The 2010 Amgen Tour of California wrapped up on Sunday and as predicted, there was nothing ceremonial about the last stage. Michael Rogers was under constant attack on the final ascent of the Rock Store climb by Dave Zabriskie and Levi Leipheimer who trailed the Australian by only nine and twenty five seconds respectively.

Adding to the drama, both Zabriskie and Leipheimer had teammates with them on that final ascent. Rogers, who found himself with no teammates, was definitely vulnerable, but the Aussie rallied to bring back every single attack. This was the type of action the race organizers were looking for when they selected this as their final stage and the three protagonists didn't disappoint.

What the spectators saw was undoubtedly some of the most exciting racing in the five year history of the AToC. Everything hung in the balance and Leipheimer and Zabriskie attacked at will hoping to gap Rogers. At one point, Leipheimer looked to have broken Rogers. Zabriskie quickly joined the Team Radio Shack rider in the move, but Rogers somehow found a way to claw his way back to the two.

Ahead of the fight for the overall championship, George Hincapie was leading the remnants of the day's major breakaway in hopes of salvaging his AToC with a stage win. Hincapie was clearly the crowd favorite and it would have been an emotional victory, but Ryder Hesjedal(Garmin-Transitions) spoiled the show with a late race move that put him in a sprint with Hincapie for the win.

The organizers couldn't have planned the finale any better, other than maybe having an American winner. The eight-day race was exciting from start to finish and should be back next year with even more competitive racing and unforgettable stages.

As three-time winner of the Amgen Tour of California(AToC), Levi Leipheimer, predicted the race for the overall title will once again come down to the time trial. With the move of the race from February to May, it was hoped that the longer and more difficult courses would provide some separation, but that was not the case with the top four riders separated by only 14 seconds after 29 hours of racing.

To uplevel the discussion a bit, the race really does need a mountain top finish if it wants to provide a bigger challenge. Leipheimer has been vocal about the lack of such a finish, luckily for him, he is a very good time trialist. But, with the move to May, difficulty means not just adding more climbing, but making that climbing relevant.  The fact that critical breakaways were chased down on both Stage 3 and Stage 6 demonstrates that it is not sufficient to put the final climb within 10-15 miles of the finish line.

So, without a mountain top finish, Saturday's time trial will be about as exciting as possible.  The three strongest riders, Michael Rogers(HTC-Columbia), Dave Zabriskie(Garmin-Transitions) and Levi Leipheimer(Team Radio Shack) are all excellent time trialists. Michael Rogers is a three-time World Time Trial Champion. Dave Zabriskie has won time trials at the Tour de France and the Giro d'Italia and is a medalist at the World Championships. Levi Leipheimer has won time trials at the Tour de France and the Vuelta a Espana and an Olympic bronze medal.

The one big unknown is the time trialing ability of Slovakian Peter Sagan. The 20 year old is the revelation of the 2010 season. He has shown he can sprint with two convincing stage wins at the AToC (as well as at Paris-Nice and Tour of Romandie) and that he can climb. But, can he go fast in the race against the clock?He is only fourteen seconds out of the lead and could take the jersey with an inspired ride.

Only time will tell :-)

Bruce

Almost all of the time the story at a bike race is about the riders. But, every once and a while something comes along which seems to be a bit more interesting. With apologies to Levi Leipheimer, Mick Rogers and Dave Zabriskie, here's an insight into my last 24 hours.

Stage 3 in the Amgen Tour of California started in San Francisco right down the street from comedian Robin Williams' house.  Robin was on hand sporting a gray mustache apparently necessary for an upcoming movie role.  Besides Lance Armstrong, Robin is friends with Jim Ochowicz, the president of the BMC Racing Team. Robin came onto the BMC team bus and spent a few minutes putting the riders and staff in stitches.

After the start, I drove directly to the finish in Santa Cruz to watch the race in the press room and work on my articles for the day.  I am covering the race for active.com, Cycle Sport Magazine and Cycling Weekly Magazine.  That means at least two articles a day.

Once the stage had concluded, I headed to the post-stage press conference. The Amgen Press Officer entered and asked if anyone spoke Italian.  I replied in the affirmative and the next thing I knew I was up on the stage seated next to Peter Sagan of Liquigas who was wearing the Best Young Rider Jersey. Peter and I exchanged greetings and I told him to please talk slowly so I could understand what he was saying.

Peter Sagan is one of the huge names in the 2010 racing season.  Only 21 years old he has already won two stages of Paris-Nice and a stage at the Tour off Romandie. This guy is going to be a big star. That's a good thing unless you are the interpreter since it seemed like just about everyone had a question for the Italian. Needless to say, everything went well.

After the press conference, I filed my stories and headed over to the Versus TV trailer to pick up Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen.  I was emceeing a charity fundraiser with Phil and Paul at the Testarossa Winery in Los Gatos.  We had a great time. Phil and Paul told stories that had us all laughing our heads off. They are truly the best.

I got home around 10:30pm and had just enough time to proof my articles for the UK magazines and websites before hitting the sack at midnight.

Unfortunately, I was up at 5am to head down to the start in San Jose to do several TV interviews for KNTV-11 and KRON-4 for their morning shows. It is tough to be awake that early in the morning. Trying to be awake and upbeat is even more difficult.

The sun was coming up as we finished the last interview. I actually had time to drive home and get a couple more hours of sleep before heading back to the start line to catch up with the riders and record a few more interviews including a very nice chat with Johan Bruyneel about Lance's fitness level.

Well, that's how those 24 hours were spent.  I didn't stop any terrorists or expose any dishonest members of the Presidential staff. That stuff I leave to Jack Bauer.

Bruce

The first two stages of the Amgen Tour of California are complete and while the winner of Stage 1, Mark Cavendish, was no surprise, Brett Lancaster's victory on Stage 2 was not as predictable.  In the race for the overall championship, three-time and defending champion, Levi Leipheimer (Team Radio Shack) is still on track for win number four.  But, his main challengers, save for Fabian Cancellara, have also finished at the front meaning the race is still far from over.

Stage 1 from Nevada City to Sacramento was held in warm, dry weather and until the race hit the three 2-mile laps of the finishing circuits in downtown Sacramento it was a pretty boring affair.  That's not to say that the first day's four man breakaway wasn't deserving of their time off the front, it is just that with the powerful HTC-Columbia team driving the chase, a field sprint was inevitable.

Drenching rain greeted the peloton for stage 2 and it was another breakway which dominated the early and mid-race action, but as in the first stage, the escapees were caught. But, unlike the first stage it wasn't the whole field rather a select group of the overall contenders including Leipheimer, Dave Zabriskie(Garmin-Transitions), Mick Rogers(HTC-Columbia) and Andy Schleck(Team Saxo Bank).

Noticably absent was Fabian Cancellara who started the race sick and succumbed to his illness and ultimately losing fifteen minutes by the stage finish.

Twenty five riders contested the sprint into Santa Rosa with Brett Lancaster(Cervelo Test Team) taking the win over emerging spring sensation Peter Sagan(Liquigas).  Lance Armstrong, whose fitness had been called into question before the race, was also part of the lead group. Radio Shack had five of its eight riders in the front at the finish, a strong showing by their team which bodes well for the difficulties ahead.

Because of his stage 2 win and the accompanying time bonus, Lancaster assumed the overall race lead from Stage 1 winner Mark Cavendish. Tomorrow's stage, a hilly test from San Francisco to Santa Cruz will most likely cause a change in overall race leadership as well.

Bruce

More detiails of the route of the 2010 Amgen Tour of California are becoming available. The official route announcement is scheduled to begin on February 9th wit the information on several stages to be made public each day over the following four days.

It appears that the route for Stage 3, San Francisco to Santa Cruz, will take in four significant climbs. The first will be Tunitas Creek which will be followed by a sharp descent down King's Mountain Road into Silicon Valley. After only about a mile in the valley, it will head back up Highway 84, a 3-mile, 1000 ascent to the town of Skylonda which is at the junction of Highway 84 and Highway 35(Skyline Boulevard). The route will continue down Highway 84, but unlike last year, it will turn onto Pescadereo Road just past the town of La Honda and ascend Haskins HIll a 2-mile 600-foot climb.

The stage will continue on Pescadero Road out to Highway 1. From there the route will be the same as last year including the final climb of Bonny Doon Road.

The all important stage 7 time trial will be held in downtown Los Angeles, starting and ending at AEG's(the owner of the AToC) Staples Center, home of the Los Angeles Lakers and Kings. The course is 21 miles in length and shaped like a barbell, two loop on either end of a straight section connnecting them. Beside visiting the Los Angeles Civic Center, it will also visit the USC campus and the LA Ciliseum. The course has a lot of ups and down including the notoriously steep Figuero Road.

Stage 8 will be held in the Santa Monica Mountains in and around the Thousand Oaks area which is the headquarters for the race's sponsor Amgen. The meat of the stage will be four laps of a 21-mile loop which includes the popular local climb called Rock Store a 2-mile ascent averaging 7%. The loop also contains a long section on Mullholand Highway and a screaming, technical descent down Westlake Boulevard back to Thousand Oaks. Agoura Road will take the riders back to the start of the climbing on the loop. There will be 7000 feet of total climbing on this stage which could be decisive given the sharp climbs, the narow roads and the technical dscending (down grades up to 15%).

One interesting note is the that on-course TV work will be performed by the same French crew which brings you those stunning pictures during the Tour de France. The race organizers have a partnership with the Tour de France organiers, ASO, which undoubtedly is one reason the entire French TV motorcycle crew will be coming to California to help broadcast the race.

Bruce

Alberto Contador put his stamp on the 2009 Tour, attacking the elite group of overall contenders with two miles(3km) remaining to the finish at Arcalis in Andorra. Many speculated that Contador, in an attempt to keep team harmony at Astana, would only follow an attack by another squad's overall contender such as Cadel Evans, Andy Schleck or Carlos Sastre. But, after Cadel Evans had tested the waters with 2.5 miles remaining and had been easily brought back by both Contador and Armstrong, Alberto launched his convincing attack.

The gap quickly went out to double digit seconds, but seemed to stabilize at around twenty seconds as Evans led the chase. Garmin-Slipstream's overall favorite Christian Vande Velde signaled his return to top form by launching an attack out of the Evans-led group just under the red kite. He was brought back and he, Evans, Armstrong, Leiphimer and Andy Schleck all finished together 21 seconds back of the Spaniard.

While the race for overall was going on down the road. Brice Feillu of the French Agritubel squad won the stage. He was part of a large breakaway group that had a ten minute lead as the race entered Andorra. He attacked with about five kilometers remaining and held off all his break-mates. As a bit of a break from form, he forgot to zip up his jersey to acknowledge his sponsors as he crossed the line.

One side effect of the large time gap given to the breakaway was that Rinaldo Nocentini, who earlier this year won the Pasadena stage of the Amgen Tour of California, inherited the yellow jersey ahead of Alberto Contador and Lance Armstrong.  Contador has only a two second lead over Armstrong on general classification, though with the strength he showed in the closing kilometers, he looks to be a tick better than Armstrong on the climbs.

But, after struggling to stay in the lead group at the Giro d'Italia, it is a testament to Lance's form that not only did he finish in the lead group, but he easily neutralized Cadel Evans' attack and looked very relaxed in the drag over the final kilometers to the line. Based on how good he looked, it is a distinct possibility that Lance was playing the good teammate and forcing the others to chase Contador.

It was another exciting stage. Even though Contador appeared to have the upper hand on Armstrong, those who doubted Lance as a true contender may well be silenced. It was also very gratifying to see Christian Vande Velde back up with the leaders after his horrible crash in the Giro. Christian's teammate Bradley Wiggins also climbed well. More on his transcendence soon.

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Stage winner Brice Feillu.

Popovych leads Lance and Alberto with about 4km remaining.

Andy Schleck, Bradley Wiggins, Andreas Kloden and Frank Schleck.

Sergio Paulinho has done his work at the front and is now just riding to the finish.

The Amgen Tour of California(AToC) is moving its races dates for the 2010 edition to May 16-23. After two soggy years of racing the event organizers were looking for a change and after discussing the possibility of April, May or June dates with the UCI, the organizing body of the sport, it was decided that a mid-May date worked best with the existing professional calendar of events.

Also included in the news was the fact that in 2011 the AToC will most likely become a Pro Tour(PT) event meaning it will rank up there with the top professional races on the globe. If you are a Pro Tour team that's a good thing as now that it is a PT event, more PT teams can compete. Currently, as a non-PT event only half the field can be PT teams. If you are a US domestic pro team the change is not a good thing as with the inclusion of more PT teams, less US domestic teams will be invited.

This might seem like a bad thing, but if you look at the results from the AToC from 2009 there was a significant performance difference between the PT and non-PT teams. Clearly, this is not an ideal situation. Hopefully, this will motivate the US domestic professional teams to raise their game.

The May date still has the ability to attract top European riders. The only competition on the schedule is the Tour of Italy and while many top riders would potentially be competing there, the AToC offers good preparation for riders looking to ride the Tour de France and not desiring to ride a three-week race like the Giro as part of their program.

Also a possibility if the race moves to May is an incursion or two into the high Sierra Nevada mountains. Unfortunately, tackling the Sierras does not guarantee the AToC's first ever mountain-top finish as there are few towns in the mountains that can come up with the cash necessary to pay for a stage finish. If the race goes up and then back down into the Central Valley look for the same sprint finishes we experienced this year. Something is going to have to change with the race's business model before we will ever see a real mountain-top finish.

Overall, this change is a good thing for the race. The weather will almost surely be better and the best professional teams will still participate (though they may need some financial incentives to fly so far west in May). In it's short, 4-year history the race has shown that it can change and adapt to make itself a better event. Keep it coming!

Bruce