Not sure what you consider the West Coast, but I'd add tour of the gila in if VOS is in that list. Tour de blom and baker City classic are competitive but probably a step below VOS and gila, although they're great races IMO, still plenty competitive

  

redlands?

maybe BC Superweek depending on what you mean by west.

the Tour de Tucson is a cookie ride

Sea Otter ... mehhh (seems more competitive on the MTB side)

Honestly that was the big disappointment for me when moving from the East Coast to the West Coast... very few big road races left (many struggling to get participants and/or permits). Tons of crits though.

Depending on what you're looking for, the responses will be a little different. As a spectator, if you want to see a decently strong pro field I'd definitely have Redlands and the San Rafael criterium (if it happens again) on the list.

As an amateur/participant, you have a few historical races in NorCal that have lower visibility and lower number of participants but still attract the local Californian elites with strong P/1/2 and master fields: Snelling, Cat's hill (crit), Chico (if they can revive the stage race... turned into a crit this year), Berkeley Hills, Golden State weekend (TT, Circuit and Crit... all in a business park so not very scenic but great atmosphere and always very well attended), Davis 4th of July (crit) and Giro di San Francisco (crit).

BWR and Oregon Trail Gravel Grinder, not sure if they count

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the world's still turning? >>>>>>> the world's still turning

If you're a pro/elite. If you're Cat 2-5 / masters, it's just another Sunday crit.

not what I saw on GCN and other riders I know who went to do it (not "just finshers")

Isn't it a fondo? While some people ride it fast, I don't think it's really a road race

OP might be referring to the Tucson Bike Classic which is a 3 day stage race. I think the Tour De Tucson is just a fondo

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Peak NA Cocktails for Recovery
WAE Clothing
Youtube

You could add Tour of Murrieta

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Peak NA Cocktails for Recovery
WAE Clothing
Youtube

The TBC is a 3 day stage race, coming up this weekend. El Tour de Tucson is officially a charity ride/gran fondo, BUT it is ridden at the front like a full blown North American pro road race, with top riders from the US, Mexico, Canada, etc...

West coast of Australia? South America? Mexico? Japan?

Tour de Tucson did have a couple of world tour pro's show up last year and several conti level pros. The front group is legit and you can ride it as hard or as easy as you want. If you want to be in the lead pack you're going to smash yourself. If you want a zone 2/aerobic type of day, that's easy to get.

Oh and there is an actual cookie ride in Tucson where you have cookie stops. No word on how competitive that is though.

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Brian Stover USAT LII
Accelerate3 Coaching
Insta

join a team that races and see where they go. Other then that check out the race calendar here https://socalcycling.com/road-racing-2/

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Mike Plumb, TriPower MultiSports
Professional Running, Cycling and Multisport Coaching, F.I.S.T. Certified
http://www.tripower.org

And the norcal calendar is here: https://ncnca.org/?post_type=tribe_events

I'd advise that you check past results on road-results to have a sense of how many people have shown up in your field as some races have very little participants: https://www.road-results.com/...n=5&racetype=all

VoS doesn’t belong on that list. BWR, Grasshoppers, Redlands (for pros), and new this year, Levi’s Growler.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/n_ccN2HthfA