AMGEN Tour of California (2009)

Santa Rosa, CA

The First Leg of the 2009 Amgen Tour of California was from Davis to Santa Rosa. Francisco Macebo dominated from the beginning, with some exciting sprints in Winters and Calistoga. Traditionally, the first leg always is around the Bay Area. I guess Santa Rosa qualifies (a bit north for my tastes, but whatever.)

Santa Cruz, CA

The second leg was from Sausalito to Santa Cruz. This is a journey I am highly familliar with, although not usually via bicycle. Hugging the coast the whole way, it really affords some breathtaking, dramatic scenery. The cliffs of Half Moon Bay, finishing up in hippie little Santa Cruz with its ocean air.....

Stage 2 was all over the place, but towards the end it became increasing clear that, as usual, Levi Leipheimer was going to be a formidable force to be reckoned with. He dominated the final climb of Stage 2 and earned the race leader's yellow jersey.

Modesto, CA

Stage 3 was from San Jose to Modesto. Not the most interesting drive in the world in a car..... probably hot as the dickens on a bike. Livermore is nice though.......

Clovis

Stage 4 was from Merced to Clovis.... the LONG, circuitous, mountainous way. Otherwise it wouldn't be fun, right?

Jason McCartney really started to hold his own here, as King of the Mountains......he ended up winning the Mountains Classification. A strong showing.

Paso Robles, California

Stage 5 wound its way from Visalia to Paso Robles (home of some of the more fantastic sunsets I've ever seen.) A lot of sprinting, a lot of distance on this leg. Start in Central California and ride (almost) all the way to the coast!

Solvang, CA

Leipheimer truly dominated in Stage 6, the Solvang individual time trial. He won the stage itself, and continued wearing that yellow jersey.

Pasadena, CA

Stage 7 went from Santa Clarita to Pasadena, the home of Caltech, rich folk, and plenty of other nice things.

Escondido, CA

The final stage started in Rancho Bernardo and ended in Escondido. These two places aren't that far away..... unless you go up into the La Jolla Indian Reservation and cycle around like mad up there before coming back down.

General Classification Winner: Levi Leipheimer

Sprints Classification Winner: Mark Cavendish
KOM Winner: Jason McCartney
Best Young Rider Winner: Robert Gesink

More importantly, Leipheimer increased his tally of total days in the Leader's Jersey to 22 full days over the course of the race's history. The closest competitor has 5.

It's his race, for sure.