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California showpiece for Levi, George and the gang

Published: Nov. 2, 2005

What happens now that Lance has retired? Many cycling fans in this country have been repeating that refrain since Lance Armstrong hung up his cleats after winning his seventh Tour de France.

Lance is gone, but the inheritors of his American dream — including George Hincapie, Levi Leipheimer, Floyd Landis, Chris Horner, Fred Rodriguez and Saul Raisin — will have a jump start to show their strengths and characters at next February’s Amgen Tour of California.

With a one-hour nationwide broadcast on espn2 every evening during the eight-day race, the U.S. standouts will have their best opportunity outside the Tour de France to showcase their talents.

Hincapie is sure to be a star of the show because of his involvement with the “Breakaway from Cancer” initiative that will be promoted at all of the stage finishes in conjunction with the Wellness Community. The Discovery Channel rider also has the ability to contend in the 700-mile race that stays close to the Pacific Coast Highway from the prologue start in San Francisco to the Redondo Beach circuit race finish in Los Angeles.

Leipheimer has a huge incentive to do well, even though the California race comes five months before his season goal, the Tour de France. The Montana native lives in Santa Rosa, where the opening road stage will finish after using many of the hilly roads he trains on through the winter. And his German team sponsor, Gerolsteiner mineral water, will no doubt bring a powerful team to boost the sales of its product in the huge U.S. market.

Leipheimer may well take the race leadership in Santa Rosa, and keep it, because there will be plenty of hilly terrain on four of the remaining five stages. Stage 2 takes the 16-team field across the East Bay hills between Martinez and San José — where a circuit race in Silicon Valley awaits the next day. Then comes the longest stage down the spectacular Big Sur coast from Monterey to San Luis Obispo.

The next stage, from SLO to Santa Barbara, will include climbs in the Santa Ynez Mountains, familiar territory for many American pros who have had training camps at nearby Solvang and Buellton. The race’s last real hills come on the penultimate stage from Santa Barbara through Ojai to Thousand Oaks, on the edge of the San Fernando Valley, before the inaugural Tour of California finishes in Redondo Beach.

Besides Hincapie and Leipheimer, Californians Horner and Rodriguez should pose a dual threat for the Davitamon-Lotto team, both for stage wins and the overall title. Landis, the Pennsylvanian who lives in Southern California, may not have the early-season fitness to win the race, but he will be sure to be a popular figure with the fans.

As for Raisin, he has emerged from his rookie season with Crédit Agricole as the French squad’s best stage-race performer, and he’ll likely have Norwegian teammate Thor Hushovd with him to shoot for stage wins. Stage wins will also be the likely target of Saunier Duval-Prodir, headed by the Spanish-based team’s new signing, Canadian Charles Dionne, twice a winner of the San Francisco Grand Prix.

The other of the seven announced UCI ProTour teams, T-Mobile, might rely on its latest recruit, Australia’s world time trial champion Michael Rogers. Like many others, Rogers and Hushovd could come to the February 19-26 Tour of California with their fitness honed by Australia’s Tour Down Under (January 17-22) and/or Malaysia’s Tour de Langkawi (February 3-12).

Besides North America’s European-based stars, expect strong performances from domestic pros like Scott Moninger and Nathan O’Neill of Health Net, Phil Zajicek of Navigators Insurance, and Chris Wherry and Chris Baldwin of the new team being assembled by Frankie Andreu.

With race owner AEG committed to a five-year run with the Tour of California, and multi-billion-dollar biotech company Amgen as title sponsor, the race is giving American cyclists a superb opportunity to show their true colors in this post-Armstrong era.