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Watch for these San Diego Super Bowl Connections

Friday, February 5th, 2010 by The Best Places in San Diego

From Super Bowl Ads to the playing field, San Diego will have a huge presence this Sunday. Here is a rundown of what to look for:

Super Bowl Pre-Game

Carlsbad based Callaway Golf will sponsor the pre-game show from 2 – 2:30PM PST, introducing their 2010 golf products. (Callaway CEO George Fellows talks about the Super Bowl ads in an MSNBC interview.)

The world’s #2 ranked golfer and Rancho Santa Fe resident Phil Michelson will have a role during one of the pre-game segments. He is expected to predict the outcome of the Super Bowl.

San Diego resident Amanda Cameron is one of two finalists for the position of the NFL’s Director of Fandemonium. The winner will be announced during the pre-game.

Qualcomm’s Flo TV will run their 1st commercial around 2:30 PST with CBS Commentator James Brown promoting their TV on a cell phone service.

Super Bowl Ads

Miller High Life is buying Super Bowl commercial time for four small companies, including Dan Engelbrecht’s Del’s Barber Shop in Escondido. You can watch the commercial, which has already started airing in the past week.

Qualcomm’s Flo TV will run two more ads, one feature CBS commentator Jim Nantz and the other featuring pop singer will.i.am from the Black-Eyed Peas. You can get a sneak peak (only a snippet) of the Super Bowl ads at the Flo TV web site.

The Big Game

The whole reason we watch the Super Bowl is for the game so let us not forget about the players with San Diego connections. Our area seems to have a strong preference for the New Orleans Saints because of these close ties:

Drew Brees - The former Chargers quarterback is still loved by the community and has gone on to inspire the people of New Orleans back to their feet after Hurricane Katrina with his continued Pro Bowl worthy performances.

Reggie Bush – Helix High alum and Heisman Trophy Winner who still keeps quite involved with the San Diego community.

John Carney – The former Chargers kicker and long-time San Diego resident, who was recently voted one of the top 50 Chargers of all time, kicked for New Orleans during the early part of the season while their starting kicker was on suspension. Carney now serves as the kicking consultant for the Saints. Let’s hope this Super Bowl brings nail-biting excitement requiring a last-second field goal to win the game.

Lynell Hamilton – Former San Diego State Aztec has rushed for a couple touchdowns this season for the Saints.

Freddy Keiaho – Another San Diego State Aztec who plays linebacker for the Indianapolis Colts.

So, when you watch the Super Bowl on Sunday, keep any eye out for these San Diego players and businesses to make a splash in front of a worldwide audience.


Posted in San Diego Ranking | No Comments »

America’s Cup Contender Stuck On San Diego

Thursday, December 10th, 2009 by The Best Places in San Diego

The old adage that visitors come to San Diego for vacation and end up staying for a lifetime held true for one of San Diego’s more noticeable visitors the past year.

In the fall of 2008, I wrote a post about the arrival of BMW Oracle Racing for six weeks of training on San Diego Bay.  BMW Oracle is the contender for the 2010 America’s Cup. Their boats were docked behind the Convention Center and could be seen gliding effortlessly past pleasure boats and aircraft carriers through the San Diego Harbor and out to the Pacific Ocean.

Those six weeks of initial training in San Diego turned into six months and then much longer. Their experience in San Diego was summed up in a ‘Thank You San Diego’ advertisement in this past Sunday’s Union Tribune. To quote, “We came for 6 weeks and stayed for 16 months. The sailing conditions were perfect and your hospitality was even better.”

bmw-oracle

Another satisfied visitor to San Diego. For those who have not been to San Diego, come find why San Diego is a place where people come to vacation and fall in love for a lifetime.

The last American team to win the America’s Cup was the San Diego Yacht Club’s America3 team in 1992. Plan on the San Diego spirit of that  team to be carried forward by today’s BMW Oracle Racing team to victory in February when they take on the Swiss.

Good Luck BMW Oracle! San Diego will be cheering for you!

Posted in Brains / Talent, San Diego Ranking | No Comments »

Is San Diego once again the Auto Racing Capital of America?

Monday, November 23rd, 2009 by The Best Places in San Diego

The 1st auto racetrack in America was built in Lakeside. It opened in 1907 starring the most famous car driver at that time, Barney Oldfield. By 1915, as the nation’s attention was turned towards a major auto race on the streets of Point Loma, the Los Angeles Times noted “San Diego is now the automobile racing capital of America“.

Auto racetracks no longer hold prominence in San Diego. The track at Lakeside has been replaced by a community park surrounding Lindo Lake while the streets of Point Loma have developed a daily hum of traffic serving a community that has grown severalfold since the days of serving as a race course.

San Diego still has its fair share of unique auto racing events from the classic cars speeding around the Naval Air Station each September in the Coronado Speed Festival to fancy sports car road races for those who own a Lamborghini, Ferrari, or Porsche.

However, San Diego continues to be in the national spotlight when it comes to auto racing. We are no longer known for race tracks but we are certainly becoming known for our auto racing drivers. (And, I’m not talking about the kind you see everday on our local freeways.)

This weekend San Diego-raised drivers won several major auto awards. The most notable was won by El Cajon’s Jimmie Johnson. He became the first driver in NASCAR history to win four consecutive NASCAR Series Championships. That’s quite impressive considering NASCAR is generally seen as being dominated by drivers from the Deep South, where most of the races take place. (Congratulations Jimmie!)

San Diego drivers, led by the McMillan’s who won the top prize, also brought home several trophies from the Baja 1000 races in Mexico this weekend.  For those not familiar with the Baja 1000 (I had not heard of it until I moved out West), it’s the most grueling auto race in the world that makes its way through about 1,000 miles of the Mexican desert. The race is best captured in a documentary called ‘Dust to Glory’, which is shown on VERSUS once in a great while. You can also find it at Amazon.

Although San Diego is no longer a major auto racing venue, our area has certainly groomed some amazing auto racing drivers.  The famous auto racing venues in Indianapolis and Daytona may have their speedways but San Diego is producing the top drivers. I think this gives us a legitimate right to consider ourselves the 2009 Auto Racing Capital of America. What do you think?

Posted in Brains / Talent, San Diego Ranking | 1 Comment »

Join Birch Aquarium to Snorkel with Sharks

Wednesday, April 29th, 2009 by The Best Places in San Diego

I vividly remember my first encounter with sharks. It was 1999 and I was enjoying my first summer in San Diego.

I had just finished kayaking near La Jolla Cove with a few friends.  We returned to La Jolla Shores and jumped out when the water was about waist deep. I felt something brush up against my leg so I glanced down and lo-and-behold there was a four-foot long fish swimming away. A moment later I realized I was surrounded by a whole school of 4- 5 foot long fish.  As I looked closer, the hair on the back of my neck started to stand up as my brain started to register them as sharks.

Quickly, another nearby kayaker must have seen the look on my face and told me not to worry; they were only harmless leopard sharks. Sharks? Harmless??

I was not ready to fully trust this stranger so I promptly found my way onto the beach where I could watch the creatures swim around from a safe distance. I was still skeptical about what the stranger had said until the next morning when the Union Tribune published an aerial photograph and story about the sharks in La Jolla Shores. The photograph captured hundreds of sharks swimming next to the beach.

Since that time, I’ve always made a point to take my out-of-town guests who visit during July and August to La Jolla Shores so they too can swim with the sharks. It’s one of the things that makes San Diego such a great place to live and visit. There’s a brief video of the sharks in La Jolla Shores on YouTube that will give you a glimpse of what you’ll see in the shallow waters.

If you would like to explore the life of leopard sharks in La Jolla Shores with experts (there are also smoothhound sharks and guitarfish), you can join the Birch Aquarium for a snorkeling tour. Tours go from 8AM – 10AM and are scheduled for several Saturdays and Sundays starting June 28 and ending September 19th.

For those who are more adventurous, the La Jolla Underwater Ecological Reserve is a great place to go scuba diving with sharks. The following YouTube video taken by a diver in La Jolla Shores to give you an even better appreciation of what to expect in the paradise called San Diego.

Don’t be scared. I’ve been swimming with the sharks since 1999 and now I’m the stranger who calms the newbies when they take their first dip in La Jolla Shores.

Posted in Enjoy the Outdoors, San Diego Ranking, Things To Do, Unique Gems | 1 Comment »

Red Bull Air Race Only U.S. Stop Is In San Diego May 9-10

Tuesday, April 28th, 2009 by The Best Places in San Diego

What do Barcelona, Budapest and Abu Dhabi have in common with San Diego? They are each, one of just six cities around the globe where you can watch the world’s best pilots perform aerobatic maneuvers as they compete in the Red Bull Air Races.

Red Bull Air Race Introduction

Fifteen pilots will be competing through an obstacle course at up to 250 mph over the San Diego Bay, between the Embarcadero (south of Seaport Village) and Coronado.

The three pilots from the U.S.A. are Mike Mangold, Kirby Chambliss, and Michael Goulian. Mangold was the  2007 Red Bull World Series Champion, while Chambliss was the 2006 Champion. However, both got off to a rocky start at the first race of this season in Abu Dhabi.

The planes arrived in San Diego last week on a 747. I got a nice up-close view of them being off-loaded from the 747 when I took a tour of Lindbergh Field on Friday. It won’t be long before we see them being put through their maneuvers in the skies over San Diego as the pilots prepare for the races.

San Diego Red Bull Air Races Preview

Two qualifying rounds take place on Saturday May 9th with the top qualifier earning a point towards the World Series Standings. The Wild Card round, Top 12, Super 8, and Final Round take place on Sunday, May 10th. You will get to see planes navigate the course about 30 times each day.

San Diego Red Bull Air Race Tickets can be purchased online. Ticket prices start at $20 ($10 for children and military) for spectator viewing and range up to $1,360 for VIP treatment at a High Flyers Lounge. This year, both spectator and special seating areas will be set up on the Embarcadero side of San Diego Bay. You can also buy a parking pass for Brown Field to see the planes up close on Saturday night.

This is the 5th year for the Red Bull Air Races and the 3rd for San Diego. Take advantage of our unique opportunity to see these flying aces with our own eyes. This will be the only stop in the United States this year.

If you can’t make it down to Red Bull’s San Diego Air Race, which will be broadcast around the world, you can catch a tape of it on Fox Sports Network sometime in September.

On a side note, you might be inclined to use the word ‘acrobatic’ when describing the amazing air maneuvers being performed by the pilots. However, the precision and skills of these great pilots are known as ‘aerobatic’ stunts.

Posted in Brains / Talent, Enjoy the Outdoors, San Diego Ranking, Things To Do | 1 Comment »

Flower Fields Attracting Visitors Throughout Southwest & Counterfeiters

Friday, April 24th, 2009 by The Best Places in San Diego

snc00067_1The wife and I visited the Carlsbad Flower Fields for the first time last Saturday. (Last year we got a birds eye view of the Flower Fields when visiting the Museum of Making Music.) If you are like us and always thought it was good enough to just see the Fields from a distance when driving by on the I-5 or visiting the adjacent Carlsbad Premium Outlets and Museum of Making Music, I’d think again. Not only did we get to enjoy the beautiful scents of the flowers but we also got to visually appreciate the amazing details of the flower petals.

The Carlsbad Flower Fields is the only place in the world for the public to visit a commercial grower of Ranunculus flowers. During your visit you will see workers out in the fields cutting the flowers and preparing them for shipment around the country. It’s interesting to watch how quickly they can cut, wrap, and place a price tag as they prepare the the flowers for distribution.

My wife and I got an early start by arriving a half-hour after it opened in hopes of avoiding the crowds. When I drove in the parking lot, I got a little nervous because buses from Corona, CA and Salt Lake City, UT had just dropped off their passengers. Fortunately, they didn’t need to hop in the ticket line so it only took a few minutes for us to get through.

That was just the first sign of how popular this destination has become. While we were waiting in the ticket line, the staff mentioned they’ve been having a problem with bloggers posting counterfeit 2 for 1 coupons on the internet. (I’ve heard of counterfeit tickets and coupons for high-priced events but for a $10 entrance fee?) Apparently, the only real 2 for 1 coupons were provided to the community newspapers in the surrounding neighborhoods.

Once inside, you’ll get to enjoy over 50 acres of flower fields. Most of the amenities, and crowds, are just inside the entrance. You’ll see a small LEGO display of flowers, vendors providing crowd favorites like Kettle Corn, Fresh-Squeezed Lemonade, and Strawberry Shortcake, and displays about how San Diego became the #1 producer of  floriculture in the United States.

A little farther inside, the wife and I browsed through the All-American Rose Garden looking for the winning roses in the years we were born. (The winning rose selections go back to 1940.)

Then we ventured into the Sweet Peas maze. It’s in a very small area and looked quite simple. However, it became quite an adventure and ended up being a team building exercise with fellow guests stuck in the maze. We passed advice to one another as we found ourselves constantly being one row shy of where we needed to be to exit the maze. (It was fun to watch couples enter the maze locked hand-in-hand but end up going separate ways as each started to express different opinions on where they needed to go to extract themselves from what seemed to be an endless puzzle. Happily, all eventually made their way out and were back hand-in-hand at the finish line.)

Once you go past the Sweet Peas maze, the crowds get lighter as you explore the rows of colorful flowers. Head up the hillside and you’ll get to enjoy magnificent views of the Pacific Ocean. As you exit the Flower Fields through the Armstrong Garden Center, be sure to buy the freshly cut flowers to enjoy at home.

To learn more about the Carlsbad Flower Fields and get advice on how to make the most of your visit (especially to avoid the long ticket lines), check out the Flower Fields profile on my San Diego travel web site.

Posted in Enjoy the Outdoors, San Diego Ranking, Things To Do | No Comments »

Tour of the USS Ronald Reagan

Monday, April 13th, 2009 by The Best Places in San Diego

uss-reagan-mottoThe largest and most modern operating aircraft carrier in the world is home ported in San Diego, CA. Named after the 40th President of the United States and 33rd Governor of California, the USS Ronald Reagan is home to more than 5,500 military members, 60 aircraft, and 2 runways.

This past weekend I had the good fortune of organizing a tour of the USS Ronald Reagan for my local alumni club. It was my 2nd tour of the aircraft carrier. Each visit has left me with a remarkable impression of both the ship’s capabilities and the hard work and dedication of its crew.

flight-deckTo give you some perspective on the size of the ship, take into account that its flight deck is nearly as long as the Empire State Building is high. It has more runways than the San Diego airport (two vs. one). When you step into the hanger, which is just one stairway up from sea level, there are seven floors above you (including the flight deck) and eight floors below you.

If you asked a sailor, “Do you know so-and-so who also serves on the Reagan?”, there is a good chance they’ve never crossed paths with the person. Each of the crew members (20% are women) have a defined role and generally stay within a specific area of the ship.

When speaking with the crew, it is amazing and refreshing to see how much pride the young sailors (the average age is 19) exude. They take it as an honor to represent the USS Ronald Reagan and our country.

fa-18There are four high-speed elevators that take jets, and guests, from the hanger to the flight deck in a matter of seconds. Each elevator can support two F/A – 18 jets, allowing eight jets to be raised to the flight deck simultaneously.

Once on the flight deck, four jets can be launched each minute. There are two runways so that one jet can be prepared for take-off while another jet is landing. (A former Navy officer on the tour told me one of the challenges in WWII was that fighter planes would return to the boats very low on fuel. With only one runway and a stream of planes coming in for emergency landings, there was no way to send up new aircraft to protect the ship from enemy fighters.)

san-diego-viewWalking around the flight deck affords visitors not only an appreciation for the size of a U.S. Aircraft Carrier but great views of Downtown San Diego and Coronado. I can’t imagine how tough it is for the crew to see San Diego disappear on the horizon as they embark on a six to nine month deployment. Then again, a few of the sailors I spoke with were excited to tell me which countries they’ve been able to visit and which ones they hope to see in the future. One in particular had been stationed on the East Coast and sailed past Europe and around to Dubai. He transfered to the USS Ronald Reagan for the opportunity to go the opposite way and sail past Asia and onward to Dubai for the opportunity to have circumnavigated the globe.

bridge-viewFrom the flight deck, we climbed up several floors to the captain’s bridge. The birds-eye view looking down on the flight deck just reinforced the concept that this is a BIG ship. Despite its enormity, it can basically turn on a dime and speed up to nearly 35 mph while carrying food, bunks, and belongings for 5,500 crew members, 60 planes and their ordinance, electronics equipment, an airport, and two nuclear reactors.

After getting a good workout climbing up and down the stairs to the bridge, our tour ended in a small museum dedicated to the ship’s namesake, housed next to the hanger. reagan-museumA video played clips of Ronald Reagan’s well-known role as George Gipp, ‘The Gipper’, in the movie classic about Notre Dame football, Knute Rockne – All American. (As Notre Dame alumni, we hold a special place in our hearts for the USS Ronald Reagan because of Ronald Reagan’s connection to Notre Dame and the fact our University supplies more naval officers than any other school except for the Naval Academy.) Another notable piece in the museum is a remnant of the Berlin Wall. It offers a symbol of freedom that is characterized by the ship’s motto: “Peace through Strength”.

 I thank all member of the U.S. Military, both past and present, for your dedication to our country and I offer special thanks to the crew of the USS Ronald Reagan for giving us the special opportunity to step onboard and build a greater appreciation and understanding of the aircraft carriers home ported in San Diego.

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A few follow-up notes for those who would like more details. The ship is home to 180 officers and 3,020 enlisted members. In addition, the air wing is comprised of 220 officers and 2,260 enlisted members.

There are no aircraft onboard the ship while it is moored in San Diego. The aircraft depart from the ship the day before arriving in San Diego and return to their home naval bases throughout the West Coast. The aircraft meet-up with the carrier after it leaves San Diego on deployment.

The Marine Corps pilots we see flying around San Diego just east of La Jolla are not a part of the permanent air wings associated with the local aircraft carriers. However, the aircraft carriers do assist in getting the Marines and their jets to their destinations as necessary.

San Diego is also homeport for the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz and will become the home of the USS Carl Vinson in 2010.  The USS Abraham Lincoln and the USS John C Stennis are also frequent visitors to San Diego Bay.

You can see the aircraft carriers from the Harbor Walk in Downtown San Diego and from the Ferry Landing on Coronado. To easily distinguish the aircraft carriers, look at the hull numbers.

CVN 68: USS Nimitz

CVN 70: USS Carl Vinson

CVN 72: USS Abraham Lincoln

CVN 74: USS John C. Stennis

CVN 76: USS Ronald Reagan

There are currently ten operating aircraft carriers in the United States Navy, meaning that having the opportunity to see up to three in San Diego Bay at any one time is very unique. (The USS George H.W. Bush passed its sea trials this past weekend and will be put into operation in 2010 as the eleventh carrier.) Outside of the United States, there are only ten other aircraft carriers, none as big or as sophisticated as the U.S. aircraft carriers.

Posted in Military Presence, San Diego Ranking | 1 Comment »

San Diego Crowds Help Make Cycling History

Sunday, February 22nd, 2009 by The Best Places in San Diego

Great job San Diego!  Our outpouring of support for the Tour of California, which was seen around the world, made this the number one stage race for attendance in U.S. Pro Cycling history. The massive crowds that lined the entire 97 mile route from Rancho Bernardo over Palomar Mountain to the Finish Line in Escondido made up for the lack of crowds in Northern California, which was due to heavy rains during the first days of the nine-day race, and brought the estimated race attendance total to 2 million spectators.

Whenever I watched the Tour de France, I always got a good chuckle from crazy costumes some spectators wore as they ran alongside of the racing cyclists. (I’d also be petrified that one of the loonies would knock over the cyclists.) It turns out San Diego has its fair share of loonies looking to be seen on TV around the world.  The costumes ranged from sumo wrestlers to birthday suits but the one that stood out most for me was the guy wearing four-foot tall antlers on his head. He did a pretty good job sprinting alongside the cyclists as they reached the highest peak ever for the Tour of California. It was very cool to see a few inches of snow along the side of the road on Palomar despite temperatures being in the low 70’s at the bottom of the mountain.

Speaking of Palomar, in a post last week, I mentioned Lance Armstrong compared the climb of Palomar to the venerable Mont Ventoux stage of the Tour de France. Tonight, the editor-in-chief of Bicycling Magazine who wrote Positively False: The Real Story of How I Won the Tour de France with Floyd Landis, spoke with Jim Lasovic from NBC 7/39, and noted that Landis calls Palomar Mountain the best mountain for cycling in the world. (So, there you have it, two of the cycling world’s best riders praising our own Palomar Mountain.)

Not only is Palomar Mountain one of the best mountains for cycling in the world, but Bicycling Magazine rates San Diego as the #1 City for Cycling.

San Diego received great worldwide publicity from today’s final stage of the Tour of California. The TV coverage on Versus provided an overhead view of San Diego’s Wild Animal Park and continually made remarks about the big crowds that stayed well after the race had finished. Even one of the Versus analysts noted he is heading to the San Diego Zoo tomorrow.

I am so glad San Diegans made this event a huge success for our community. Let’s hope this  encourages the Amgen Tour of California officials to include San Diego once again in next year’s race!

(By the way, for those who saw the race on TV, if you were curious to know why the guy wearing the antlers had a Montana jersey, it was to cheer on the eventual Tour of California Winner, Levi Leipheimer, who is from Montana.)

If you have photos from today’s stage you want to share with others, let me know using the comments below and I’ll add them to this post!

Posted in Brains / Talent, Enjoy the Outdoors, San Diego Ranking | 1 Comment »

San Diego a Hotspot for Reality TV Contestants

Tuesday, February 17th, 2009 by The Best Places in San Diego

Do you have what it takes to be a star on Reality TV? Do you ever wish some talent scout or casting director would pluck you off the street for their next show?

It turns out San Diego is the place to be for a chance to be on Reality TV. The Union Tribune recently published “Reality TV Likes What It Sees in San Diego’s Talent Pool“.

A casting director quoted in the article kindly spoke of San Diego’s outgoing lifestyle: “I think of San Diego as an independent and life-loving city. People in San Diego are going out and doing things they enjoy, as opposed to being couch potatoes.”  That spirit and our proximity to Hollywood makes San Diego a prime spot for plucking soon-to-be reality stars out of obscurity.

Three of the latest stars plucked from San Diego made their debuts in the past week.

Sydney Wheeler, a model and part-time interior designer in San Diego, made her debut on the newest season of Survivor. (CBS Thursdays at 8PM.) She was picked while hanging out at Bar West in Pacific Beach.

Kris Klicka and Amanda Blackledge made their debut on the Amazing Race. (CBS Sundays at 8PM.) Kris was spotted by a CBS casting agent at the Ivy in the Gaslamp Quarter. They follow on the heals of San Diego contestant Mark Yturralde, who competed in the last edition of the Amazing Race. (By the way, you can follow Yturralde on Twitter.)

Last summer, I wrote about the TLC reality TV show “Must Love Kids“, which was made up entirely of San Diego contestants and filmed throughout the county.

The UT article notes several more San Diego residents who have become reality TV stars, including contestants on Project Runway, Top Chef, American Idol, and The Bachelor. For those who have the time and knowledge, it might be interesting to post a list of all the San Diego based contestants below to see how many San Diegans got their 15 minutes of fame on Reality TV.

Will you be the next Reality TV contestant to get plucked out of San Diego?

Posted in San Diego Ranking, Started in San Diego | No Comments »

San Diego Addition to Tour of California Makes For “mini Tour de France”

Monday, February 16th, 2009 by The Best Places in San Diego

When Foreign Cycling Team Managers start referring to the Tour de California as a “mini Tour de France”, you know this four-year old bike race has finally come of age.

America has made many attempts over the years to create a bike race on our soil that would be respected among the cycling elites around the world. There have been many fits and starts. I got to see some of the attempts first-hand growing up in Wilmington, DE during the 1980s. Wilmington was frequently both the start and end points for the Tour de Trump, sponsored by The Donald, and then the Tour du Pont.

If any readers remember those races, I’ll never forget sitting at the bottom of Monkey Hill during time trials. The cyclists would head down the street that changed from blacktop to cobblestone and then made a 90 degree right turn.  Making the 90 degree turn while heading downhill on cobblestone was as nerve wracking for the spectator to watch as it was for the cyclist who had to navigate the corner. It was even worse during a couple of the years when there was a light drizzle making it nearly impossible to make a clean turn going any faster than a snail’s pace. We, the spectators, could always tell when a spectacular crash was impending just by judging the speed of the cyclist heading down the hill. (We tried to warn them to no avail. One even took out a street sign well after his body had left the bike.)

Unfortunately, sponsorship eventually waned and the race disappeared.

Anyways, back to the point of this post. The 2009 edition of the Amgen Tour of California is the fourth year of the newest attempt at creating an internationally respectable race in the States.

This is the first year San Diego is being added to the route. For a first time site, it is impressive the San Diego route will serve as the final stage of the nine-day race.

What makes it more impressive is the amount of attention the San Diego route is getting from the international press and foreign cycling teams who will be competing in the race.  The Norwegian cycling web site Syklingens Verden quotes one of the team managers saying “This year’s California is kind of like a mini-Tour de France 2009″ as a result of adding the San Diego stage. The team manager went on to compare the climb up to Palomar Mountain to the venerable Mont Ventoux stage of the Tour de France, the king of all cycling races.

Palomar Mountain is the centerpiece of the final stage in San Diego. At a summit of 5,123 feet, Palomar Mountain will be the highest peak ever included in the Tour of California.

The Tour of California will get an extra boost of attention with Lance Armstrong’s return to racing. In an interview with Velo News, which is posted on the fan web site for his Astana Team, Armstrong noted, “The first time I ever rode Palomar Mountain was in 1987. It’s been 22 years since I did it for the first time. I’ve done it many times since then. It’s an epic climb, I should say it’s a real climb.”  Armstrong is one of the most respected climbers in cycling and to have him call the Palomar climb ‘epic’ has the whole world watching this final Stage 8 in San Diego.

The cycling world’s largest contingent of fans are in Europe. For the first time, those fans will be able to watch American’s premier race during Prime Time in Europe. The Tour of California will be carried live by Eurosport.

So, get out there and cheer San Diego. The bike race in San Diego will be the most anticipated stage of the most prominent race in America and it will be seen live around the world.  This is San Diego’s big opportunity to make a lasting impression and encourage the world to come and visit one of the world’s best cities!

Visit the San Diego stage map for the Tour of California for more details.

Posted in Brains / Talent, Enjoy the Outdoors, San Diego Ranking, Things To Do | 1 Comment »

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