Oh that's right... it's not sanctioned and it never will be. Maybe a suspended Floyd Landis or Alexandre Vinokourov will win the inaugural edition. Because they should be able to beat the no names who will be the only ones able to race.

10km Prologue? No... 2.6.006 A prologue may be included in stage races on condition that:
1. it must not exceed 8 km;

80km ITTs? Maybe... Max UCI distance in a stage race is 80km

100km TTT? No... Max UCI distance in a stage race is 80km

320 - 400km Road stages? No... maximum per stage is 260km and maximum daily average is 180km. A waiver can be granted for two stages to exceed 260km in a Tour greater than 10 days in length, but the average has to stay below 180km.

(All distances from UCI reg 2.6.008).

The problems get greater... 2.6.011 The maximum length of major tours is 3500 km (major tours cannot exceed 23 days - 2.6.007) In addition on major tours, stage distances shall not exceed 225 km, except that no more than two stages may exceed 225 km.

And for any new event of status HC, 1 or 2... the maximum duration is 5 days.

The guy's race is so flawed it is doomed to failure. You'd think he would have at least looked at a rule book before going public with his plan.

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Nice bike... you ever take it off any sweet jumps?

There was an article on cyclingnews on the man behind the project and everybody noticed that he wasn't fully aware of what he's talking about.
I mean...he knows cycling ride a bike, thats all.

Yes someone asked about UCI sanctioning and his response pretty much gave it away that he was clueless. If this race happens I hope the guy isn't steering it.

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This board and the world in general would be a much nicer place if everyone could just take themselves a little less seriously.

I emailed the tour director a few days ago with a link to this thread and another on on a different forum. He just got back to me saying due to the responses they were getting they are working on paring down the mileages and number of stages more typical of a normal grand tour. Whether it happens, who knows, but there is a lot of prize money available and most of the prominent teams have enough riders to participate in two tours at the same time. As an American I would like to see them pull it off. Successfully that is.

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"Really fast people are frustrating, but they make you faster. When you get faster, you might frustrate someone else."

2009 Trek Madone 5.5 Project One SRAM Force 16.4 lbs w/pedals and cages.
2007 Bianchi 928 Carbon Lugged- SRAM Rival-17 lbs.

Well he may be living with his head in the sand as far as racing goes but the one thing he's got over a lot of other promoters is he'll actually e-mail you back!

Actually I separately emailed three people over there and two of them responded which I think is pretty good.

I think their best shot might to forget about next year and plan for 2009. There is so much they have to coordinate with the cities and towns like getting permission for streets to be closed, law enforcement and coordination from city to city. With a new plan I don't think how they can accomplish that in so short a time. Most teams have their schedules set for the season by the end of the year or the beginning of the next.

What they have going for them is a lot of prize money. Each stage winner gets $100,000 and decent amounts for the next places. So a team can send over a sprinter for the flat stages and maybe hope to come back with a half a million. Same for a climber. Since most teams carry 30 riders they can send over a couple of top riders and the rest support and still do the Vulta.

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"Really fast people are frustrating, but they make you faster. When you get faster, you might frustrate someone else."

2009 Trek Madone 5.5 Project One SRAM Force 16.4 lbs w/pedals and cages.
2007 Bianchi 928 Carbon Lugged- SRAM Rival-17 lbs.

What's the payout for a stage win in the TdF?

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This board and the world in general would be a much nicer place if everyone could just take themselves a little less seriously.

Apparently, they got the feedback:
http://www.velonews.com/race/dom/articles/13790.0.html

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"I can't understand why people are frightened by new ideas. I'm frightened of old ones." -- John Cage

http://weightweenies.starbike.com/phpBB ... 928#126928