Great for the region and terrific for the bike trail as hundreds biked to the race.
Cycling's center stage
City earns place as a leader for the pack
By Blair Anthony Robertson - Bee Staff Writer
Published 12:00 am PST Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Helicopters hovered over the streets. Tens of thousands of fans gathered and roared at all the right times. More than 100 police officers stood at the ready downtown.
This was big-time bike racing -- on a Tuesday afternoon downtown, no less. By most accounts, Sacramento was looking a lot like Paris as it played host to the 116-mile Stage Two of the Amgen Tour of California.
When the racers stormed across the Tower Bridge and entered Sacramento for three laps around the Capitol, it was reminiscent of the annual Tour de France finale in Paris, where the riders do circuits along the Champs-Élysées.
J.J. Haedo, who rose to prominence as a sprinter when he won two stages of the Tour of California last year, won the sprint as he exploded away from the peloton in the final 200 yards.
But it was Sacramento that won the day, according to those involved in the race and those who watched it. There's already talk of securing a date for next year's race.
"I'm ecstatic," said John McCasey, executive director of the Sacramento Sports Commission. "This exceeded our wildest expectations, ... from the 'wow' factor to the crowds to the weather."
While thousands attended, officials offered no crowd estimates. The event seemed to come off without controversy or crowd-control problems, and frustrated motorists were at a minimum. Several police officers guarding intersections seemed to have little to do, as the only lawlessness was by the bike racers -- they exceeded the speed limit and ran stop signs and red lights. But that was the whole idea. Cheering fans were just excited to have an event with a world-class field in their hometown.
"It gives me goose bumps, because this is our stop on the world ProTour," said Chris Baumann, 32, a former pro cyclist turned Volkswagen salesman.
