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Terry’s Ax
I am sure everyone in the local cycling community already knows, but for friends, relatives and former teammates who were out of the loop; Terry Tupper was hit by a truck. Actually if this comes as news at this point I should probably backup even further… Terry has been a Police Officer with the Chico Police Department for about a year now.
On the morning of December 5th, while on morning patrol, he was hit by a semi truck near downtown Chico. The accident was pretty serious, he was knocked unconscious and had to be extracted from the vehicle by emergency crews. Judging by his car you wouldn’t think it was the type of accident somebody survives with all their body parts intact…
Fortunately his injuries were limited to a broken pelvis, assorted cuts and bruises and a healthy case of whiplash. Rather than try to recount the whole story I am going to simply post a few of the local newspaper articles at the following link: http://www.shastaexplorer.com/page.php?id=346
I will also include a link with some of the (very blurry) images I shot in the hospital with my camera phone, as well as some of the images collected by Chico P.D.: http://www.shastaexplorer.com/plug.php?e=gallery&f=136
Terry is currently in Redding and will stay there through Christmas at least. He is starting physical therapy and is well on his way to recovery…
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Chuckie's PCT trail journal
I got an e-mail from the infamous Chuckie V the today and he says he’s about ready to depart on his next adventure. Seems he had so much fun on his last 2650 mile walk from Mexico to Canada that he is doing it again, only this time he plans on taking detours. I will join him for at least one of those detours, an ascent of Mt. Shasta early this summer…
I have to say I didn’t think the wilderness would agree with him the way it has. Terry and I hiked the Hat Creek rim section of the PCT with him in 2002 and he surprised us with how savvy and experienced an outdoorsman he’d become.
While today he is the poster-boy for wilderness adventure this was not always the case. Our first outdoors experience together was a mountain bike tour through the southern Sierras. It was loads of fun until we reached Yosemite and piqued the interest of a pesky bear. Both of us gained a new appreciation for four walls and a ceiling after that experience.
While I could easily picture him on top of a victory podium in almost any country I never imagined him as a wilderness junkie until I met him 1200 miles into his hike. Times have definitely changed…
Chuckie will be walking out of Mexico on March 24th and by the time he gets here he will probably be happy for some human company, but be warned, after more than 1000 miles on the trail you might want to be hiking upwind…
Those who want to keep up on his latest exploits can follow his trail journal at the following URL; http://www.trailjournals.com/entry.cfm?trailname=4028
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Big-time cycling returns to California
February looks to be an interesting month for serious cycling enthusiasts. The Amgen Tour of California is set to take place on the 19th through the 26th and many of the world’s best teams will be represented in the inaugural event.
The Tour of California will be the first major international stage race on the west coast since the Coors Classic during the mid 80’s. Bad jokes aside (the sponsor also happens to be the manufacturer of one of the most abused performance enhancing drugs in the history of cycling) it should be an exciting race.
Fifteen teams will take the start line, including every major US Pro team and teams from Germany (Gerolsteiner and T-Mobile), Switzerland (Phonak), Italy (Saunier Duval-Prodir), Belgium (Davitamon Lotto), Denmark (CSC) and France(Credit Agrigole).
In the heyday of cycling, California hosted stages of the Coors Classic in addition to many prestigious one day events. Permits for road closures are increasingly hard to come by in crowded California though and with the exception of the Sea Otter Classic and the now defunct San Francisco Grand Prix, the place that was once was a major hot spot for racing in North America has all but faded into obscurity…
The organizers of the Tour of California hope to change that with a mulit-year commitment to bringing big-time cycling back to the Golden state.
The inaugural Tour starts on Sunday February 19th with a 1.9 mile prologue, beginning at 10:00 am on Pier 1 in San Francisco. The prologue time trial will be a challenge of both aerodynamics and power as the first half along the Embarcadero is mostly flat and the second half climbs the legendary Telegraph Hill to finish at Coit Tower.
With the general classification sorted out the first stage will be an 84 mile race from Sausalito to Santa Rosa along the Marin Headlands on Highway 1 Start time is 11:00 am and the estimated finish time is 2:00 pm.
Stage two is a hilly 94 mile race from Martinez to San Jose that begins at 11:00 and is estimated to finish at 2:30. It should be an ideal stage for a breakaway and the terrain virtually insures a tough battle in the King of The Mountains (KOM) competition.
Stage three is a 17 mile individual time trial along a rolling course on the outskirts of San Jose. The first rider goes off at 11:00 and the last rider should be finished by about 2:00pm. After Wednesday’s time trial the list of contenders for the overall title should be whittled down to a mere handful.
Stage four, Monterey to San Luis Obispo is the race’s longest at 130 miles and is a true road stage in the European tradition. Anything can happen in such a long, hilly and likely windy road stage and considering California’s traditionally unpredictable February weather this could end up being a real race of attrition. The estimated finish time is 3:30 to 4:30pm.
The riders will leave San Luis Obispo at 10:00am for stage five and race 105 miles through the Santa Ynez Mountains, culminating with the Category one ascent of San Marcos Pass before descending to the beachfront finish in Santa Barbara around 2:00pm.
Stage six is a 90 mile trek with four more KOM summits to ensure anyone who is still in the hunt for the climbers jersey won’t have time to let their mind wander. The race leaves Santa Barbara at 10:00 and finishes in Thousand Oaks sometime around 1:30pm.
The eight day, 700 mile race finishes on stage seven with a 77 mile mostly flat circuit race in Redondo Beach. The riders will do 10 laps of a 7.7 mile circuit with extra points for the sprinters on laps 3, 5 and 7.
I am hoping to travel to San Francisco and watch the prologue on Sunday and perhaps we can get a few folks together to cheer for our friend and America’s new number one professional cyclist and Tour de France hopeful; Levi Liepheimer.
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