The TOC Cometh...

Last year we saw a great mix of talent shown in the Tour of California after a delayed start. Lead-out men beating their sprinters to the line (not without the most badass of apre-race trick sessions, mind you), solo victories on Sierra Road, and, of course, Jens Voigt yelling at us in his Germanic accent to get the hell out of the way - didn't we know there was a bike race going on?! OK, so the last one didn't exactly happen, but after a chilling hour on the top of Mt. Hamilton, we did see this famous hard man holding his own at the back of the break.

Then, in Solvang, we saw American time trial legend Dave Zabriskie rewrite the history books of the infamous course with a time of 30minutes and 35seconds, shoving the second place finisher, Levi Leipheimer, some 14seconds behind.

But ultimately, it would come down to the dynamic duo of Levi Leipheimer and Chris Horner (with no small assistance from Matthew Busche and Ben King) the next afternoon on Mt. Baldy to seal the race's fate with Horner's overall win.

The course this year is taking an exciting local twist and for the first time, going up Mt. Diablo. While they're not summiting the climb, it is rather cool that after seven years it's finally being incorporated into the route. I just want it to go on record here on the greatness of the interwebz that I will be in school that day, unless of course that I start to feel a cold come on... *cough, cough*

Tune in for the fun starting Sunday via web-streaming or on Versus (NBC Sports) if you're more of a "big screen" person.