Amgen Tour of California Announces Tentative Route for 2010
With a change of date from February to May the Amgen Tour of California can finally move out of the clouds and rain and into the warmth of late spring in California. AEG and Medalist Sports utilized Twitter to announce the basic details of the route.
A race that in 4 years has gone from pipe dream to one of the biggest road races of the year will move further into the epic category with the improvements for 2010. The only issues with this years race is that it includes the long transfers between every stage, a real problem that impacted fans that wanted to travel along with the race.
Dispensing with the opening prologue the route will start in Nevada City and travel down the Sierra Foothills into Sacramento.
After a transfer over to Davis stage two will repeat parts of this same stage from last year (sans the rain) and travel to the newly established cycling mecca of Santa Rosa (Levi Leipheimer’s hometown).
Stage 3 will then launch from San Francisco (another long transfer from the day before) and head into Santa Cruz (this stage will offer fans some awesome scenery).
Stage 4 will take off from San Jose and head inland to Modesto. Best viewing will be along the San Jose foothill climbs.
Stage 5 will launch from Visalia and is proposed to go through the Seqouias and Sierra Nevada foothills before finishing in Bakersfield.
Stage 6 includes a 120 mile transfer to Pasadena where riders will be sent off on (in or opinions) the most difficult stage ever in the tour. Depending on approval from USFS (after the major fire in the area) riders will track Highway 2 along Angeles Crest Highway through Wrightwood and finishing in Big Bear.
Stage 7 after another 120 mile transfer will be a time trial in Los Angeles.
Stage 8 launches from the backyard of TandemBicycling.com in Thousand Oaks California and will potentially include our very own training loop up Mulholland Highway (past the Rock Store) and down Westlake Blvd for circuits in the Santa Monica Mountains. Best viewing for this stage may be at the Malibu Wine Vineyards just North of Kanan Rd on Mulholland Highway.
Conflicting directly with the Giro in Italy this is the first salvo by race organizers to say “We are a grand race”. We would venture a guess that a lot of the big name riders choose the Amgen Tour over The Giro.
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