Originally Posted by
rdtindsm
It did cause counties to consider banning touring events.
Funny how cultures differ. In France, they'd repave the roads by hand, at night and on weekends, to get a Tour stage to start or end in their town. Hell, they even sacrifice their daughters as podium girls (I heard they have to keep the kids sentenced to the KoM dresses under guard before the presentations).
And I don't keep up on details of liability sharing between local and state authorities and the Tour of California organizers, but I wouldn't want to try to get re-elected to a county board of supervisors around here after voting to send it away.
RAGBRAI isn't either Tour, but it's an old and venerable Iowa tradition now. And I would think everyone along the route makes money. Who doesn't like RAGBRAI?