World-class women cyclists are headed to Idaho for a five-day stage race that could help determine competitors in the 2012 London Olympics — a decade after a previous tour for elite female riders in the state died for lack of money.
The Exergy Tour on Monday announced its May 24-28 Memorial Day weekend schedule:
A short prologue in Boise, a stage in Nampa on the undulating plain above the Snake River, an individual time trial in Kuna, a 60-mile ride over a 6,100-foot mountain pass between Crouch/Garden Valley and Idaho City and a circuit race featuring high-speed laps in Boise on Memorial Day.
Jeff Corbett, the race’s technical director from Atlanta-based Medalist Sports, the same promoter that runs the Amgen Tour of California, said he’s still finalizing exact routes.
“We tried to pick something that wasn’t a total death march, but obviously didn’t have five days of sprint finishes,” Corbett said. “We wanted something that was going to come down to the last day.”
Along with competitive balance, Corbett said organizers are looking at the feasibility of closing the course from a traffic management standpoint, accessibility for spectators and to showcase Idaho.
“We try and work iconic scenery and iconic landmarks into the course,” he said.
Corbett said the race is already sanctioned by the International Cycling Union, the sport’s governing body.
Mayors of the five host cities — Boise, Nampa, Kuna, Crouch and Idaho City — appeared at a press conference Monday with Idaho first lady Lori Otter to announce their participation, including in efforts to organize 1,500 volunteers.
“It’s a unique experience to have world-class athletes coming to our city. We’re excited and we welcome them to the high desert part of the tour,” Kuna Mayor Greg Nelson said.
The race will likely lure top U.S. riders such as 2008 Olympic champion and Boise resident Kristin Armstrong and former world champion Amber Neben, two rivals for a spot on the U.S. time trial team in London, as well as racers from 10 to 15 international teams eager to win points to decide who will compete for their respective countries in the Olympics.
Armstrong will race on her home turf, in front of friendly crowds on familiar courses. The race’s sponsor, Boise-based renewable energy company Exergy Development Group, also sponsors Armstrong’s cycling team. Her team has been invited to the event.
“The final details haven’t been divulged to me,” Armstrong told The Associated Press on Monday, in an interview while she was driving back to Idaho from a monthlong winter training camp in Southern California.
“I’m not sure of every course, and the exact turns, but I can guarantee you that I’ve trained on most of the roads.”
Heather Hill, a tour spokeswoman, said Exergy is optimistic the race will stretch beyond this year, perhaps expanding to seven or eight stages in 2013. She said the prize money, which hasn’t been announced, will be comparable to what professional men would earn during a five-day U.S. stage race.
For 19 years, Idaho hosted the Women’s Challenge, the world’s top women’s cycling event at the time, until its sponsor, Hewlett-Packard, exited in 2003. At the height of that race in the 1990s, it offered $125,000 in prize money, making it, for a time, the most lucrative of any U.S. cycling events, for men or women.
