Here’s an editorial in today’s Post-Gazette about the bike race planned for 2008 that we’ve blogged about a couple of times now.
Editorial
Friday, May 18, 2007
For continental flair, the Tour de France may have it all over the Tour de P-A. Except Lance Armstrong never had the privilege of cycling past Washington’s encampment, Chocolate Town or Braddock’s Grave.
The 120 or so cyclists who take part in next year’s Tour of Pennsylvania, a just-announced world-class bicycle race, will whiz by all that and more. The 500-mile contest, sponsored by American Eagle Outfitters and Highmark, will start June 24 in Philadelphia and end five days later in Point State Park. Along the way, competitors vying for a $250,000 purse will hit not only Valley Forge, Hershey and Fort Necessity, but also Lancaster, Harrisburg, Ligonier and Uniontown.
Organizers say the ride could attract 100,000 spectators at the finish line alone, which will make for quite a party Downtown as one of the events marking Pittsburgh’s 250th birthday. Thousands will line the rest of the grueling route, which has been sanctioned by USA Cycling and is expected to draw cyclists who will compete in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing and, yes, even next year’s Tour de France.
But after they’ve cycled the streets of Philly, the banks of the Susquehanna and the peaks of the Alleghenies, how do you impress them with Paris?
NEWSLETTER