The 2011 Amgen Tour of California makes a brief stop over in the Bay Area on Wednesday as Stage 4 of the race takes the riders from Livermore to San Jose. At 81.8 miles, the fourth stage of the race is one of the shorter stages but features an introduction of some moderately tough climbing (PDF). You can view a map of the scheduled route in THIS PDF at the tour website.
The course starts briefly in Livermore and then heads out to Mines Rd, which brings the first of several King of the Mountain (KOM) climbs on Wednesday. Mines Rd is a 25 mile long section of the route that is hilly and very winding. In 2010, the riders followed a long descent into a finish in Modesto off of Mines Rd. In 2011, riders will follow Mines Road into San Antonio Canyon Rd. They'll face two more KOMs before having to make the climb up Mt Hamilton, which is the Tour's first HC climb and is two miles long. This is followed by a descent down the front side of the mountain. After a few miles of flat riding, they begin a 3.5 miles ascent with a 10% average grade and 1,700 feet of climbing. The race will finish up on the outskirts of San Jose, but still within city limits.
You can view a preview video of Stage 4 below. We'll have more race updates in our 2011 Tour of California story stream, and you can find more in-depth discussion of each stage at Podium Cafe.