The route certainly looks tougher than last year's route, but to me it doesn't live up to the hype of why they say they're moving from February to May.

Check out this VeloNews article: http://velonews.com/article/99515/th...lain-the-races

Look at this quote, in particular.

"'In February, there is a lot of terrain that’s inaccessible due to snow and cold,' Messick said. 'Shifting to May will open up the Sierras, mountain top finishes and areas like Lake Tahoe. To showcase the California that we know and love — blue skies, warm weather — we need to be in the spring. We think the racing will be better, and the competition will be better.'"

Well, they got the blue skies and warm weather, but what about the Sierras and areas like Lake Tahoe? Quick, name a California climb off the top of your head. Is it included in the ToC route? Climbs like Monitor and Ebbetts seem perfect to include, so why aren't they there? I don't mean to knock the Big Bear stage. It looks difficult and should make for an exciting stage, but it alone doesn't justify the move to May. It seems like the organizers were one additional climbing stage away from actually turning the race into what they wanted it to be.

"'We aspire to be an important part of the cycling calendar,' said Andrew Messick, AEG Sports president. 'We felt as though being a February race we were, I don’t want to say pre-season, but we weren’t a race that most riders were really targeting.'"

Well, I'm not sure trying to be the American Dauphine Libere is a huge step up, but look at its 2009 route: 2 TTs and 2 mountain finishes. That's the kind of route the ToC needed to present to even have a chance to compete with the European races riders use to prepare for the Tour, and even then there would be the problem of whether or not riders would want to travel so far at such a critical point of the season.

The ToC had its niche as an early-season race that big-name riders wanted to be a part of, and if it had embraced that niche it was on the road to becoming a very successful race. Instead, it's trying to become something bigger and the 2010 route doesn't live up to the hype. With LA riding it seems like if they wanted to do an epic route and really show their vision, this would have been the year.

If the Yosemite story is true it illustrates why a huge race can't happen in America. People just don't care enough about cycling to basically shut down major areas for a mere bike race.