At the end of January, Rapha sent a team of six riders to ride all eight stages of the 2009 Amgen Tour of California. Riding each stage on consecutive days and matching, as closely as possible, the route the pros will start riding tomorrow, every morning for the next week you can find out how they got on.

With an exclusive report posted before each stage begins, and accompanied by compelling photography and video, the Rapha Continental brings you the Tour of California from a unique perspective. For a (slightly) slower but more colourful examination of the places and people that make up this year's Tour route, visit: rapha.cc/continental/index.php?page=694