February 6, 2007 (Utrecht, Netherlands) – The Rabobank Cycling Team, currently ranked 3rd in the world among professional cycling teams, announced yesterday that it will enter a team to compete in the 2007 Amgen Tour of California professional cycling race, which takes place February 18-25 in California.

The 650-mile, eight-day stage race, modeled after the Tour de France, will feature 18 of the world’s top cycling teams racing from San Francisco to Long Beach. (For more information about the 2007 Amgen Tour of California, official sponsors and teams, click here.

Eight cyclists from the Rabobank ProTeam, whose riders won four of the stages in the 2006 Tour de France, will travel to California to ride in the Amgen Tour of California. Rabobank ProTeam racer Michael Rasmussen, known as the “King of the Mountain” for his first place finishes in mountain stages in both the 2005 and 2006 Tour de France, will be part of the Rabobank ProTeam racing in California, along with leading cyclists Mauricio Ardila, Graeme Brown, Theo Eltink, Robert Gesink, Bram de Groot, Mathew Hayman and Grischa Niermann.

Rabobank, a Dutch cooperative ranked as the 25th largest bank in the world, has sponsored a cycling team for 11 years. The current Rabobank Cycling Team, the 3rd ranked UCI ProTour team for the past two years, consists of a professional team, a development team, and a cyclo cross racing team, which together employ 100 people. Rabobank’s sponsorship of the cycling team is tied to the Netherland’s long heritage of bicycling. Click here for more information on the Rabobank Cycling team, or visit here.

The Rabobank Pro Team is including the California race in its professional racing season for the first time this year because its sponsor, Rabobank, has a growing presence in California. Rabobank currently has bank branches and offices located in many of the towns along the race, such as Sacramento, Stockton, and Seaside, and has a pending merger with Mid-State Bank & Trust, which has numerous offices along the route in San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, and Ventura counties.

Watch for the Rabobank ProTeam as they race in the 2007 Amgen Tour of California:

– Sunday February 18 – San Francisco (prologue)
– Monday February 19 – Sausalito to Santa Rosa
– Tuesday February 20 – Santa Rosa to Sacramento
– Wednesday February 21 – Stockton to San Jose
– Thursday February 22 – Seaside to San Luis Obispo
– Friday February 23 – Solvang (circuit race)
– Saturday February 24 – Santa Barbara to Santa Clarita
– Sunday February 25 – Long Beach (circuit race)