TOUR A NATURAL FOR NEVADA CITY

I took six hours Thursday and, clearly, it was overkill. I didn't need six hours -- 10 minutes would have been enough -- to see the obvious. If Amgen doesn't run the Tour of California through Nevada City every year, the bosses need to be sent to a windowless, unventilated room, smoke big, nasty cigars that peel paint, and stay there until they come to their senses.

The annual Tour of California needs to be run in Nevada City -- it begins here today -- just as it

needs to be run across the Golden Gate Bridge and through the vineyards of Sonoma County. With no disrespect to Disneyland or Hollywood, the essential California promotions are the images and messages provided by wine, a bridge to the Pacific and the Gold Rush.

Make no mistake, the Tour of California is one big photo opm because even with Levi and Lance in the peloton, a bike race wouldn't attract flies if it went around in circles like NASCAR. At 11:45 a.m. today, television cameras will be beaming shots of a town gladly and willingly lost in time. "Here, look at me," Nevada City is saying, "Betcha you haven't seen anything like this before." "In the winter time, after a snowfall, when there's a power outage," said Steve Cottrell, an ex-Nevada City mayor, "you look down the street and all you see is the light from the street gas lamps. Our streetlights are not powered by electricity. They're gas, and when they glow in the night, in this kind of setting, you're transported. It's the 1850s all over again."

All that's missing in Nevada City is the sound of horses

' hooves hitting cobblestone. This is a John Wayne movie set. The brick-and-mortar buildings go back 160 years and share city turf with Victorian homes. All businesses, as mandated by a city ordinance, are prohibited from displaying their names on their store fronts with a corporate logo. They must be lettered in the style and shape of the mid-19th century. "Flatlanders come here with their businesses and say, that's (the lettering) not how it's done in Pleasanton," said Gene Albaugh, city manager. "You don't say it but you think it: 'If it's so pleasant in Pleasanton, you should go back to Pleasanton.

' "

The entire downtown area is a National Historic District. There are a lot of historic landmarks and districts and monuments in America. This one is different. This one contains 94 buildings. NINETY-FOUR buildings. Think of the Santa Rosa Plaza. Increase it, oh, six times, and place it on a downward forested slope. "A lot of cities in California have Old Towns," Cottrell said. "We ARE an Old Town."

How this Old Town became involved in the Tour of California might appear visually obvious. It has that distinctive look. However, as the street sign says when you enter town, Nevada City's population is 2,855. So financial wherewithal is also small. Santa Rosa, as an example, had to come up with $175,000 to host the finish of Stage 2. And Santa Rosa's population is 164,436. That Nevada City, pop. 2,855, didn't have $175,000 for the Tour is obvious, admitted Duane Strawser, owner of the Tour of Nevada City Bike Shop and the 2009 president of the Nevada City Chamber of Commerce, which was instrumental in brokering the deal with Amgen. In wanting to become part of the Tour of California, it might appear Nevada City was a mouse trying to eat as much as an elephant. How could tiny Nevada City pony up the cash to convince Amgen it could host the beginning of a stage race?

"We signed a letter of non-disclosure with Amgen," Strawser said. Anyone connected with the selling of Nevada City to Amgen has been prohibited from discussing the financial details. Safe to say, however, that Amgen didn't require Nevada City to be on the hook for as much money as Santa Rosa. That Amgen gave Nevada City a wink-and-a-nod in some areas spoke volumes on the confidence the organization had for the people here to pull off a major event. Strawser, a former pro cyclist for six years and bike shop owner for 14 years, knew both the competitive and business sides of racing. He knew the logistics necessary to hold a smooth-running operation. He also showed Amgen how much he was committed to cycling. The popularity of the Nevada City Classic, now in its 50th year, had been on the wane. Many people in town thought it should be discontinued. Strawser joined in the city council in 1996 to prevent that. Yes, it was the second oldest sanctioned bike race in America -- though some people think it's no better than third or fourth -- but it started to suffer when America's best riders went overseas to ride. As the organizer of the Nevada City Classic, Strawser continued to pump life into the circuit race, and then, bingo, just like that, his efforts were rewarded spectacularly.

At 9 p.m. on a Wednesday just three days before the 2009 Nevada City Classic, Strawser received a phone call. It was from Lance Armstrong. Armstrong said he and Levi Leipheimer and Chris Horner -- all Astana teammates at the time -- wanted a training race in preparation for the Tour de France. It was at the last minute, but could they be entered into the field? Ah, duh. Leipheimer, Armstrong and Horner lapped all but two of the 130 riders, much to the joy of the crowd that was lined five-deep throughout town. "We had 20,000 for the race," said Strawser, a 1986 communications graduate of Sonoma State. "Typically we have 7,000."

At that point Nevada City officials and Amgen had a verbal memorandum of understanding. Nothing was yet written. "I think that race made it very difficult for Amgen to go anywhere else," he said. Fifty years of pro racing, which included multiple appearances by three-time Tour de France winner Greg LeMond, was a notch on the handlebar. So was Nevada City efficiently hosting a stage of the 1985 Coors Classic, a now-defunct race. So was Strawser's zeal, and then of course, there was the photo op that is Nevada City. All that was left was to convince the populace, and people in a small town can be notoriously resistant to life that disturbs the tranquility and the charm of a place which draws those 2,855 souls in the first place.

"We had to tell residents there wouldn't people walking on their lawns and knocking on their doors," Strawser said. Since all of downtown will be closed today, that raised the eyebrows of the church people. "We will have shuttles for people going to church," said Strawser, 46. Nevada City now is the envy of those 80 California cities who bid for a 2010 Tour stage and never got it. "Next year we're going after the (New York) Yankees," wisecracked Albaugh. The little mouse is getting to eat like an elephant. Yes, this is quite a photo op.

For more on North Bay sports go to Bob Padecky's blog at padecky.blogs. pressdemocrat.com. You can reach Staff Columnist Bob Padecky at 521-5223 or

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