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The 2011 Amgen Tour of California was the sixth running of the Tour of California cycling stage race. It was held from May 15–22, and was rated as a 2.HC event on the UCI America Tour. Originally scheduled for eight stages, the race was due to begin in South Lake Tahoe, but snow around the Lake Tahoe area led to stage 1 being delayed, shortened and ultimately cancelled. The race concluded in Thousand Oaks as planned. The race was won by rider Chris Horner, who claimed the leader's yellow jersey with a victory on the event's fourth stage, and held his advantage to the end of the race. Horner's winning margin over teammate and runner-up Levi Leipheimer was 38 seconds,〔 and 's Tom Danielson completed the podium, 2 minutes and 7 seconds behind Leipheimer and 2 minutes and 45 seconds behind Horner.〔 The comfortable margin that Horner and Leipheimer had over the field was due in part from a 1–2 performance on the event's queen stage where they finished over 40 seconds clear of the next placed rider. In the race's other classifications, rider Pat McCarty won the King of the Mountains classification, Peter Sagan of won the green jersey for the sprints classification, 's Tejay van Garderen won the young rider classification, with finishing at the head of the teams classification. There were no blood doping tests during the race. ==Participating teams== Nineteen teams were due to participate in the Tour of California, but the Movistar Continental Team declined the invitation from organizers, leaving 18 teams to start. These included nine UCI ProTeams, four UCI Professional Continental teams, and five UCI Continental teams. Fourteen of those teams had participated in the 2010 Tour of California. Each team was allowed to begin with 8 riders, and thus the race began with 144 riders. The teams were: ;UCI ProTeams * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ;UCI Professional Continental Teams * * * * * * * ( * – participated in 2010) ;UCI Continental Teams * * * * * * * * * The Movistar Continental Team, from Colombia, later leaked that it had turned the invitation down because Tour organizers had refused to cover its airfare to attend, which the organizers do for ProTeams. In response, Tour organizer AEG Sports noted that it was required under UCI rules only to cover lodging and meal costs for professional teams at the race and agreed to cover airfare costs for ProTeams only because "()heir attendance is vital to the success of the race."〔 For the second straight year, the race conflicted with the Giro d'Italia, which caused a number of top cyclists to miss the race, while other Tour de France contenders continued to view California, along with either the Tour of Switzerland or the Critérium du Dauphiné (both in June), as better preparation for the July race. Nevertheless, the starting field included almost all of the American stars, such as three-time champion Levi Leipheimer of , his teammate Chris Horner, three-time runner-up David Zabriskie of , and his teammate Christian Vande Velde. Several rising American stars also started the event, such as Brent Bookwalter and Taylor Phinney of – joining George Hincapie in the team – and Tejay van Garderen of . International riders like Tour de France runner-up Andy Schleck also entered the event, with the new-for-2011 outfit.〔 Leopard Trek's commitment to the race came despite the team's departure from the Giro d'Italia after the death of Wouter Weylandt days before the Tour of California commenced. Other top international riders included 's Laurens ten Dam, 's Ryder Hesjedal, and Rory Sutherland of .〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「2011 Tour of California」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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