Cyclists Peter Stetina and Peter Sagan heading to South Lake Tahoe for Amgen Tour of California

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - The Amgen Tour of California 2019 is returning to South Lake Tahoe and the list of cyclists to participate has been released. Men’s Stage 2 race from Rancho Cordova to South Lake Tahoe will take place on May 13.

Amgen will feature the current top-three WorldTour teams and a world-class peloton featuring World and National Champions, Olympic and Tour de France veterans including:

- Veteran sprinters Peter Sagan (BORA-hansgrohe), Marcel Kittel (KATUSHA ALPECIN), Mark Cavendish (Team Dimension Data) and Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis) will battle for the coveted green jersey

- Despite the lack of a time trial in this year’s race, BAHRAIN – MERIDA general classification leader Rohan Dennis will return to California to showcase his all-around climbing skills. He is the current individual time trial champion and a two-time stage winner at the Amgen Tour of California

- Astana’s 2018 Tour de France stage winners Magnus Cort Nielsen (DEN) and Omar Fraile (ESP)

- Northern Californian Peter Stetina (Trek-Segafredo), who placed 2nd on the Gibraltar stage in 2016

- American riders with an eye to the 2020 Olympic Games competing with USA Cycling

Stetina was in South Lake Tahoe for the 2018 Amgen Tour and invited local cyclists to join him on a training run from Sprouts to Kirkwood, and back. At that time Daniel Knight and Chadwick Clark joined him on the jaunt.

Stetina, who is almost local with a cabin in Homewood and a home in Santa Rosa, Calif., can often be seen on his bike hitting the roads around Lake Tahoe with his favorite ride being the Prospector Loop on the North Shore. He'll train both at Lake Tahoe and the Carson Valley as well as sea level prior to Amgen.

"Lake Tahoe is good for altitude training," said Stetina in 2018. "You can drop down to the Carson Valley and Reno, then back to Tahoe."

"The sweet spot for altitude training at 2,000 meters," added Stetina. "It so happens Lake Tahoe is optimum, made for altitude training."

2019 AMGEN TOUR OF CALIFORNIA (MEN) – 19 TEAMS

World Tour (13)
Astana Pro Team (KAZ)
BAHRAIN – MERIDA (BRN)
BORA-hansgrohe (GER)
CCC Team (POL)
Deceuninck – Quick-Step (BEL)
EF Education First Pro Cycling (USA)
Team Jumbo-Visma (NED)
Team KATUSHA ALPECIN (SUI)
Team Dimension Data (RSA)
Team Sky (GBR)
Team Sunweb (GER)
Trek-Segafredo (USA)
UAE Team Emirates (UAE)
Pro Continental (5)

Cofidis (FRA)
Hagens Berman Axeon Cycling Team (USA)
Israel Cycling Academy (ISR)
Rally UHC Cycling (USA)
Team Novo Nordisk (USA)

National Teams (1)
USA Cycling (USA)

The women's race is skipping South Lake Tahoe this year.