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Plus the Tour (of Cali) would give American cycling fans a showcase to rival that of the Giro and Tour (de France) internationally. Instead of the biting cold and wet of February, the May weather would be spectacularly unrainy. Lance Armstrong and his new Team Radio Shack would be on hand to galvanize America’s racing crowd, Lance teammate Levi Leipheimer would take home a fourth straight title, and the U.S. would finally have a place in the pantheon of professional cycling’s grand stage races.

Oops …

Instead we got:

Rain in the early stages, including a deluge in the run from Davis to Santa Rosa. Versus television coverage that pretty much sucked from too few cameras — when they were working, that is (that Davis-Santa Rosa stage went completely untelevised due to technical problems). Compounding it all, Versus actually cut away from the finish of one stage to televise opening foo-fah of a hockey playoff game.

Even Lance tweeted in protest.

Then, just as the race entered its decisive stages, there was the Landis bombshell accusing Armstrong and the marquee U.S. competitors in the Amgen Tour of systematic doping. The King promptly crashed out of the race entirely, leaving Levi without the support (and perhaps less will) to succeed in his valiant quest for a fourth title.

At the same time, the Giro was proving to be one of the greatest Grand Tours of all time, with spectacular crashes, thrilling solos, day-to-day lead changes, brutal climbs and all sorts of strategic permutations keeping cycling fans glued to Universal Sports’ live coverage day after day. Yes, there was live daily coverage. The Amgen Tour planners undoubtedly hadn’t counted on that one either.

Nor has the Giro, so far at least, been rocked by doping disqualifications. If there had been a contest at the beginning of May with the question, “A major doping scandal will strike either the Giro d’Italia or the Amgen Tour of California. Pick which one correctly and receive the chance to win an autographed copy of Lance Amstrong’s “It’s Not About the Bike” and Floyd Landis’ “Positively False: The Real Story of How I Won the Tour” — no one would have won.

Instead, the cycling world is buzzing about the Giro being the first “post-doping era” grand tour.

About the only clear advantage Cali offered was better commercials — and the commentaries of vintage cycling sportscasters Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen, the gold standard of the sport (even if Liggett did refer to the brown haze hanging over Los Angeles, without irony, as “fog”). But even those two could only do so much with an entire broadcast showing a single camera focused on a rain-besotted finish line, cutaways to hockey, and a scandal-battered cast of characters at tour’s end.

Trash in the non–drug sense.

By the time yesterday’s final stage rolled around, all the air had been sucked right out of the Amgen Tour of California. Everyone seemed eager to get out of there and go home. It didn’t help that the cycling world was still buzzing about the 15th stage of the Giro earlier in the day, where Cadel Evans and Ivan Basso duked it out on punishing 15-percent grades up Monte Zoncolan.

The Giro took time out today for a rest day before resuming its epic final week of hellacious mountainous flagellation on wheels. If as the Giro concludes the cycling world continues to talk about the 2010 Amgen Tour of California, it will be for all the wrong reasons. For its organizers, 2011 can’t come too soon.

It was that way on Bonny Doon at the Amgen Tour of California today. The riders already had several climbs and 80 or so miles under their belts. To see them pushing the tall gears up a punishing, relentless climb like “Bonny Doom” — as we called it back in the day — was an inspiration to behold.

David Zabriskie (Garmin) won in the final sprint but probably didn’t deserve it. Taking nothing away from his strategy, which obviously worked, the guy didn’t pull his share on the climb up Doon. The cameras made it clear he was dogging it, to the point of even drawing the frustration of Levi Leipheimer (Radio Shack) and Michael Rogers (HTC), his two breakmates. Perhaps the veteran was simply biding his time, knowing whoever had the gas would take the prize at the end. All three of these guys are time trial champions, so they know how to optimize energy.

Lance looked strong but not in Tour shape yet. It’s obvious he isn’t pushing the issue, mainly working to keep teammate Leipheimer’s chances alive.

Apart from that, we’re wondering what happened to our man Andy Schleck. He got dropped on the Bonny Doon climb and that was the last we heard. His name doesn’t even show up in the final GC. He can’t have abandoned? [Update: Turns out Andy had stomach problems and in any case isn't forcing the issue as he aims for Tour de France fitness.]

In any case, it was a great day of racing, marred only by the inexplicable decision of Versus to cut away from the final minutes of the stage to the useless intro of the hockey playoffs. Rude, really rude. See the VeloNews comments queue and Twitter complaints, including one from none other than Lance Armstrong.

Alas, it was wet and sloppy, just like … Italy! Today’s Giro was a spigot slog as well.

Brett Lancaster (Cervélo TestTeam) won the second stage, right before a group of 27 riders that included Lance the King.

The big shakeup should happen tomorrow, with some nasty serial climbs along the spine of the Santa Cruz Mountains. Back in my racing days I would train daily on these routes along narrow, steep and winding two-lane roads with no shoulders, killer views and near non-existent traffic. I loved it. There’s no place on earth like the sky-to-sea climbs and descents of the Santa Cruz Mountains.

But it should test the peloton plenty. We may get an indication for the first time in 2010 of what kind of shape Lance Armstrong really is in.

More from VeloNews, where you can also find a video replay of the stage.