The event's move to later in the year has made it so the route was different from previous editions of the race, and also provided for a different makeup of ridership, as it conflicted with the 2010 Giro d'Italia.

This eliminated Solvang, which had hosted an individual time trial in each of the last three editions of the race, from the route, along with other past cities.

Andrew Messick, president of Anschutz Entertainment Group (the organizers of the race), has said that the route for the 2010 Tour will be more difficult than it was in 2009, and that the May time position also moves them from cycling's "pre-season" and gives a better chance to showcase the race, as it now takes place at a time when more riders should be at or near peak form.

[6] Race officials also hoped to make the event a preparatory one for the Tour de France.

The course consisted of a lot of descending, starting at 2,500 feet (760 m) and ending near sea level with three laps of a circuit in Sacramento, and a mass sprint finish the expectation.

The riders in the break were Maarten Tjallingii, Marc de Maar, Paul Mach, and Chad Beyer.

A chase group, with a rider each from Jelly Belly–Kenda, Team Type 1, and Fly V Australia was between the leaders and the peloton for several miles of racing, but were unable to make the bridge.

A notable diversion from that course, however, occurred around 20 miles (32 km) from the finish line in Santa Rosa, with the climb of Trinity Road.

An early breakaway including Karl Menzies (UnitedHealthcare–Maxxis) and Thomas Rabou (Team Type 1) was caught.

A group of twenty riders made a dash for the finish, with the win and the leader's jersey going to Brett Lancaster.

At Bonny Doon, Levi Leipheimer, David Zabriskie, and Michael Rogers charged ahead.

At the 6 miles (9.7 km) mark, the peloton faced a difficult, technical climb up Sierra Road, but after descending it there were no further difficulties in the route.

A mass sprint finish was expected, with the potential for high winds, common in the San Joaquin Valley, to make it so general classification contenders have to work hard to stay with the leading group.

[6] This stage was originally scheduled to begin at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena,[18] but the roads on which the course would have traveled were damaged by heavy snowfall at high elevations in 2010, making them unsafe to use.

From there, the race headed south along the Angeles Forest Highway before cutting across the Upper Big Tujunga Canyon to travel on the undamaged part of the course as previously designed.

For the general classification, calculated by adding the finishing times of the stages per cyclist, the leader received a yellow jersey.

The rider who received this award as given a blue jersey on the podium, and wore a red bib number in the next stage.