Last year it all came down a single second … just one intermediate sprint for a time bonus, and not little controversy. The Amgen Tour of California for 2018 follows a familiar pattern, and the organisers clearly hope for the same sort of outcome that lit up the event twelve months ago.
What happened in 2017?
Anna van der Breggen continued a glorious spring with the overall victory, as she led he Boels-Dolmans squad to another World Tour win. However, it was only on the final stage that she clinched a time bonus that allowed her to leapfrog Katie Hall from UnitedHealthcare. There were plenty mutterings about how the Europeans had bulldozered, maybe even bullied, their rivals into submission. Could the same sort of scenario happen again? Megan Guarnier won the first stage around South Lake Tahoe, before Hall’s stunning mountain ride took the overall lead. Stage 3 from Elk Grove to Sacramento went to Coryn Rivera while Giorgia Bronzini took the sprint win from the American in Sacramento on stage 4.
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The 2018 Route
Compared to last year, the women lose a stage, but we still have a spread of options for the sprinters, and a big day for the climbers. Total race distance comes in at 186.7 miles (301.5 kilometers). The route is basically ‘provisional’ or aspirational; given the wildfires and weather issues to have affected California recently let’s hope there won’t be any need for alterations.
Stage 1 starts and finishes outside the new Aquatic Center in Elk Grove, covering 76 miles. The profile is red-line flat and will suit the sprinters perfectly; so flat, in fact, that there aren’t even Queen of the Mountains points available as the race heads south and west to the Sacramento River and into the California Delta.
We’ll be looking to the likes of Coryn Rivera (Sunweb) for the win, Kirsten Wild if she rides for Wiggle-High5, or Giorgia Bronzini who swapped places with the Dutchwoman for a ride with Cylance.
Stage 2 is the Queen stage, based in South Lake Tahoe on the border between California and Nevada. Heading out of the Heavenly Mountain Resort, it follows Highway 89 south and then east with a second-category climb at the summit of Luther Pass, 2,396 meters above sea-level. The route then drops down to a Washoe Basin circuit around Paynesville and the Carson Pass Highway before a first-category haul up into Nevada territory and the Kingsbury ‘Grade’ climb to Daggett summit, at 2,235 meters. This 12.7-kilometer climb, at 6.6% average gradient, is one of the longest in the Women’s World Tour, but it isn’t even the final challenge. After another descent, there’s a final QOM on the short kick to the line back at Heavenly Mountain Resort which is where crucial seconds can be pulled out.
It sounds flippant to describe the Stage 3 as an hour-and-a-half thrash around Sacramento … but the riders face a lightning-fast, pan-flat 3.5km circuit, circling the state capitol building on the same circuit where the men’s final road stage will finish hours later.
There are just six turns on the route, which passes the State Capitol Building and a host of other state government buildings. However, if the overall title comes down to a matter of time bonuses, as it did last year, the tactical battle will be fearsome, and the speed will be ferocious.