Amgen Tour of California Kickoff Concert

Sponsored by

Thursday May 10th, 6pm at Courthouse Square in Downtown Santa Rosa

Carrie Rodriguez

Opening act: The Whiskey Thieves

more videos

Though we’ve obviously hosted stages of the Tour in the past – in 2006 (Stage 1 Finish), 2007 (Stage 1 Finish and Stage 2 Start), 2008 (Stage 1 Finish and Stage 2 Start), 2009 (Stage 1 Finish), and 2010 (Stage 2 Finish) to be exact – and though we’d never personally witnessed what went into hosting an overall start (we were too darn busy!), we knew hosting the Overall Start of the 2012 Amgen Tour of California would be a much bigger beast in every way. With the surprising relief of not hosting the Tour in 2011, a contingent of the local organizing committee (David and Raissa, committee co-chairs, and Carlos and Yuri from Bike Monkey) was able to go to Tahoe to learn a thing or two.

From our initial impressions of visiting our first overall start host city, a few things on the non-production side of event planning stand out. First is the wackiness of mountain weather in May, and the gratitude that while it may rain on race day in Sonoma County, the likelihood of snow is about nil. We arrived in Tahoe to fabulously warm, flip-flop-friendly sunny weather, and we left in a bitter cold snow storm. We were impressed by how important a sense of place and a cohesive community is when hosting so many people so far in advance of the actual race day (in this, Santa Rosa is ideal), and that a casino environment doesn’t really offer that sense of place and community. To be fair, Tahoe, as everyone knows, is fabulously beautiful and beautifully hospitable, and there’s something to be said about the novelty of seeing professional cyclists meandering about the casinos. It was an interesting and odd trip.

To be sure, we also learned A LOT about the technical side of things that we would need to prepare for. For starters, we saw the large number of meeting rooms, and the large amount of space needed for the organization of large amounts of stuff and people… There’s the pre-delivery of over 200 cars that need to be decaled, equipped, and assigned. There are the signs and banners that need to be organized and distributed for use throughout the 8-day race. There are the staff – about 1,000 people travel with the Tour – who need to be checked in, outfitted in branded clothing for whatever function area they were working, assigned equipment, and fed…

We also learned a lot about the opportunity presented to us. This is a golden opportunity that we know our community can make the best of. We in Sonoma County know how to embrace visitors, make them feel welcome, feed them great food and wine, and give them unique experiences. And of course we’re used to showing off our phenomenal roads that offer training rides worthy of world class athletes and casual riders alike. Sonoma County is unique, and earthy, and real. We’re ready to prove that we’re the best place to start America’s best stage race. It’s going to be epic! And it won’t snow!

Here are some photos from our trip to Tahoe:

Way back in October 2010 at the Festa del Fondo dinner for Levi Leipheimer’s King Ridge GranFondo that was attended by AEG Sports’ then-president Andrew Messick and a strategically invited sprinkling of local media, we vaguely pretended to not make the national announcement that Santa Rosa had been selected to host the overall start of the 2012 Amgen Tour of California. Of course there was a nicely featured article about it in the Press Democrat and other national cycling news sources the next day, but the pretense of a slip up of the early release of this information was out of respect to the 2011 host cities, whose own announcement had only just been made. We didn’t mean to trump them with our news, but we think we kind of did. Such is the power of Santa Rosa’s cycling allure!

Besides the early press coverage for our beloved city and county, the great thing about knowing (sort of) what lay ahead of us was that we could start our planning early. In theory. Turns out most of what we did between October and January was to negotiate the terms of an MOU between the City of Santa Rosa and AEG, the entertainment conglomerate that owns and operates the Tour, and then to take that MOU to City Council so that we could finally move forward with the real planning. We tell you this to share a secret we learned long ago about both hosting the Tour and government processes: they’re both great things that yield great results, but they’re both a game of hurry up and wait. Patience and the ability to scurry smartly at opportune moments are ideal traits for the job.

Now that we’re in the scurrying-along phase we thought some might find it interesting to hear about what we are doing, are planning, or what we’ve done. We’ll post some periodic updates, insights and thoughts here about the race and such. Be patient in your waiting for them, but do us a favor and hurry up and read them when we do post. Thanks!

[-flickr-gallery]

Parking Details:

Due to limited parking onsite all attendees will be shuttled to the Santa Rosa Soiree.

• Pick-up location: Performing Arts Center, 50 Mark West Springs Road, Santa Rosa, CA 95403
• Gala sponsor, Pure Luxury, will be providing shuttles to pick up at the above location. The shuttles will begin loading guests at 4:30 pm. Please be there on time to make sure you arrive at the starting line of the Gala.
• We will have several volunteers ready to show you where to park at the Performing Arts Center and direct you onto a Pure Luxury shuttle to take you to the event.
• We will have ongoing departing shuttle service from 9:00pm onward to take you back to offsite parking where our volunteers will be waiting to assist you to your vehicle.
• If you are a guest who is lodging downtown, please contact us to give you the shuttle information for your hotel.
• Also, feel free to come to the event by limousine. You can make your own arrangements with Pure Luxury Transportation by calling 800.626.5466. For any other transportation needs you have this weekend, please contact Pure Luxury.

For more event information please contact Elizabeth Howland at 707.364.4567 or Elizabeth@clementineecoevents.com.

Sponsored by

Official Santa Rosa 2012 Teaser to be debuted on Versus at the conclusion of the 2011 ATOC

“…there are no doubts about Santa Rosa as a community, as a place where there’s a passion for bike racing, and a passion for our race.”

—Andrew Messick, President AEG Sports