2011 Tour of California host cities announced

[slowoldman]

http://www.amgentourofcalifornia.co...ounced-for-2011-amgen-tour-of-california.html

Start in my town of Claremont and finishing on Mt. Baldy. If they do this correctly and bring them up from the base of Baldy this could be a great finish!

 

[jaylew]

I hear they're going all the way up to the ski area. That last bit is really steep!

 

[ghostofjoy]

claremont is my home town as well, kind of fun to know we'll be a host city!

baldy is no joke either, it will be fun comparing the pro's speeds on that ascent to my own...even if it's just a training ride for them (anticipating the inevitable disdain from cyclingnews posters).

 

[BeachBum]

I hear they're going all the way up to the ski area. That last bit is really steep!

'ski area' as in parking lot, or all the way up to the lodge on the gravel road? I'm betting parking lot, but the lodge itself would be crazy.

Baldy will be better than Big Bear, IMNSHO.

As far as the rest of the course: Tahoe: good; Solvang: pick a new TT course already; and while you're at it, go north of Tahoe and south of LA. sometime, will ya? Instead of going from Tahoe to San Jose, Seaside, Paso Robles, the same old, same old, why not head down 395 from Tahoe? Say, Bridgeport-Whitney Portal? I'm not sure of the distance, but something like that.

 

[slowoldman]

'ski area' as in parking lot, or all the way up to the lodge on the gravel road? I'm betting parking lot, but the lodge itself would be crazy.

Baldy will be better than Big Bear, IMNSHO.

As far as the rest of the course: Tahoe: good; Solvang: pick a new TT course already; and while you're at it, go north of Tahoe and south of LA. sometime, will ya? Instead of going from Tahoe to San Jose, Seaside, Paso Robles, the same old, same old, why not head down 395 from Tahoe? Say, Bridgeport-Whitney Portal? I'm not sure of the distance, but something like that.

I am guessing the parking lot. I just hope they ascend Baldy from the bottom, through the tunnels and Hogsback are deceptively steep! Icehouse canyon is the same, steeper than it looks. Switchbacks and the kicker (16% I believe) will hurt too. It would be great to see them do some gravel roads but I just don't think that will happen.

 

[metsusna]

Tour of Northern California

The name should describe the actual tour. Once in all the years of the ToC has it been routed below Los Angeles. Half the people in Ca live below Los Angeles!! If you're not going to cover the whole state then call it what it is. Tour of Northern California.

 

[offbyone]

Pretty lame that they are going to Lake Tahoe but not going to ride a single summit there. There are so many amazing climbs in the Tahoe area, but they are choosing about the flattest course they could find in the area. The tv pictures will be awesome though.

 

[biokemguy]

Baldy Stage

There will be multiple climbs on that stage, up to three major climbs.

Given this statement, it sounds like they may go over Glendora Mtn Road.

Any guesses of how they'll get 3 major climbs between Claremont and Baldy?

I'd think up 39, to East fork and up the back side of GMR to Glendora ridge road and then up to Baldy. But that's only 2 major climbs, unless you count the climb up by the dams as major...but that's a strecth.

 

[Alpe d'Huez]

Agree on Tahoe. It would have been so easy to get just a bit out of the area to find an uphill finish to split things up right from the start. And/Or they could have had stage 2 go from South Lake Tahoe, into Nevada, then back over the Sierras going over Carson pass and down, or a little longer going over Ebbots and the Pacific Grade (!!!) past Alpine Lake and ending in a town below. Either would have been a descent to a finish, but just spectacular, and would have shown the contrast between the eastern and western Sierras.

'ski area' as in parking lot, or all the way up to the lodge on the gravel road? I'm betting parking lot, but the lodge itself would be crazy.

I only know about this road from books, but would it be possible they could pave the last bit of road from the ski area to the lodge? If it has ever been in the plans, now would be a good time for the state/county to do it. I do agree though, this is probably the best stage the ToC has ever had. This should really turn it into a real race.

Agree on Slovang. Need a new course, please.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

The name should describe the actual tour. Once in all the years of the ToC has it been routed below Los Angeles. Half the people in Ca live below Los Angeles!! If you're not going to cover the whole state then call it what it is. Tour of Northern California.

Here is the route for the 2010 Volta a Portugal:

Now, the same race in 2009:

and 2008:

You'll notice that it is very much focused in the north of the country.

The reasons for this are:
1) much more interest in cycling in the north of the country = more fans, and more willingness of towns and cities to host the race
2) much more challenging and varied terrain that allows the race to be more interesting.

The Volta a Portugal is also a longer race than the Tour of California, so has more time to utilise its landscape than California. Eight days over an area as vast as California will always leave some part of the state unused. For example, here are some other maps of one-week stage races "touring" larger countries:

 

[Libertine Seguros]

The 2007 Deutschlandtour:

The 2010 Tour of Britain (which has carefully removed half the country from the map to hide just how little of the country it has used):
http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/imageBank/t/tob-2010-map.jpg[/i]

The 2010 Tour de Pologne (which has to zoom in on one section of the country containing the entire race, it's that selective):
[img]http://www.velo-club.net/users_private/Izoard/t%20pOLOGNE%20MAP%202010.jpg

Hell, even the Grand Tours, which have 21 stages in which to utilise countries that are no bigger than Germany or California, sometimes miss completely:

The 2006 Giro d'Italia:

The 2009 Tour de France:

 

[roundabout]

There are reasons why Deutschland Tour and Tour de Pologne have those routes.

With those reasons in mind, is the Tour of California contractually bound to use certain parts of the state and does Southern California offer challenging terrain for a professional race?

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Have you ever seen the Benelux Tour, an area much smaller than California (California is 11x bigger than the Netherlands alone), they don't even use 1/4th of the countries. And never used Luxemburg.

It's the same everywhere

 

[flicker]

The name should describe the actual tour. Once in all the years of the ToC has it been routed below Los Angeles. Half the people in Ca live below Los Angeles!! If you're not going to cover the whole state then call it what it is. Tour of Northern California.

The Tour of California has yet to explore the fine roads we have here.

As for Southern California, I don't know. Any place I have to transport my bike 1 hour by car is not my idea of a cycling mecca.

 

[roundabout]

I prefer to call it the Eneco Tour. To my untrained eyed it seemed to have a pretty varied parcours this year.

http://www.sport.be/enecotour/2010/images/parcours/totaalkaart.jpg

 

[Boeing]

There are real political problems city to city in Orange County getting the go ahead to close streets etc. The only thing we could hope for is a lap TT

Too many cities involved in one route with bureaucracies larger than Team Sky's.....officialdom so to speak

 

[Boeing]

What exactly is this stage 2 going to be? a tuck to the finish?

 

[Race Radio]

Given this statement, it sounds like they may go over Glendora Mtn Road.

Any guesses of how they'll get 3 major climbs between Claremont and Baldy?

I'd think up 39, to East fork and up the back side of GMR to Glendora ridge road and then up to Baldy. But that's only 2 major climbs, unless you count the climb up by the dams as major...but that's a strecth.

They are saying they will use GMR and GRR. I would assume there would have to be more then that.

The race would go more to SoCal but they had so many issues with the local police in San Diego it will likely never return.

 

[BeachBum]

I only know about this road from books, but would it be possible they could pave the last bit of road from the ski area to the lodge? If it has ever been in the plans, now would be a good time for the state/county to do it.

It is always POSSIBLE, but I would say not likely. The gravel section is not open to cars year round, or even during ski season. You park in the lot, then hike the dirt road or take the lift to the lodge. The gravel section is for service access driving only.

 

[biokemguy]

SoCal - too many cities crammed together

I think the bigger problem with SoCal or any large urban area in the US, is the number if different cities and city governments that have to be dealt with.

A couple years ago I had a ~6mi (10km) commute to work and I passed through 4 different cities.

Just a rough guess, but the Mt Baldy stage will probably pass through at least 5 cities on the way to the mountain roads.

 

[slowoldman]

They are saying they will use GMR and GRR. I would assume there would have to be more then that.

I really hope they don't take them across GRR, that will neuter the climb in my opinion. They really need to bring them up from the bottom of the climb.

 

[auscyclefan94]

Tour down under only covers a very minute amount of aus!

 

[Alpe d'Huez]

The name should describe the actual tour. Once in all the years of the ToC has it been routed below Los Angeles. Half the people in Ca live below Los Angeles!! If you're not going to cover the whole state then call it what it is. Tour of Northern California.

Is everything north of LA "Northern California"?

As you mention covering the whole state, to me, if they really were going to make it the tour of Northern California they'd go up through Lassen, and up the Everett Memorial Highway on Mt. Shasta. Maybe also take Route 96, Indian Creek Road into Oregon and back down 199 into the Redwoods...

Does the race really need to be where all the people are centrally located? Would the most practical racing then be through city streets in LA and San Diego?

 

[md2020]

Does the race really need to be where all the people are centrally located? Would the most practical racing then be through city streets in LA and San Diego?

It doesn't need to be through the city streets of SoCal to be accessible to the population. There are plenty of locations to the east of LA and especially San Diego that would make for great races and would still draw great crowds. The route up Mt. Palomar a few years ago wasn't bad and I thought it was one of the more exciting races.

 

[BroDeal]

Tour down under only covers a very minute amount of aus!

I presume that is the livable amount.