California Teams Announced.

[ScottyMuser]

well some teams are sponsoring stages or the whole race - a good way to make sure the invitation is in the mail

Really? News to me, after Vacansoleil sponsor half the events the ASO run and yet ...

As for the line up, pretty weak as expected really; why do CTT/Saxo/Liquigas/QST/Rabo enter is my question, considering all the other teams are pro/amateur teams from the US. Do any of them have significant financial interests in the US that other teams don't? Or is it a case of them teams having significant Gt contenders whom they don't wish to send to the Giro for 3 weeks of gruelling slog and would prefer a week long holiday in the US? QST seems the most baffling, as IIRC its the same time as the Tour of Belgium, their OWN tour, and means thy may not compete on surely their most significant 1-week stage race (in terms of territory). Or is it them not wanting to havwe Boonen/Gilbert et al not hyped up by the belgium press.

Liquigas I suppose is understandable, they can't send ALL FOUR of their Gc contenders/team leaders to the Giro, that would be overkill, although I for one would love to see them do that for the TDF, and between this and the TOB they probably have little finances involved anywhere

 

[Polish]

This year's fifth edition should be a good vintage!
There have been 32 stages so far in the Amgen AToC's history...
Here is who has won them so far:

Stage Victories
Levi Leipheimer (USA), 6
Juan José Haedo (ARG), 5
George Hincapie (USA), 3
Olaf Pollack (GER), 2
Mark Cavendish (GBR), 2
Fabian Cancellara (SUI), 2
Paolo Bettini (ITA), 1
Tom Boonen (BEL), 1
Graeme Brown (AUS), 1
Ivan Dominguez (CUB), 1
Robert Gesink (NED), 1
Floyd Landis (USA), 1
Jens Voigt (GER), 1
Francisco Mancebo (ESP), 1
Thomas Peterson (USA), 1
Thor Hushovd (NOR), 1
Rinaldo Nocentini (ITA), 1
Fränk Schleck (LUX), 1

Good Surfing here also!
Is this Cav?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyutwC_4USA&feature=related
.
..

 

[MacRoadie]

Do any of them have significant financial interests in the US that other teams don't?

Rabobank has a HUGE financial interest in California:

Rabobank America

 

[this_is_edie]

Really? News to me, after Vacansoleil sponsor half the events the ASO run and yet ...

As for the line up, pretty weak as expected really; why do CTT/Saxo/Liquigas/QST/Rabo enter is my question, considering all the other teams are pro/amateur teams from the US. Do any of them have significant financial interests in the US that other teams don't? Or is it a case of them teams having significant Gt contenders whom they don't wish to send to the Giro for 3 weeks of gruelling slog and would prefer a week long holiday in the US? QST seems the most baffling, as IIRC its the same time as the Tour of Belgium, their OWN tour, and means thy may not compete on surely their most significant 1-week stage race (in terms of territory). Or is it them not wanting to havwe Boonen/Gilbert et al not hyped up by the belgium press.

Liquigas I suppose is understandable, they can't send ALL FOUR of their Gc contenders/team leaders to the Giro, that would be overkill, although I for one would love to see them do that for the TDF, and between this and the TOB they probably have little finances involved anywhere

Well first all teams are pro at the Tour of California, no amateur teams allowed in UCI races (unless national teams).

Many of the European teams have sponsors based in the US or with huge interest - for some it's the title sponsor such as Rabobank, some it's bikes such as Quick Step and Liquigas.

and again, I really doubt that Vacansoleil officially contacted the organizers to be considered for an invitation.

 

[BroDeal]

A post on Velonews claims that teams were being hit up for $250K to do the race. Maybe it is B.S.

 

[auscyclefan94]

I thought this was protour race so everyone of the PT teams had to race. Move it back to Feb and lets not interupt the time slot for the giro. There is really one too many races arounf may/june.

 

[auscyclefan94]

Can't see myself watching this tbh.

Australian free to air is getting it live instead of the giro so I will be watching the giro up till around 2am and then getting up at around 9am to watch the toc stages if time permits with work, etc.

 

[theswordsman]

Sponsors for the race. I guess Michelob Ultra and/or Nissan for Radio Shack, Cannondale for Liquigas, Specialized for Saxo, Felt for?, Hincapie Sports is obvious. I don't see the stage sponsors listed.

http://www.amgentourofcalifornia.com/Tour/sponsors.html

 

[Beech Mtn]

Sponsors for the race. I guess Michelob Ultra and/or Nissan for Radio Shack, Cannondale for Liquigas, Specialized for Saxo, Felt for?, Hincapie Sports is obvious. I don't see the stage sponsors listed.

http://www.amgentourofcalifornia.com/Tour/sponsors.html

I believe Garmin ride Felt bicycles.

 

[this_is_edie]

I thought this was protour race so everyone of the PT teams had to race. Move it back to Feb and lets not interupt the time slot for the giro. There is really one too many races arounf may/june.

it's not a PT race, it 2.HC

 

[auscyclefan94]

it's not a PT race, it 2.HC

i thought that was to do with the move to may! oops!

 

[Race Radio]

Is there any truth to the rumors that the ToC was asking teams to pay to race?

Yes. Since the ToC started they have required an entry fee for the domestic teams and not for the Pro Tour teams. As I remember it is around $50k. Of course they spin it as it is for hotels.

 

[theswordsman]

I know this isn't the right place, but seeing Hincapie Sports reminded me that I won a Cycling TV contest during the race last year. I won an exact duplicate of the King of the Mountain jersey won by Jason McCartney, only in an XXL. At the time, the jersey was made from special fabrics and things not for sale by the company. It didn't fit me, and everyone wanted pics, so I asked a Hooters Girl to slip it on and pose. It's all documented at the Hincapie Sports blog, Cycling TV, and she was a Pez Distraction of the Day. That's the only time the jersey has been worn. Any interest, give me a message.

 

[Polish]

The Amgen Tour of California is "America's Race".
Maybe one of the reasons it is unpopular with many....

But all the top pro rider's from America want to be there.
US Continental Pro's get to race with the International Big Boys.

Might be years before a Non-American wins the overall.
Maybe a hundred years before a French rider wins.
(but the race will probably only last a couple more years boohoo)

Anyway, here are the Top Ten GC finishers:

2006
1 Floyd Landis United States Phonak Hearing Systems 22 hr 46'46"
2 David Zabriskie United States Team CSC 0.29
3 Bobby Julich United States Team CSC 0.34
4 George Hincapie United States Discovery Channel 0.45
5 Nathan O'Neill Australia Health Net p/b Maxxis 1.08
6 Levi Leipheimer United States Team Gerolsteiner 1.10
7 Cadel Evans Australia Davitamon-Lotto 1.29
8 Tom Danielson United States Discovery Channel 1.49
9 Christian Vandevelde United States Team CSC 1.55
10 Jason McCartney United States Discovery Channel 1.58

2007
1 Levi Leipheimer DSC 24h 57'24"
2 Jens Voigt CSC + 0'21"
3 Jason McCartney DSC + 0'54"
4 Bobby Julich CSC + 1'06"
5 Stuart O'Grady CSC + 1'16"
6 Christian Vandevelde CSC + 1'24"
7 Michael Rogers TMO + 1'32"
8 Ben Day NAV + 1'38"
9 Franco Pellizotti LIQ + 1'41"
10 Ryder Hesjedal HNM + 1'57"

2008
1 Levi Leipheimer (USA) Astana 29h 24' 32"
2 David Millar (GBR) Slipstream-Chipotle + 49"
3 Christian Vande Velde (USA) Slipstream-Chipotle + 1' 08"
4 Fabian Cancellara (SUI) Team CSC + 1' 18"
5 Gustav Larsson (SWE) Team CSC + 1' 19"
6 David Zabriskie (USA) Slipstream-Chipotle + 1' 36"
7 Christopher Horner (USA) Astana + 2' 07"
8 Jurgen Van de Walle (BEL) Quick Step + 2' 11"
9 Robert Gesink (NED) Rabobank +2' 18"
10 Alexandre Moos (SUI) BMC Racing Team +2' 27"

2009
1 Levi Leipheimer (USA) Astana 31h 28' 21"
2 David Zabriskie (USA) Garmin-Slipstream + 36"
3 Michael Rogers (AUS) Team Columbia-High Road + 45"
4 Jens Voigt (GER) Team Saxo Bank + 1' 10"
5 Thomas Lövkvist (SWE) Team Columbia-High Road + 1' 29"
6 Vincenzo Nibali (ITA) Liquigas + 1' 37"
7 Lance Armstrong (USA) Astana + 1' 46"
8 Robert Gesink (NED) Rabobank + 1' 54"
9 Tom Danielson (USA) Garmin-Slipstream + 2' 24"
10 José Luis Rubiera (ESP) Astana + 2' 48"

 

[excelerator]

No Bahati?

That's a shame. One the most exciting teams in a long time, plus former winner and Cali boy, Landis not being there. Too bad.

 

[spanky wanderlust]

i always thought they moved it to may in order to capture the interest of fans and sponsors who want to see a)potential tdf riders approaching top form, b) to be able to take advantage of those lovely little hills in eastern cali, with some top-notch climbs that are just not available in February.

they have been working with the uci to bump up the prestige of this race. seriously, the US is still a widely untapped market, with some of the biggest bike makers and other potential sponsors. there is money to be made on this side of the pond.

really, i don't understand the attitudes of some of the posters here. california is the best shot the US has of having an established continental level stage race. this benefits everyone. plus, california is beautiful, highly populated, with great weather and super tall, untapped mountains. this has the potential to be a truly great race. a gt? no. but a seven day alternative to the giro for rider building form for the tour? heck yeah!

and it should be a great race, given the talent showing and current form of said talent. i can't wait!

my personal prognostication is that the race will fail, probably sooner rather than later. we don't have a long tradition of running major stage races. the people here don't understand. it's not like belgium here. the whole country doesn't just shut down on easter sunday to watch a bike race. we do have a bike culture here, but it's marginalized (compared to other american mega-sports). the logistics of running the race at the time that it should be run just don't work out. add that to the problems of elbowing their way into an already crowded and established euro calendar, and a general anti-american sentiment of many in the cycling world, and you have a recipe for a dead race.

if they stay in february, they may survive, but it would be a ghetto survival. the corrugated tin-roof shack of the cycling calendar. nobody is on form and they only have half the state to ride. you can't slight the organizers for trying to move up in the world.

full disclosure: i was born and raised in california.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

i always thought they moved it to may in order to capture the interest of fans and sponsors who want to see a)potential tdf riders approaching top form, b) to be able to take advantage of those lovely little hills in eastern cali, with some top-notch climbs that are just not available in February.

they have been working with the uci to bump up the prestige of this race. seriously, the US is still a widely untapped market, with some of the biggest bike makers and other potential sponsors. there is money to be made on this side of the pond.

really, i don't understand the attitudes of some of the posters here. california is the best shot the US has of having an established continental level stage race. this benefits everyone. plus, california is beautiful, highly populated, with great weather and super tall, untapped mountains. this has the potential to be a truly great race. a gt? no. but a seven day alternative to the giro for rider building form for the tour? heck yeah!

I think the posters might not be so cynical about the Tour of California if it a) actually DID use some of those hills, b) didn't go about its promotion in such a cringeworthy manner. Bob Stapleton's "California should now be considered a Grand Tour" quote and all that. The main way that a race without history can make itself into an elite and desirable event is by making it very difficult (see: Eroica). I accept that that simply wasn't possible in February, so they had to move it. But then they haven't kept their part of the bargain up. They've chickened out of making the race very hard in order to increase the likelihood of the popular home win. There's nothing inherently wrong with this, it happens a lot - see last year's Tour de Suisse for example. But when a race doesn't have the history and prestige to fall back on like the Tour de Suisse has, it becomes very difficult to see where that prestige is going to come from if the race isn't very hard and riders don't seem to care about it.

Making it ProTour has pluses and minuses. It's the largest stage-race in North America, but if it's ProTour none of the domestic teams can participate unless they're ProConti. It clashes with one of the biggest events of the season - the Giro - and a lot of smaller events that, while not as important as the ProTour California, have far higher significance to some of the teams (eg Lotto and QuickStep with the Tour of Belgium, Milram with the Bayern Rundfahrt), and so California may end up with the scrapings of some squads' barrels.

This isn't out of some distaste for the race or anything, it's more that they're trying to sell us something they're not going to give us any time soon, and we're not keen on being taken for fools.

 

[spanky wanderlust]

I think the posters might not be so cynical about the Tour of California if it a) actually DID use some of those hills, b) didn't go about its promotion in such a cringeworthy manner. Bob Stapleton's "California should now be considered a Grand Tour" quote and all that. The main way that a race without history can make itself into an elite and desirable event is by making it very difficult (see: Eroica). I accept that that simply wasn't possible in February, so they had to move it. But then they haven't kept their part of the bargain up. They've chickened out of making the race very hard in order to increase the likelihood of the popular home win. There's nothing inherently wrong with this, it happens a lot - see last year's Tour de Suisse for example. But when a race doesn't have the history and prestige to fall back on like the Tour de Suisse has, it becomes very difficult to see where that prestige is going to come from if the race isn't very hard and riders don't seem to care about it.

Making it ProTour has pluses and minuses. It's the largest stage-race in North America, but if it's ProTour none of the domestic teams can participate unless they're ProConti. It clashes with one of the biggest events of the season - the Giro - and a lot of smaller events that, while not as important as the ProTour California, have far higher significance to some of the teams (eg Lotto and QuickStep with the Tour of Belgium, Milram with the Bayern Rundfahrt), and so California may end up with the scrapings of some squads' barrels.

This isn't out of some distaste for the race or anything, it's more that they're trying to sell us something they're not going to give us any time soon, and we're not keen on being taken for fools.

i agree with most of this. i think the race was not as hard as it was supposed to be due to some logistical nightmare with the national forest or something. other posters may know more detail. over time the potential is there.

as for the rest, well, such are the hazards of being small time and trying to go big time. they are competing against some deeply entrenched interests.

too bad, because it could grow into a really cool race. but euro fans need to be on board. if it dies, it will follow a long, sad history of failed american stage races.

 

[James Jordan]

Australian free to air is getting it live instead of the giro so I will be watching the giro up till around 2am and then getting up at around 9am to watch the toc stages if time permits with work, etc.

Personally I don’t think I will go out of my way to watch much of the ToC on SBS. The field is a bit weak and the course is nothing special.

At the moment this race is like the Herald Sun Tour here in Australia. Nice enough course, good hit out for the top domestic teams and local Pro Tour riders but does not have the attraction that warrants interest from the broader top level teams.

Hopefully it will find its ‘niche’ in the calendar the way that the TDU has, but putting it up against the Giro is the wrong way to do it.

 

[auscyclefan94]

Personally I don’t think I will go out of my way to watch much of the ToC on SBS. The field is a bit weak and the course is nothing special.

At the moment this race is like the Herald Sun Tour here in Australia. Nice enough course, good hit out for the top domestic teams and local Pro Tour riders but does not have the attraction that warrants interest from the broader top level teams.

Hopefully it will find its ‘niche’ in the calendar the way that the TDU has, but putting it up against the Giro is the wrong way to do it.

I'm only going to watch the weekend stages of Toc as (with the timezone change) are the big bear stage and the time trial around sacramento.

 

[Ferminal]

No FLandis?

I'll stick with the Giro.

 

[Laszlo]

That's a shame. One the most exciting teams in a long time, plus former winner and Cali boy, Landis not being there. Too bad.

do you think flandis hurt Bahati ? that there was a good chance of getting invited based on the palmares of the rest of the team ?

 

[cyclingnutz]

I think the posters might not be so cynical about the Tour of California if it a) actually DID use some of those hills, b) didn't go about its promotion in such a cringeworthy manner. Bob Stapleton's "California should now be considered a Grand Tour" quote and all that. The main way that a race without history can make itself into an elite and desirable event is by making it very difficult (see: Eroica). I accept that that simply wasn't possible in February, so they had to move it. But then they haven't kept their part of the bargain up. They've chickened out of making the race very hard in order to increase the likelihood of the popular home win. There's nothing inherently wrong with this, it happens a lot - see last year's Tour de Suisse for example. But when a race doesn't have the history and prestige to fall back on like the Tour de Suisse has, it becomes very difficult to see where that prestige is going to come from if the race isn't very hard and riders don't seem to care about it.

Making it ProTour has pluses and minuses. It's the largest stage-race in North America, but if it's ProTour none of the domestic teams can participate unless they're ProConti. It clashes with one of the biggest events of the season - the Giro - and a lot of smaller events that, while not as important as the ProTour California, have far higher significance to some of the teams (eg Lotto and QuickStep with the Tour of Belgium, Milram with the Bayern Rundfahrt), and so California may end up with the scrapings of some squads' barrels.

This isn't out of some distaste for the race or anything, it's more that they're trying to sell us something they're not going to give us any time soon, and we're not keen on being taken for fools.

I don't agree with everything the organizers do in regards to course and team selection. However, you do have to understand that racing in the US is not at the same level of acceptance that you have in Europe. Americans freak out if they can't get to McDonalds or Starbucks in 15 minutes. That makes it hard to shut down roads for long periods of time.

The Pasadena to Big Bear stage should be hard by US standards. There are some harder climbs in the area that would be more difficult to use in a big race. The last stage will be hard and you will see many riders drop out. The Rock Store climb should lead to some aggressive riding.

 

[Truepower]

Bahati's Team squeeky clean? NOT

Hmmm, Nathan O'Neill, Floyd and cough Hilton. Dude don't plau naive, you got flicked because your roster is 2nd only to rock racing in thugness.

 

[craig1985]

Call me crazy, but isn't Quick Step owned by an American company? If so, then that is why they make Tom Boonen race, and Paolo Bettini before that.