Hello All,
**** 
I live in Escondido, the finish city for the Amgen tour on 22 Feb, and having been supported by volunteers in many races, so I thought it was time for me to volunteer again.
I attended the briefing last night and while I have volunteered for triathlons before being a volunteer for regular bike race was new to me.
Eric was the director briefing about 3 or 4 hundred volunteers and what follows is the end product of my transcribed notes and may be replete with errors.
The Amgen tour is financed and directed by AEG. Dave Toole is the lead race announcer.
The Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) is a sporting and music entertainment presenter and a subsidiary of The Anschutz Corporation. The company owns or operates several major entertainment/sporting venues, including Staples Center and the Home Depot Center and beginning in fall 2007, the XL Center and Rentschler Field. In England they used to operate the Manchester Evening News Arena until 2006, and currently operate the The O2 which includes a 20,000 capacity arena and an Entertainment District with 25 bars and restaurants, a live music club for 2200 called IndigO2, an 11 screen cinema and an exhibition space which will house the British Music Experience opening in March 2009. Several other similar entertainment complexes are also being planned worldwide including the O2 World in Berlin and an entertainment complex around the existing Staples Center.
As part of the development of The O2, Anschutz also purchased the London river service company Thames Clipper, to provide transport links using the river service to and from Central London and the Dome.
The company also owns a number of sports teams, including Los Angeles Galaxy, Houston Dynamo (50 %), Los Angeles Kings, Los Angeles Riptide, Manchester Monarchs, Eisbären Berlin, Hamburg Freezers, 49 % of Hammarby IF Fotboll, as well as interests in the Los Angeles Lakers and Los Angeles Sparks. The company also purchased the Champions on Ice figure skating tour in 2006. They also own 12 % of Djurgårdens IF Hockey.
The company makes a significant amount of its money by leveraging its sports interests, already significant earners, by using the stadia in which these teams play to host various other entertainment events, most notably concerts. Indeed, Philip Anschutz created the company by buying up several small local promoters in Los Angeles in order to fill up the schedule for his new sports venue, STAPLES Center. It is now the second-largest event promoter in the United States.
AEG is the world’s largest owner of sports teams and sports events, the owner of the world’s most profitable sports and entertainment venues, and under AEG Live is the world’s second largest presenter of live music and entertainment events after Live Nation.
In August 2007, AEG announced plans with Harrah’s Entertainment to build a privately-financed 20,000-seat arena in Las Vegas on the Strip on Harrah’s land located directly behind the Bally’s Las Vegas and Paris Las Vegas resorts.
AEG sells sponsorships to various groups like Amgen.
Amgen manufactures many medical products such as:
**EPOGEN® (Epoetin alfa) **
How it works:
EPOGEN® is a recombinant protein that works in a similar way as the body’s natural erythropoietin — a glycoprotein produced by the kidneys that circulates through the bloodstream to bone marrow, where it stimulates red blood cell production. Red blood cells perform the essential function of transporting oxygen throughout the body. When the kidneys fail, production of erythropoietin decreases and the production of red blood cells is hindered, usually resulting in anemia.
The Amgen tour is not breaking even yet.
The venue for 2010 tour is being developed now with about a one year lead time.
Possible host cities are identified, RFP’s are sent in March, Replies by April, Awards made in May, and cities announced during Tour de France.
The probable courses are mapped (about 90 to 135 miles) coordinated with CALTRANS and driven and logged several times, subject to change, with final routes announced in Nov.
Route permits are difficult and time consuming. For example the Golden Gate has 9 agencies that require permits, which were obtained for closing the bridge both ways for the period of the race bubble.
Eric told a story about the city of Tracy that had only one route through town.
Late in the planning it was discovered that a school let out at 3 PM just as race would be passing. There was no alternate route available. Parents would be gathering there to pick up the kids. He called the principal who was out and left a message. Next day the principal called and introduced himself as Jim. He said, “Before we start this conversation I should tell you that I traveled to France the last two years to watch the Tour de France.”
Eric said he knew then that this would go well. Jim coordinated with the other school authorities and permission was arranged to set up bleachers for parents and children to watch the peleton pass by and extend school for 30 minutes.
The Amgen tour will utilize 4000 volunteers to control driveways, people, dogs, etc. The tour travels with 800 people, 200 vehicles, including 10 CHP cars, 2 ambulances, 2 fixed wing aircraft, 2 helicopters (1 CHP, 1 video), 40 motorcycles and 10 doctors, 4 nurses, and so on.
They string 1000’ of fence at finish, set up 2 stages, and a 35’ truss, which they break down after the race and haul to the next venue.
The race is UCI sanctioned with 17 teams (invitation only) each with 8 riders starting.
Lance will be on team Astana supporting Levi. Prize money is $161,000 split to best rider, best team, and so on with the lead rider getting about $20,000.
Lots of well know riders except Contador who will not be riding in this one.
There will be 16 KOM passes for the red jersey in the 8 stages with 2 KOM passes here in the 8th stage, the South Grade of Palomar and Cole Grade.
Palomar summit is about 5253’ which is a lot different than 10,924’ even though the number of switchbacks, grade, and distance are similar to Alpe d’Huez.
Alpe d’Huez is a ski resort at 1860 metres / 3330 metres (6,102 ft / 10,924 ft). It is a mountain pasture in the Central French Alps, in the commune of Huez, in the Isère département.
Alpe d’Huez is one of the main mountains in the Tour de France. It has been a stage finish almost every year since 1976. The first was in 1952, won by Fausto Coppi.
The mountain was brought to the race by Élie Wermelinger, the chief commissaire or referee. He drove his Dyna-Panhard car between snow banks that lined the road in March 1952, invited by a consortium of businesses who had opened hotels at the summit. Their leader was Georges Rajon, who ran the Hotel Christina. The ski station there opened in 1936 but the road had been widened even if it was still potholed. Wermelinger reported to the organiser, Jacques Goddet, and the Tour signed a contract with the businessmen to include the Alpe. It cost them the modern equivalent of €3,250.
Coppi attacked six kilometres from the summit to rid himself of the French rider, Jean Robic. Coppi said: “I knew he was no longer there when I couldn’t hear his breathing any more or the sound of his tyres on the road behind me.” He turned the Alpe into an instant legend because his was the year that motorcycle television crews came to the Tour. It was also the Tour’s first mountain-top finish. The veteran reporter, Jacques Augendre, said:
The Tourmalet, the Galibier and the Izoard were the mythical mountains of the race. These three cols were supplanted by the Alpe d’Huez. Why? Because it’s the col of modernity. Coppi’s victory in 1952 was the symbol of a golden age of cycling, that of champions Coppi, Bartali, Kubler, Koblet, Bobet. But only Coppi and Armstrong have been able to take the maillot jaune on the Alpe and to keep it to Paris. That’s no by chance. From the first edition, shown on live television, the Alpe d’Huez definitively transformed the way the Grande Boucle ran. No other stage has had such drama. With its 21 bends, its gradient and the number of spectators, it is a climb in the style of Hollywood.
After Coppi, however, the Alpe was dropped until 1964 and then again until 1976, both times at Rajon’s instigation.
The climb is 13.8km at an average 7.9 per cent, with 21 hairpins (les 21 virages) named after the winners of stages there. There were too many when the race made the 22nd climb in 2001 so naming restarted at the bottom with Lance Armstrong’s name added to Coppi’s.
There will be the green sprint jersey and white for best rider under 23.
Spectators will be mountain bound if watching on Palomar Mountain because of road closures. Recommendation is to watch at Cole Grade and then make a run for the finish the back way.
It was noted that while cars are not allowed on the course you can bike the course before and after the rolling road closing.
(But you would have to be damn fast to beat the peleton back from Cole Grade to the finish.)
If there is snow on Palomar there will be a Mesa Grande diversion.
Riders in the race that are falling off the back are asked to quit – for the duration of the race to get the roads open – however if the rider persists – his number is cut off and he is on his own without race protection.
Riders must finish within 8 to 9% in additon to winner’s time or will be dropped from remainder of stages.
Head on traffic is main concern. There are 75 full time marshals besides all the volunteers.
The finish is set up with from 300 to 500 meters straightaway.
Questions volunteers should be prepared to answer:
Which one is Lance?
When will they be here?
Where is the bathroom?
How do I get into the Hospitality Tent? No. Costs $275 in advance.
Where to get autographs? Start is best area.
Where is a good spot to see the race? Everywhere.
Who is in the lead?
How fast do they go? 5/14 mph up Palomar, 60 -70 mph downhill, 20-30 on the flats, 25 average for race, 55 mph on finish.
What is going on? Why are the roads closed?
Who are you and why can’t I get out of my driveway?
Which one is Lance’s girlfriend?
Should be fun to watch this race.
There is some additional team info toward the back of this volunteer handbook starting on page 11.
http://www.gopheracres.com/door01/Amgen%20Info%202009.pdf
Cheers,
Neal