It's less than a month until the Amgen Tour of California begins and volunteers are still needed for the cycling event that rolls out Feb. 17. The Tour is a huge, moving campaign that relies on volunteers to keep it going.

Many of the volunteers are drawn from the host communities where the eight-stage bicycle race begins for finishes for the day. The cities are Palo Alto, Sausalito, Santa Rosa, Sacramento, Modesto, San Jose, Seaside, San Luis Obispo, Solvang, Santa Barbara, Santa Clarita, and Pasadena.

How many are needed? One host city alone, Modesto, needs 250 more people to volunteer about a half day ...   more »

Updated Jan. 18

Seventeen international and domestic cycling teams will compete in the 2008 Amgen Tour of California, which rolls out February 17-24.

Although the teams have not announced their rosters, we can probably expect to see top Americans who have been dispersed across Astana (defending champ Levi Leipheimer), High Road Sports (George Hincapie), and Team Slipstream Powered by Chipotle (Dave Zabriskie) among others.

This year's 8-day, 650 mile bike race is the third Tour of California. The first was won by Floyd Landis on Phonak; the second by Leipheimer on Discovery Channel.

Here are the 17 teams that are competing...   more »