Coming up: Amgen Tour of California
Stage Three of the Amgen Tour of California cycling road race comes to San Jose on Tuesday, February 17, 2009. Reversing last year’s route, the stage will begin in downtown San Jose and head over the hills to Modesto.
The stage begins at the corner of San Fernando Street and Almaden Boulevard at noon on Tuesday and heads over Sierra Road, past Calaveras Reservoir, through Livermore and Tracy, and finally after 104 miles, ends in downtown Modesto. A detailed map is available from the stage page at the AToC website. The race features teams you’ll recognize from the major European races, such as Astana, Quickstep, and Rabobank, as well as local teams such as Jelly Belly Cycling Team. Seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong is also riding, but in a supporting role after a couple of years of retirement. Armstrong will be backing last year’s Amgen Tour winner, Levi Leipheimer on team Astana.
In today’s Prologue stage in Sacramento, Saxo Bank rider Fabian Cancellar had the best time, while North Bay native Leipheimer took second.
And if you want to follow via Twitter, there’s an Amgen Tour Twitter account as well: http://twitter.com/AmgenPD
Or if you’re a Armstrong fan, he’s been tweeting about the tour too: http://twitter.com/lancearmstrong
Bummer news though, Armstrong’s time trial bike was stolen (along with a handful of other bikes) from their truck.