Tour of America - Going Down a New Route

During Interbike week, the president of Aqu Inc, Frank Arokiasamy, unveiled his Big Hairy Audacious Goal of creating a Tour de France style bicycle race for America, the appropriately titled, The Tour of America. To say that his idea was met with much skepticism, especially by those on hand at the Interbike press conference, would be an understatement.

But meeting Mr Arokaisamy on that day back in September, it was also easy to see that his resolve to actualize the Tour of America would go undaunted. Since that time, he has taken all the positives and negatives that he has been besieged with and amended his original plan.

From SOAR Communications:
LUMBERTON, N.C. - (Dec. 13, 2007) - Aqu, Inc., organizers of The Tour of America, a multi-stage coast-to-coast professional bicycle road race, today announced revised dates and tentative race route for its September 2008 event.

Based upon feedback from racers, professional racing organizing bodies, the media and enthusiastic supporters of the event, the following changes have been made to The Tour of America:

The race has been shortened to 21 stages
Will now cover approximately 2,200 miles (more than 3,500 km)
Will run from September 6-28, 2008

Additionally, The Tour of America will start in New York's Central Park and finish in Palo Alto, Calif., a city known for its cycling culture. (For the complete schedule)

Frank Arokiasamy, Aqu's president, originally announced details of the event during a press conference at Interbike, the bicycle industry's annual trade show held in Las Vegas. As originally conceived, the race would have covered 4,000 miles (more than 6,000 km) with 27 stages during 30 days of competition.

"During and after our announcement at Interbike, almost daily I received emails and phone calls with positive and negative comments about the race," Arokiasamy said. "The overwhelming response showed there was an interest and a need for a 'Tour de France-style' race here in the United States. Based on the feedback from everyone, we realized our first plans were perhaps too ambitious and that the original race schedule didn't fit within standard racing protocols. To ensure the race would attract the best international racing teams and the support of both cycling enthusiasts and sports fans alike, we've modified the race schedule and route to its current form."

The 2008 Tour of America will be the largest spectator event in the history of U.S. sports, traveling from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. The event will invite 25 of the most elite cycling teams in the world to participate and will boast a prize purse currently pegged at $10 million, the largest purse of any international cycling event (reduced from $11 million, due to the new shortened schedule).

Until this venture by Aqu, all major international cycling races were held outside the U.S. Smaller stage races are currently held across the country and draw respectable spectator crowds and provide significant economic impact to local communities. However, these races are geographically located within single states, while The Tour of America will span approximately 18 states and will travel through hundreds of towns and cities along the way. As such, The Tour of America is expected to attract literally millions of spectators along the 2,200-mile route.

Cities along the race's route include New York City, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, St. Louis, Denver, Las Vegas, Sacramento, Napa, Santa Rosa and Palo Alto, to name a few. Of note to members for the bicycle industry, the Las Vegas event includes a time trial, to be held the evening of September 22, the first day of Interbike's OutDoor Demo.

"Our goal is to make this race happen in September 2008," Arokiasamy added, "There is a lot to accomplish between now and then. With help and cooperation of host cities, racers, bicycle racing enthusiasts and potential sponsors, we can make it happen. The United States needs its own world caliber race and one that will be around for a long time."

For information about The Tour of America race schedule, please visit www.aqusports.com.

Initial Thoughts
Perhaps the biggest issue that still jumps out to me is the direction of the route; traveling from East to West.

In the process of marketing The Tour of America to would-be sponsors it was perhaps a major sticking point. And on paper, with a start in New York closely coinciding with the date (9/11) that has recently defined our country, the issue of directionality looks to be minor. That is until you realize that the riders will be racing into a headwind for 21 days.

Can it be done? Yes. Would it be difficult? Yes. Is a three week tour already difficult without a headwind? Yuppers.

The only reasonable sentiment I could offer on the riders dealing with an extra hardship over a three week tour comes from Russell Crowe’s Maximus Decimus Meridius, “Are you not entertained? Are you not entertained? Is this not why you are here?”