SAN JOSE — The outcome of the 2018 Amgen Tour of California could take shape in San Jose when world-class cyclists return to Silicon Valley’s capital for the 12th time in the 13-year history of the weeklong race.
Organizers announced Thursday that San Jose will play host to the Stage 4 individual time trial in a road race that will start May 13 in Long Beach and end May 19 some 600 miles later in Sacramento.
The midweek time trial will be the only Bay Area appearance of the tour, which for the third time in history will start in the south and finish in the north with a route skirting much of the Golden State’s major population centers.
Stage 3 on May 15 starts in King City and ends at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in Monterey before moving north into San Jose, which will stage a time trial for the third time. The tour will cover parts of the Central Coast and Central California while bypassing Los Angeles and San Francisco.
The time trial traditionally is one of the few stages that gives cyclists a chance to win the overall title. Unlike other stages in which cyclists start as a group, a time trial has staggered starts with riders racing against the clock on flat or rolling routes or up a mountain road.
Route details will be announced later but it’s likely the 2018 time trial will finish at Motorcycle County Park on Metcalf Road in San Jose’s eastern foothills. The tour has held two other demanding time trials along this route in rural south San Jose. The course is popular because it starts out flat, has long, rolling sections and ends with a bang heading up steep and twisting Metcalf Road.
The inaugural tour in 2006 used a 20-mile course that ended at Motorcycle County Park and then again in 2013 when Tejay van Garderen grabbed an insurmountable lead for the overall title with a spectacular lung-gouging climb up Metcalf where the final three kilometers ascend almost 1,000 feet.
The tour also staged finishes at the barren and dusty Motorcycle County Park in 2015 and ‘17 from the opposite direction.
The time trial usually has been held the day before the mountain finish. But organizers have moved it to a Wednesday to give riders a day’s respite before a May 18 mountain finish in South Lake Tahoe.
The California event — the only American stop on the UCI WordTour — expects to attract a top international field preparing for the Tour de France. The tour also includes a 150-mile, three-stage women’s road race May 17-19 that starts in Elk Grove and ends in Sacramento.
THE RACE SCHEDULE
Sun., May 13: Stage 1 — Long Beach.
Mon., May 14: Stage 2 — Ventura to Santa Barbara County (Gibraltar Road).
Tues., May 15: Stage 3 — King City to Monterey County (Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca).
Wed., May 16: Stage 4 — San Jose (time trial).
Thurs., May 17: Stage 5 — Stockton to Elk Grove.
Fri., May 18: Stage 6 — Folsom to South Lake Tahoe.
Sat., May 19: Stage 7 — Sacramento.
