Tour of America?
 

How does a 27-stage, 4000 mile, pro bike race from New York City to San Francisco with an $11 million prize list sound? I hope this is for real: http://www.velonews.com/race/dom/articles/13387.0.html
Further details are supposed to be announced tomorrow at Interbike.

I hope it's not.

There's already another thread about this, btw.

Fredelicious.

Seems like it goes everywhere, itd be fun to go watch

Stupid, its a great Idea to do a tour of America, I'm stoked, but a 250+ mile race is just stupid, no one will want to race it. it would take 10 hours.

And it's just plain too long.

The established Major Tours have shortened stage length and limited the number of stages, in large part due to doping issues. So this tour makes them longer and has more of them.

The site yuo can eventually link to has inconsistencies. It looks like stage 5 is a TTT, yet the notes at the bottom say stage 11 is a TTT.

Look at their jerseys! They have their own 'unique' jersey leader on placing. It is determined by adding the place on each stage for each rider, lowest wins. This scheme was used in the past in the TDF. For the G.C. for sure and I think also for the sprinters at one point. There is a reason why it was discarded. That they would re-create it shows their total lack of cycling knowledge.


Yea right. I would not touch this with a 10 foot pole if I were the D.S. of a major team. I might if I were the D.S. of a not so major team, but only if the prize money were deposited in an escrow account with a major accounting firm.

it would be cool but the term 'pie in the sky' comes to mind.

80 mile time trials, one of them an ITT mountain stage? WTF?!

exactly.

Thats sounds retaaahded..


On top of that no stages in CO and a 400 km stage.. ? WTF?

I would love to see it. But as it is set up it will never happen. The prize money will attract riders and teams the distances will drive them away. I think I counted 14 stages over 200 miles. 4000 miles is not going to happen. They should keep it to the usual grand tour distances and days. There is nothing special about riding across the country. So the riders should get on the planes or trains and the trucks can drive a few hundred miles to the next stop to limit the days and distances. As proposed it ain't gonna happen although I would like to see it.

I'm trying to figure out what kind of pro riders would want to do this. I can see some of the lower paid domestic pros being interested, but there would be no reason for the top tier protour riders to do this.

Still, I'd definitely come out and watch the finish in SF.

The prize list gives them 11,000,000 reasons to enter. Even at todays exchange rates, that's a nice amount of money.

I'll bet the ACA said f-no!

1. This is supposed to occur in September. This runs concurrent with the Vuelta which already has a more difficult time attracting the very best GC riders since it's at the end of a very long season. It also bumps into the World Championships.

2. It is proposed to run east to west. This means that a. they will ride into a headwind most every day and b. will ride into the sun every day. Right. Sure.

3. There are multiple stages that are well over 200-250 miles. No way that works. I especially like the Chattanooga to Asheville beauty.

Has to be a joke.

geesh 4700 miles in a month! That is more than I will probably do for all of 2007!

This has got to be a joke. Why would anyone who has any knowledge of the sport make a race that long?

Or, could it be a ploy to include as many states as possible? That would give them the biggest batch of sponsors to hit up.

Part of me wonders...

If the TdF is falling apart at the seams, then could this be a cockeyed attempt to upstage it? I'm all for it. It can't hurt cycling fans. Much.

Good luck staffing that event.

That stage probably has like 24000' of climbing too. :rolleyes:

It takes 'em 27 days to do what RAAM does in 9 or 10? Wussy. ;)

BF members will be required to volunteer for marshaling duties. No exceptions. botto, this means YOU.

Like they're ever going to get anybody to do multiple 200 mile stages. Has to be a goof.

Marshaling?
Or is it Hands Across America all over again?

no colorado stages would really kill it for me. ah the good ole days of the coors classic. the morgal bismark.

How about the morgul bismark stage? Same thing, but with Orcs pursuing you. Wait, that's like riding with Cypress.

Never mind.