Stage 1 - Sunday, May 15, 2011: South Lake Tahoe - North Lake Tahoe 191km
With headlines of the day “Donner Pass closed due to winter weather conditions” Stage 1 was cancelled.  Freezing temperatures and snowy conditions greeted the riders early on Sunday morning.  Many riders and team directors expressed concerns that the race course was too dangerous.  Race organizers heard the concerns, shortened the race to 80 km, and re-scheduled the start to 13:15 PST.  As the riders reluctantly came to the start line organizers made a last minute decision to err on the side of riders’ safety and cancelled stage 1.

Stage 2 - Monday, May 16, 2011: Nevada City – Sacramento 122.8 km
The severe winter type weather caused a re-routing of stage 2.  The original start in Squaw Valley was moved to Nevada City, shortening the stage from 214 km to 122.8 km. 

Ben Swift (Team Sky) rode the Team Sky leadout train around the closing circuits in Sacramento and out sprinted Peter Sagan and Matt Goss for the stage win.  Swift put on the first race leader’s jersey of 2011.

Stage 3 - Tuesday, May 17, 2011: Auburn – Modesto 196.2 km
Team Sky’s Greg Henderson made it 2 in row for the British based team.  Henderson, part of the lead out train for teammate Ben Swift, was forced to sprint for the win when Swift’s path was blocked.  Henderson delivered the stage win and took over the lead from Swift.

Stage 4 - Wednesday, May 18, 2011: Livermore - San Jose 131.6 km
A solo Chris Horner (Radio Shack) broke away and took the summit finish on Sierra Road.  He took the stage win by 1’15” over an elite 3 rider chase group.  The time gained easily put Horner in the race lead.

Stage 5 - Thursday, May 19, 2011: Seaside - Paso Robles 217.4 km
Peter Sagan out sprinted Leigh Howard and Ben Swift for stage win in Paso Robles.  Horner maintained the race lead by 1’15” over teammate Levi Leipheimer.

Radio Shack stting the pace for Race Leader Chris Horner [ Photo by Doug Pensinger ]

Stage 6 - Friday, May 20, 2011: Solvang – Solvang 24 km ITT
David Zabriskie (Garmin-Cervelo), who struggled on the stage 4 Sierra Road finish, made amends and destroyed the field in the 24 km individual time trial in Solvang.  Zabriskie beat the “King of Solvang TT” Levi Leipheimer by 14 second to gain the stage win.  Chris Horner lost 37 second to Leipheimer but managed to hold onto the race leader’s jersey.

Stage 7 - Saturday, May 21, 2011: Claremont - Mount Baldy 121.9 km
Levi Leipheimer and Chris Horner broke away on the finishing climb to Mount Baldy and never looked back.  The Radio Shack teammates set a hard tempo and crossed the finish line almost a minute ahead of the third place finisher.  Leipheimer took the stage win and Horner solidified his hold on the race lead.

Stage 8 - Sunday, May 22, 2011: Santa Clarita - Thousand Oaks 132.4 km
HTC-Highroad's Matthew Harley Goss claimed the stage win in Thousand Oaks, beating Points Leader Peter Sagan (Liquigas) and Greg Henderson (Team Sky).  A joyful Chris Horner sprinted in to win his first Amgen Tour of California overall championship ahead of teammate Levi Leipheimer and third place Tom Danielson (Garmin-Cervelo).

Team Radio Shack delivers Chris Horner to the ToCal 2011 victory [ Photo by Doug Pensinger ]

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