The 2009 Tour of California was the 4th running of the Tour of California, an annual cycling race contained within the state of California. The event was staged February 14–22 and began with a prologue in the state capital of Sacramento. The event was held as part of the schedule of both the UCI America Tour and USA Cycling Professional Tour. The race was won by Levi Leipheimer for the third consecutive year.
Race details
The Fourth Tour of California covered nine days and , starting with a flat prologue near the California State Capitol in Sacramento on February 14, 2009. Drawing many of the top cyclists from around the world, the Tour of California generated an estimated revenue of $100 million for the state of California.
The team included two-time returning champion Levi Leipheimer, and seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong. The 2006 champion, Floyd Landis returned, riding for .
Tour organizers have switched the route from year to year, hoping to reach out to fans in different parts of the state and maintain the challenge of the race. Santa Cruz, one of the cities added for the 2009 running, expected added costs of $100,000 to cover public services and accommodations for lodging and meals for the cycling teams, and was expecting 250,000 fans to attend the end of Stage 2. The sales and hotel taxes generated by drawing tourists at a traditionally slow time of the year were expected to help recover the costs of hosting the event.Staff. "Lance Armstrong to ride in Amgen, which stops in Santa Cruz", San Jose Mercury News, 25 September 2008. Accessed 26 January 2009. Stage 2 also took the peloton across the Golden Gate Bridge for the first time in the tour's history.Staff. "SAN JOSE STAGE REVERSES COURSE FOR 2009 TOUR OF CALIFORNIA", San Jose Mercury News, 24 July 2008. Accessed 26 January 2009. "The tour has revamped an 800-mile course that will cross the Golden Gate Bridge for the first time."
In another first, Stage 4 includes an excursion through the Central Valley and the Sierra Nevada foothills, starting in Merced, then passing through the foothill towns of Mariposa and Oakhurst, and finishing in Clovis (adjacent to Fresno).
The tour organizers tried to integrate climbing into nearly every day's stage; only the prologue, time trial and Stage 5 — the tour's longest at — had no climbs. The 2009 Tour features at least one King of the Mountain summit on each other stage, with the Tour's technical director proclaiming that the difficult climbs in the course they designed having the potential to have the leader change on a daily basis.
The eighth stage alone, the last of the tour, stretching nearly from Rancho Bernardo to Escondido featured four King of the Mountain summits including a climb of Palomar Mountain, home of the Palomar Observatory, which runs for , climbing at an average grade of 7%, with 21 switchbacks on the mountain that reaches an elevation of .Giesin, Dan. "Tour of California returning to San Francisco", San Francisco Chronicle, 5 December 2008. Accessed 26 January 2009.
Teams
UCI ProTour Teams ALM - AST - GRM - LIQ - QST - RAB - SAX - THR -
UCI Professional Continental Teams BMC - CTT -
UCI Continental Teams BPC - COL - FAS - Fly V Australia JBC - OCM - RRC - TT1 -
Stages For the first time, the 2009 tour had an additional 8th stage meant to increase the competitiveness of the event.
Prologue
Saturday, February 14 Sacramento Start Time: 1:30 PM Miles: 2.4 KM: 3.9 End ETA: 4:00 PM Prologue Result CyclistTeamTime1 4' 32"2 + 1"3 + 2"4 + 2"5 + 3"6 + 3"7 + 3"8 + 4"9 + 4"10 + 4"
Stage 1 Sunday, February 15 Davis to Santa Rosa Start Time: 12:00 noon Miles: 107.6 KM: 173.2 End ETA: 3:56–5:01 PM
Francisco Mancebo of Rock Racing broke away after 5 miles of racing, and stayed away almost all day. He was briefly joined by Tim Johnson and David Kemp in his breakaway effort, but he later broke away from them as well, and they were reabsorbed by the peloton. A 23-man chase group formed as Mancebo neared Santa Rosa, which included four members of Astana, working for two-time defending race champion Levi Leipheimer, as well as some other overall favorites such as Ivan Basso. Race officials decided to extend the "crash zone", the area in which riders would be granted the same finishing time as the group they were in on crashing (should they crash) from the final lap of the Santa Rosa circuit to the first, since the road was saturated by a steady downpour of rain. The chase group started out 12 minutes behind Mancebo and closed the time gap to 1'07" at the beginning of the first lap of the Santa Rosa circuit. They subsequently slowed at the end of the first circuit (since the only thing left to gain was the stage win - the group that was together at the beginning of the first circuit were all given the same finishing time, relative to Mancebo) and allowed some riders to attack, chief among them Vincenzo Nibali and Jurgen Van de Walle, who joined Mancebo at the beginning of the last lap. Mancebo managed to outsprint Nibali and Van de Walle to the line. Stage placings were taken on the first time the riders crossed the finish line, but Van de Walle and Nibali were awarded identical sprint classification points for finishing second and third as the riders credited with finishing second and third, Leipheimer and Michael Rogers.
Stage 1 Result CyclistTeamTime14h 11' 07"2+ 1' 07"3+ 1' 07"4+ 1' 07"5+ 1' 07"6+ 1' 07"7+ 1' 07"8+ 1' 07"9+ 1' 07"10+ 1' 07"General Classification after Stage 1 CyclistTeamTime14h 15' 46"2+ 1' 02"3+ 1' 03"4+ 1' 03"5+ 1' 05"6+ 1' 05"7+ 1' 13"8+ 1' 13"9+ 1' 13"10+ 1' 14"
Stage 2
Monday, February 16 Sausalito to Santa Cruz Start Time: 8:30 AM Miles: 115.9 KM: 186.6 End ETA: 12:52–2:03 PM Note: For the first time, the peloton rode across the Golden Gate Bridge.
After a few unsuccessful breakaway attempts immediately following the neutral zone, Rabobank's Grischa Niermann was the first rider to break free of the peloton. He was quickly joined by Garmin-Slipstream's Steven Cozza and eight other riders, to form a ten-man break that held a four- to five-minute advantage over the peloton for most of the stage. The best placed rider in the break was Ben Jacques-Maynes of Bissell, 5'05" behind race leader Francisco Mancebo, whose Rock Racing team paced the peloton calmly, content to let the breakaway get a lead. When the peloton reached the beginning of the climb of Bonny Doon road, Astana took over the pace, and the time gap to the breakaway fell precipitously. On their respective ways up the climb, Carlos Barredo attacked from the leading group of ten and Levi Leipheimer from the peloton, each coming free. Leipheimer gradually overtook members of the day's breakaway as they faltered on the climb, eventually reaching Barredo, Tom Peterson, and Jason McCartney (Peterson and McCartney had themselves caught Barredo only moments earlier) to take first position on the road. Leipheimer was the first to the top of the climb, and he and Peterson stayed together on the descent. A 17-man chase group paced by Lance Armstrong reabsorbed all the other members of the morning breakaway. Peterson took the stage win uncontested, with Leipheimer just behind him, and the Armstrong group having closed to 20 seconds behind them.
Stage 2 Result CyclistTeamTime15h 06' 21"2s.t.3+ 20"4+ 20"5+ 20"6+ 20"7+ 20"8+ 20"9+ 20"10+ 20"General Classification after Stage 2 CyclistTeamTime19h 23' 02"2+ 24"3+ 28"4+ 30"5+ 34"6+ 38"7+ 38"8+ 38"9+ 38"10+ 39"
Stage 3
Tuesday, February 17 San Jose to Modesto Start Time: 12:00 noon Miles: 104.2 KM: 167.7 End ETA: 3:53–4:55 PM
A 4-man breakaway formed immediately after the stage's neutral zone, comprising Bauke Mollema of Rabobank, Jeff Louder of BMC, Bradley White of OUCH, and Brian Vandborg of Liquigas. The best-placed among them was Mollema, two minutes behind race leader Levi Leipheimer (the rest were nearly 24 minutes behind Leipheimer). King of the Mountains leader Francisco Mancebo joined them shortly thereafter and topped the climb up Sierra Road in first position, padding his lead. He then rejoined the peloton. The breakaway's lead extended to nearly six minutes, which was increased partially because Leipheimer crashed at the front of the peloton at about the 30 mile mark causing the Astana-paced bunch to slow to allow him to rejoin them. The time gap held steady at between four and five minutes for most of the stage, until Team Columbia-High Road, Quick Step, and Cervélo TestTeam came forward after the descent of the second climb of the day to take the pace, working to get the field together so their respective strong sprinters would have a chance at the stage win. Louder attacked from the leading group on the way into Modesto, and only Mollema could answer. They were subsequently caught in the middle of the Modesto circuit, and a classic bunched sprint saw the stage win go to Thor Hushovd.
Stage 3 Result CyclistTeamTime14h 28' 13"2s.t.3s.t.4s.t.5s.t.6s.t.7s.t.8s.t.9s.t.10s.t.General Classification after Stage 3 CyclistTeamTime113h 51' 14"2 + 24"3 + 28"4 + 30"5 + 34"6 + 38"7 + 38"8 + 38"9 + 38"10 + 39"
Stage 4 Wednesday, February 18 Merced to Clovis Start Time: 11:00 AM Miles: 115.4 KM: 185.7 End ETA: 3:19–4:29 PM
Several unsuccessful breakaway attempts occurred in the first hour of racing. The breakaway that got away involved Francisco Mancebo, Jason McCartney, Serge Pauwels, and Tyler Hamilton. Mancebo took maximum points in the climbs and intermediate sprints available to him. After topping the fourth climb of the day, Mancebo dropped and rejoined the peloton. The breakaway's biggest advantage was close to six minutes before the peloton, paced chiefly by Team Columbia-High Road, began to chase in earnest, on the descent from the fifth and last climb. The catch occurred with about two miles left to race. A Rabobank rider attacked with the last half mile but was caught by Mark Cavendish, who launched his sprint early but held on in a photo finish for the stage win.
Stage 4 Result CyclistTeamTime14h 42' 38"2s.t.3s.t.4s.t.5s.t.6s.t.7s.t.8s.t.9Fly V Australias.t.10s.t.General Classification after Stage 4 CyclistTeamTime118h 33' 52"2 + 24"3 + 28"4 + 30"5 + 34"6 + 38"7 + 38"8 + 38"9 + 38"10 + 39"
Stage 5
Thursday, February 19 Visalia to Paso Robles Start Time: 10:00 AM Miles: 134.3 KM: 216.1 End ETA: 3:00–4:22 PM
This was a rather straightforward day of racing, on a course without even a single categorized climb. After five miles, a six-man breakaway formed, that was eventually whittled to four: Matthew Crane, Glen Chadwick, Pieter Weening, and Cameron Evans. Racing under clear blue skies for the first time in the Tour, the four were caught with about three miles to left to race, as the teams of the prominent sprinters ratcheted up the pace in the peloton to bring them back. The finish was contested in another mass sprint, won for the second day in a row by Mark Cavendish.
Stage 5 Result CyclistTeamTime15h 07' 28"2s.t.3s.t.4s.t.5s.t.6s.t.7s.t.8s.t.9Fly V Australias.t.10s.t.General Classification after Stage 5 CyclistTeamTime123h 41' 20"2+ 24"3+ 28"4+ 30"5+ 34"6+ 38"7+ 38"8+ 38"9+ 38"10+ 39"
Stage 6 Friday, February 20 Solvang - Time Trial Start Time: 12:00 noon Miles: 15 KM: 24 End ETA: 2:50 PM