Hey just go this over the wire. Lake Tahoe start of ATOC and 2nd stage goes over Donner. Sweet!!!!! Mt. Baldy 10,000FT+

A lot of new cities except San Jose will still be in the ATOC.

Here's the stages:

Tour of California stages, 2011

Stage 1: Sunday, May 15 - South Lake Tahoe to North Lake Tahoe- Northstar at Tahoe Resort
Stage 2: Monday, May 16 - North Lake Tahoe-Squaw Valley USA to Sacramento
Stage 3: Tuesday, May 17 - Auburn to Modesto
Stage 4: Wednesday, May 18 - Livermore to San Jose
Stage 5: Thursday, May 19 - Seaside to Paso Robles
Stage 6: Friday, May 20 - Solvang Individual Time Trial
Stage 7: Saturday, May 21 - Claremont to Mt. Baldy
Stage 8: Sunday, May 22 - Santa Clarita to Thousand Oaks

Looks to be a cool route next year.

I still think they need to make DMD a stage in the ATOC, but end it in SJ after climbing Sierra Rd.

That would be awesome!

Or hit up the Eastern Sierra.

My vote goes for a San Francisco stage with five laps of our former San Francisco Gran Prix course.

That would make for a good World's course!
Not so much a good stage IMO... for one thing, only about 20% of the field ever finished; can't have that.

Too bad they'd never take it up Diablo.

https://velonews.competitor.com/2010/...or-2011_145235

it say's they will include Glendora Mountain / Ridge into the climb. that adds a bit of distance but the last section would be the same.

They won't go to 10k on Baldy - it's only paved to about 6500. Some MTB'ers can make it to 10062 on the Devil's Backbone Trail.
This seems to me to be a very NorCal centric ATOC.

Curious to see what route they'll take around the Lake. It's only 40 miles or so from South Shore to NorthStar so they'll need to include something extra, maybe down into Truckee or over Spooner and through Carson City before coming over Mt. Rose? That would spectacular.

From what I understand, they'll be racing around the lake.

Yes they will do a full circle and a half.

There's typically two ways to go up to Mt. Baldy ... either straight up Mt. Baldy Road (from Claremont), or going up GMR/GRR ... I personally prefer GMR/GRR. Not as much traffic to contend with doing that route.

Yeah, I got that impression too ... although the past 2 years have been very SoCal centric, so it's about time they've given NorCal some love.

Any idea about the Squaw - Sacramento route?

Uh, last year was also very NorCal centric. Only three stages south of Bakerspatch.

from what I know the reason it seems to be moving to a more NorCal event is dealing with the SoCal municipalities is getting to be ridiculous.

Due to the political realities of SF, it will never happen.

Very well could be; though shutting down parts of downtown LA was a miracle. And, that only required one city.

Yeah, it's really becoming a more small-town to mid-size city event.

And it's our fault because we didn't spend enough money at the SF prologues (or the SFGP for that matter). Not enough people ate at the restaurants and stayed at the hotels and took the taxis - that's what gives promoters leverage with big cities.

The first year was really rough. Someone forgot to tell the pros that when we say "hills" we mean hills - not your wimpy hors de categorie TdF bumps on the road;-) But it was the ten laps that decimated the field. Reducing the distance to one that required only eight climbs of the Fillmore Street hill greatly increased the number of finishers. Five climbs should be doable as a stage.

Canceling the SF Gran Prix was then-supervisor Aaron Peskin's boffo. I'm sure he's heard from lots of folks re what a bonehead move that was and would hear from many more if word got out that ATOC was considereing an SF stage.

Yeah, but that's because some of our elected representatives are unable to think long term. What locales get from event exposure is buckets of free publicity. That carries long term benefits. Some letters to the supes and letters to editors should help to wake them up.

You are vastly overestimating the relationship between rationality and SF politics. The two are rarely, if ever, seen together. Aaron Peskin is merely the worst of the bunch (worse even than Chris Daly, because Daly is pretty up front about what he is, as awful and out-of-control as that is.

The SFGP was killed off not because of the race itself, but because that extreme-sport ski-jump numb-nuts wanted to throw a ski=jumping birthday bash for himself on Filmore Steet. Some of the big money Pacific Heights locals, who were barely willing to put up with SFGP as it was, decided that this was enough, and NIMBY became their policy for everything. They demanded that their Supervisor kill not just the ski-jump stupidity, but the race, too. In SF, the Supervisor of the District that wants such things never does the dirty work him- or herself. Instead, they trade favors with each other for this sort of thing to give a patina of City-wide support. In this case, Peskin, whose district included North Beach, did the honors.

Make that dishonors. He did it through two bald-faced lies. Lie #1 - North Beach was hurt economically by the race. Are you kidding me? If you ever went, you saw how every single establishment that sold grub or grog was packed to the rafters during the normally slow (read: dead) weekend morning and early afternoon hours. Lie #2 - the organizers did not pay their bills for the extra police presence. The unpaid bill that Peskin & Co. waved around to show what deadbeats the SFGP folks were had been given to race organizers literally the day before. The City & County took months and months to figure how much the police overtime cost and what to bill to the organizers, and the Board of Supes blamed the organizers because they did not write a check in less than 24 hours.

True story.

Having lived here since '57, it's unlikely that I would overestimate the rationality of our politics;-) That said, the race was killed just as you said it was. That doesn't mean that it can't be revived. Nothing is forever, particularly here.

Hey guys, I've ridden most of the Stage 1 route before and I just rode some of it today. It's definitely a different thought process going from my normal "how I would race this" thoughts to "where I would see the best action" thoughts. I want to ride all of Stage 1 in the Spring to see it through the eyes of a spectator.

Anyway, I've never been to a race as big as ATOC, so I was wondering if any of you guys who have been there before had any advice on what's the best thing to see. My plans for Stage 1 are kind of up in the air, but I know for Stage 2 I'm going to hit the starting area to find out what all I can see there. If I play it right on Stage 1 I could pick a spot and see the peloton go by twice. I do like the idea of being out on the open road better than being packed at the finish line, so I'm leaning towards doing that. Emerald Bay is my favorite part of the lake and there's a nice little climb there, so that is the first place that comes to mind.

How tight is the control on traffic? Let's say I rode to Emerald Bay in the morning and found a good spot there. After the peloton went by, would I be able to ride my bike to another part of 89? That would be on the actual course, but there really isn't a feasible detour. It would be about another 70 miles until the race came back through.

There fixed for accuracy. None of them can see past the next election.