The 2011 Amgen Tour of California kicks off Sunday morning at 10:30am and features a host of talented bike riders. We've got a list of the 18 participating teams listed below. This year's race features three-time Tour of California winner Levi Leipheimer who will be leading Team Radioshack against a host of skilled international competition. Leipheimer will have to contend with last year's runner-up David Zabriskie, who leads Team Garmin-Cervelo.
The Tour of California will feature eight stages lasting through Sunday May 22. The race starts Sunday up at Lake Tahoe starting from the south side of the lake and proceeding to the north side. They will then make their way from Squaw Valley to Sacramento. Stage three will run from Auburn to Modesto. Stage four will run from Livermore to San Jose and is the lone Bay Area stage. Unlike years past, this year will not include a stage through San Francisco.
Stage five will run from Seaside to Paso Robles. Stage six is an individual time trial in Solvang. Stage seven runs from Claremont to Mt. Baldy. The race will wrap up with stage eight running from Santa Clarita to Thousand Oaks. The fine folks at Podium Cafe have put together a look at the top six places to catch parts of the Tour of California. While we'll provide some level of coverage for the Tour of California, the folks at Podium Cafe will get into the real nitty-gritty of the race, so make sure and check them out over the next week of racing.
1.) TEAM RADIOSHACK (USA)
- Levi Leipheimer (USA)
- Matthew Busche (USA)
- Chris Horner (USA)
- Markel Irizar (KAZ)
- Jason McCartney (USA)
- Dmtiriy Muravyev (KAZ)
- Ben King (USA)
- Haimar Zubeldia (ESP)
2.) TEAM GARMIN-CERVELO (USA)
- David Zabriskie (USA)
- Thomas Danielson (USA)
- Ryder Hesjedal (CAN)
- Thor Hushovd (NOR)
- Daniel Martin (IRE)
- Andrew Talansky (USA)
- Johan Van Summeren (BEL)
- Christian Vandevelde (USA)
3.) HTC-HIGHROAD (USA)
- Tejay Van Garderen (USA)
- Bernhard Eisel (AUT)
- Matthew Goss (AUS)
- Bert Grabsch (GER)
- Leigh Howard (AUS)
- Danny Pate (USA)
- Martin Velits (SVK)
- Peter Velits (SVK)
4.) SKY PROCYCLING (GBR)
- Kurt-Asle Arvesen (NOR)
- Alex Dowsett (GBR)
- Christopher Froome (GBR)
- Mathew Hayman (AUS)
- Greg Henderson (NZL)
- Jeremy Hunt (GBR)
- Ian Stannard (GBR)
- Ben Swift (GBR)
5.) BMC RACING TEAM (USA)
- George Hincapie (USA)
- Yannick Eijssen (BEL)
- Brent Bookwalter (USA)
- Amael Moinard (FRA)
- Jeff Louder (USA)
- Steve Morabito (SUI)
- Taylor Phinney (USA)
- Tim Roe (AUS)
6.) LEOPARD TREK (LUX)
- Andy Schleck (LUX)
- Stefan Denifl (AUT)
- Martin Mortensen (DEN)
- Jakob Fuglsang (DEN)
- Linus Gerdemann (GER)
- Anders Lund (DEN)
- Martin Pedersen (DEN)
- Jens Voigt (GER)
7.) LIQUIGAS-CANNONDALE (ITA)
- Peter Sagan (SYK)
- Damiano Caruso (ITA)
- Timothy Duggan (USA)
- Edward King (USA)
- Daniel Oss (ITA)
- Francesco Bellotti (ITA)
- Mauro Da Dalto (ITA)
- Cameron Wurf (AUS)
8.) SAXO BANK SUNGARD (DEN)
- Gustav Larsson (SWE)
- Baden Cooke (AUS)
- Juan Jose Haedo (ARG)
- Lucas Sebastian Haedo (ARG)
- Rafal Majka (POL)
- Nick Nuyens (BEL)
- Jonas Aaen Jorgensen (DEN)
- Brian Vandborg (DEN)
9.) RABOBANK CYCLING TEAM (NED)
- Oscar Freire (ESP)
- Lars Boom (NED)
- Coen Vermeltfoort (NED)
- Paul Martens (GER)
- Michael Matthews (AUS)
- Grischa Niermann (GER)
- Laurens Ten Dam (DEN)
- Maarten Tjallingii (NED)
10.) UNITEDHEALTHCARE PRO CYCLING (USA)
- Rory Sutherland (AUS)
- Robert Forster (GER)
- Christopher Jones (USA)
- Christian Meier (CAN)
- Karl Menzies (AUS)
- Andrew Pinfold (CAN)
- Charles Wegelius (GBR)
- Bradley White (USA)
11.) TEAM TYPE 1 - sanofi-aventis (USA)
- Rubens Bertogliati (SUI)
- Laszlo Bodrogi (FRA)
- William Dugan (USA)
- Alexander Efimkin (RUS)
- Aldo Ino Ilesic (SLO)
- Valeriy Kobzarenko (UKR)
- Jure Kocjan (SLO)
- Javier Megias Leal (KAZ)
12.) TEAM NETAPP (GER)
- Jesus Del Nero Montes (SPA)
- Jan Barta (CZE)
- Timon Seubert (GER)
- Andreas Dietziker (SUI)
- Alexander Gottfried (GER)
- Bartosz Huzarski (POL)
- Leopold Konig (CZE)
- Andreas Schillinger (GER)
13.) TEAM SPIDERTECH POWERED BY C10 (CAN)
- Svein Tuft (CAN)
- Ryan Anderson (CAN)
- Zachary Bell (CAN)
- Lucas Euser (USA)
- Martin Gilbert (CAN)
- Kevin Lacombe (CAN)
- Jonathan Patrick McCarty (USA)
- Will Routley (CAN)
14.) BISSELL PRO CYCLING (USA)
- Ben Jacques-Maynes (USA)
- Chris Baldwin (USA)
- Rob Britton (CAN)
- Andy Jacques-Maynes (USA)
- Paul Mach (USA)
- Frank Pipp (USA)
- Jay Thomson (RSA)
- Jeremy Vennell (NZL)
15.) JAMIS-SUTTER HOME (USA)
- Luis Romero Amaran (CUB)
- Alejandro Alberto Borrajo (ARG)
- Anibal Andres Borraio (ARG)
- James Driscoll (USA)
- Tom Zirbel (USA)
- Andy Guptill (USA)
- Jose Fernando Antogna (ARG)
- Tyler Wren (USA)
16.) JELLY BELLY CYCLING TEAM p/b KENDA (USA)
- Bernard Van Ulden (USA)
- Alex Hagman (USA)
- Nic Hamlton (CAN)
- Ken Hanson (USA)
- Sergio Hernandez (USA)
- Alastair Loutit (AUS)
- William Dickeson (AUS)
- Jeremy Powers (USA)
17.) KELLY BENEFIT STRATEGIES-OPTUMHEALTH (USA)
- Andrew Bajadali (USA)
- Jesse Anthony (USA)
- Dan Bowman (USA)
- Alexander Candelario (USA)
- Michael Creed (USA)
- Jason Donald (USA)
- Michael Friedman (USA)
- Reid Mumford (USA)
18.) KENDA/5-HOUR ENERGY PRO CYCLING PRESENTED BY GEARGRINDER (USA)
- Benjamin Day (AUS)
- Luca Damiani (ITA)
- Phillip Gaimon (USA)
- Chad Hartley (USA)
- Roman Kilun (USA)
- Shawn Milne (USA)
- Jacob Rytlewski (USA)
- James Stemper (USA)