The beauty would be that you could change it up every year and send people through completely different parts of the country. I think you have to cover both the East and West coast as well as the mountains. The ending would be in DC but sets up a West to East route which would be faster (tail wind) but has the advantage of sending your through more mountains earlier. With flights you could cover both cost without to much trouble. You definetly need some midwest stages to make people feel like it is a tour of the US. I would think two really fun mountain time trial idea (note fun to watch not to ride) would be a dawn ride up Cadalic Mountain in Maine as it is the first place to see the sun rise in the US. Another Time trial for the last place to see it rise would be interesting on the West Coast. But the really fun MTT would be up Mount Washington. Probably a pretty unfair advantage to Tyler but still that is a heck fo a climb. Tyler won the race up it in 1997 in a time of 51:56 and it is only 7.6 miles, compared to Lances 39:41 9.6 miles at Alp Duez. I have got to think that is one of the hardest climbs around, but I would think it would be very interesting.