LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) – The Amgen Tour of California will take a new approach as it will start south and take cyclists northward up to Santa Rosa in 2013, for the first time  of the race’s history.

The 750-mile race will start in Escondido in San Diego County on May 12 and take the riders up the coast with stops at Santa Barbara, San Jose, and San Francisco before ending in Santa Rosa on May 19.

The Tour’s executive director Kristin Bachochin and other race officials are excited to take the race up the California coast.

Last year, Robert Gesink won the Tour of California in 2012, where is started in Santa Rosa and finished in Los Angeles in Nokia Center.