Of course, the super, ultra big news is the Amgen Tour of California announcement. I watched the webcast and it was pretty impressive - Amgen is popping $35 million into this sponsorship. The team line-up is also pretty impressive: Discovery Channel, T-Mobile, Phonak, Davitamon-Lotto, Gerolsteiner, Saunier Duval Prodir, Health Net-Maxxis and Navigators Insurance.

All the big poobahs were there from the sponsoring companies, Mayors, USA Cycling, and Levi Leipheimer. Eurosport said that George Hincapie was there, but he wasn’t introduced or called upon to speak, so if he was there, it was pretty low-key.... Levi said a few words - he’s pretty stoked that the race will go thru his hometown of Santa Rosa.

George is the headline name for the Breakaway from Cancer Initiative, a partnership with the Wellness Community, an international non-profit organization dedicated to providing support, education and hope for people affected by cancer. The goal is awareness and funds to support valuable services and programs that help cancer patients and caregivers. The Wellness Community non-profit organization was started by a physician in Santa Monica in 1982.

The eight-stage race route looks something like this: Prologue starts in SF at the Embarcadero on Feb 19th. Feb 20th will be Sausalito to Santa Rosa, Feb 21 will be Martinez to San Jose. On Feb 22nd, there will be an Individual Time Trial in San Jose. Feb 23rd will be a Monterey location to San Luis Obispo, and the 24th will be SLO to Santa Barbara. Feb 25th will be SB thru the Amgen Campus in Thousand Oaks, and the final stage will be a circuit race in Redondo Beach. The exact cities along the route will be announced in the next 45-60 days.

If you belong to a cycling club or just want to help make this race a success, go to the Amgen Tour of California site to volunteer. Click on the Link to find the Volunteer page... Hundreds of volunteers are going to be needed, so let’s get the word around... Just like the Tour of Georgia, I think they will be looking for a crew of traveling volunteers that will be the prime, elite Road Course Marshals for the entire race.

I was one of the Road Course Marshal Volunteer Coordinators for the first Tour of Georgia, and I’ll tell you it is a great experience to be part of a traveling course marshal crew. It is truly the toughest job you’ll ever love....

The pic of George is from Interbike 2005 - he’s signing autographs at the Foot Fitting booth.