2010 Amgen starts on Broad Street, then on to Grass Valley, Colfax

Photo by Bob Lickter City Manager Gene Albaugh and Mayor Reinette Senum were all smiles while addressing a packed City Hall chambers after Nevada City learned the 2010 Amgen Tour of California would start here.

Lance Armstrong, who lavished praise on Nevada City on Twitter before and after this past summer’s race, will be joined by Levi Leipheimer, Dave Zabriskie, George Hincapie and scores of other world-class cyclists on Broad Street on Sunday, May 16, for the start of the 8-day, 750-mile 2010 Amgen Tour of California

 By Pat Butler

The 2010 Amgen Tour of California that starts in Nevada City for the first time will continue to Grass Valley and then Colfax as part of Stage 1 of the eight-day, 750-mile race that features the world’s greatest bicyclists.

 Nevada City Manager Gene Albaugh said Monday the race will start on Broad Street and the cyclists are expected to do three or four laps through downtown Nevada City before leaving town.

 Seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong will return to Nevada City for the race and as the reigning champion of the 49^th annual Nevada City Bicycle Classic, which he won in June before an estimated 15,000 cheering fans.

  “This is really gigantic,” Nevada City Mayor Reinette Senum said after making the announcement with Albaugh on Oct. 22 before a packed City Hall chambers. “It’s here because Amgen was so impressed with the Nevada City Bicycle Classic. We’re so indebted to Lance Armstrong. He was one of Nevada City’s biggest cheerleaders.”

 Albaugh said Amgen officials were impressed with the community when they came to meet with him and Duane Strawser, the director of the Nevada City Bicycle Classic and current president of the Chamber of Commerce.

 “They were in town for a while before they met with us,” Albaugh said. “And they said they were impressed with the people here. I guess they don’t get that everywhere they go.”

  Albaugh said the city’s 49-year track record with the Nevada City Bicycle Classic and Amgen’s decision to move the race from February to May also played key roles in the city being included in a tour that officials estimated had 2 million spectators in 2009.

  Armstrong, who lavished praise on Nevada City via Twitter before and after this summer’s race, will be joined by Levi Leipheimer, Dave Zabriskie and George Hincapie at the starting line on Broad Street on Sunday, May 16.

  Albaugh said specific routes to Grass Valley and Colfax have yet to be mapped out although racers won’t be taking the freeway to Grass Valley. From Colfax, the race continues through Forest Hill, Auburn and Folsom before finishing in Sacramento, he said.

 “The whole thing should take around four and half hours,” Albaugh said of Stage 1. “I don’t think I could drive it that fast.”

 The beginning of the eight-stage Amgen tour comes on the same week that Nevada City is hosting the annual California Preservation Foundation conference, which is also coming to the Sierra for the first time.

 The conference is expected to attract hundreds of history lovers who have already booked many of the approximately 400 hotel and bed and breakfast rooms in Nevada City and Grass Valley.

 “We’re going to get some larger long-term benefits because the publicity that Nevada City will receive as a result of these events is significant,” said Albaugh, adding that City Hall was inundated with phone calls in the days before the Amgen announcement.

 “It was really heavy,” he said. “It was like hell week.”

The Amgen 2010 race stages:

Stage 1: Sunday, May 16 - Nevada City to Sacramento

Stage 2: May 17 - Davis to Santa Rosa

Stage 3: May 18 - San Francisco to Santa Cruz

Stage 4: May 19 - San Jose to Modesto 

Stage 5: May 20 - Visalia to Bakersfield

Stage 6: May 21 - Pasadena to Big Bear Lake

Stage 7: May 22 - Los Angeles (individual time trial)

Stage 8: Sunday, May 23 - Thousand Oaks/Westlake