Where to follow the 2007 Tour of California bike race

Update: Feb. 23 — Audio but no race course video from Tour Tracker on Thursday, so you can still listen in. Video may return if the weather clears. Later on, sporadic video due to weather.

Update: Feb. 22 — After less than sporadic service earlier in the stage, that Tour of California Tour Tracker was up and running with live video and audio on Wednesday. I don't condone goofing off a work, but you could plug in your earphones and listen to the race while you “work” in another browser window and no one would be the wiser. Just don't make a victory salute at the sprint.

Update: Feb. 19 — Where to follow the bicycle race live all week: Check online at the Tour of California Tour Tracker for live video (when available), real-time course map and play-by-play from VeloNews. (Requires Flash Player 9 update)

Also, see CSC's Tour of California Tracker to follow the race leaders on a Google course map in real time. The so-called Omnilocation technology uses tiny GPS devices.

If the technology gets hinky, check out CyclingNews for text play-by-play. See

In just a few days, Sunday to be exact, you'll be able to turn on the TV and watch 144 professional cyclists competing against the scenic San Francisco skyline. Then it's on across the Golden Gate Bridge, wine country, the emerald Coastal Range and more.

Still snowbound on your bicycle trainer in front of the TV? You can see how the other half rides as the Versus cable network (formerly OLN) offers at least 10 hours of same-day coverage of the 2007 Amgen Tour of California running Sunday through Feb. 25. Good news, Phil Liggitt, Paul Sherwen and Bob Roll are back.

While the only live action is broadcast on Sunday and the final stage (the other stage highlights are retaped for evening viewing), you can still keep up with live bike race updates throughout the day on your computer or cell phone.

RSS feeds

You can sign up at the Tour of California website for a play-by-play RSS feed that will show minute-by-minute updates issued by VeloNews. I'm sure VeloNews also will publish those race updates at their website, possibly with a Google map interface that shows where the cyclists are at any given time. They used this last year on some of the big European races.

CyclingNews also is offering play-by-play bike race updates at its website. Check under “Major Races” on the left column.

Near live action

If you want to check out almost-live video and images from the Tour of California, check out the Grassy Knoll project again this year at Steephill.tv. Spectators along the route are asked to shoot pictures or short video clips and upload them to Flickr or YouTube for inclusion into a storyboard timeline at Grassy Knoll.

This is a cool project that resulted in more than 1,700 images being uploaded last year.

Starting times

The prologue in San Francisco and final stage in Long Beach start at 1 p.m. PT; all other races start at 10 a.m. or 11 a.m. PT. Check the stage descriptions for exact times.

Last year, the Tour of California website offered a live video/audio feed of the race, which turned out to be a little sporadic due to a number of technical issues. I don't see where that's offered this year, although I'll let you know if that changes. (See update above for the online Tour Tracker.)

Be there

Of course there's another way to check out the race — go there in person. Some 1.3 spectators saw the race in person last year. The Tour of California website has detailed highway maps and elevation maps online where you can pick out the best vantage points.

Here's the TV schedule (updated; check Versus TV schedule for late night repeats):

Prologue
Sunday, February 18th    2pm-4pm PST     (5pm-7pm EST)

Stage 7
Sunday, February 25th     2pm-4pm PST      (5pm-7pm EST)