Month: November 2011

2012 Tour of California host cities announced

Richard MasonerNovember 3, 2011Leave a Comment

Thirteen HOST CITIES ANNOUNCED FOR 2012 Amgen Tour of California

Challenging Route to Take Cyclists Over More Than 750 Miles of Striking California Terrain During America’s Premier Cycling Race from May 13 – 20, 2012

LOS ANGELES (November 3, 2011) – After reviewing more than 100 submissions from cities throughout California hoping to be named official start or finish locations, AEG, presenter of the Amgen Tour of California, has announced the 13 official Host Cities for the 2012 race. Considered America’s largest and most prestigious professional road cycling stage race, the seventh consecutive edition of the Amgen Tour of California will travel more than 750 miles from May 13 – 20, 2012.

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Alcohol as a recovery drink

Richard MasonerNovember 3, 20114 Comments on Alcohol as a recovery drink

Sports scientists actually study this stuff! I wonder how hard it is to recruit subjects for this kind of research?

Buzzkills Steve Stannard, Matthew Barnes, and Toby Mundel at Massey University in New Zealand gave 11 male subjects screwdriver cocktails after exercise sessions and compared their muscle performance with another session in which the volunteers drank only orange juice after their workouts. They found that moderate alcohol consumption significantly degrades post workout recovery.

From the abstract of a study performed at Massey University in New Zealand, with the wonky title “Acute alcohol consumption aggravates the decline in muscle performance following strenuous eccentric exercise” (more…)

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Santa Cruz in 2012 Tour of California?

Richard MasonerNovember 2, 2011Leave a Comment

Update: AEG confirmed Santa Cruz County as the Stage 2 finish next May.

An anonymous source in the Santa Cruz County local organizing committee (LEC) says we can expect a stage finish for the 2012 Amgen Tour of California, reports the Santa Cruz Sentinel. We’ll know for sure tomorrow when AEG releases their list of host cities.

The Santa Cruz LEC has a couple of interesting proposals for routing the stage finish: One involves a finish in Aptos after a route along the ridge of the Santa Cruz Mountains via Skyline Boulevard and down Old San Jose Road; the other route takes the race along familiar ground via Highway 1, Bonny Doon Road, Pine Flat, Empire Grade to the UC-Santa Cruz campus.

An early proposal that’s no longer on the LEC website proposed Empire Grade to Felton-Empire to Mount Hermon Road for a finish in Scotts Valley at Sky Park. As a Scotts Valley resident, I would have really enjoyed that, but racing downhill on Felton-Empire Road doesn’t sound especially safe.

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Small city outspends big oil in lobbying dollars

Richard MasonerNovember 2, 20114 Comments on Small city outspends big oil in lobbying dollars

This is interesting: the small town of Vernon, California (population 112), spent more for lobbying than the Western States Petroleum Assocation in Sacramento.

Oil companies are historically the biggest spenders in Sacramento politics, but corruption in a small southern California city prompted a bonanza of lobbying dollars.

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