Tour of California picks:

The Amgen Tour of California starts up on Sunday. The organizers of the race has pushed back this years AToC hoping for better weather in May rather than in February. This is an exciting time for American cycling due to its rise in popularity, international attention, and world class athletes such as Cadel Evans, Lance Armstrong, Fabian Cancellara, Tom Bonnen, and the Schleck brothers. Even with such world class cyclist that I just mentioned, none of them are my picks for this year's AToC.

My three picks will be dominated by these three Americans:

1) Levi Leipheimer; Looking forward to win his fourth straight AToC


2) Dave Zabriskie; won the 09 Tour of Missouri, showing that he can be a promising GC contender.


3) George Hincapie; rumors have it that this might be his last year in pro cycling, maybe he can win a stage race before he goes into retirement.



Other riders to watch for:

Mark Cavendish; this might be a good to chance to finally win some stages. He's only won two stages this year after having some bad luck with illnesses and crashes.


Jens Voigt


Gustav Larsson, great time trialist and was 2nd overall at Tour of Missouri


Martin Gilbert, won stage 7 of Tour of Missouri, maybe looking for another stage win?