ESCONDIDO -- City workers in Escondido have closed streets for parades, controlled crowds for outdoor concerts and diverted traffic from many outdoor events.
But nothing has been quite like preparing for the Amgen Tour of California.
"This is a really large event," said Robin Bettin, assistant director of community services for Escondido, who has helped coordinate road closures throughout the city. "It's one of the largest sporting events in America. It's certainly a prestigious thing, and we want to do a good job with it."
The final stage of the nine-day race, the largest cycling event in the country, begins at noon Feb. 22 in Rancho Bernardo and ends that afternoon in Escondido after a 96.8-mile race that includes a ride up Palomar Mountain. The race features some of the world's top cyclists, including Lance Armstrong in his first American competition since coming out of retirement. Up to 40,000 people are expected to view the race in North County.
While only about six miles of the race go through Rancho Bernardo, the community will be the focus of the cycling universe when it hosts the starting line, and civic leaders there hope to make the best of the exposure.
"It's the biggest thing to happen in this neck of the woods in a long time," said Michael Robinson, chief executive of the San Diego North Chamber of Commerce.
The race has never been in San Diego County, and local organizers have turned to the seasoned help at AEG, the sports and entertainment company presenting the Tour of California, for advice on everything from getting permits to serving food outdoors to recruiting up to 450 volunteers, said Cami Mattson, president and chief executive officer of the San Diego North Convention and Visitors Bureau.
Mattson said race director Jim Birrell of AEG mapped out the route with help from local cyclists, but much of the coordinating was done by local volunteers and committees.
About 700 people, including more than 130 cyclists and their support crews, need rooms in Rancho Bernardo this weekend, and Robinson said the Chamber of Commerce helped coordinate lodging at the Courtyard by Marriott, Hilton Garden Inn, Radisson Suites and the Rancho Bernardo Inn.
Robinson said the chamber also took the lead in organizing starting-line activities, including an autograph alley where people can meet the cycling stars on Bernardo Center Drive and a health and wellness fair called the Stage 8 Experience at the Vons Town Center, Bernardo Plaza Court and Bernardo Center Drive.
While the chamber has never organized an event like this before, Robinson said it did have a head start because every June it sponsors the street fair Rancho Bernardo Alive, held at the same location and requiring the same street closures.
In Escondido, Bettin said the city plans to close the blocks surrounding the finish line at Broadway and Grand Avenue, and notices about the closure, as well as temporary closures along the route through the city, have been in place more than week.
Streets will be closed 30 minutes before riders arrive and will reopen immediately after the last racers pass, and Bettin said city workers will be ready to remove the signs as soon as streets reopen.
Race sponsor Amgen will provide $70,000 for police services in Escondido on Sunday, and Bettin said the city hopes to finish the day without spending any of its own money.
Escondido maintenance and operations director Rich O'Donnell said race officials asked for no road improvements, but the city did decide to clean up streets along the route. In January, members of the city's Appearance and Compliance Team removed weeds and graffiti from El Norte Parkway between Valley Parkway and Escondido Boulevard, and on Feb. 12 another crew did the same on Escondido Boulevard from El Norte Parkway to Grand Avenue.
Mattson said about a dozen committees have been formed to handle a variety of tasks, such as coordinating shuttles, family activities at the start and finish, tie-ins with local schools and media requests for the 150 journalists who will cover the race in a press room at the California Center for the Arts, Escondido.
Organizers in Escondido and Rancho Bernardo also are working together to transport fans on race day without causing traffic jams on local streets. The North County stage offers cycling enthusiasts a rare opportunity to see both a start and finish to the same race -- unlike in other stages where the two are about 100 miles apart -- and shuttles are planned to take people from Westfield North County to the starting line in the morning and the finish line that afternoon.
Contact staff writer Gary Warth at (760) 740-5410 or gwarth@nctimes.com.
