Eight days of racing ended in Long Beach on Sunday, and it gives us a chance to award our own “best of” trophies to the riders and personalities that made the final day so memorable. Hollywood has the Oscars…and the Tour of California now has the Pezzers.

Now that’s racing! 105 miles from Santa Barbara to Santa Clarita gives us the best competition of the week. CSC and Discovery go mano-a-mano. The battle goes to CSC, but Discovery still rules the war.

The course profile promised the best day of racing and the best chance for a non-bunch finish: 152 km from Stockton to San Jose, two KOM climbs and the race's hardest ascent, the 4 mile (6km) grind up Sierra Road - a perfect day to test LOOK 595 and find just how tough the parcours are.

VeloSport Vacation's Chris Gutowsky is on the lead moto at the Tour of California, and he'll be providing an insider's account of the action everyday. Yesterday's Stage 1 was quite a race - Chris takes us inside...