It must be time for the Amgen bike race because the weather forecast for Lake Tahoe has changed from summer back to winter-ish.

While it’s a week out for the cyclists to hit South Lake Tahoe, it’s too far away to definitively say rain will be part of the mix. But wet weather is going to start this weekend and some weather sites say it will last a week.

Weather seems to always play a role in this race when Tahoe is part of the mix. One year it was snowed out, the start temperature has been a concern in the past, and wind is an element.

Rain is something these professionals can deal with. Thunder and lightning could be a different story.

The women participating in the Tour of California will spend all of May 18 in the region, while the men’s stage 6 ends at Heavenly Mountain Resort that day. All athletes will climb Kingsbury Grade – a first for the men.

The women will start at the Cal Lodge at 11am, with the first racers expected to finish at 2:18pm. The men should arrive about an hour later.

The women start and end at Heavenly. They will go out Pioneer Trail, over Luther Pass, make a loop in Woodfords, go along Foothill Road to Kingsbury back to the ski resort. The men will do much of the same route once they hit Hope Valley.

Kingsbury Grade will likely be closed from 1-3:30pm that Friday. Expect 20-minute rolling closures on Highway 50 in the Stateline area in that time frame. There will be temporary road closures all along the route.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report