Home » Santa Clarita News » Amgen Tour Of California Releases Route For Race In May

Amgen Tour Of California Releases Route For Race In May

The Amgen Tour of California released its route map Tuesday. 

The professional cycling race draws more than 2 million spectators during eight-day competition, according to the tour’s website.

The race is split up into several stages, with the starting and finishing of each stage as a spectator event.


Don’t miss a thing. Get breaking Santa Clarita news alerts delivered right to your inbox.


The Amgen Tour of California will be spending two days in Santa Clarita as it rolls through California next May.

The internationally recognized, 750-mile, 8-stage race will begin its third stage May 14 in Palmdale and end the same day in Santa Clarita around 3:45 p.m. The following day, the fourth stage will start in Santa Clarita and finish that same day in Santa Barbara.

“The race is one of the most thrilling events I’ve ever been to,” said City Councilman Bob Kellar, who announced the event Tuesday at a City Hall news conference Tuesday. “We are so proud to play host to the Amgen Tour of California.”

The details of where the local part of the route will take cyclists is still under negotiations with officials and sponsors, according to Rick Gould, director of parks, recreation and community services. However, the race is likely to travel alongside the path of Highway 126 when it leaves Santa Clarita on May 15, Gould said.


Do you have a news tip? Call us at (661) 298-1220, Or drop us a line at community@hometownstation.com


The route is likely to be released some time in January, according to Gould, who has coordinated local hosting efforts for the five times that the city has played host to the eighth annual event.

For the first time in race history, the race will travel the entire length of California on a demanding course from south to north beginning in Escondido and working its way up to San Francisco with the final stage ending in Santa Rosa.  Presenters of the race have released avideo showcasing the route on AmgenTourofCalifornia.com.  

Past city  studies have indicated about a $1 million boon to local businesses from the rave, due to more than 900 event employees who stay in local hotels, as well as countless tourists who travel to the area to view the race.  

 Scheduled over eight consecutive days from May 12-19, 2013, the race will visit 13 host cities for official stage starts and finishes, with communities along the route getting the chance to see firsthand a lineup of some of the top cyclists in the world.  The race has continually drawn previous winners of the Tour de France and World Champions. 

Santa Clarita joins a list of host cities for the prologue and eight stages which include: Escondido, Murrieta, Greater Palm Springs, Palmdale, Santa Barbara, Avila Beach, San Jose, Livermore, Mt. Diablo, San Francisco and Santa Rosa.  

Click here for a related story.

Amgen Tour Of California Releases Route For Race In May

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

About Perry Smith

Perry Smith is a print and broadcast journalist who has won several awards for his focused, hyperlocal community coverage in several different regions of the country. In addition to five years of experience covering the Santa Clarita Valley, Smith, a San Fernando Valley native, has worked in newspapers and news websites in Los Angeles, the Northwest, the Central Valley and the South, before coming to KHTS in 2012. To contact Smith, email him at Perry@hometownstation.com.