Lake Tahoe, CA/NV…Last night the Lake Tahoe Visitors Authority and the Tahoe Chamber held a Tourism Forum at the Horizon Casino and Resort. A good sized crowd was on had to hear how the plans are shaping up for the Amgen Tour of California that will start in South Lake Tahoe and make two passes through town on May 15th.

The Amgen Tour of California is the largest cycling event in North America and will bring 19 teams to Lake Tahoe for professional cycling speed and excitement. The area is rolling out the red carpet for the tour and hopes that events like this one will drive visits to the area. It should be a great event. Early estimates are that 35,000 people will line the streets in South Lake Tahoe alone as the riders start at Stateline and head west to make a lap and half of the lake.

The great thing about the start of this tour for South Lake Tahoe is that since this stage laps the lake that crowds should stay in town waiting for the main group or peloton to pass through again. The average speed for the peloton is just under 30 miles an hour at professional cycling events such as this one. So in just over 2 hours the pack should come flying back down the Nevada side of the lake and charge South Lake and around the West side of the lake up to Tahoe City, through Kings Beach and finish at Northstar.

The two passes on the California side of the lake should give businesses and vendors the opportunity to make this event a real cycling festival. Demographically cyclists are well heeled, college educated group that the area would like to turn into repeat visitors. Many of the bicycles that are ridden by the racers and elite recreation cyclists easily cost over $5,000 and many have over $10,000 invested in the sport.

Many of people involved with having the Amgen Tour start at Lake Tahoe are very enthusiastic about the event. With Lake Tahoe serving as the backdrop and stage this should be visually stunning event.

As we get closer will will be posting almost daily updates on the Tour. There is a big 10-Day series of events that will lead up to the Amgen Tour’s Start on May 15th.

We have video of the entire meeting on video. The evening started off with a presentation by Caltrans on the improvements that will be made to Hwy 50 and is followed by the presentation and question and answer session on the tour. We will cover the Echo Summit repairs in a separate piece.

Below is complete meeting video and the portion on the Amgen Tour starts about 15 minutes into the meeting.

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