By Khalida Sarwari
Thousands of people cheered on some of the world’s best cyclists as they took off on the fourth stage of the Amgen Tour of California in downtown San Jose this morning.
In the heart of downtown, spectators counted down to the 11 a.m. start of the 121.5-mile segment of the race that wrapped up this afternoon in Modesto.
The “gladiators of the road” zoomed past camera flashes and outstretched hands as soon as Olympic gold medallist and cancer survivor Peggy Fleming signaled the start of the race.
Debbie and Dennis Randall, who had flown in from Las Vegas to see their favorite Team RadioShack, were among the most avid of spectators in the crowd. The couple said they have traveled as far as France and Italy to see Tom Boonen, Lance Armstrong and Levi Leipheimer in the Tour de France and Giro d’Italia.
“We’re happy that we don’t have to travel far to see world-class cycling,” Debbie Randall said. “And people here speak English.”
Seventeen cycling teams are competing in the Tour de France-style cycling road race, which began May 16 in Nevada City. They will ride a total of about 750 miles through California, finishing May 23 in Thousand Oaks.
Prior to the start of the race, cyclists climbed down a stage to greet fans lined up along both sides of the street.
The San Jose-to-Modesto stage of the race took the racers 1,930 feet up Sierra Road and a winding stretch of Calaveras Road in Santa Clara and Alameda counties that included more than 40 switchbacks before visiting downtown Livermore for the first time. The race then turned on to the very challenging Mines Road, where the riders faced nearly 30 miles of a narrow twisting road before a long descent into Patterson.
Italian racer Francesco Chicchi won the fourth stage of the tour.