Bicycle Racing – An American Growth Industry
Who needs the French?
Big time bicycle racing is taking root here in the United States. The Tour of California is raising its profile and this year saw the start of the new Tour of Missouri. Our own JT Fisher was on the scene covering the race for Sportswriter.net and Bicycle.Net.
The big question has to be, was it successful? We have a brand new US stage race, rated 2.1 nevertheless, which boils down to it being a serious enough race that top teams can and will participate — and we’ve just concluded the first running.
Of course, success can have a lot of meanings, depending who’s answering: riders, team managers, tour officials, sponsors, the state, the towns involved, and so on. So let’s look at a possible scorecard and see what the Crazy 8 Ball says about the first running of the bulls through the Gateway state.
In terms of scheduling, the ToM proved attractive based on the quality of teams who participated and the squads they sent. Remember, there were some big races such as the Tour of Spain [Wiki] competing for the same tours and riders. Also, mid-September gives the best chance of favorable weather, and we nailed it this year with very pleasant conditions for riders, spectators, volunteers, and vendors alike. Score the schedule and the weather a perfect 10.
As to the course, short of transplanting a whole lotta dirt or perhaps experiencing a long threatened seismic episode out of our sleeping giant New Madrid Fault…
Make sure to see JT Fisher gets a private ride alongside leading Tour de France winner Alberto Contador and gets to say: “Man, slow up a bit, you’re dropping Contador!”
Read more at our sister publication Bicycle.Net
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