Crowd gathers for Amgen 2012 rally

About 50 people gathered in Sonora’s Courthouse Square on Saturday morning to rally support for the Amgen Tour of California’s planned May start in the city.

The eight-day cycling tour is one of the largest and most recognized annual sporting events in the nation, say race boosters. This will be the seventh consecutive annual race, drawing some of the world’s top cyclists to compete.

The race will begin in Santa Rosa and finish in Los Angeles, taking a circuitous 750-mile route through some of the state’s most scenic areas.
   

Stage 4 of the race, from Sonora to Clovis, will begin in downtown Sonora on Wednesday, May 16. The exact route will be announced at a Feb. 9 reception at the Sonora Opera Hall. Even the committee won’t know the route until then.

Committee member Shelley Marenka said that once the route is known, people will be able to sign up to participate — although they won’t be actually competing with the professionals — in all or part of the tour between Sonora and Clovis.

The route announcement will also allow spectators to scout out locations to watch the cyclists race by. The committee will be able to plan what they will do along the route to help the race along.

“We want to increase awareness of the tour,” said one local organizer, Judy Grossman, on Saturday. “A lot of people don’t know the magnitude of what this will do for the local economy.”   

Amgen Tour of California Sonora committee member Darrell Slocum said the local committee will plan and produce the actual event in Sonora.

“We have about 30 active committee members and well over 100 people who have volunteered to work the day of the event,” he said. “We are so grateful to be able to host a stage of the tour. We want to show our appreciation with photos and videos.”

That’s what they were doing Saturday as people posed for pictures and videos showing a heart symbol with their hands.

For more information about the tour and how you can be involved, go online to www.atocsonora.com or www.facebook.com/atocsonora or call the Tuolumne County Visitors Bureau at 533-4420.

Contact Lenore Rutherford at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or 588-4585.