Tour of California...should it go ProTour?



SEAcarlessTTLE

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Nov 29, 2005
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In short, going ProTour would leave a lot less room for U.S. domestic teams to join the fun. I was really excited to see the gutsy effort and rising talent in teams like Slipstream, as well as Toyota United. I think the mix of ProTour and domestic teams this year was great for the fans and for U.S. cycling. If other fans are like me, they love seeing the big names (Basso, Voigt, Bettini) and rooting on the next generation of American cyclists in the same race. I imagine the domestic riders like the chance to get a feel for the European peloton without the expense and additional obstacles of racing overseas (e.g., language and culture).

Oh, and to appeal to authority, :) Phil Liggett says no:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/25/sports/othersports/25cycling.html

Your thoughts? Is going ProTour a net gain? Am I kidding myself? Is AEG going to go ahead and keep pushing this race toward higher status anyway?

In any case, man, what a great race this year! I had the good fortune of being in Long Beach to catch the last stage. (I'm not so big a fan (yet) that I will travel more than across town just to see a race.) I hope this is a sign of things to come...of U.S. interest in cycling in the post-Lance, post-Puerto era. (I won't say "post-Floyd" yet, but the damage is arguably done!)
 
SEAcarlessTTLE said:
In short, going ProTour would leave a lot less room for U.S. domestic teams to join the fun. I was really excited to see the gutsy effort and rising talent in teams like Slipstream, as well as Toyota United. I think the mix of ProTour and domestic teams this year was great for the fans and for U.S. cycling. If other fans are like me, they love seeing the big names (Basso, Voigt, Bettini) and rooting on the next generation of American cyclists in the same race. I imagine the domestic riders like the chance to get a feel for the European peloton without the expense and additional obstacles of racing overseas (e.g., language and culture).

Oh, and to appeal to authority, :) Phil Liggett says no:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/25/sports/othersports/25cycling.html

Your thoughts? Is going ProTour a net gain? Am I kidding myself? Is AEG going to go ahead and keep pushing this race toward higher status anyway?

In any case, man, what a great race this year! I had the good fortune of being in Long Beach to catch the last stage. (I'm not so big a fan (yet) that I will travel more than across town just to see a race.) I hope this is a sign of things to come...of U.S. interest in cycling in the post-Lance, post-Puerto era. (I won't say "post-Floyd" yet, but the damage is arguably done!)
I like it just the way it is. I like the mix of PT and Domestic teams. I think AEG will push greater exposure and status.

I hope Discovery will be sponsored by another U.S. group. I think it is important that we have U.S. based and sponsored pro tour team.
 
SEAcarlessTTLE said:
In short, going ProTour would leave a lot less room for U.S. domestic teams to join the fun. I was really excited to see the gutsy effort and rising talent in teams like Slipstream, as well as Toyota United. I think the mix of ProTour and domestic teams this year was great for the fans and for U.S. cycling. If other fans are like me, they love seeing the big names (Basso, Voigt, Bettini) and rooting on the next generation of American cyclists in the same race. I imagine the domestic riders like the chance to get a feel for the European peloton without the expense and additional obstacles of racing overseas (e.g., language and culture).

Oh, and to appeal to authority, :) Phil Liggett says no:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/25/sports/othersports/25cycling.html

Your thoughts? Is going ProTour a net gain? Am I kidding myself? Is AEG going to go ahead and keep pushing this race toward higher status anyway?

In any case, man, what a great race this year! I had the good fortune of being in Long Beach to catch the last stage. (I'm not so big a fan (yet) that I will travel more than across town just to see a race.) I hope this is a sign of things to come...of U.S. interest in cycling in the post-Lance, post-Puerto era. (I won't say "post-Floyd" yet, but the damage is arguably done!)
I think if you look at a stage like this:

http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-states/ca/stockton/255674951

You have to agree that it could be a protour stage and certainly the caliber of riders at the race is getting better. The US must invest in these big races to begin building a base of great races...not good but great.
 
Its fine the way it is. For it to be a protour race you would have to get all the protour teams interested in actually wanting to win the race. Most just go to get base miles in the legs. The travel is also a major concern...the protour is probably going to have to stay european for the short term future. Would be hard to force a team like euskaltel with no interest at all in the TOC to rock up in the cold weather and pretend to actually care about what is happening up the road!

Its the same with the tour down under in australia (love the race and brings classy riders to australia) they come to australia for sunny weather, beaches, training, base miles not to bury themselves.

Its good to have a mix of dedicated pro-tour teams eg. Disco at T.O.C or ag2r at T.D.U and local teams eg Slipstream at T.O.C and Drapac-Porsche at T.D.U.
 
Old School 7 said:
I think if you look at a stage like this:

http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-states/ca/stockton/255674951

You have to agree that it could be a protour stage and certainly the caliber of riders at the race is getting better. The US must invest in these big races to begin building a base of great races...not good but great.

Its not fair to Div II, III teams. The ProTour is not all about ability, but connections and $$ as well. Look at Tinkoff Credit Systems. They have all the ability buy no ProTour License. What do you say to a team like Toyota United who have riders capable of winning stages, but may be excluded? In the Tour of Georga this year, Jelly Belly and Symmetrics were both excluded so the U23 USA dev. Team could be fit in. Swain Tuft of Symettrics won a NBC telivised classic shortly prior to this. Jelly Belly has had riders finish in the top 12 on GC. They ride to win. Some of these other teams ride to train or DNF.

As far as "ProTour like stages" Most of the NRC calender races are of similar profile. Even the nature Valley mankato stage in Minnesota is long. 100+ miles. So your saying a bunch of cat. 2's could be ProTour riders?
 

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