BiciRace.com :: 2006 Tour of California

2006 Tour of California, Preview

Tour of California, USA

19 - 26 February

Preview

Stages
19 February, Prologue, San Francisco TT, 3.1K, Map
20 February, Stage 1, Sausalito - Santa Rosa, 129.1K, Map
21 February, Stage 2, Martinez - San Jose, 152.7K, Map
22 February, Stage 3, San Jose TT, 27.4K, Map
23 February, Stage 4, Monterey - San Luis Obispo, 210.7K, Map
24 February, Stage 5, San Luis Obispo - Santa Barbara, 169.5K, Map
25 February, Stage 6, Santa Barbara - Thousand Oaks, 144K, Map
26 February, Stage 7, Redondo Beach Circuit Race, 123.1K, Map
Total 960K

2006 Tour of California Overall Route

Move over Qatar and Langkawi, Hollywood is on the way. Other early season races may offer warm temperatures for the European peloton but the 1st Tour of California adds the glitz and glamour. How can jungles and oil rigs compare to the Golden Gate Bridge, Big Sur and Santa Barbara?

Organizers have planned a prologue followed by seven stages that will take the riders from San Francisco to the outskirts of Los Angeles. The Prologue should be hotly contested amongst the talented crop of American TT riders and possibly give us a home rider in the first race leader's jersey.

We salute the race organizers for starting the Giro di Cali with style. The tour starts from the Ferry Building at Pier 1 and takes the riders along the Embarcadero to the tight, steep climb up Telegraph Hill to Coit Tower. It will be a steamer! The next couple of stages around the San Francisco Bay Area will take the riders to the first long time test, a TT around San Jose. Following the undulating stage 3 TT the race should be cracked open on the climbs south of San Luis Obispo in stages 4 and 5.

Stage 4 will be the monster, taking the riders from Monterey, down Highway 1 through Big Sur, past Hearst Castle, finally turning inland toward the finish in San Luis Obispo. At 210K there is bound to be attrition, to say the least, over the consistently hilly and technical terrain.

Stage 5, at 169K, will take the riders over the Santa Ynez Mountains via Solvang. The terrain will be challenging to difficult, with the final kick coming in the form of the Cat 1 climb over San Marcos pass. There will be little time to recover on the bombing into Santa Barbara. Discovery Channel, and other teams, will know this area well because it is the base of their pre-season camps.

Saturday's Stage 6 will offer the last chance to make any GC shifts. Teams will have to strike out early and gain an advantage before the final finishing circuits in Thousand Oaks. It is likely that the GC will be decided before this stage and the leader's team will control the breaks until an unthreatening group gets clear.

Expect many surprises before the first edition of the Tour of California rolls home on the final circuit stage in Redondo Beach.