Thousands of people crammed downtown Santa Rosa's plazas and sidewalks last winter, waiting with palpable anticipation. Spectators leaned over railings, craned out of second-story windows and climbed trees to get a better view. And then a chorus of shrieks and cheers trumpeted their arrival: the brilliantly colored peloton, a cluster of nearly a hundred of the world's best cyclists, shot into view.

Reaching speeds almost double the city's posted limits, pumping their muscular legs and jostling for position, the pack circled Santa Rosa's downtown three times, each circuit building up waves of excitement that carried the elated spectators ever higher.

Just about everyone was pulling for the same rider: hometown hero Levi Leipheimer. Based in Santa Rosa for the past decade, the Montana native has finished as high as sixth in 2005's Tour de France, cycling's most prestigious race.

Leipheimer, 33, kicked off last year's inaugural Tour of California by winning the prologue, a 1.9-mile course in San Francisco, and then set his sights on finishing first in the next stage which ended in Santa Rosa. Making the turn into the final circuit, riders in jerseys of emerald green, sherbet orange and scarlet fought for space at the front of the peloton. And then it was over in a photo finish, with most spectators unsure who won.

A racer who excels at steep climbs, the 5-foot-7 Leipheimer didn't finish first that day on the relatively flat course. But he was close enough to retain his overall lead. After the top three finishers received their kudos, the race announcer brought Leipheimer onto the podium to present him with a fresh golden jersey (awarded to the overall race leader at the end of each stage), and the crowd roared with adulation.

Leipheimer approached the mic, but the cheers were so loud and sustained that he couldn't get a word in. After several minutes, the adoring throng calmed down, but by then Leipheimer was so overcome with emotion he was speechless.

Almost a year later, Leipheimer remains overwhelmed by the memory. "Awesome," was how he described that day in a December interview. "It was one of the best days of my career. I couldn't believe the number of people who came to Santa Rosa."

The Santa Rosa stage wasn't the only success in the weeklong race that took the world's elite cyclists from San Francisco through the North Bay, then to the Big Sur coast en route to Los Angeles. More than a million people caught at least a glimpse of the race--1.3 million according to race organizers--making it the best attended sports event in California last year.

This year's event--which begins on Sunday, Feb. 18, with a prologue in San Francisco, moves on to the Sausalito-Santa Rosa stage on Monday, Feb. 19, and concludes in Long Beach on Feb. 25 (see "All the North Bay's a Stage" sidebar)--promises an even more demanding course. The race has been expanded to 650 miles (from about 600 last year), and organizers have created a route that has more challenging hills to go along with the time trials. To add more drama, the most significant time trial--when racers start separately and race against the clock; the one with the fastest time wins--has been moved to Stage 5, later in the race than last year.

This year, the Stage 1 course includes the rigorous climb from Bodega Bay over Coleman Valley Road into Occidental. This is the kind of ascent that Leipheimer craves; his only disappointment is that the race doesn't conclude at the top of the hill or shortly thereafter.

The reason? Even if Leipheimer puts some distance between himself and the pack, the other riders have plenty of miles to catch up. There are some other steep climbs in the tour; about 12 miles after the Stage 2 start in Santa Rosa, the riders will face the seemingly vertical Trinity Road ascent, tackling the ridge the divides Sonoma and Napa counties, one of the most grueling climbs of the race. Again, this comes too early for Leipheimer to sustain any gain during the stage, which ends in Sacramento.

But don't think for a moment that Leipheimer is complaining about the race. He's thrilled to have a world-class cycling event in the United States, and especially gratified that it's in his own backyard. "I still think it's a great race," he told me in December, "the highest quality race the U.S. has ever seen." And not just a great race for the fans, Leipheimer noted, saying, "Riders in Europe were talking about it for a month."

In Europe, where cycling has millions of passionate fans, Leipheimer is used to being recognized in public. That doesn't happen as much stateside, but he's becoming well known in the North Bay and was blown away by the number of fans exhorting him during the race.

"It definitely motivates you when people cheer for you," Leipheimer said, noting that many fans recognized him as he rode, flanked by his sky-blue-jerseyed Gerolsteiner teammates, in last year's Tour of California. This year, Leipheimer is racing for U.S.-based Discovery Channel team that Lance Armstrong led a couple of years ago when he capped his career by winning an unprecedented seventh Tour de France.

The buzz about the Tour of California has spread through the pro cycling community. This year, though the race has grown to 18 teams, so many applied that race organizers had to turn some away.

"Teams were fighting for spots," Fred Rodriguez, a three-time U.S. professional champion, told me in a recent interview. "That's impressive for an event that's only a year old. Usually, events are begging for teams to come out."

One of those 18 teams, BMC, is based in Santa Rosa. Gavin Chilcott, a retired American racer who had a string of top finishes in the 1980s, was instrumental in forming the team (BMC is a Swiss bicycle company) which has a couple of top Swiss riders. Chilcott praised this year's course and said the Coleman Valley climb should be "spectacular for photography."

Chilcott is also thrilled about the addition of the Trinity Road ascent, which was an integral part of the Coors Classic race in the 1980s. "A big group can get away up there," he said, adding "the deliberate and thoughtful course design ensures we won't know after the first hour of the race who'll cross the finish line first."

After last year's successful race, Rodriguez isn't surprised that so many riders want to join the Tour of California. "The race has everything: scenery, spectators, sponsorship," he said, exulting over rides that take in glorious coastal scenery and breathtaking mountain views. "Other than the Tour de France, I don't see anything that comes close."

Known as "Fast Freddie," Rodriguez was born in Bogota, Colombia. When he was a young boy, his family moved to Los Angeles, where Rodriguez's father owned a bike shop. "He gave me a used 10-speed bike that had been unclaimed for over a year. At the time, I was really into BMX riding. I loved being a daredevil on the bike, doing tricks, hitting the technical courses. But that quickly changed when I got on the road bike for the first time," Rodriguez said. "It was the speed that got me. It wasn't long before I realized that I had a thing for going fast."

A resident of Emeryville, Rodriguez often rides through Marin and Sonoma counties on his way to his second home at Sea Ranch. "I'll leave my home in Emeryville an hour before my wife, and we'll meet three hours later in Sea Ranch," he said. So Rodriguez was well acquainted with Sonoma's backroads as he tackled them in Stage 1 of the premier Tour of California.

Riding with the Predictor-Lotto team (the co-sponsors are the Belgian lottery and an outfit that monitors an ever bigger gamble: a Belgian pharmaceutical company specializing in pregnancy tests), Rodriguez is a sprinter who was near the front of the pack coming into Santa Rosa last year.

"To compete on my home soil is amazing--I really wanted to win here," he said. "But in the last mile [of last year's Stage 1], I flatted." Rodriguez will have another chance this year, but the sprinter recognizes that the addition of the Coleman Valley climb increases the odds against him. "There's a chance of a breakaway I can't catch."

Rodriguez and Leipheimer both say that the race gives their winter training regimen a concrete goal, motivating them to venture out even in inclement weather. The riders have some concern about rain during the February race, but given that summer is fully booked with European cycling events, February is the best time for a California tour. Due to the technical nature of much of the course, "if we have rain, it will make the race extremely hard," Leipheimer said.

Last year the cycling gods smiled on the riders, who rarely had to pedal through rain. But even with the chance of some precipitation, Rodriguez would much rather race in California during the winter than in Europe. "I don't expect freezing rain like we had in Italy," he said. "We protested the first stage [in an Italian race], because it was so cold that the descents were dangerous."

For cyclists and fans alike, the Tour of California has become the beginning of the season. It's a bright spot in the winter calendar, a first taste of the long rides of summer on the horizon.

And watching the world's best cyclists roll through the North Bay is a fine way to spend Presidents Day.