Very excited for this race, and will be watching the last stage with my coach, who will have 3 athletes in the race. One is Scott Zwizanski, who made the big break on the last stage of last years ToC, and rides for PriorityHealth. A smaller team than his previous (KodakGallery/SierraNevada) so he’s hoping to make some of the breaks again.
Looks like he missed the Kuota sponsorship by a year…
The other two are a guy named Kyle Walmsley who transferred from Colavita to Navigators, and newcomer Dom Rollin, a Canadian stud who i’m sure you’ve met since he rides for KGSN. Don’t know if they’ll keep away from the CSC’s and Disco’s of the world, but should make for a great race either way.
They will be catching Coleman Valley Rd from Highway 1 which as you probably noticed has some nice switchbacks. I rode that section with a quasi pro rider last month and was just amazed how fast he did that section. The easterly direction does have one steep section that ends with a sharp right turn (as you drop into Coleman Valley before the old schoolhouse) and given how narrow the road is that would be something to see there. The other thing is that this time of year some parts of that road get virtually no sun so they can be quite damp. I just hope they have a helicopter following this part.
Do you know if they will be riding Coleman Valley from Occidental towards Hwy. 1, or the other way? I just rode there for the first time and I’d love to see the pros ripping down that steep twisty descent to Hwy. 1!
When we rode it this past Sunday, there were large patches of ICE in two of the corners on the Western end of Coleman Valley (made the steep descent down to Hwy 1 even more exciting!) - this was around 11:00 am - it was really cold out there this weekend! Amazing riding - probably the most beautiful 4-5 miles of road I’ve ever ridden.
Yea it is pretty nice on a clear winter day. Ironically it is much better this time of year as in the summer it is often covered in heavy fog after you hit the ridge. There are lots of great rides along the coast and west county. There is a slowtwitch guy who goes by JAM who is the master of these obscure roads. Some are really awesome and very remote.
I often do Coleman Valley then hit 1 up the coast to Jenner then River road back and catching Vineman route via Westside. A pretty nice 60 miler if you start from the SoCo county airport.