The 1st stage is the only race that starts and finishes in the same city. Sacramento hosts the race on virtually the same route as last year, when Fernando Gaviria sprinted to victory.
Stage 2 takes the riders from Rancho Cordova to South Lake Tahoe, where Egan Bernal sealed the GC win in last year’s Queen Stage. The South Lake Tahoe race includes roughly 4,500 vertical metres, while the last climb to Heavenly Ski Resort is 1.7 kilometres long and the average slope sits at 5.9%,
The 3rd stage takes the riders on lumpy terrain from Stockton to Morgan Hill before stage 4 travels from the Laguna Seca Raceway to Morro Bay. The 5th stage to Ventura preludes the possibly decisive Mount Baldy stage. The final climb is a mega-long monster with a steep 12.8% kick up to the line in the last 800 metres. Former winners on this summit are Levi Leipheimer (2011), Robert Gesink (2012), Julian Alaphilippe (2015), and Andrew Talansky (2017).
The race wraps things up with the 7th stage to a likely sprint finish in Pasadena, although the route itself is far from flat.
Tour of California 2019: route, profiles, more
Click on the images to zoom
