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Breaking down the Tour of Elk Grove road course

How do you fit a nearly 10-mile road cycling racecourse in just a portion of Elk Grove Village?

You have turns. Lots of turns.

It struck me right away when I looked at the course map from the Tour of Elk Grove, which actually is a series of races from Friday to Sunday. The stars of the Tour are professional cyclists, some of the best in the country if not the world, who will ride three "stages" - one race per day over the three days, with a different course each day.

For the road stage, on Saturday, the pros will be riding about a 9.5-mile loop 10 times. Except it's not really a loop. It's four loops, two surrounding the neighborhoods and two within them. And I counted 25 turns total for every 9.5 miles. Multiply that by 10 times and you get - gulp - 250 turns.

Daily Herald photographer Paul Michna, who has actual racing experience at this level, and I took our bikes out on the course to try it out. And we found that yes, we were turning. And turning. And some of those turns looked tight.

Paul tells me the pros still will reach speeds of up to 35 mph on this course. (Families riding together on a trail are probably going 10 mph most of the time, maybe hitting 15 mph.) So Paul, won't the riders crash at some point going that fast around so many turns?

Click to enlarge"In the Pro 1-2, I suspect it'll be fairly clean," Paul says. "These guys will be strung out (in a long line) at the corners, and they'll know what they're doing."But, "you get some joker that wants to take a tight line at the corner - that gets dangerous."Fans can see for themselves at what could be the fastest portion of the course, down Tonne Road. The Tonne Road portion going south from Landmeier Road is by far the longest, widest straightaway, and that's where the pros will be riding in the 30s if there's no headwind. If you can get on the median splitting Tonne, especially around Elk Grove Blvd., you'll get great views of the pros.Then suddenly it's a right turn at Walnut Lane into a neighborhood, and the route makes a quick jog left."I do believe this corner could have some casualties, if someone's not watching what they're doing," Paul says. "This chicane here is going to be challenging off a straightaway when you're doing 30 mph."This is on the first outer loop. The riders will have a good stretch west on Walnut up to Cypress Lane, where there will be another sharp turn, and then they roll onto Rev. Morrison Blvd. and back on to Elk Grove Blvd., where the starting line and Jumbotrons will be. Naturally, the race organizers recommend watching along Elk Grove Blvd., but Olmstead Park, along Cypress Lane before Rev. Morrison, would be a good hangout, too.If you can get anywhere on the two inner loops, within the neighborhoods, you can get more good views, especially of the riders, again, turning.On the north side of the course, for instance, just south of Landmeier, you can set yourself up in Appleseed Park; riders will have to turn off somewhat bumpy Howard Street onto Ridge Avenue. Then later on the course riders pass Bartrum Park, on Crest Avenue off Laurel Street. They'll have to make a sharp left onto Verde Lane - and the roads aren't exactly the widest there.With the organizers talking about a pro field of up to 200 riders, it'll be quite a scene - $5,000 bicycles and their fancy-looking aerodynamic wheels whirring by.Each of the other routes - the 4.5-mile time trial route on Friday and the 1.2-mile criterium route on Sunday - have a mere five turns. Except that the time trial route - where the pros will be riding terribly expensive bikes that aren't known for their handling - features three 180-degree turns. At least they'll ride in staggered starts, so the racers won't be in a pack.The rectangular criterium route, the one amateur racers can ride Saturday and Sunday, has only one such turn. But the pros will be doing the loop more than 50 times.The pros are always in the final race of each day: time trial at 5:30 p.m. Friday, road race at 4 p.m. Saturday, and criterium at 3 p.m. Sunday.False20001544The map of the Tour of Elk Grove bike race's road stage on Saturday shows 25 turns for every 9.5 miles.Mark Welsh | Staff PhotographerFalse <div class="infoBox"><h1>More Coverage</h1><div class="infoBoxContent"><div class="infoArea"><h2>Video</h2><ul class="video"><!-- Start of Brightcove Player --><div style="display:none"></div><!--By use of this code snippet, I agree to the Brightcove Publisher T and Cfound at https://accounts.brightcove.com/en/terms-and-conditions/.--><script type="text/javascript" src="http://admin.brightcove.com/js/BrightcoveExperiences.js"></script><object id="myExperience309239177001" class="BrightcoveExperience"><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /><param name="width" value="300" /><param name="height" value="255" /><param name="playerID" value="18011347001" /><param name="publisherID" value="1659832549"/><param name="isVid" value="true" /><param name="dynamicStreaming" value="true" /><param name="@videoPlayer" value="309239177001" /></object><!--This script tag will cause the Brightcove Players defined above it to be created as soonas the line is read by the browser. If you wish to have the player instantiated only afterthe rest of the HTML is processed and the page load is complete, remove the line.--><script type="text/javascript">brightcove.createExperiences();</script><!-- End of Brightcove Player --></ul></div></div></div>