The 2016 Amgen Tour of California’s San Diego leg, a 106-mile bicycle race, will start Sunday, May 15 from Mission Bay’s Ski Beach and thread its way through several city neighborhoods before returning. The tour is a Tour de France-style cycling road race challenging the world’s top professional cycling teams each spring along a demanding course that traverses hundreds of miles of California’s iconic highways, byways and coastlines. The teams chosen to participate have included Olympic medalists, Tour de France contenders and world champions. San Diego is one of 12 cities to host starts and finishes along the way. Special VIP experiences throughout San Diego have been created exclusively for the tour. One of them will be held at The Lot, at 7611 Fay Ave., in La Jolla, which will have spin bikes set up for guests to exercise while watching the race. Thousands more fans will have the opportunity to be treated like VIPs at the race’s popular Lifestyle Festival, featuring entertainment and fun for the family, held adjacent to the finish line each day of the race. The festival will be at the finish line at 1500 Quivira Way, near Marina Village. It will serve as the hub for fans to interact with more than 40 exhibitors and other enthusiasts as they wait for the cyclists to cross the finish line. The event will feature cycling-themed products and demos, cancer and cardiovascular awareness education, food and entertainment. Visitors can take in live music, visit the Michelob Ultra Beer Garden and watch the race live on outdoor video screens. “Many of our local sport companies and brands will be present at the Lifestyle Festival,” said Ed Clancy, chairman of the tour’s local organizing committee. It’s all family friendly, free and open to the public.” Discussing the tour’s organization, execution and promotion, Clancy noted, “It was like building a company from scratch, utilizing 600 volunteers for a race that gets 2 million spectators (worldwide) and more than 1 billion online hits.” Of its impact on San Diego, Clancy said the tour will “show off our city and what we have to offer with our cycling culture.” Pointing out that the event promotes “active living and healthy lifestyles,” Clancy noted it is also “inspirational for children.” Clancy added the event is also furthering the cause of promoting cycling in San Diego, noting that the city has a become a “growing hub” for a sport that he said has virtually limitless potential. “There are more than 100 brands involved in some way, shape or form in San Diego with cycling,” said Kim Merrill, of Merrill Marketing, which is promoting the tour. “It’s a big economic number.” Amgen is a Thousand Oaks-based biotechnology firm committed to unlocking the potential of biology for patients suffering from serious illnesses by discovering, developing, manufacturing and delivering innovative human therapeutics, using tools like advanced human genetics to unravel the complexities of disease and understand the fundamentals of human biology. A biotechnology pioneer since 1980, Amgen has grown to be one of the world’s leading independent biotechnology companies and has reached millions of patients around the world. For more information, visit amgentourofcalifornia.com.
