Anything About The Tour Of California

['Dale]

http://cdn2.media.cyclingnews.futurecdn.net//2010/07/08/2/pic124228574_220.jpg

 

It is a bit weird that this is scheduled during one of the Grand Tours.

 

The sixth edition of America's biggest race, the Amgen Tour of California, will display the event's constant evolution with testing route developments and a high-calibre field of riders aiming to perform at what has become one of the highlights of the international calendar.

Edited May 21, 2012 by Puncheur

['Dale]

The Amgen Tour of California is the first race back for the Leopard Trek team after it left the Giro d'Italia following the tragic death of their teammate Wouter Weylandt.

 

Race organisers AEG announced today that there will be a moment of silence before the start of the first stage in South Lake Tahoe on Sunday, and the Leopard Trek riders will lead off the stage in honour of the Belgian's memory.

 

Cyclingnews spoke with Jens Voigt and directeur sportif Torsten Schmidt, while Andy Schleck spoke at the press conference about getting back to work following the difficult week since Weylandt died of injuries he sustained in a crash of the third stage of the Giro.

['Dale]

Andy Schleck will not be Leopard Trek's overall contender at this week's Amgen Tour of California. However he does hope to win a stage and put up a strong performance. The Luxembourg native is using the eight-day race as his first block of preparation for the Tour de France in July.

"It's not a big secret if I tell you that my goal of the year is the Tour de France, which is still a long time from now," Schleck said. "But, I believe that if I can follow Levi [Leipheimer] on the climbs then I can do a nice race. I will take it as it comes."

[GrumpyOldGuy]

Last year the tour of California was dead boring.

 

With, in my opinion, the more interesting riders at the Giro, I dont expect anything differant this year either.

['Dale]

I am with you on that point...

Why overlap with a Grand Tour?

Tch!!

[Jakkals.]

Last year the tour of California was dead boring.

 

With, in my opinion, the more interesting riders at the Giro, I dont expect anything differant this year either.

 

That's not completely true. Last year the fight was on almost every day with zabriske and lipheimer chasing martin. I enjoyed it. Bigger names in it this year and levi also much more prepared because he will b going for gc at tdf.

['Dale]

The Amgen Tour of California moved to the month of May last year in order to allow the race to visit the higher altitudes and some of the state's most scenic locations, but an unusual late snowfall predicted for the weekend could force the race into contingency plans for Sunday's opening stage in Lake Tahoe.

The National Weather Service gives a 90 percent chance of snow, with accumulations of one inch overnight Saturday and into Sunday, and a possible 1 to 3 inch accumulations more on race day.

['Dale]

Saw some pics today that asks balaclavas in the peloton...

['Dale]

STATELINE, Nevada (VN) — Though the weather outside is frightful, a shortened stage one of the Amgen Tour of California will hit the snowy, slick streets at 1:15 p.m. Pacific time, sources tell VeloNews.

 

An official announcement is expected by noon local time.

 

The revised course is to cover 80km around the west side of Lake Tahoe to the Northstar-at-Tahoe Resort via the Emerald Bay and Brockway Summit KOMs.

 

Organizers will most likely neutralize the race for the Emerald Bay climb, where a section of ice is expected to remain on the road.

 

It was unclear whether the race would start and stop again at the Emerald Bay KOM or whether it would be neutralized from Lake Tahoe to just beyond the climb.

['Dale]

http://cdn2.media.cyclingnews.futurecdn.net/2011/05/16/1/000_gyi0064750288_600.jpg Schkleckie in his mask...

 

Stage 1 of the Amgen Tour of California was officially cancelled due to severe weather conditions at the start in South Lake Tahoe. The stage had already been pushed back by several hours due to heavy snow fall and driving winds as organisers fought to save the day's action.

 

The stage had been shorted from 191km to roughly 80km, with several hours delay, and the stage pushed back to 1:15 pm PDT in South Lake Tahoe. Organisers made the decision based on the safety of the riders after overnight snowfall combined with freezing temperatures made for dangerous race conditions.

['Dale]

http://cdn0.media.cyclingnews.futurecdn.net/2011/05/16/1/jd11tocstg1008_600.jpg Part of the route at altitude.

['Dale]

The organisers of the Amgen Tour of California have announced a drastic modification to the start of stage two of the event, due to the winter weather and road conditions that already caused the cancellation of stage one on Sunday. Originally scheduled to start in Squaw Valley, race officials calculated that the best way to ensure a complete course for the second stage was to move the official start to Nevada City, and to add two laps to the final circuit in Sacramento.

[Jon0]

so not only do our local tours have cancelled stages the big tours in the first world countries have them cancelled aswell....

['Dale]

Team Sky's Ben Swift lived up to his surname by blasting to victory in the sprint on a shortened stage 2 of the Amgen Tour of California, topping Peter Sagan of Liquigas-Cannondale and HTC-Highroad's Matthew Goss.

 

Swift's team was in firm control of the race on the final of three finishing circuits in Sacramento, and Swift nailed the sprint. "The team was absolutely unreal - it was fantastic. 100% thank you to the team," said Swift after the win, noting that he, rather than Paris-Nice stage winner Greg Henderson was the protected man for the sprint.

 

 

http://cdn3.media.cyclingnews.futurecdn.net//2011/05/17/1/tocstg2swift_600.jpg

[timM]

http://cdn0.media.cyclingnews.futurecdn.net/2011/05/16/1/jd11tocstg1008_600.jpg Part of the route at altitude.

It's hard to believe that this is California!!? Looks treacherous - I presume this is the bit that was cut out?

[Spat]

I started watching this last night and must concur with the comments above, was boring.

 

Even the commentary by Phil and Paul could not keep me interested, got so into the action at the Giro cant wait to watch todays stage again.

 

I see Nibali is saying he hopes to put a dent in the lead Contador has over him.

 

Now where is that Giro thread...