Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 11, 1994 TAG: 9405110020
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Will that future include the Roanoke Valley, which finally made the Tour map in its sixth year? Or was Monday's time trial just a temporary detour to the largest metropolitan area in Western Virginia?
The answer could be how much the valley is willing to pay for a world-class sports event. The Tour looked great - except when cyclists finished their time trial by riding into moving traffic on Williamson Road - but this was a cheap date.
The Tour's return here also might require greater cooperation among valley governments, who displayed in some ways during Monday's 22.9-mile bike ride through three jurisdictions that they can work together. It just took a separate organization to coordinate the cooperation.
Cycle Roanoke Valley Inc. is the non-profit corporation that was formed to bring the Tour here. The group wants to bring the Tour back in 1995, perhaps even expanding Roanoke's role from a one-day time trial with a start or a finish. Medalist Sports, the Richmond-based Tour organizer, liked Monday's show and seems to want to return.
Mac McCadden, the Roanoke City councilman who chairs Cycle Roanoke Valley, said the local organizing committee needed just over $58,000 in sponsorship to stage the time trial. To keep the event, it may take twice that much next year.
That's because unlike many metropolitan Tour stops, the Roanoke Valley group didn't have to pay a host entry fee to Medalist Sports. Some cities pay as much as $50,000 to $60,000 annually - like Lynchburg, which will have a piece of the Tour back in '95 to complete a three-year contract. Blacksburg, the finish of Stage 6 Tuesday, doesn't pay an entry fee.
Medalist wanted the Roanoke Valley and its population base enough to make the deal without the entry fee. There was another exception to the Roanoke Valley's bid, too. This is the only stop run by a corporation, not a local government.
McCadden said the local committee will meet next week and consider a bid to recycle the Tour. As part of this year's race, the Roanoke Valley is on that list, but the competition is growing. Steve Brunner, Medalist's vice president for development, said 45 cities already have expressed interest in the '95 Tour.
Medalist might seek to extend the 12-day event by two or three days, but needs the approval of the sanctioning UCI (Union Cycliste Internationale).
"I don't think there's any doubt Medalist would like to come back," McCadden said. "It's kind of up to us. We might like to have a time trial and a finish. Where a problem might exist is whether we can get enough corporate support for all or any of that. We need it early. I'd say we will try to go after at least another time trial."
When Medalist basically asked the Roanoke group what it wanted in this year's race, McCadden said, "the thing that would make the single greatest ecomomic impact and give us the greatest exposure."
A time trial did that, because the Roanoke Valley had its own Tour day. There was no leaving one locale and pedaling to another 130 miles away. Some spectators, expecting to see pack racing, were disappointed, but the time trial was much more significant to the scope of the race.
"We didn't ask the jurisdictions for one penny, because we wanted this to cost the taxpayer zip," McCadden said. "The governments were great in donating goods and serivces. Whether we can go that way again, I don't know, because some cities are paying a lot. . . . We have a lot of negotiating to do."
McCadden said Cycle Roanoke Valley wants to have its Tour proposal solid by September. That will be necessary. Brunner said that's the month when many of the decisions on following-year sites are made.
In addition to the four states on the '94 Tour, Medalist has inquiries from cities in Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama and Georgia. The '96 desire is to finish in Atlanta a couple of months before the centennial Summer Olympics.
"It appears they did a nice job here," Brunner said. "There are a few things to work on, just minor things. And getting a time trial into the mix on this kind of course was good. There aren't a lot of larger cities than this with this kind of terrain where you can do what we did here.
"And it's not just a course that brings us back to a venue. It's the fans. It's the enthusiasm. We saw that here."
Write to Jack Bogaczyk at the Roanoke Times & World-News, P.O. Box 2491, Roanoke, 24010.
by CNB