaster. Levi and Lance are now just 10 seconds out of the lead, with six more days of racing left.
For more photos from the rain-soaked end of Stage 2 in Santa Rosa, go here.
And for a first-hand account of the conditions, the course and the casualties of this wet day out on the road, listen to what Spidertech racer and NorCal native son Lucas Euser has to say about a soggy Stage 2, in the following CycleTo video.
The weather was decent in Davis for the start of Stage 2 of the Tour of California...but the guys in the race better enjoy it while they've got it. There's rain on the way to the finish in Santa Rosa.
The crowds in this bike-crazy town were huge and hungry...hungry for a glimpse of their heroes before they hit the road.
We take you up-close and personal, with Lance, Levi, Big George, Cav, Boonen, and all their fans in Davis, below.
It was a warm-up to the arrival of the big boys in Sacramento.
Before the pros of the Tour of California hit the closing circuits around the California capitol, the pro women rocked-and-rolled around the two-mile course.
And no one rolled better than Coryn Rivera.
The remarkable 17-year-old star of the Peanut Butter and Company team out-kicked 'em all, crossing the finish line alone in the shadows of the capitol dome.
We captured the excitement and emotion of women's pro racing, in the following CycleTo photos album, below.
Like the old saying goes, "They take a licking, but they keep on ticking."
Lucky, everybody was able to roll away from a major crash on the very last lap of the closing circuits around the California capitol building in Sacramento.
But they rolled with the scars of battle on their bodies and their bikes.
Check out the scrapes on Tom Boonen's Quick Step team helmet...and try to image the damage that could have been done to his head if he hadn't been wearing a helmet.
BMC's George Hincapie limped across the line, and if you look closely, you can see some damage on both his body and his bike. We got a closer look at George's damaged front wheel. It looks totally busted, but looks can be deceiving. BMC's chief mechanic shows us how a high-tech wheel that might look trashed has actually retained it's integrity. Check it out, in the following CycleTo video.
The opening stage of the 2010 Tour of California was uneventful and well-behaved, all the way from Nevada City to Sacramento...until they hit the three closing circuits around the California state capitol.
Then all hell broke loose.
HTC-Columbia's Mark Cavendish was ahead of the mayhem, and in typical Cav style, he timed his final burst perfectly, beating runner-up JJ Haedo of Saxo Bank to the line, with BMC's young gun Alexander Kristoff in third.
On the backside of the last two-mile loop, crashes took out a whole bunch of the big names...Quick Step's Tom Boonen, Stuart O'Grady of Saxo Bank, BMC boss George Hincapie, and Cervelo's Dominique Rollin. All remounted their bikes and rolled across the finish line, and Boonen seemed to be the worst for wear. Check out his torn-up kit in the photo on the right, above. Ugh...looks nasty.
Tomorrow, there's rain...and hills...in the forecast, as the riders make their way from Davis to Santa Rosa, for Stage 2 of the Tour of CA. Watch for our coverage here on CycleTo.
But first, here are a few more photos from the finish in Sacramento, below.
If you're watching the the 2010 Tour of California on TV, you may miss a few of the up-close bike bling bits that we spied on our recon around the team compounds in Sacramento.
The Liquigas and BMC boys have added some pretty trick stuff to a few of their bikes, from cowhide to the K-Edge. Check 'em out, below.
Another day, another solo win at the Giro d'Italia. But this one is different...Saxo Bank's Chris Sorensen wins the first mountain top finish at Monte Terminillo, riding away from the overall leaders in the fog at the top of the hill.
The contenders all finish together, 56 seconds behind Sorensen. Astana's Alexandre Vinkourov continues to lead BMC world champ Cadel Evans by 1:12, with Vincenzo Nibali of Liquigas in third overall, 1:33 back.
Check out Sorensen's final foggy kilometer in the following CycleTo video.
The teams and trucks are all on-site...the fans are starting to assemble...and the excitement is building for the 2010 Tour of California.
The best field of racers to ever assemble in America will take the start in Nevada City, and finish one week later on the outskirts of Thousand Oaks.
For most of these guys, this sport is their life...they eat, sleep and breathe bike racing. But for Garmin-Transitions veteran Tom Danielson, there is a life off the bike, too. A seven-week old son, Stevie, has given Tommy D a new perspective on cycling, and on his role as a family man and father.
We caught up with Tom in Sacramento, on the eve of the Tour of California. He talks about his life, his wife, his new son...and how it all shapes his view of the sport, in the following CycleTo video.
The announcers on the Eurosport telecast called it right...the conditions on Stage 7 of the Giro d'Italia were absolutely awful. Pissing rain all day, and in the last hour of the race, mud was everywhere as the riders covered the fabled "Strade Bianche"...the white gravel road turned into a river of gunk.
BMC world champ Cadel Evans surged in the closing kilometer, holding off Lampre's Damiano Cunego and Astana star Alexandre Vinokourov with an impressive effort.
This morning's two Liquigas leaders...Vincenzo Nibali and Ivan Basso...each lost more than two minutes in the overall standings, handing the Maglia Rosa back to Vino, with Evans now in second, 1:12 back.
How bad was it today? See the mud and muck, and Cadel's epic victory, for yourself in the following CycleTo video.
