Excitement is building as we roll toward the Amgen Tour of California.

Advocating for our bicycling community is important to me and our city is committed to continuing to provide a wonderful cycling experience.

Santa Clarita is fortunate to have miles of mixed-use trails and paseos just perfect for walking and bicycling. I am always pleased to see groups of riders enjoying trail connections and discovering new vistas along the way. Our city has very engaged cyclists who are frequent guests to our ribbon cuttings for new trails, and who share in the excitement of the much-anticipated Amgen Tour of California’s announcement of Host Cities.

The city of Santa Clarita has hosted more individual stages – namely 14 – of this world-class event than any other city. Coming up on Saturday, May 18, our city will host the start stages for the final stretch of both the men’s and women’s races. We have never had the opportunity to host a professional women’s stage of the race, so it is an honor to welcome many of the best female cyclists in the world.

This year, the start of Stage 7 – will take place at the Westfield Valencia Town Center at 8 a.m. Prior to the riders beginning their race toward the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, there will be opportunities for autographs, a festival, and live interviews on stage.

The best of the best in the cycling world will then race up McBean Parkway before turning east across town as they race to the finish line.

While we hope everyone can come out to cheer on the world’s top cyclists, residents should be mindful of the traffic impacts related to the race, which will be posted in detail on the event website.

With the anticipation of the 2019 Amgen Tour of California, I hope you will be inspired to hop on your bike and explore our city, and you won’t have to do it alone.

There are several community cycling events this month including the Hit the Trail Community Bike Ride, taking place on May 11 at Valencia Heritage Park, and our Bike to Work Day event on May 16.

Even if you do not have a bike you can still participate by renting a Pace bike at one of the bike share stations around town.

You can learn more about all the fun activities at BikeSantaClarita.com.