Video: The great torch chase

Video journalists Rhyen Coombs and Lisa Pickoff-White report from yesterday's Olympic torch rally and protest on participants' disappointment at the flame's last minute route change:

(For pics of the protest, click here. For a video slideshow of Tuesday's Tibet vigil, click here.)

Here's Guardian reporter Emma Lierley's take on yesterday's events:

The great torch chase

The running of the Olympic torch yesterday left many hundreds of people pissed because, well, they never saw it. If you were like me, however, and came equipped with a bicycle and the wherewithal to chase the damned thing all over the city, then it became a rousing, and rather difficult, game of hide-and-go-seek.

For the majority of the crowd, that was not an option. In the hours leading up to the planned torch run, the scene along the Embarcadero was entirely peaceful. At noon, Pier 48 held rows of Chinese men and women practicing the drum rhythms that would play to honor the torch as it came past. Chinese flags fluttered in the Bay breeze, children ran and laughed, and the crowd was held back from the torch route by three layers of fencing.

Down the line, protesting blocks formed, and pro-Tibetan protesters stopped a bus at Bryant and Embarcadero around 12:30 PM. Roughly twenty people laid down in front of a charter bus, covered themselves with Tibetan flags, and covered the front of the bus with “Save Tibet” stickers. A line of four police officers guarded the bus, but once again, it was a family affair, and little kids ran around calling for a free Tibet along with the adults.

Chinese flags mingled with Tibetan flags, and each group of supporters or protestors tried to over-shout the other one, but the scene was relatively tame. The rest of Embarcadero was lined with similar crowds, some holding Chinese flags, some holding pro-Tibet signs, and some just eating their lunch, waiting for the event to start.

Back at the corner of 3rd and Embarcadero around 1:30, and I heard the angriest words of the day coming from an exasperated elderly woman who was militantly holding her spot on the corner, facing the 3rd street Bridge.

“Hey, asshole, you need to keep moving. Some of us have been here for two hours,” she said to those who tried to stop in front of her, potentially blocking her view.

Even the SFPD officers were caught up in the event, and joked with the gathering crowd.

“Hey, I’ve got my camera too!” One officer said, as he pulled a small digital camera from his coat pocket.

A half-hour later, and rumors started spreading through the crowd that it was on a boat…on a plane…on a bus leaving the city. I over-heard a police officer’s radio broadcast the location of the torch: clear across town. Sucking up to the friendliest-looking police officer I could find, and the “heading north on Van Ness from Pine” location was confirmed.

Hoping on my bike, the chase was on.

Sending a silent apology to that disgruntled woman who was waiting so long in vain, I raced up 3rd, crossing Market, headed for Columbus Ave. Other random cyclists joined me, and we weaved in and out of downtown traffic, trading information and ideas as to where the torch could be, riding away from the planned route.

“Follow the news helicopters!” one fellow cyclist yelled over the sounds of traffic, and we all turned our eyes to the sky.

SFTeamTibet, the organizing body behind the pro-Tibetan protests in the city, was sending out text messages with information, and together with the hovering helicopters, I was able to track the torch to the intersection of Van Ness and Bay streets shortly after 2pm.

Ah ha! And the city-wide scavenger hunt was mine!

The motorcade was crawling slowly up Van Ness as a crowd started lining the intersection. A line of motorcycle police showed up, revving their engines and literally pushing the crowd back with their motorcycles. Shortly behind came a MUNI bus full of police in riot gear – the first riot gear I had seen all day - who filed out and further lined the street. Two charter buses came next, full of people in blue and white tracksuits. Inside the first was a woman carrying an unlit mock-up of the torch which would later be used for photo opportunities along Marina Blvd.

The official torch came next, in the hands of runners, flanked on all sides by police and Chinese news cameras. On-lookers jostled for a view, and the police pushed the crowd back.

But the game wasn’t over yet! The torch turned down Bay and followed Marina Blvd along the water front – flanked by police and scores of people on bicycles and others running on foot. The attitude in the crowd was definitely different than that along the Embarcadero, with most followers being annoyed at the change of route as well as vocal pro-Tibetan supports.

In a dramatic play tactic, the motorcade dodged right but turned left onto the northbound Golden Gate Bridge on-ramp, while supporters and protestors on bicycles took off for the bridge themselves, trying to meet it at the pass.

Huffing my self and my roadbike up to the bridge, I made it to the pedestrian walk-way just at the gates were closing. By 3:30, the bridge was closed to pedestrian traffic, Golden Gate Bridge District officers along with Highway Patrol were lining either end of the bridge, but there was no torch in sight.

Cyclists, news reporters and highway patrol waited on the bridge, trying to figure out what was going on. All seemed confused, including the officers. The news helicopters had gone a different route and were no longer visible in the sky. A collective sense of victory slowly faded.

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