Velochimp: Astrochimp on Cycling

The Tour of America was rumored and announced within the last week. The Interbike Trade Show in Las Vegas was the coming out party for a new bike race that will crush all others. Maybe if there is one thing to learn from the Iraq War is that you don’t “fight with the Army you have”, plus you must make plans. With a super ambitious route with unholy distances and a cycling novice at the helm the cycling press was ready to pounce with questions that to any cycling afficiando would come naturally. Needless to say the skepticism on the minds of many was high and righfully so. Here is a race that is bigger and longer in everyway possible. Sure it is ambitious, but we can do it says the Race Director Dr. Frank Arokiasamy

“I am just a very optimistic guy, and I’ve done things in the corporate world… setting up whole distribution networks for all over the world… I’ve never done event management. I know what I can do, and I know what I can’t — and I don’t try to do the things I can’t.”

Optimism will carry you a long way, but it won’t put money in the bank and won’t get every municipality to pony up rights and cash for things like porta potties and police and other stuff.

“We hope to have a final route by mid-March with all the cities signed-up,” said Arokiasamy. “We are in negotiations with several cities and will be doing so in phases because we cannot talk to all 500 at one time. We are going to start with the major cities and then connect the dots as we go.”

So they still have to talk to the cities, they still have to announce some or any sponsors, the route is open to changes especially since anyone who ever heard the words Tour de France in one sentence thought that the stages were too long. Not to mention the fact that this race is planned during the busiest concurrent racing month on the calendar. Earlier in September the Tour of Missouri, Tour of Great Britain and the Tour of Poland were happening at the same time, not to mention the Vuelta and the Worlds would be happening too. Maybe the press conference happened way too early?

With the lion’s share of the race still floating in theoretical limbo, the question of why the group decided to announce now was asked. “I had spoken to another PR firm and they strongly suggested that I do not announce this yet,” Arokiasamy responded. “We talked about it and decided it was time to announce it preliminary. It would be really nice to have the mayor of New York and the mayor of San Francisco on each side and the CEOs of several major companies backing. It would be irresponsible of us to come to you in March and say we have this huge event in September.”

So Race Director Dr. Frank Arokiasamy maybe jumped the gun with the announcement. The point is there is lots of skepticism compared to actual excitement. When the Tour of California/Georgia/Missouri were announced they had many of the details settled and came off as successful races. They did not have grandiose expectations but they worked within the parameters of cycling to provide to notch events that fit into top racer’s schedules. The Tour of America seems like an idea conjured up from Dick Cheney’s super secret conservative think tank meeting. Its grandiose plan with huge ambitions to change the world of cycling. The details are not fully thought through but each city will surely greet us with flowers and racers will flock. Just don’t ask too many questions. So to cycling fans out there prepare to greet the Tour of America as liberators.

cyclingnews coverage of the press conference