Mt. Baldy will return to the Amgen Tour of California in 2019, with both men's and women's WorldTour races tackling the iconic climb about 70km east of Los Angeles. Race organizers today announced the 13 host cities for the 2019 race following a three-week delay due to wildfires that scorched California, including the area around the title sponsor's headquarters in Thousand Oaks. The 2019 race will visit Ventura County, which was the site of the 2017 Thomas Fire, one of the largest fires in the state's history. This year's event will avoid the hardest-hit areas of the more recent Woolsey Fire, with the men starting in Sacramento on Sunday, May 12, and finishing seven days later in Pasadena on Saturday, May 18. In between, the men's race will visit Rancho Cordova, South Lake Tahoe, Stockton, Morgan Hill, Laguna Seca Raceway, Morro Bay, Pismo Beach, Ontario and Santa Clarita.ADVERTISEMENT The women's race will begin Thursday, May 16, with a stage that starts and finishes in Ventura on the same day the men's stage finishes there. Both races remain in in sync from that point, with the women taking on Mt. Baldy for stage 2 and then finishing in Pasadena on May 18. Although organisers did not reveal specific route details with today's announcement, the inclusion of Rancho Cordova as the only new host venue suggests the race will cover a lot of familiar terrain. Organisers, however, said the 2019 race will boast seven new courses between the men's and women's events. With the men's schedule featuring only one day that starts and finishes in the same host city - stage 1 in Sacramento - organisers could be planning to reprise the prologue time trials that started the race in Sacramento in 2009, in Palo Alto in 2008, and in San Francisco in 2007 and 2006. 2019 Amgen Tour of California
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