Velogal's Blog

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

From Chip Smith of SOAR Communications:

Lumberton, N.C. and LAS VEGAS - September 26, 2007 - Aqu, Inc. today announced the organization of a ground-breaking international cycling event that will be held in the United States: "The Tour of America." The event will be the largest spectator event in the history of U.S. sports, covering approximately 4,000 miles (more than 6,000 km) from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean, with 27 stages held during 30 days of competition.

The event will invite twenty-five of the most elite cycling teams in the world and will boast a prize purse currently pegged at $11 million, the largest purse of any international cycling event.

Until this venture by Aqu, Inc., 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 a single state. The Tour of America will span approximately 22 states and will cover hundreds of towns and cities along the way.

"This event will be the greatest international cycling event in the world," said Aqu, Inc. President Frank Arokiasamy. "The Tour of America will provide the largest prize pool to international cyclists ever offered in history and will ensure quality competition from beginning to end. We are excited to finally bring one of the world's largest spectator sports to the United States through a major international competition."

Aqu will hold a press conference to provide additional details and answer questions about its planned Tour of America on Thursday, September 27, 2007 at 3 p.m. (PDT) in room #205 of the Sands Convention Center in Las Vegas. The press conference is being held in conjunction with the Interbike International Bicycle Expo, the largest bicycle industry trade show in North America.Additionally, Aqu, Inc. and The Tour of America will exhibit in booth #6572 during Interbike.

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2 Comments:

  • this must be a joke. it's not realistic (or good) to have 260 mile stages day in and day out. this is not a race, it's an endurance event, and a dull and ill-conceived one at that.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, At 8:02 AM  

  • Yeah somebody's clownin' somebody here. I can't believe Velonews and Cyclingnews.com have bit so hard on it. I suppose the organizers could be serious, but even if they are, there's no way any Div 1 teams are going to bite unless the prize money is in some sort of escrow account, and even then, it's ridiculous. They'd need another $11 million for operations on top of the prize money. Whoever wrote the text on the so-called preliminary web site doesn't speak the english too good either, which increases my skepticism. A pretty good prank if it is one though.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, At 11:26 AM  

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