Tour of California open for business
The 2011 Amgen Tour of California is shaping up to be a stiff competition, and not just the race itself. 2010 ProTour teams will be fighting over only eight places in the biggest
cycling road race in North America.
“We’re starting to think hard now about the teams we want in the race,” said organiser Andrew Messick to
Cyclingnews.
A total of sixteen teams will race the event in May, but half of those spots have been reserved for American and Pro Continental teams. October tends to be the last month of the transfer market and Messick
is carefully watching it unfold.
“We’re watching very carefully with what happens with respective rider transfers and where athletes are going and what teams are going to be ProTour and Continental levels. We’re thinking hard about who
we want to give the opportunity to in our race”
Many top riders still haven’t signed any contracts, including defending champion Michael Rogers, and a number of teams are yet to find out whether they will be racing as ProTour of Pro Continental in the
2011 season. Of the four major American teams, Garmin and RadioShack are confirmed as ProTour while BMC-Racing and HTC-Columbia are yet to know. It’s a safe bet, however, to assume all four teams will race in California either way, the only difference being
how many ProTour spots will be left over.
“It’s going to be hard this year, harder than last year,” said Messick. “There are a lot of teams that have had success in the race before and obviously we want to do everything we can to bring teams and
riders that have been with us before.”
The Tour of California is a viable alternative to the Giro d’Italia as an early-season warm-up for the Tour de France. Of the 20 stages in the Tour this year, nine of them were won by riders who raced
in California and three of the top ten in the overall classification raced there as well. Some of these riders, however, will be left out of the 2011 race on moral grounds.
“We’ve had a rule for three years now that as an invitational race, if there’s an open investigation and we’re notified by WADA, the UCI, USADA or USA Cycling that rider is subject to an active doping
investigation then he is not eligible to compete. That’s something we’ve had in place for multiple years and we’re not contemplating changing.”
The pro cycling community has been rocked in recent weeks by the news that a test for Alberto Contador, the winner of the 2010 Tour de France, came back positive for a banned substance. Contador has plead
innocence, claiming the substance was only present in a trace amount and that he only got it through eating tainted meat.
Nevertheless, other high-profile positive tests have meant many in the cycling community, including Messick, are trying to make sure their image is a positive one and unassociated from any scandals.
The list of host cities for the eight-stage Tour of California has confirmed that the organisers want to strengthen their reputation as a Tour de France warm-up. The 2011 edition will cover over 800 miles
and 15 cities from 15 to 22 May.
“Now that we’re in May we want to make the most of the good weather and take the riders to the best places in order to race their bikes,” said Messick.
The changes to the race have been based on spectator feedback. It appears that the race will include four sprint stages, three climbing stages and one individual time-trial, with Mount Baldy a notable
edition as the event’s first mountain-top finish in the penultimate stage.
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