Shot by yours truly in the 2007 race - I even had a media pass!
Are you excited about the Amgen Tour of Claifornia yet? No? Well you should be! It’s only the biggest and bestest cycling race in America, and it’s coming right through your hometown in February!
Okay, pardon me for sounding like a city booster, but it is quite an exciting event, and for the third year in a row, some real pros -including possibly Lance Armstrong- will tear through the SCV on expensive, drool-worthy carbon bicycles.
Today, the Amgen Tour released its specific route information for all eight stages of the race, which starts up in Sacramento and ends in San Diego. It will pass through the SCV on February 21.
Unlike previous years, we won’t have an exciting stage finish in Santa Clarita. Instead, riders will start the stage here and end the day some 89 miles later in Pasadena.
Here’s the route they’re going to take:
It’s hard to tell from the map, but it looks like the riders will start the stage somewhere around Town Center, then proceed north on either McBean or some other road to Newhall Ranch. They will then jam up Bouquet Canyon Road and hang a right on Vasquez before connecting to Soledad Canyon Road and on into the Angeles National Forrest.
This is good news for Santa Clarita, perhaps not so good for Saugus. It’s good news in that there will be plenty of places to view the race near Town Center/Magic Mountain, possibly McBean, and Bouquet Canyon Road. I think Central Park might be an ideal place to watch from (quite a bit of parking there, wide roads, sidewalks etc). On the other hand, neighborhoods dot Bouquet Canyon Road, so there’s no doubt residents there will be impacted (OMG didn’t anyone tell them to avoid Benz Road??) for a few hours before and after the race.
Adventurous race watchers might even venture out into Soledad Canyon to watch the riders climb into the hills, just like the French people do during Le Tour. I’ve ridden on Soledad and it offers some mighty fine scenery and spectacular photographic opportunities, all the more so with the colorful peloton rocketing through it.
Riders will eventually make their way up to Acton, before turning south to get into Pasadena. That’s where the real hill climb starts. Check out the elevation profile of this route:
I was disappointed when I learned that the SCV wouldn’t have a stage finish like the last two years, but this route includes plenty of territory in Santa Clarita, so I’m quite pleased now.
I’m sure the City will release more specific route information soon and will start shouting from the mountaintops that motorists ought to expect delays, so I’ll keep an eye out for you Saugusians to keep you informed.
I hope there won’t be rain this year. The City had a kick-ass party planned last year, but it got washed out. We need to party before, during, and after to keep this Tour coming back to the SCV!