{"id":5819,"date":"2017-05-03T17:43:27","date_gmt":"2017-05-04T00:43:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/?p=5819"},"modified":"2025-12-07T22:36:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T06:36:08","slug":"will-tahoe-altitude-favor-american-women-in-amgen-tour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/2017\/05\/03\/will-tahoe-altitude-favor-american-women-in-amgen-tour\/","title":{"rendered":"Will Tahoe Altitude Favor American Women in Amgen Tour?"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Kristen Legan<\/em><\/p>\n

[Image: The Canyon-SRAM team trained at high altitude on Wednesday before the Amgen Women’s Tour of California’s first stage.]<\/p>\n

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, California (VN) \u2014 There\u2019s one thing on everyone\u2019s mind at the Amgen Women\u2019s Tour of California this week: altitude. Two of the race\u2019s four stages start and finish in South Lake Tahoe, which sits at a breathtaking 6,237 feet above sea level. During stage 2, racers will crest the 7,740-foot summit of Luther Pass after a steep 6.6 kilometers of climbing with an average 6 percent gradient.<\/p>\n

The extreme altitude has many racers anxious while others welcome the added challenge. \u201cAltitude is usually a pretty big hit to the Europeans,\u201d said UnitedHeathcare\u2019s Tayler Wiles before the race. \u201cSo it\u2019s a pretty good advantage for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Most American riders agreed that the altitude will be an advantage. Europeans don\u2019t often have a chance to race and train in these conditions, while many of the Americans live at altitude in places like Big Bear, California or Colorado. The Americans even have multiple opportunities to race at these heights throughout the season.<\/p>\n

Most recently on the U.S. domestic calendar, Tour of the Gila, based in Silver City, New Mexico, began at an elevation of 5,895 feet. Wiles won the race, clearly unfazed by the altitude. Team Tibco\u2019s Lex Albrecht also conquered the conditions, winning a stage and then acclimating further to high altitude with a Big Bear training block before heading to Tahoe. \u201cThe result from the Gila gave me confidence coming into the Tour of California,\u201d she said. \u201cThat gives our team a bit of confidence that we have an advantage on the Euros.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the American confidence buzzing around Lake Tahoe, the Europeans aren\u2019t going to give in so easily. Boels-Dolmans\u2019s Anna van der Breggen admitted she\u2019d never raced at altitude like this but seemed perfectly relaxed about the challenge. She went on to praise the Lake Tahoe scenery. \u201cIn Holland, I don\u2019t have views like that,\u201d she said. \u201c[On my ride] I was looking for bears and didn\u2019t see any. But just knowing they are there was enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pressed further about the altitude and whether she was breathing hard after climbing a set of stairs, the Olympic gold medalist smiled and said, \u201cNo, I\u2019m more of a slow climber on the stairs.\u201d Clearly, she\u2019s not giving in to the hype.<\/p>\n

The Amgen Tour of California women\u2019s race will likely be decided in the hilly 108-kilometer course on Friday that tackles three significant climbs. Altitude will certainly play a factor. But just how much of a difference it will make is unclear. \u201cWe\u2019ll take each stage day by day and see what we can do,\u201d said Coryn Rivera (Sunweb) who recently returned from a successful spring campaign in Europe. \u201cAltitude is definitely another challenge to racing here in the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Kristen Legan [Image: The Canyon-SRAM team trained at high altitude on Wednesday before the Amgen Women’s Tour<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"featured_image_urls":{"full":"","thumbnail":"","medium":"","medium_large":"","large":"","1536x1536":"","2048x2048":"","darknews-slider-full":"","darknews-featured":"","darknews-medium":"","darknews-medium-square":""},"author_info":{"display_name":"News MoLo","author_link":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/author\/admin\/"},"category_info":"News<\/a>","tag_info":"News","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5819"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5819"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5819\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5820,"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5819\/revisions\/5820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.newsmolo.com\/EDC\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}