Despite rejecting the opportunity to host Olympic Volleyball, Santa Monica could serve as an early waypoint on the 2028 Olympic cycling road race course, with competitors traveling through the city's streets on a roughly 106-mile route that begins at Venice Beach and ends at the Griffith Observatory in Hollywood, according to a leaked course plan revealed by former professional racer Phil Gaimon.
According to a video blog posted this week by Gaimon, the route takes riders from the Venice Beach start through Main Street in Santa Monica before heading north on Pacific Coast Highway into Malibu, where the course climbs Mulholland Highway and features multiple laps up Rockstore, a well-known cycling climb in the Santa Monica Mountains. From there, riders travel east along Mulholland Drive through Calabasas and into the Hollywood Hills before a final ascent to the Griffith Observatory.
The approximately 170-kilometer course includes about 3,300 meters of elevation gain. The Rockstore climb segment is expected to serve as the race's primary selection point, with multiple laps anticipated to whittle down the field before the final push into Hollywood. The course's hilly finale at the Griffith Observatory is expected to favor a punchy all-rounder over a pure climber or sprinter.
Gaimon said he expects the race would pass through Santa Monica in as little as 20 minutes and that while the route he saw didn’t specify if permits had been secured, the impact on the City would be low.
No road closures or additional Olympic negotiations have appeared on Council agendas since the termination of the Volleyball discussions and city officials said they don’t have any information to share pertaining to new discussions related to the bicycle race.
Santa Monica's role in the Games would be limited to a pass-through on the cycling course after the city declined to host Olympic beach volleyball. Negotiations between Santa Monica and LA28 broke down after a financial analysis found that hosting the event would cost the city $15.54 million against $14.09 million in revenue, producing a $1.45 million shortfall. The same analysis found the city stood to net $10.65 million in tourism revenue simply by virtue of the Games coming to the region, without bearing the cost of hosting a venue.
The original beach volleyball plan called for a temporary 12,000-seat stadium north of the Santa Monica Pier. City officials cited concerns about community benefits, operational details and financial guarantees in declining the deal. Beach volleyball ultimately landed at Long Beach's Alamitos Beach.
While Santa Monica stepped back from Olympic hosting duties, the city has moved to capitalize on the broader wave of international sports events heading to the Los Angeles region. The Santa Monica City Council voted 7-0 in a recent meeting to authorize City Manager Oliver Chi to enter exclusive negotiations with five private entities for activations tied to the 2026 FIFA World Cup, the 2027 Super Bowl and the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Approved proposals include a Michelob Ultra fan experience at the Santa Monica Pier during the June 2026 World Cup, a new annual music festival produced by Goldenvoice beginning in fall 2026, an ESPN fan festival and broadcast presence in February 2027 coinciding with the Super Bowl, and two major Olympic activations in summer 2028. Those Olympic events include Club France, the French National Olympic Committee's official hospitality house, at Annenberg Community Beach House, and a proposed Santa Monica Nations Village and international broadcast hub at Crescent Bay Park.
City officials said none of the events will receive public subsidies.