Late last year AEG released details of the upcoming Tour of California through well executed and planned Twitter posts from Lance Armstrong, Levi Leipheimer and George Hincapie. All three also confirmed their participation in the 2010 edition of the event. This Twitter burst was in conjunction with a press conference that announced the host cities for the stages.
AEG is once again tapping into the social media phenomena and is revealing the route details for the May 16th 2010 Tour of California tomorrow via videos on YouTube and on their Facebook page.
Earlier editions of the Tour of California were run in February, however weather conditions during that month were problematic. Rain was a constant factor in northern California and snowy conditions made a mountain top finish impossible. The month of May, although it coincides with the Giro d' Italia, was chosen as it allowed the organizers to run stages in areas they were previously unable to.
“The May timing of the 2010 edition of the Amgen Tour of California is going to allow us to visit some challenging new areas of California that previously were not possible due to the weather,” said Andrew Messick, president of AEG Sports.
One of those challenging new areas is stage 6, which features a mountain top stage finish on Big Bear. This type of stage finish is what three-time Tour of California winner Leipheimer has been asking for from the organizers for several years and dovetails with his Tour de France preparation.
According to his Twitter posts, Leipheimer stated that he is using the Tour of Algarve, Paris-Nice, Dauphiné Libéré, as well as the Tour of California to find his form for the upcoming Tour de France.
Additionally with the move to May the organizers can create more challenging stages and create some race drama. In previous years the race was decided by the time trial in Solvang and then the lead defended easily as the terrain offered few opportunities to change the general classification.
As the UCI continues to globalize the sport with events like the Tour Down Under in Australia, the Tour of California seems to be the next logical choice for a ProTour ranking.
Stage-by-stage videos revealing the route for the 2010 Amgen Tour of California will be released on the following days:
Tuesday, Feb. 9:
Stage 1 (Nevada City to Sacramento) and Stage 2 (Davis to Santa Rosa)
Wednesday, Feb. 10:
Stage 3 (San Francisco to Santa Cruz) and Stage 4 (San Jose to Modesto)
Thursday, Feb. 11:
Stage 5 (Visalia to Bakersfield) and Stage 6 (Pasadena to Big Bear Lake)
Friday, Feb. 12:
Stage 7 (Los Angeles individual time trial) and Stage 8 (Thousand Oaks/Westlake Village/Agoura Hills)
Past Winners of the Tour of California
2006: Floyd Landis
2007: Levi Leipheimer
2008: Levi Leipheimer
2009: Levi Leipheimer