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Tour of California

American multi-day road cycling race

Summary

American multi-day road cycling race

Field	Value
name	Tour of California
current_event
image	Tour of California-logo 2023.png
date	May (Formerly in February)
region	California, United States
discipline	Road
competition	UCI World Tour
type	Stage race
organiser	AEG
director	David Salzman
first	[](2006-tour-of-california)
number	14 (as of 2019)
firstwinner	Floyd Landis
mostwins	Levi Leipheimer (3 times)
mostrecent	Tadej Pogačar

The Tour of California (officially sponsored as the Amgen Tour of California) was an annual professional road cycling stage race on the UCI World Tour and USA Cycling Professional Tour that ran from 2006 to 2019. It was the only event on the top-level World Tour in the United States. The eight-day race covered 650–700 miles (1,045–1,126 km) through the U.S. state of California.

A typical edition might begin in the Sierra Nevada in northern California, travel through the Redwood forests, California's Wine Country and the Pacific Coast, and finish in southern California. The 2009 race crossed the Central Valley from Merced to Fresno, with an excursion through the Sierra Nevada foothills, before crossing over to the coast.

With eight or nine of the 20 UCI ProTour teams (known as ProTeams) usually racing, the Tour of California was one of the most important cycling races in the United States. On November 28, 2006, the UCI upgraded it from 2.1 (category 1) to 2.HC (; English: beyond category), the highest rating for races on the UCI Continental Circuits; the Tour of Utah is the only other 2.HC race as of 2019. On August 2, 2016, the UCI upgraded the race to World Tour status and added it to the 2017 UCI World Tour schedule.

The race was originally staged in February, but the 2010 Tour of California was moved to May, the same time that the Giro d'Italia is held. At the time of the move it was considered likely that the number of Americans in the Giro and Italians in the Tour of California would decrease. Tour of California organizers sought to make the race a preparatory event for the Tour de France, believing few riders who seek a serious position in the Tour would ride the Giro. Since the change in schedule, the race continued to be held in May.

The tour was sponsored by Amgen, a California-based biotechnology company most famous for developing the anti anemia drug Erythropoietin (EPO), which has been used by professional cyclists in several blood doping scandals. No plans have been announced regarding if or when the tour will return.

General Classification Results

The leader and overall winner by time after each stage and at the conclusion of the race wore a Yellow Jersey. Originally the leader's jersey was gold, a reference to the California Gold Rush, but in 2009 the jersey color was changed to yellow.

Year	1st place	2nd place	3rd place
2006	Floyd Landis	David Zabriskie	Bobby Julich
2007	Levi Leipheimer	Jens Voigt	Jason McCartney
2008	Levi Leipheimer	David Millar	Christian Vande Velde
2009	Levi Leipheimer	David Zabriskie	Michael Rogers
2010	Michael Rogers	David Zabriskie	Levi Leipheimer
2011	Chris Horner	Levi Leipheimer	Tom Danielson
2012	Robert Gesink	David Zabriskie	Tom Danielson
2013	Tejay van Garderen	Michael Rogers	Janier Acevedo
2014	Bradley Wiggins	Rohan Dennis	Lawson Craddock
2015	Peter Sagan	Julian Alaphilippe	Sergio Henao
2016	Julian Alaphilippe	Rohan Dennis	Brent Bookwalter
2017	George Bennett	Rafał Majka	Andrew Talansky
2018	Egan Bernal	Tejay van Garderen	Daniel Martínez
2019	Tadej Pogačar	Sergio Andrés Higuita García	Kasper Asgreen

Records and Jerseys

Most Stage Victories

Peter Sagan, 17 (2019: 1; 2017: 1; 2016: 2; 2015: 2; 2014: 1; 2013: 2; 2012: 5; 2011: 1; 2010: 2)
Mark Cavendish, 10 (2016: 1; 2015: 4; 2014: 2; 2010; 2009: 2)
Levi Leipheimer, 6 (2011; 2009; 2008; 2007: 2; 2006: 1)
Juan José Haedo, 5 (2008; 2007: 2; 2006: 2)
Fernando Gaviria, 3 (2018)
George Hincapie, 3 (2008; 2006: 2)
Toms Skujiņš, 3 (2018; 2016; 2015)
Dave Zabriskie, 3 (2012; 2011; 2010)
Egan Bernal, 2 (2018)
Olaf Pollack, 2 (2006: 2)
Fabian Cancellara, 2 (2009; 2008)
Jens Voigt, 2 (2013; 2007)
Robert Gesink, 2 (2012; 2008)
Rohan Dennis, 2 (2016; 2014)
Julian Alaphilippe, 2 (2016; 2015)
Evan Huffman, 2 (2017) :

Most Days in Leader's Jersey

Levi Leipheimer, 22 days (2009: 7; 2008: 5; 2007: 8; 2006: 2)
Tejay van Garderen, 10 days (2019: 4; 2018: 2; 2013: 4)
Peter Sagan, 8 days (2019: 1; 2016: 1; 2015: 2; 2012: 4)
Bradley Wiggins, 7 days (2014: 7)
Julian Alaphilippe, 6 days (2016: 5; 2015: 1)
Floyd Landis, 5 days (2006: 5)
Chris Horner, 5 days (2011: 5)
Egan Bernal, 4 days (2018)
Mark Cavendish, 4 days (2015: 2; 2014: 1; 2010; 1)
Michael Rogers, 4 days (2010: 4)
David Zabriskie, 4 days (2010: 2; 2012: 2)
Rafał Majka, 4 days (2017: 4)

Sprints Classification

The leader and overall winner by points from intermediate and final sprints wears the Green Jersey.

Sprint Winners

Most Days in Green Jersey

Peter Sagan, 42 days (2019: 2; 2017: 5; 2016: 8; 2014: 4; 2013: 5; 2012: 8; 2011: 6; 2010: 4)
Mark Cavendish, 18 days (2015: 8; 2014: 3; 2010: 3; 2009: 4)
Juan José Haedo, 6 days (2007: 4; 2006: 2)
Kasper Asgreen, 5 days (2019)
Egan Bernal, 4 days (2018)
George Hincapie, 4 days (2006)
Dominique Rollin, 4 days (2008)
Francisco Mancebo, 4 days (2009)
Allan Davis, 3 days (2007)
Lieuwe Westra, 3 days (2013)

Mountains Classification

The leader and overall winner by points in mountain climbs is awarded the Red Jersey (Orange in the past, before 2009) and is known as the race's King of the Mountains or "KOM."

KOM Winners

Most Days in Mountains Jersey

Carter Jones, 8 days (2013)
Will Routley, 8 days (2014)
Evan Huffman, 7 days (2016)
Francisco Mancebo, 6 days (2009)
Sebastian Salas, 6 days (2012)
Daniel Jaramillo, 6 days (2017)
Toms Skujiņš, 6 days (2018; 2, 2015; 4)
Bernhard Kohl, 5 days (2006)
Scott Nydam, 5 days (2008)
Thomas Rabou, 5 days (2010)
Pat McCarty, 5 days (2011)
Egan Bernal, 4 days (2018)
Christophe Laurent, 4 days (2007)
Davide Ballerini, 4 days (2019)
Levi Leipheimer, 3 days (2006)
Tom Peterson, 3 days (2007)

Best Young Rider Classification

The leader and overall winner by time for riders under 23 is awarded the White Jersey. Before 2009, this jersey was silver and blue.

Best Young Rider Winners

Most Days in Youth Jersey

Robert Gesink, 16 days (2009: 8; 2008: 5; 2007: 3)
Lawson Craddock, 14 days (2014: 7; 2013: 7)
Peter Sagan, 13 days (2012: 4; 2011: 2; 2010: 7)
Egan Bernal, 7 days (2018)
Tom Peterson, 6 days (2006)
Julian Alaphilippe, 6 days (2015)
Neilson Powless, 6 days (2016)
Tadej Pogačar, 6 days (2019)
Lachlan Morton, 5 days (2017)
Tejay van Garderen, 4 days (2011)
Taylor Tolleson, 3 days (2007)

Teams Classification

Teams are classified based on the total time of the team's top three finishers in each stage.

Best Team Winners

Most Courageous Rider Classification

The Blue Jersey is given to the most courageous rider at the end of each stage. In 2008, the jersey was red. George Hincapie has won this jersey three times, after stages in 2008, 2009 and 2010. Jan Bárta won the award twice during the 2011 edition. Ben Wolfe and Evan Huffman both won the jersey twice during the 2017 race. No one else has won this jersey more than once.

Doping controversy

The main sponsor of the event, Amgen, is the producer of the medical drug Erythropoietin, also called EPO. EPO has been used as a performance-enhancing drug by professional cyclists. Former professional cyclists who admitted their doping, such as Tyler Hamilton, claim that for some time most of the world's top cyclists used EPO.

A plan to perform comprehensive anti-doping tests for the 2011 event was terminated by the UCI. The plan was to do blood tests performed by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), which would have been able to detect EPO, but the UCI and the USADA couldn't agree on the details of the doping tests. For the 2013 edition, the UCI elected to reintroduce testing based on the biological passport, as USADA would also take care of pre-race testing, but with no cooperation between the two agencies.

References

(August 2, 2016). "UCI expands WorldTour to 37 events - CyclingNews.com". cyclingnews.com.
"www.cyclingnews.com - the world centre of cycling". autobus.cyclingnews.com.
(May 6, 2009). "California tour moves to May next year - VeloNews.com". velonews.com.
(October 30, 2019). "Amgen Tour of California on 'Hiatus' for 2020 Season".
"Acceptance of Sanction Zabriskie Executed".
(May 16, 2011). "FraudBytes: EPO and the Amgen Tour of California (A Flashback)". fraudbytes.blogspot.de.
(November 11, 2016). "Tyler Hamilton speaks out about doping at Oxford Union". The Oxford Student.
(May 14, 2011). "USADA Out Of Tour Of California Testing | Cyclingnews.com". cyclingnews.com.
Daniel Benson. (May 3, 2013). "Exclusive: UCI reintroduce biological passport testing at Tour of California". [[Future plc]].

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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