There’s breakaway news off the front of the Tour of California.
Event organizers for the 2011 Amgen Tour of California recently announced that Lake Tahoe will host the first two stages of the sixth annual road cycling race. The race will begin in South Lake Tahoe and travel through Northstar-at-Tahoe and Squaw Valley before pedaling on to Sacramento and ultimately finishing the eighth and final stage in Thousand Oaks.
The long-rumored news was a major announcement for North Lake Tahoe as the event will drop the biggest cycling race in the United States in our laps for two days, May 15 to 16, 2011. Stage one will pedal out of South Lake Tahoe and crush a lap and half around Big Blue before finishing on the cobblestones of the Northstar Village approximately 120 miles later. Don’t expect to see participating racers like Lance Armstrong at Baxter’s that night, however. Stage two will fire up the very next day in Squaw Valley and push racers over Donner Summit via Highway 40 and briefly onto Interstate 80 at Cisco Grove before catching Highway 20 en route to Sacramento.
Hosting two days of an event that’s estimated to have a $100 million impact on California is no doubt big news for local businesses, but the community benefits should extend well past the economy, according to the tour’s title sponsor Amgen Oncology, a Thousand Oaks–based biotechnology firm.
‘We look forward to collaborating with all of this year’s host cities to spread awareness about Amgen, our mission to serve patients through using biotechnology to create medicines for people with grievous illness, and the incredible support services that are available free of charge to people affected by cancer through Amgen’s nonprofit Breakaway from Cancer partner organizations,’ said Amgen’s Vice President and General Manager Stuart Arbuckle in a statement that accompanied the announcement.
World class racing, cancer awareness support, and a boost to local bank accounts should be all good news when the tour arrives next May. No doubt witnessing the peloton crank past Emerald Bay and across Donner’s Rainbow Bridge the next day will be a lasting memory for more reasons than one for many local residents and spectators alike. Info: amgentourofcalifornia.com
