There had been talk of a Tour of California for years, but it wasn't until March 2005 when the details, sketchy at best, first appeared during the UCI Track Cycling World Championships. A hastily called press conference offered few details, there were no dates and no title sponsor. But there was what mattered most — a financial commitment by a lot of guys wearing suits for the entertainment and sports conglomerate Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) to back a stage race with $35 million budget for five years.
11 months later, with its surprising title sponsor Amgen, the Tour of California began in San Francisco with a keen twist. Its opening act was a five-minute uphill prologue up Telegraph Hill to a Coit Tower finish.
After 68 men’s stages and four prologues and seven days of women’s since the February 19, 2006 debut, the event’s 10th edition will unfold Thursday with a three-day women’s stage race beginning in South Lake Tahoe. The conclusion of the women's race in Sacramento will coincide with the beginning of the men’s eight-stage race on Sunday.
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“By the time February 2006 came along, there was already a lot riding on the Tour of California that it was going to take everything to the next level,” said Ben Jacques-Maynes, who will on Sunday be the only rider to start all 10 editions of the race. “But at the same time being a February race, it was going to be a training race and kind of a spectacle for the Europeans.
“It was a good way to show off the California coast, a good vehicle for the promotion of the state. And from its first race, the prologue going up Telegraph Hill, it absolutely fulfilled its promise. The crowd was there. The buzz in the peloton was there. Everyone was exciting to see this thing go.”
Through its nine editions, four years in February and five years in its current May slot, the event has both helped launch and end careers. It’s had surprises and weirdness. It marked Lance Armstrong’s comeback to North American cycling in 2009 and the first inkling of what would come three years later, his life time ban and subsequent confession to doping.
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