California Dreamin’

Posted on 15. Jan, 2009 by lyne in race

While we wait for the organizers to announce the remaining teams that will animate at the Amgen Tour of California 2009, teams and riders have started to announce their participation at the race. Here’s what we have so far.

As a quick recap, the eight Pro Tour teams officially announced are Ag2r-La Mondiale, Astana, Garmin-Slipstream, Liquigas, Quick Step, Rabobank, Columbia-High Road and Team Saxo Bank.

Only two teams have published their full roster. The Columbia-High Road squad is George Hincapie, Michael Rogers, Kim Kirchen, Thomas Lövkvist, Adam Hansen, Mark Renshaw, Michael Barry  and Mark Cavendish. Representing Rabobank will be Robert Gesink, Oscar Freire, Mauricio Alberto Ardila, Stef Clement, Pedro Horrillo, Bauke Mollema, Grischa Niermann and Pieter Weening.

Also present will be Andy Schleck and Fabian Cancellara for Team Saxo Bank  (and probably the only American on the team Jason McCartney), Christian Vande Velde for Garmin-Slipstream, Ivan Basso and Vincenzo Nibali for Liquigas, Tom Boonen of Quick Step. And of course, Lance Armstrong, defending champion Levi Leipheimer and Chris Horner for Astana.

Now for the non-officially announced teams and riders.  Twins Andy and Ben Jacques-Maynes. Omer Kem and Tom Zirbel for Bissell. Tour de France winner Carlos Sastre for Ceverlo Test Team and we can deduce that he will be joined by Teddy King and Dominique Rollin. The new OUCH team led by Floyd Landis with Rory Sutherland.  The BMC Pro Continental team who as a team  won of the most aggressive jersey last year, with Scott Nydam, Jonathan Garcia and Jeff Louder.  And according to  owner Michael Ball, Rock Racing will be participating with Francisco Mancebo, Tyler Hamilton, Oscar Sevilla, Victor Hugo Peña and Chris Baldwin on the roster.  

If you are counting, that was a total of five team who are  planning and training to race in California: BMC, Bissell, Cervelo Test Team, Rock Racing and OUCH. That leaves a few slots open. As a safe bet, I would say Team Type 1 and Jelly Belly will be in the house.  And then maybe two slots to be filled, by my guess, teams from this list: Fuji-Servetto, Amore & Vita, Kelly Benefit, Colavita/Sutter Home and Fly V Australia.

updates: Rock Racing’s presence at the Tour of California is now in jeopardy given that they had to cancel their start at the Tour de San Luis , in Argentina as there is an undisclosed issue with their UCI license. According to cyclingnews , the issue will be resolved this Friday. What will the resolution be?

Also, Matt Wilson in an interview with Australian press, stated that he will start in California with his Team Type 1 squad.

Tags: tour of california