World Champions, National Champions, Olympians and Tour de France
Stage Winners to Feature in America’s Premier Cycling Race
AEG, presenter of the 13th annual Amgen Tour of California, today announced rosters for the 2018 professional cycling race that runs May 13-19 across 645 miles from Long Beach to Sacramento.
Featuring 17 teams of cyclists representing 30 countries, the peloton will include seven World Champions, including three-time and reigning titleholder Peter Sagan, who also holds the record for Amgen Tour of California stage wins (16) and the 2015 race title. Sagan will be defending the Visit California Sprint Jersey, which he’s won seven times, against the likes of UAE Team Emirates’ Alexander Kristoff (NOR), KATUSHA ALPECIN’S Marcel Kittel (GER) and Team Dimension Data’s Mark Cavendish.
Sagan’s BORA-hansgrohe teammate Rafal Majka (POL), who won the Tour de France climbing contest in 2016 and road race bronze at the Summer Olympic Games that year, will be challenged in the mountains – which begin early this year with the daunting Gibraltar climb on Stage 2 – by Team Sky’s Egan Bernal (also the current Columbian National Time Trial Champion) and Trek-Segafredo’s Toms Skujins (LAT). Skujins took mountain stage victories in two past editions (2015, 2016).
With 27 U.S. riders in the field of 117, some sure to animate the course include BMC Racing Team’s 2013 race champion Tejay van Garderen (Tacoma, Wash.); Team EF Education First-Drapac p/b Cannondale teammates Taylor Phinney (Boulder, Colo.) and Lawson Craddock (Houston, Texas), who has won the Best Young Rider competition twice in California; as well as another former Best Young Rider Nielson Powless (Sacramento, Calif.) in his WorldTour debut season with LottoNL-Jumbo; Rally Cycling’s Evan Huffman (Elk Grove, Calif.), who won two stages last year as well as the King of the Mountains prize in 2016; Trek-Segafredo’s lead man Peter Stetina (Santa Rosa, Calif.) and Team Sky’s Ian Boswell (Bend, Oregon).
FAVORITES IN POPULAR CATEGORIES INCLUDE:
General Classification (Overall Contenders)
- Tejay van Garderen (USA), BMC Racing Team (BMC)
- Brent Bookwalter (USA), BMC Racing Team (BMC)
- Peter Sagan (SVK), BORA-hansgrohe (BOH)
- Rafal Majka (POL), BORA-hansgrohe (BOH)
- Adam Yates (GBR), Mitchelton-SCOTT (MTS)
- Lawson Craddock (USA), Team EF Education First-Drapac p/b Cannondale (EFD)
- Neilson Powless (USA), Team LottoNL-Jumbo (TLJ)
- Ian Stannard (GBR), Team Sky (SKY)
- Nikias Arndt (GER), Team Sunweb (SUN)
- Evan Huffman (USA), Rally Cycling (RLY)
- Rob Britton (CAN), Rally Cycling (RLY)
- Peter Stetina (USA), Trek-Segafredo (TFS)
- Ian Boswell (USA), Team KATUSHA ALPECIN (TKA)
- Lachlan Morton (AUS), Team Dimension Data (DDD)
- Serghei Tvetcov (MOD), UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling Team (UHC)
Sprinters
- Peter Sagan (SVK), BORA-hansgrohe (BOH)
- Mark Cavendish (GBR), Team Dimension Data (DDD)
- Marcel Kittel (GER), Team KATUSHA ALPECIN (TKA)
- Alexander Kristoff (NOR), UAE Team Emirates (UAD)
- Caleb Ewan, Mitchelton-SCOTT (MTS)
- Fernando Gaviria (COL), Quick-Step Floors (QST)
- Mark Renshaw (AUS), Team Dimension Data (DDD)
- Travis McCabe (USA), UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling Team (UHC)
- Keil Reijnen (USA), Trek-Segafredo (TFS)
- John Murphy (USA), Holowesko|Citadel p/b Arapahoe Resources (HCA)
Climbers
- Rafal Majka (POL), BORA-hansgrohe (BOH)
- Neilson Powless (USA), Team LottoNL-Jumbo (TLJ)
- Tejay van Garderen (USA), BMC Racing Team (BMC)
- Evan Huffman (USA), Rally Cycling (RLY)
- Ian Boswell (USA), Team KATUSHA ALPECIN (TKA)
- Lachlan Morton (AUS), Team Dimension Data (DDD)
- Tom Skujins (LAT), Trek-Segafredo (TFS)
- Lawson Craddock (USA), Team EF Education First-Drapac p/b Cannondale (EFD)
- Silvan Dillier (SUI), AG2R LA MONDIALE (ALM)
- Egan Bernal (COL), Team Sky (SKY)
- Serghei Tvetcov (MOD), UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling Team (UHC)
Stage Wins
- Peter Sagan (SVK), BORA-hansgrohe (BOH)
- Alexander Kristoff (NOR), Team KATUSHA ALPECIN (KAT)
- Robin Carpenter (USA), Rally Cycling (RLY)
- John Murphy (USA), UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling Team (UHC)
- Keil Reijnen (USA), Trek-Segafredo (TFS)
- Tejay van Garderen (USA), BMC Racing Team (BMC)
- Brent Bookwalter (USA), BMC Racing Team (BMC)
- Taylor Phinney (USA), Team EF Education First-Drapac p/b Cannondale (EFD)
- Mathew Hayman (AUS), Mitchelton-SCOTT (MTS)
- Mathias Frank (SUI), AG2R LA MONDIALE (ALM)
- Benoit Cosnefroy (FRA), AG2R LA MONDIALE (ALM)
- Alex Howes (USA), Team EF Education First-Drapac p/b Cannondale (EFD)
- Tom Skujins (LAT), Trek-Segafredo (TFS)
- Neilson Powless (USA), Team LottoNL-Jumbo (TLJ)
- Rob Britton (CAN), Rally Cycling (RLY)
- Ian Boswell (USA), Team KATUSHA ALPECIN (TKA)
Individual Time Trialists
- Tejay van Garderen (USA), BMC Racing Team (BMC)
- Lawson Craddock (USA), Team EF Education First-Drapac p/b Cannondale (EFD)
- Taylor Phinney (USA), Team EF Education First-Drapac p/b Cannondale (EFD)
- Filippo Ganna (ITA), UAE Team Emirates (UAD)
- Nils Politt (GER), Team KATUSHA ALPECIN (TKA)
- Danny Pate (USA), Rally Cycling (RLY)
- Brent Bookwalter (USA), BMC Racing Team (BMC)
- Maciej Bodnar (SVK), BORA-hansgrohe (BOH)
- Serghei Tvetcov (MOD), UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling Team (UHC)
Fans can stay up to date on the race via daily live airings on NBC Sports Network and NBC, and via the free Tour Tracker app presented by Microsoft for mobile and desktop devices. The Amgen Tour of California Women’s Race empowered with SRAM UCI WorldTour race showcasing the world’s best women cyclists will run concurrently May 17-19, covering 187 miles over three stages.
