Amgen bike race route to include Hope Valley
Cyclists competing in the Amgen Tour of California in May will ride around Lake Tahoe and through Hope Valley.
The men’s elite race Stage 5 will begin in Lodi and finish 132.4 miles later at Heavenly Mountain Resort’s California Lodge on May 19. The women’s 72.7-mile Stage 1 will start and finish at the Cal Lodge that same day.
This will be the first day of the four-day women’s event. The approximately 160 female athletes will begin between 10 and 11am, riding clockwise around Lake Tahoe. In a slight variation from last year’s women’s race, cyclists will go from Highway 50 to Pioneer Trail then to Ski Run Boulevard, Needle Peak, Wildwood and finish at Heavenly. The athletes should finish between 1 and 2pm.
The men’s races features approximately 200 athletes. From Lodi they will travel on Highway 88, going over the Carson Pass into Hope Valley, then over Highway 89’s Luther Pass, to Pioneer Trail off of Cornelian, Cheyenne, Apache, Mandan, then to Ski Run Boulevard, and through Needle Peak, Wildwood and finishing about 3:45pm at Heavenly. This stage will reach the highest elevation ever mounted by the race at 8,600 feet.
The Amgen Tour of California is regarded as the most internationally respected and esteemed stage race in the U.S. and it is very exciting that our community has been fortunate enough to have secured the honor of being a host city again. This is the type of event that provides broad, positive recognition of South Lake Tahoe and can help bolster our economy now and hopefully into the future via publicity and exposure.
My hope is that the weather will be perfect for all days that the riders are on the south shore so what South Lake Tahoe has to offer will be flawlessly showcased.