Race presenters AEG have announced the world-class roster of teams and cyclists entered in the 2007 Amgen Tour of California, an internationally sanctioned professional cycling road race that will host 18 teams and 144 riders racing throughout California on February 18-25, 2007.

In its second year, the race has already received an upgraded rating from the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) to a 2. Hors Classe (2.HC) - the highest rating a professional stage race outside of Europe can receive.

The race will bring the top cycling stars and talent from around the world to compete across 650 miles of California roadway from San Francisco to Long Beach.  Attracting an unprecedented field of riders from 28 countries, cyclists hail from countries as far away as Trinidad and Tobago, Lithuania, Uzbekistan, Cuba, South Africa, Belarus, Luxembourg and Kazakhstan. 

The collection of riders, considered the strongest field of participants ever to race in the United States, will include Discovery Channel Pro Cycling, T-Mobile, Predictor-Lotto, Health Net and Team CSC, which returns to defend the title as the overall classification winner of the 2006 Amgen Tour of California. 

?We concentrated last year on making the inaugural Amgen Tour of California race experience great for riders, and that positive experience coupled with the phenomenal success of the race has resulted in one of the best fields ever to race on U.S. soil,? said Shawn Hunter, president of AEG Sports, presenters of the race.  ?This field puts the Amgen Tour of California on par with the Grand Tours in Europe, and we?re thrilled to welcome such an accomplished group of cyclists from the international community to California.?

Some of the notable riders expected to begin the race in San Francisco on Feb. 18 include:

Top 2006 Tour de France Finishers:

Thor Hushovd (Cr?dit Agricole): Prologue and Stage 20; third overall Sprit

Jens Voigt (Team CSC): Stage 13

Michael Rasmussen (Rabobank Cycling Team): Stage 16; first overall KOM

Matteo Tosatto (Quick Step-Innergetic): Stage 18

Michael Rogers (T-Mobile Team): Tenth overall

Levi Leipheimer (Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team): Ninth overall KOM

Top 2006 Giro d?Italia Finishers:

Ivan Basso (Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team): First overall; second overall KOM

Franco Pellizotti (Liquigas Pro Cycling Team): Eighth overall

2006 World Champion Medalists:

Paolo Bettini (Quick Step-Innergetic): World Road Race Champion

Fabian Cancellara (Team CSC): World Time Trial Champion

Dave Zabriskie (Team CSC): World Time Trial Championships silver medalist

Top 2006 Amgen Tour of California Finishers:

Dave Zabriskie (Team CSC): Second overall

George Hincapie (Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team): Stage 2 and 5; fourth overall and third overall in sprint classification

Levi Leipheimer (Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team): Prologue; sixth overall and first overall KOM

Juan Jose Haedo (Team CSC): Stage 1 and 4; second overall in sprint classification

Thomas Peterson (Team Slipstream Powered by Chipotle): First overall Best Young Rider

Bobby Julich (Team CSC): Third overall

Team CSC: Defending team champions

California Natives/Residents:

BMC Racing Team: Ken Hanson ( San Luis Obispo); Scott Nydam ( Santa Rosa); Mike Sayers ( Sacramento); Jackson Stewart ( Los Gatos)

Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team: Levi Leipheimer ( Santa Rosa); Tony Cruz ( Long Beach)

Health Net Pro Cycling Team Presented by Maxxis: Australian rider Karl Menzies (Folsom); Kyle Gritters ( San Diego)

Predictor-Lotto: Fred Rodriguez (Emeryville)

Priority Health Cycling Team Presented by Bissell: Ben Jacques-Maynes ( San Jose);Garrett Peltonen (Folsom)

Team Slipstream Powered by Chipotle: Lucas Euser ( Napa, San Luis Obispo); Steven Cozza ( Petaluma)

Toyota-United Pro Cycling Team: Cuban rider Ivan Dominguez (Chatsworth)

The 2007 Amgen Tour of California roster includes the following 18 professional cycling teams.  The nine ProTour teams compete regularly on the UCI's ProTour race calendar, including the Grand Tours of Europe: Giro d'Italia, Tour de France and the Vuelta a Espana.

Pro Tour Teams:

1) Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team ( USA)

Ivan Basso (ITA)

Antonio "Tony" Cruz (USA)

Tom Danielson (USA)

George Hincapie (USA)

Levi Leipheimer (USA)

Jason McCartney (USA)

Tomas Vaitkus (LIT)

Brian Vandborg (DEN)

2) Team CSC (DEN)

Fabian Cancellara (SUI)

Juan Jose Haedo (ARG)

Bobby Julich (USA)

Karsten Kroon (NED)

Stuart O'Grady (AUS)

Christian Vandevelde (USA)

Jens Voigt (GER)

David "Dave" Zabriskie ( USA)

3) Quick Step-Innergetic (BEL)

Paolo Bettini (ITA)

Mauro Facci (ITA)

Leonardo Scarselli (ITA)

Bram Tankink (NED)

Matteo Tosatto (ITA)

Jurgen Van De Walle (BEL)

Geert Verheyen (BEL)

Giovanni Visconti (ITA)

4) Predictor-Lotto (BEL)

Mario Aerts (BEL)

Bart Dockx (BEL)

Nick Gates (AUS)

Chris Horner ( USA)

Nic Ingels (BEL)

Josep Jufre Pou (ESP)

Matthew Lloyd (AUS)

Fred Rodriguez (USA)

5) Rabobank Cycling Team (NED)

Mauricio Albert Ardila Cano (COL)

Graeme Brown (AUS)

Bram De Groot (NED)

Theo Eltink (NED)

Robert Gesink (NED)

Mathew Hayman (AUS)

Grischa Niermann (GER)

Michael Rasmussen (DEN)

6) T-Mobile Team (GER)

Michael Barry (CAN)

Gerald Ciolek (GER)

Adam Hansen (AUS)

Greg Henderson (NZL)

Kim Kirchen (LUX)

Aaron Olson (USA)

Jakob Piil (DEN)

Michael Rogers (AUS)

7) Liquigas Pro Cycling Team (ITL)

Kjell Carlstrom (FIIN)

Mauro Da Dalto (ITA)

Enrico Gasparotto (ITA)

Luca Paolini (ITA)

Franco Pellizotti (ITA)

Manuel Quinziato (ITA)

Charles Wegelius (GBR)

Frederik Willems (BEL)

8) Cr?dit Agricole (FRA)

Dimitri Fofonov (KAZ)

Sebastien Hinault (FRA)

Thor Hushovd (NOR)

Mads Kaggestad (NOR)

Christophe Kern (FRA)

Christophe Laurent (FRA)

Cyril Lemoine (FRA)

Jean Marc Marino (FRA)

9) Gerolsteiner (GER)

Robert F?rster (GER)

Torsten Heikmann (GER)

Bernhard Kohl (AUT)

Sven Krauss (GER)

Volker Ordowski (GER)

Fabian Wegmann (GER)

Peter Wrolich (AUT)

Oliver Zaugg (SUI)

Pro Continental Teams:

1) The Health Net Pro Cycling Team Presented by Maxxis ( USA)

Russell Downing (GBR)

Kyle Gritters ( USA)

Ryder Hesjedal (CAN)

Tim Johnson ( USA)

Karl Menzies (AUS)

Shawn Milne ( USA)

Kirk O'Bee ( USA)

Rory Sutherland (AUS)

2) Navigators Insurance Cycling Team ( USA)

Glen Chadwick (NZL)

Hilton Clarke (AUS)

Ben Day (AUS)

Valeriy Kobzarenko (UKR)

Sergey Lagutin (UZB)

Darren Lill (RSA)

Viktor Rapinski (BLR)

Phil Zajicek (USA)

3) Team Slipstream Powered by Chipotle ( USA)

Steven Cozza (USA)

Jason Donald (USA)

Lucas Euser (USA)

William Frischkorn (USA)

Patrick McCarty (USA)

Danny Pate (USA)

Thomas "Tom" Peterson ( USA)

Taylor Tolleson ( USA)

Continental Teams:

1) Toyota-United Pro Cycling Team ( USA)

Chris Baldwin ( USA)

Heath Blackgrove (NZL)

Ivan Dominguez (CUB)

Justin England ( USA)

Mark Scanlon (IRL)

Sean Sullivan (AUS)

Henk Vogels (AUS)

Chris Wherry ( USA)

2) BMC Racing Team ( USA)

Jonathan Garcia ( USA)

Ken Hanson ( USA)

Ian McKissick ( USA)

Alex Moos (SUI)

Scott Nydam ( USA)

Michael Sayers ( USA)

Jackson Stewart ( USA)

David Vitoria (SUI)

3) Jelly Belly Cycling Team ( USA)

Andrew Bajadali (USA)

Alex Candelario (USA)

Brian Dziewa (USA)

Brice Jones (USA)

Mike Jones (USA)

Bryce Mead (USA)

Jeremy Powers (USA)

Nick Reistad (USA)

4) Colavita/Sutter Home Presented by Cooking Light Team ( USA)

Alejandro Acton (ARG)

Gustavo Artacho (ARG)

Anthony Colby (USA)

Charles Dionne (CAN)

Davide Frattini (ITA)

Peter Hatton (AUS)

David McCann (IRL)

Tyler Wren  (USA)

5) Priority Health Cycling Team Presented by Bissell ( USA)

Emile Abraham (TTO)

Ben Jacques-Maynes (USA)

Edward "Ted" King ( USA)

Robbie King ( USA)

Garrett Peltonen ( USA)

Brian Sheedy ( USA)

Tom Zirbel ( USA)

Scott Zwizanski ( USA)

National Team:

USA Cycling National Development Team ( USA)

Brent Bookwalter ( USA)

Sheldon Deeny ( USA)

John Devine ( USA)

Caleb Fairly ( USA)

Zachary Grabowski ( USA)

Scott Stewart ( USA)

Chris Stockburger ( USA)

Tejay Van Garderen ( USA)

Stay tuned to Roadcycling.com for more 2007 Amgen Tour of California news and updates.