Big Bear is still bullish on Tour of California

Big Bear doesn’t do fancy.

You come to Big Bear to haul the snowboard out of the trunk and jump on the mountain and wear your blue jeans. You come to Big Bear to grab your fat-tired, old-fashioned, three-geared bike to ride around the lake. You come to Big Bear to lace up the dusty hiking boots, pack a sandwich, turn right or left and walk.

The rental cabins might have a loose board or two; the televisions aren’t flat screens. At the Pine Knot Guest Ranch, the proprietor, Gloria, will ask if you want to walk the llamas and give you her home phone number in case there’s anything you need.

And when it turns dark on a May night, there is not another car in the parking lot at the Pine Knot.

This town that boasts 6,000 year-round residents figured it would have as many as 45,000 visitors lining Big Bear Lake on Friday and swarming the parking lot at the Snow Summit ski area, where Stage 6 of the Amgen Tour of California will finish. In fact, Big Bear had so completely embraced this event, the biggest road bike race in the country, that no one doubted it would be ready for its moment in the sun as the race’s first true mountaintop finish.

And then came Thursday.

First, disgraced American cyclist Floyd Landis accused seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong and other top riders — many of them in the Tour of California — of having used performance-enhancing drugs or having been involved in blood doping.

Then Armstrong, after denying the allegations, rode four miles into the 121.5-mile fifth stage, Visalia to Bakersfield, and crashed out of the race after getting tangled with a handful of other cyclists.

Big Bear suddenly found itself with a race that no longer boasted America’s greatest cycling star but also was now engulfed in the same doping issues that has dogged cycling for years.

Rick Shoup, chief executive of the Big Bear Lake Resort Assn., declined to comment on Landis’ allegations but tried to put the best face on a difficult situation.

“On the street, Lance is a rock star — but Lance isn’t even in the top echelon in the cycling community,” he said Thursday. “This is literally something that’s been in the works for a year, and now that it’s happening, frankly, I don’t see any dampening of enthusiasm. The race enthusiasts will come regardless. Lance’s participation isn’t going to make or break a thing.”

Big Bear City Councilman Rick Herrick isn’t so sure.

“It’s making us very nervous because he’s such a draw for the sport,” Herrick said. “We’re having this giant party, we’ve invited the world and I’d like to see the streets filled. Now, I don’t know what to anticipate. I am more apprehensive now than I was before.”

The storefront of Bear Valley Bikes is nearly hidden by a mass of bikes like a scrunched but riderless peloton. Owner Derek Hermon, 41, has the permanent tan of a lifelong outdoorsman and speaks in California dude language, as in, “Dude, yeah, I raced against Lance Armstrong.”

Not having Armstrong in the race, he said, in no way diminishes Stage 6.

“In some ways it makes things even more exciting,” he said. “There’s so much passion in cycling.”

As for the doping issues, Hermon said it’s part of the drama of the sport. “It’s not that much different than what’s happening in baseball or in other sports,” he said.

Mountaintop finishes are part of the lore of international cycling. The Tour de France has the climb to L’Alpe d’Huez outside Grenoble with 21 hairpin turns, where the fans crowd so close they can touch the riders. At the top is a picturesque town filled with unfancy lodges and cabins and outdoor restaurants where dogs are welcomed at the table and beer is the beverage of choice.

But the strains of hosting such a stage can be burdensome, even without 45,000 fans. Big Bear, for example, has to provide 450 room nights to team members and officials plus enough meals to feed the 128 cyclists (who eat about 10,000 calories a day). So far, the city has spent $170,000 to be a part of this pageant. Signs hang from light poles and trees: “Palmdale to Big Bear, 2010.” The ones reading “Pasadena to Big Bear” came down weeks ago, after L.A.’s winter rains washed out part of the original route.

The exposure such a race can bring to a town is why the town embraced the Tour of California. Big Bear has become not only an outdoor sports destination, but it also is seen as a premiere at-altitude training center. UFC fighters and mountain bike stars come here. Olympic marathoner Ryan Hall calls Big Bear home because the mountain roads are ideal for his workouts. And boxers Shane Mosley and Oscar De La Hoya, among others, have found the solitude of Big Bear perfect when preparing for a fight.

Larry Longo, 51, a mountain cyclist and veteran announcer, scoped out all 135.3 miles of Stage 6, from Palmdale City Hall, up to Angeles Forest Highway, along Angeles Crest Highway and switchback-laden Highway 138 and Highway 18. And he has heard the allegations made by Landis, who served a two-year suspension after testing positive in 2006 and, despite years of denials, has now admitted the test was no lie.

“He’s throwing darts as far as I’m concerned,” Longo said. “How does somebody who’s maintained his innocence lying through his teeth have any credibility?”

diane.pucin@latimes.com

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melissa.rohlin@latimes.com