Tour of California

The Tour of California (advertised as Amgen Tour of California) is an annual professional cycling stage race on the UCI America Tour and USA Cycling Professional Tour. It began on February 19, 2006. The eight-day race covers 650–700 miles (1,045 - 1,126 km) through California — beginning in Nevada City, traveling through the redwoods, wine country and the Pacific Coast, finishing in Escondido. The 2009 race crossed the Central Valley from Merced to Fresno, with an excursion through the Sierra Nevada foothills, before crossing to the coast. The tour is sponsored by Amgen.

 With eight to nine of the 20 UCI ProTour teams, the Tour of California is one of the largest cycling races in the United States since the demise of the Coors Classic in 1988. On November 28, 2006, the UCI upgraded it from 2.1 (category 1) to 2.HC (French: Hors categorie; English: beyond categorization), the highest rating and one of only three in the United States. The others are the Tour de Georgia and the Tour of Missouri.

In 2010, the 2010 Tour of California moved from February to May (May 16–23), the same time as the Giro d'Italia. It is considered likely that the number of Americans in the Giro and Italians in the Tour of California will decrease. Tour of California organizers seek to make the race a preparatory event for the Tour de France, believing few riders who seek a serious position in the Tour will ride the Giro.

The eight-day 2011 Tour of California, in its sixth year, starts May 15 at the California-Nevada state line on Lake Tahoe's south shore.