Pismo Beach hosts Amgen Tour of California

Some of the world’s top cyclists are racing down the Central Coast in the annual Amgen Tour of California with the start of Stage Five of the professional event held Thursday morning in Pismo Beach.

130 cyclists from 30 countries are participating in the men’s competition that began last Sunday in Sacramento.

Overnight rain and cloudy skies gave way to bright sunshine and cool temperatures in the morning for the 10 a.m. start of Stage Five at the Pismo Beach downtown waterfront.

Competitors will ride from Pismo Beach down Highway 1 through southern San Luis Obispo County into northern Santa Barbara County where they will cut across the Santa Maria Valley into the wine country region and ultimately Highway 154 in Los Olivos.

From there, the Stage Five route takes the cyclists up and over the San Marcos Pass down to Highway 192 which winds through the back of Santa Barbara, Montecito, Summerland and Carpinteria.

The peloton then moves through the Casitas Pass area, around Lake Casitas, past Ojai and ending down in Ventura.

“It’s 138 miles and this is the most direct route we could pick aside from going on Highway 101 which we never do,” said Amgen Tour of California organizer Eric Smith. “It offers a variety of terrain, we go through the vineyards on Foxen Canyon and like you said up over San Marcos Pass and we finish at the Fairgrounds in Ventura right on the beach.”

There are about 2,000 people involved in the weeklong Amgen Tour of California, including the competitors, their support teams and the small army of workers needed to set up and take down the starting and finish lines every day of the event.

“We get comments back from our host cities like Pismo and Morro Bay yesterday that they see a lot of tourists come in with their bikes because they’ve seen on TV,” Smith said. “They come from Europe, so it makes not only for growth of the sport but a nice financial impact for the cities and the areas we’re in.”

“This is something that we’re excited to be in partnership with Amgen and to work with all the other agencies in order to make this event successful,” said Jorge Garcia with the City of Pismo Beach. “It requires a lot of coordination and we’re happy to do it.”

Thursday also marks the start of the three stage womens’ competion for the Amgen Tour of California with nearly 100 women competing this year.