Cheshire Cat Photo Blog(...said the Cat: 'we're all mad here....')

Stage 3 of the Amgen® Tour of California is in progress today, 120 miles (193 km) from San Francisco’s Ocean Beach to Santa Cruz (and not the EASY way, either)! You can get a map (PDF) of today’s race here. Yesterday, the rare RAIN made the race less enjoyable for riders and spectators alike, one of the reasons that the race was shifted from February to May. It’s not nice to try to fool Mother Nature!

But I don’t want to talk about Stage 3…!

I want to talk about tomorrow’s stage, Stage 4, from San Jose to Modesto! You can get the map (PDF) here.

Stage 4 (Wednesday, May 19) will take the race right through the heart of downtown Livermore! (We HAVE a heart, honest! ) And NOT by the route in the photo above…!

Sadly (strictly from a “photographing-cycling-races” point of view), an assignment will have me occupied ELSEWHERE and prevent me from seeing/shooting the race as it passes through! (Photographers who have photographed the race from a single location know that it passes you by in about two-and-a-half minutes. Shoot fast! )

Fortunately, I have already written about parts of the route and have taken some photographs along the path the cyclists will take!

The race tomorrow will begin with a climb up Sierra Road (1,930 feet, 588 m) and pass through the many switchbacks of Calaveras (Spanish for “skulls”) Road, including the location of a major marijuana farm bust that I described, and it also passes Calaveras Reservoir. One of the occasional hazards on this road (and on Mines Road, below) is the occasional cow or group of cows wandering around on the road!

As the race approaches Sunol (home of one of the two Bay Area “water temples,” several good wineries, Niles Canyon – the last portion of the transcontinental railroad that was completed, and the Niles Canyon Railroad!), the race will turn onto a portion of Highway 84 (take it all the way to the Pacific Ocean sometime) that is called Vallecitos Road (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7). On Vallecitos Road, the riders will pass the Vallecitos Nuclear Center (now renamed “GE Energy” ) and climb a VASTLY improved section of Vallecitos Road and pass through Pigeon Pass before descending into Livermore. The very wide section of the improved road should allow riders who wish to pass, to do so. I used to commute Vallecitos Road every day, both ways, on my commute to Silicon Valley. There is STILL a section of road that is 2-lane and that stacks up badly during the commute. Even riding a motorcycle does not help much because the road is too narrow in places to allow “lane-splitting.”

When the riders enter Livermore, on Holmes Street, they will pass a few blocks away from my home. Holmes Street becomes 1st Street in Livermore, the main street of the city (1, 2, 3). The route turns right at the fountain and travels on South Livermore to Tesla Road, through the vineyards (1, 2, 3), to Mines Road (1, 2, 3).

Way back in December of 2007, I described a motorcycle ride south on Mines Road to Del Puerto Canyon Road. The 2010 Tour of California will follow the same route. (I am SO glad that Del Puerto Canyon Road was resurfaced when we rode it – otherwise, many cyclists may never want to come to California, again! ) In my 2007 blog entry I stated, “Mines Road starts as a two lane highway going south from Livermore, and then slowly deteriorates.  One of my favorite California road signs is along Mines Road – ‘No shooting on or upon public road….'” I also said that “Charles Darwin would have loved Mines Road,” but traffic on the road (like that oncoming pickup truck in barely-wider-than-one-lane sections of the road) will, no doubt, be halted for the Tour of California cyclists!

When the riders reach San Antonio Valley road, they will turn right on Del Puerto Canyon Road at a place called “The Junction,” which is, coincidentally , the name of a biker bar/restaurant/café (maybe the best description is “way station,” I don’t know… it has a “hat rack” for motorcycle helmets outside and boars’ heads on the wall, INSIDE! ) and a California Department of Fire station nearby.

Del Puerto Canyon was the origin of a major fire in 2006 that consumed many acres but few structures in the sparsely populated area. Del Puerto Canyon is ALSO part of some very popular motorcycle rides, and people have posted You Tube videos that I found on Google. Not all of the videos show the narrow, wooded, SCARY, upper portion of the road. Both Mines Road and Del Puerto Canyon Road are locations for the occasional “body dump” and crime scene. Del Puerto Canyon is loved by birders, geologists, and off-road 4-wheelers alike, with the last group frequenting a place called “Rough Terrain” or the Frank Raines Off Highway Vehicle Park. There is also a picnic area on the south side of the road.

In my earlier blog entry, I wrote that the road goes:

“… eastward and downward to the Central Valley town of Patterson. The road has some nice sweeping curves in the lower sections, punctuated by spectacular rock formations, surprise hairpin curves, and other opportunities to launch your 2-wheeled- or 4-wheeled-vehicle into the canyon creek bed below.  Darwin would have loved Del Puerto Canyon Road, too – a thought that also crossed my mind when I saw two brand-new log homes that had been constructed in the canyon that had been ravaged by fire in 2006. Some eastern sections of the road are bordered on both sides by barbed-wire fencing, which kept one cow we passed trapped ON the roadway.”

So cyclists – don’t go into the creek bed, barbed wire, or any wayward cows!

I have not traveled the road (Sperry Avenue and Las Palmas Avenue) between Patterson and Modesto, so cyclists and spectators, you are on your own! There appears to be a major straightaway along Carpenter Road before a hard right to the finish line in Modesto.

All in all, Stage 4 of the race should be a real workout, with a lot of opportunities for mishaps. Wednesday should be an exciting day!

-Bill at

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