The latest iteration of the 'USA Pro Cycling Challenge' is 'USA Pro Challenge.' How 'bout 'Vuelta Colorado'? Above, Bissell riders warmed up in Garden of the Gods last year. (Robertson/Velodramatic)
An uphill finish for USA Pro? Also, Gila is a monster for ID’ing new talent.
By Joe Lindsey
Last year the USA Pro Challenge* skipped Boulder entirely, which surprised many people who assumed that a city so closely associated with cycling would be a shoo-in for a host city slot.
Lots of factors played a role yet, ultimately, what sealed it wasn’t the race organizers but the city and local organizers, who elected not to submit a bid. For 2012 that changed, and not only did Boulder get a stage finish but it might be one of the most memorable events in competitive cycling in the U.S. in decades.
If it happens.
The route has been released, the planning is well under way, but Boulder’s City Council—which never met a problem it couldn’t magnify—is concerned about how the event conflicts with a long-running ordinance that bars competitive events from city-owned open space.
The finish occurs on Flagstaff Mountain at the summit amphitheater. Once racers turn off the main Flagstaff Mountain road to the amphitheater road, they’re on city-owned open space.
That fact prompted a discussion Wednesday night about how to flex or waive the rules to let the race go forward—which is the sort of thing you might think they’d have sorted out before releasing the route info. From the Boulder Daily Camera’s story:
The questions raised by the race led to an uncomfortable exchange between Councilwoman Suzanne Jones and (City Attorney Tom) Carr on Tuesday.
“Do you think that we’ll get to a place where we’re like, ‘Oops, we can’t do this?’” Jones asked.
“I hope not,” Carr said.
“I hope not, too,” Jones said after a pause.
“I don’t think anyone has identified anything that would prohibit the race,” Carr said.
The concern appears to be that if an exception is granted, it will open the floodgates to other requests and possibly challenges to the rule. No one appears to be advocating a route change, but with Boulder—notorious for making gigantic scenes out of even everyday issues—I don’t take anything for granted. Stay tuned.
*NB: In the ever-fluid game of What’s he Race Called? the latest iteration is USA Pro Challenge, having dropped “cycling” from the name. It’s still unwieldy, and I hereby propose a permanent name change to Vuelta Colorado, in a nod to the state’s history.
Pro Cycling and American Sports
NFL's Tim Tebow. (Photo by Jeffrey Beall)
Much discussion this week about Daniel Benson’s story on Cyclingnews that RCS, promoter of the Giro d’Italia, Tour of Lombardy, and other events, may be near a deal to share revenue from TV rights with teams.
One thing that perennially pops up in these discussions is whether, and to what extent, pro cycling should follow the “American” pro sports model of leagues like the NFL and MLB.
In Gregor Brown’s otherwise excellent analysis of the situation on VeloNews, he makes one crucial error—the assumption that the NFL of today is the same as the NFL conceived by owners decades ago.
In buttressing riders’ union president Gianni Bugno’s contention that cycling needs to be treated differently because it’s, well, cycling, Brown writes: “Leagues like the NFL and NBA operate through collective bargaining agreements between the team owners and players.”
But the NFL Players’ Association, the union, didn’t form until 1943, fully two decades after the league’s founding. The first collective bargaining agreement didn’t come into being until 1968.
I’ll write more about this later, but there’s an undertone of defeatism about reform in the comments from many people in the sport, that somehow the American model can’t work because cycling’s too old, too traditional, too established to change. Don’t think it can be done? Ask Marvin Miller.
Gila’s a Monster
Andrew Talanksy at Romandie last week. (Photo courtesy of Garmin-Barracuda)
Yes, all eyes are on the Giro d’Italia start this weekend. But spare some attention for the SRAM Tour of the Gila, one of America’s hardest, and most underrated, stage races.
Gila is in its 26th year, saved from extinction several years back by title sponsor SRAM. Gila’s strength—its remote, rugged terrain—is also its weakness, as it happens in one of the least populated areas of the country. If you hold a great race and no one’s there to see it, did it happen?
But Gila deserves attention by race fans, in part because it’s an excellent predictor of new talent. Garmin boss Jonathan Vaughters, among others, uses it as a place to size up and identify possible new signees.
In 2010, he liked the talents of a young all-arounder on the small Cal Giant Strawberries-Specialized team and signed him to a neo-pro contract. Last week that rider—Andrew Talansky—missed a stage win at the WorldTour-rated Tour of Romandie by .7 seconds, and finished second overall to winner Brad Wiggins.
This year, keep an eye on Bissell rider Eric Young, winner of Stage 2, and Bontrager-Livestrong’s Joe Dombrowski, among others.
Tags: Andrew Talansky, Boulder, bureaucracy, Business, CPA, Flagstaff, Garmin-Barracuda, Gianni Bugno, Giro d'Italia, harrumph, Jonathan Vaughters, revenue sharing, SRAM Tour of the Gila, TV rights, union, USA Pro Challenge, USA Pro Cycling Challenge, Vuelta Colorado
The Tour of the Gila is quietly becoming America’s own Tour de l’Avenir.
By Joe Lindsey
If you want a look at where the next great bike racers will emerge, you could do worse than to head to tiny Silver City.
The town in the mountains of southwest New Mexico is near precisely nothing but is the home of the long-running Tour of the Gila stage race. All but given up for dead in 2009 before SRAM stepped in as title sponsor and essentially saved the race (an appearance by a certain Lance Armstrong didn’t hurt either), the Gila has since been revived—somewhat.
The five-stage race is known for its hilly terrain, and the length of the stages, the climbing, and the time trial all conspire to make it one of the more convincing tests on the US national calendar. As such, it’s a great place to identify up-and-coming talent, particularly when measured against current top US pros.
(Side note: Gila is also one of the best U.S. stage races for women; women race five stages just like the men, and the women’s prize list—at over $15,000 last year—is closer to the men’s prize than most other races. This year, multiple summer and winter Olympic medalist Clara Hughes won in her bid to return to pro cycling and qualify for the London Olympics.)
An effort to get UCI inscription in 2011 failed when sponsor money didn’t materialize, meaning that, under UCI rules, ProTeam and Pro Continental teams can’t race.
They can field up to three riders each, racing for composite teams, which in years past meant the somewhat comical scene of Johan Bruyneel directing Lance Armstrong from a Mellow Johnny’s team car, and Dave Zabriskie riding in a DZ Nutz jersey.
For whatever reason, neither RadioShack nor Garmin elected to send riders this year, and Pro Continental teams like Unitedhealthcare-Maxxis also stayed away. So the competition took a step down.
But Gila is still a fertile development testing ground. Last year, Gila is where Andrew Talansky, riding for small regional team Cal Giant-Specialized, hit the radar for a number of pro teams, eventually finishing sixth overall. This year, he’s a neo-pro for Garmin-Cervelo with top-10 finishes at the Tour of the Mediterranean and the Tour of Romandie.
Trek-Livestrong’s young Kiwi, Jesse Sergent, took the time trial over arguably a deeper field than you see at the national championships and won the Driedaagse van West-Vlaanderen with RadioShack this year.
And, of course, Sergent’s teammate, Taylor Phinney, took the criterium win and is racing as a first-year pro now for BMC.
Again, the competition this year is a step down – no Levi Leipheimer, no Zabriskie, and so on. But the kids again acquitted themselves quite well.
The Chipotle-SugarLabs developmental team (Garmin’s feeder squad) saw Lachlan Morton and Alex Howes finish 3-4 overall. Morton might even have won the final Gila Monster stage had he and his team not made a small tactical error and let race leader Francisco Mancebo (Realcyclist.com) get away early on the final climb.
Trek-Livestrong’s highest-profile rider, Lawson Craddock, didn’t race Gila. And the team’s riders did excel, with Dale Parker taking the TT, Joe Lewis the crit and Parker and George Bennett top 10 overall, plus the teams and points classifications.
Perhaps the rider to watch most closely is Morton, of the Chipotle team. In 2010 he won the Tour de l’Abitibi, considered a top juniors race, with a dominant performance.
And he was seventh overall at the hilly Tour of Utah against top competition like Leipheimer. The kicker? Because he hadn’t yet turned 18, he accomplished the result using a junior-restricted drivetrain with a top gear of 52×14.
In addition to his third place at the Gila, so far this year he’s also been top 10 at the Tour of Malaysia.
One twist: With the exception of Howes, none of these riders is American. Bennett is a New Zealander, Parker, Lewis and Morton are all Aussies. Morton was not only off the public’s radar last season but apparently his own national team’s as well.
Maybe because he’s lived in the U.S. for a few years, he was overlooked for a spot on the Australian national team for Worlds. Here’s one guess that they know who he is now.
Tags: Alex Howes, Chipotle-Sugarlabs, Dale Parker, Development, George Bennett, Joe Lewis, Lachlan Morton, Pro Racing, SRAM Tour of the Gila, Tour of the Gila, Trek-Livestrong, U23