Tour of America Press Conference Transcript

 

It was reported last week that there would be a new bike race with a $30 million budget that would go from New York to San Francisco.  It seemed ambitious, but it made alot of people curious.  Could there really be a top notch pro-tour stage race in the United States?  Could it be the fourth Grand Tour?  It seemed too good to be true, so I stopped by to talk to the group that was putting on the race.  Guess what I found out…..they didn’t seem very organized.  The information that they gave me seemed crazy.  The race is scheduled to be 27 stages (way too long).  They also have it scheduled during two other major races and the World Championships.  On top of all that it runs into October which is past the normal end of cycling season.  With these kinds of problems, I had a hard time believing that they were serious.  To find out if they were serious or not, I attended their press conference at Interbike. 

Tour of America Press Conference
September 27, 2007
3:00 PM PDT

Q &A Transcript

Frank (Race Organizer): Hi I am Frank, and I think I have met most of you out there today.  I am going to make a brief comment, and as these guys know (pointing to other Tour of America Staff), that is not an easy thing for me, but I am going to try my best.  I am going to start with a poem from Robert Frost.  It is a very profound, wonderful poem, and I am just going to, rather than read the whole thing because we have 10 minutes, I am going to read the last verse of the poem.  “somewhere ages and and ages hence, two roads diverged in the woods and I, I took the one less traveled by.  And that made all the difference. ”

We believe what we are trying to do is a dream….A dream that actually will  take us on a path less traveled…..we want really for you guys to take this as your hope.  We are going to lead this, but we need for you to  push us and go with us.  This project is huge, and as much as I say that, I cannot really overstate the enormity of the project.  It humbles us to be working with something so enormous.  But, we believe it is time for this to happen.  We believe that America is ready for it. 

Q: I think the obvious first question is $30 million budget and an $11 million prize money…where are you going to come up with $30 million?

A: Just like any sporting event in the U.S., alot of that is going to come from corporate sponsors.  We have been talking to several people, and the list is expanding every day, but they are the ones that are going to come up with the funding for this.  And the plan is to get them on board….we are pleasantly encouraged with the response that we have gotten with almost everyone that we have spoken with, but I still haven’t had anyone that I have talked to come up and say that “nah this is not for me” because they are really intrigued by what we are trying to do.

Q: It seems like looking over the list of stages and events, this is extremely long compared to UCI standards and the Tour de France, are you concerned that there is going to be a rider backlash saying that it is too long?

A: Yes, we will be making adjustments to the stages.  We realize that they are a little bit long how we have it written out here in the original proposal and we will be making adjustments.

Q (follow-up): So this is not a final?

A: No, this is more or less like a rough draft.  Also, the overall length of the race will probably shorten.

Q:  How do you expect the UCI to sign off on this?  They’ve limited themselves to three weeks.

 A:  Well, uh, though the UCI, we realize that we are too late for 2008, we are already late to get sanctions for that, it will be 2009 before we get UCI sanctions.

Q:  What, sort of, level of teams do you expect?  This race overlaps with alot of different races (Vuelta a Espana, Tour of Missouri), Do you have any preferred teams or do you have any commitments from any pro-tour teams?

A:  Our first choice is, we are looking for tier one teams.  And that is who we will be in conversation with.

Q:  The cities that you have listed here, are these confirmed cities?

A:  No

Q (follow-up): And, are they likely to change?

A:  Everything on that sheet is open to change.  The cities are open to change.  This is actually a work in progress, but we had to start at some point and come with something.  You have to understand that when I did this event, and I say I, I am not a cycling guy.  Richard and David are.  They are the ones that are going to pare this down and make it acceptable make it more manageable.  They are the ones that will come up with the final route.  We hope to have a final route by mid March.

Q: Have any of these cities committed to anything?

A:  We are negotiating with several cities.  We are talking to them in phases because, we can’t talk to all 500 cities at the same time.

Q:  Have you contacted all of them yet?

A: We can’t contact all of them.  We will contact them in phases.  We are in negotiation with several of the cities.  Some of the major cities, and the way that the process works is this, we are going to start with the major cities, and in between, and then connect the dots.

Q:  General sense is that alot of this is at the theoretical level.  Are you concerned that you might be announcing this too early?

A:  I actually had spoken to another P.R. firm at some point, and they strongly suggested that I not announce this.  We talked about it, and discussed it, and decided it is time to announce the preliminary announcement of what we are planning to do.  At some point in March, you know it would be really nice if I sat here and had the mayor of New York on this side and Mayor Gavin Newsome on this side, you know the key of some companies at my back, but we know we felt that we are not at that stage, and it would be good for us, but in March, to come up and say we have….and it is going to happen in September.  I think what we needed to do is give you guys a heads up.  And this is what it is.

Q:  The sheet says “The Facts,” it doesn’t say “The Preliminary information”

A:  Actually that should have said “Tentative Events,” and David pointed that out to me.  He said we really should put tentative on that.  And that’s a fact, it is a tentative event.

Q:  As I understand it, if you are not sanctioned by the UCI, that you cannot have pro-tour teams in your race.  When somebody asked the question, “What teams do you suspect,” and your response was tier 1 level teams.  What exactly does that mean?  Because it is my understanding that you can’t even have professional teams, or pro-tour teams compete in your race if you’re not sanctioned.  That is a serious problem, don’t you think?

A:  It is a serious problem, but we are not talking about getting UCI sanctions for 2008.  We hope to get U.S. Cycling for year one.  And, that, also, is in the negotiation stage.

Q: But, you still haven’t answered my question, What teams would you go after if you don’t have a sanction?

A:  T-Mobile, Astana, should I go on?

Q:  Those are Pro-Tour teams! 

A:  Yes, they are.  We hope to be sanctioned by U.S. Cycling.

Q:  Is it 27 days?  Is that a tentative number of days?

A:  I want to keep it fixed on the number of days based on the kind of response I have gotten from corporate America, but we will work with everybody.  This is something we want all to agree and start working to help us.

Q:  The second part of that question is, Don’t you think that is too much for any athlete to perform?

A:  Yes, we think it is a little aggressive, and we will be paring down the length of the stages and the number of stages to make everyone happy.

Q:  I think you are encountering hard questions here because this is a sport that has taken some hits on its credibility, and I think everyone feels that this sport needs positive, strong steps to go forward.  So, even though you are trying to do a great thing here, it is my feeling that you have done very little technical research on the event.  For example, a couple of things to consider, it is an extraordinarily long race  that is a headwind race.  New York to San Francisco, you are going into the wind the entire time, and technically that could make for a disastrous race.  Secondly, if this race is not brought into acceptable form, whether the U.S. Federation wants to allow it or not, the UCI will not allow it to happen.  It has to adhere to the UCI standards on a certain level before the American Federation is allowed to do it.  So, I while absolutely applaud your effort to make a great event like this, I do feel that this is the base of the questions here, that very little actual research into what constitutes a bicycle race has been done.  And, I think the folks are pretty astonished at what you have put forth at this press conference.  And, for someone like myself, as good as it is, we would hope that before you take something like the Tour of America and put it out there, that you would have at least done some due diligence as to what constitutes an actual bicycle race. 

A:  We actually have done alot of research, and that is why we will be adding alot more to the staff.  What we have, we feel that it is time for it to happen.  We feel that America needs this.  And as you said, cycling has been inundated with bad press.  I think it is time for somebody to say “hey we believe in the sport.”  We want a commitment, and we have corporate backing to make the sport work.  But, at the same time, I do agree with you that there is alot of work to be done.  The challenge is really humbling. 

Q:  How much of the $30 million have you come up with so far?

A:  To be honest, we haven’t put anything on a dotted line, but I am in negotiation with several companies.  We should be able to get that pretty soon.  The unfortunate thing is this…I would like for this to be at some point later, but then, you know the cycling world actually dictates when I make the announcement.  The answer to why we did this now is because its a bike show and you guys are here.  We need really to present this to you.  There is still alot of work to do.  There is still alot of work to do, and we understand that.  And, we hope that people that have technical expertise will come back and say “please, you guys need to do this and you guys need to do that.”  And we will comply.  We want to learn from you, and we want to make it happen.  We have a dream.  We think this needs to be done in America.  And, we want to do it. 

Q:  Are you concerned that your, you should start smaller and work up to something like this?

A:  Not at all. People have asked us to do smaller stages, and we talked about it,  I took it back to my financial backers, and when we talked about it, we all said if you want to do it, you’ve got to do the stages because we do not want to, the three day stages, the seven day stages have all been done before.  One thing I want to tell you is that, if we do a seven day stage, there is no $11 million prize.  And that is the reality.  The only way we have $11 million prize is if we do something really ambitious.  And, that I hope, the prizes I hope, will entice, the professional teams, the pro teams like T-moblie, like Astana.  Because we all know they are suffering from lack of finances.  And that, the impetus, we hope will persuade the UCI to have the…

Q (follow-up):  Have you talked to any staff from teams like T-Mobile or Astana.

A:  Not yet.  Not yet.  I, the logic was to come here and present this to the cycling world, and next week our work, we will start, we have all the information, we will start talking to all of them then.

Q:  You alluded that you got the idea when watching the Tour.  Can we get some information on your racing or technical credentials that you feel are or your technical times you laid out tour courses of 400k or more.

A:  I’m Richard Dunn.  I’ve been involved in the sport for about 37 years.  I was a national team member.  I have been involved in race promotion.  I think I have a very good concept of putting together the courses needed for this event and designing the courses and to make the stages challenging, and again this is a preliminary round in distance not actually what is going to happen.  But Dave and I will be going out and looking at making the stages.

I just came to the show, this is the first time I have met Frank.  I have been involved in cycling since 1969.  I was a road champion as a Junior in ‘74.  Ahhh, I ended my career by getting hit by a car in a time trial, so I am very familiar with what can happen if things go wrong in a bike race.  After I quit racing, I continued in the sport.  I’ve served as a two years as the team liaison and transportation manager at the Tour of Texas back in the old days when Richard Degarmo was the boss.  I don’t know if you guys remember that or not.  The last two years, I was the actual technical director of the race.  You know, it was a smaller race, we had ten days the last year, but it was a real UCI stage race with international teams.  Following that, you know, I pretty much bumped around in cycling working mainly at events as an announcer.  Spent alot of time as a race announcer.  I was the voice of the lincoln stage race for eight years.  I worked Pittsburgh four years as an announcer.  You know I kinda bumped around.  I worked both Tour de Trumps, and every single Tour DuPont.  Worked both races in the Tour de Trump was a team liaison and transportation manager.  The last five, I think it was five, in the Tour DuPont, I was in the race command communicating with police to the front of the caravan on road closures and working with the marshals.  So, I have quite a bit of experience in terms of road closures.  I understand completely what the logistics of an event like this is, and how much it takes to put it together.  Since 1993 I’ve been working with USA Cycling, basically running the junior development program.  And, I quit that job in 2005.  Since then I’ve been cutting yards in my home town of Lubbock, Texas.  But I got a call from Richard here, he said we needed some help with a bike race, so here I am.  That’s my background.  You can see and understand from listening to Frank, um..the race is a big idea, I really think there is room for a race in the United States for professional riders.  You know, I’ve always dreamed since I was a kid and as a young adult, riding in the Coors Classic….even team Schwinn twice…I rode 1976…I rode ‘81, ‘82, and ‘83.  And, I’ve always been endeard to this sport, and I want to see it continue, you know.  I am going to work with Frank to make sure that we can bring back a race of that magnitude to our country, no matter what we have to do, we just want it to happen.  And, I think that alot of the questions you have are the same questions I could bring to the table and we could solve when we put our heads together a little bit. 

Q:  How realistic that this ride will take off in 2008 based on these dates?

A:  We actually have, we are very realistic about this not happening in 2008.  We have a cut-off date.  It is March 31st.  At that point we will look at how much work we have done and how much work there is to do, and if it needs to move to 2009, we will do that.  But, you’ve got to understand why, I am just a very optimistic guy, and I’ve done things that I, in the corporate world that I, I, I, I will tell you this, Let me tell you this, o.k.,

Q:  Can you give us examples of things you have done of this size?

A:  I would rather not go into all that, but I am trying to focus on trying to do this.  You know, I’ve worked, in, some of the…it is corporate stuff you know.  It has to do with setting up whole networks of, of distribution for major computer companies all over the world….working with the distribution of all the premium product, and it’s really tough ……

Q:  What about event management?

A:  I’ve never done event management.  That’s why these guys are involved.  And, I think there are some things I pride myself in.  I know what I can do, and I know what I can’t do.   And, I don’t try to do the things I can’t do. 

Q:  Have you put any of your personal money in this idea?

A:  Yeah.

Q:  How much?

A:  Alot, and I have already put alot into this.  Uh, alot.  Trust me.

Q:  May I ask your background in, you just went over event management, but where are you from, what are you……

A:  I am originally from Malaysia.  I came to school in the U.S. in 1983.  I went to school at Southern Illinois University and those of you who know college basketball, you never count a Saluki out.  And, I am proud of that.  I have a doctorate in Economics, I taught for a while, went out started working as a consultant.  Started working with small companies, medium sized companies, and big companies.  I have never done management.  I am a huge sports fan.  Again, two things I ask when I walk into a company, Why? and Why not? depending on the situation.  And if it’s why not, you got to figure out how to do it.  The thing is, let me ask you this, you know, again, I am going to put it back on you.  Do you think we need it?  How many of you want this to happen?  How many of you don’t want it to happen.  I am just speaking from my heart.  I have alot of passion, we have alot of passion for this.  We have a large commitment to make this happen.  How many of you don’t want it to happen, you think it’s bad for cycling?

Q: We don’t want it to be a flop. 

A:  I totally agree….that is why I say, I welcome your skepticism.  There are days when I am skeptical…that Richard is skeptical, David is skeptical, and we have some very frank discussions.  Although, I am the only one that is Frank, we can have some frank discussions.  We do.  We really take this very seriously.  My opinion is that I think I can….we hear so much bad press.  All types of problems.  I think somebody needs to step up and say “hey we are going to try, we are going to do.”

Q:  I would just like to say that wow, I just lost my train of thought, wow….Oh yeah, I have it now.  Speaking of….I gotta say that I found it a bit presumptuous that the Tour of America could solve all of the problems with the sport, and it’s a wonderful thing, we all want it, you have two wonderful people….you have two wonderful guys up there……, but at the same time within the world of cycling, there is a real grass roots effort to shorten races.  We saw it at the Grand Tours instead of being three weeks should be two weeks.  There are very serious discussions going on.  The feeling is that the athlete is incapable.  Seriously, there are real studies going on to see what the body can actually do.  Can a body do a three week race naturally?  And, I think that you have to consider what a four week race would probably produce to propose that you are going to be fighting, really just like you fly from New York to California, you are going to be fighting headwinds.  The structure of the sport something so grandiose and physically challenging of what is required of the athletes, so I hope you consider that in your calculations as well.

A:  Absolutely.  I truly, truly thank you for that comment because, and I would like to take that to David and constantly monitor them and tell them give them the comments.  We want all of you to save the comments and tell them, especially if you think that we have been wrong.  Because, after everything is said, what we really want to do is make this race work.  I hope that everybody in this room could see that we are passionate about this.  We think that America needs this.  We think that the world needs this.  We think that cycling needs this.  We really, really think we can make this work.  There are changes that need to be made.  That’s obvious from talking to you guys, but we welcome the discussion.  We want the discussion to continue. 

Q:  Why do you think this race is needed at this time, because the U.S. has three well organized tours along with several one day races.  Why do you think it is needed to ride across the country?

A:  One of the things that, during one of my first ever meetings with Richard, Richard told me that as I proposed the race to him, his first reaction was that the best cyclist won’t come, and they never really have,  and that is why I think we need something really grandiose to make sure that they come.  And that is why as you look at the prizes, I think that they are overbought.  I think they are overkill, and there is a reason for it.  It is intended to be overkill.  It is intended to be. WOW!  That is the intent. Because with that, as much problems as the teams are having finding sponsors, I think this is something that can change the face of cycling.  This brings alot of new faces into the cycling world.

Q:  How much of that $30 million needs to be raised in order to keep that prize schedule?

A: By October 31st, we should have $20-$25 million locked up.  Actually, by October 31st, I will probably have half of it.

Q:  This money, is it coming from new people into the sport?

A:  Not all of it.  Some of them have been in the sport before, and some of them have been in the sport before and stopped being in it. 

Q:  You can’t name any of them at this point?

A:  I would rather not, to be honest.

Q:  Why not?

A:  Because, in negotiations, they really don’t want you to mention them.  I’m really sorry. 

Q:  How far along are the negotiations?

A:  Depending on which company.  Some I might probably book next week, some a little longer.  And, again, each company that I have talked to has said good things.  And, I really am sorry, I can’t mention names.

Q:  It would have been nice for the press conference if you had someone from a large corporation that…….

A:  Yes, and there will be time for that.  There is a time for that press conference  where we can have all the contacts of the……there will be a time for that.  We just started……..

Q:  With these types of races, there is typically a title sponsor.  How much is the price tag for the title sponsorship?  How much are you looking for from a title sponsor?

A:  I met alot of people in the last few days in cycling.  All of them tell me that, Oh that I used to cycle in a race and it is no more.  Almost all of them have one reason why they don’t have the race anymore, and that is because they lost the title sponsor.  We don’t have a title sponsor.  We have 27 event sponsors.  We are the title sponsor.  There is no major title sponsor.  So that it is when we lose people it is not a major disaster.  We don’t have to scramble to find a new sponsor.  We have 27 major sponsors, so that’s really the answer.

Q:  What is the amount of years?

A:  We are probably talking about five years.

Q:  So we are talking $150 million?

A:  Actually, you know, I think more.  I am going to sign contracts where the prizes increase, the contracts increase, the corporate contracts increase.  Again, I am a confident guy.  I think this is going to work, and if it does, next year becomes harder and more challenging for teams to get into the race.

Q:  How do you see the investors of that size getting value?  Is it from people coming to the race?

A:  Yes, it is people out there, standing by the road. 

Q:  Frank, I am not actually from this industry, and I want to applaud you for coming in with a big hairy audacious goal.  And even though logistically, and sanctioning, obviously that maybe more of a challenge than getting accross the country, I do like the comment about not riding into the headwind.  I would also like to see more mountain stages and not so early…Santa Fe in September, can be pretty brutal, and calling that a mountain stage….I think there is more picturesque mountain stages further up in the Rockies, and also coming out in one of the other ranges, you can take roads that are not interstate roads, that you can go several hundred miles without…uh, you’ve got two towns.  There’s vast expanses of the rockies where you can make it around and not ever deal with any interstate traffic or the logistics of going through major metropolitan areas, and have it be picturesque TV coverage that you are looking for.  But, I just want to commend you.

A:  Maybe I should have Dana on here, because she has been hounding at me for the last two days saying that we have to go to Colorado, and we probably will.  Like I said, the route is not set.

Q:  You are going to have to have media coverage.  Are you in negotiation with any television distribution?

A:  All that starts tomorrow.  I actually have, initial, let me put it this way, the five years that I have been planning this event, I’ve talked to alot of people.  When I say talked, that is a misnomer, because I have listened to alot of people….some of whom are, I have actually had conversations with OLN, because it was OLN at that point, and we will continue conversations with them, and what encourages me, is that I have had alot of interest from network news.  There are people who want to be part of this.

Q:  I want to applaud your efforts, your dream, and your efforts to help the sport, and you seem to have access to sponsorships, I am wondering, would you be willing to change the idea, or maybe put the sponsorship money into helping the sport in a different way?

A:  In a different way how?

Q:  I don’t know.  I am not talking about anything specific, I am just wondering…..

A:  Everything that is here is on the table, it can be.  The man in the back, the main problem is still sanctions, and I don’t shy away from the fact that that is a problem.  We may be so big, that it is hard for the UCI to shy away.  We hope to bring them to the table.  We hope to talk to everybody.  We hope to satisfy everybody…..the contestants, the associations…and we hope to make sure this happens.  We are confident that we can.  And, we want you to join us in trying to make this dream come true. 

Q:  I want to go back to a question I don’t think was directly answered.  Maybe that you say that you want to rescue the sport from the bad PR out there and that you thought that the distances were long… but even cutting it in half, 2,500 miles is still a long way.  Do you think this will cause riders to turn to performance enhancing supplements……?

A:  Well, we definitely plan to test literally all the riders.  It is definitely one of my concerns that as tough as the event is, the chances of a rider making a mistake……

Q:  Even half of the distance that you have here, even trimming it, cutting it in half would still be a really long race.  I am sure you can agree with that in your experience. 

A:  We do plan on doing alot of testing and to make it clean that if the rider does have a positive that it is on the rider.  It is not on the race.  We will make it very clear that it is run as a clean race. 

A:  If we trim it down too much…………………………………..frank talking in circles……………..there is something I want you to understand.  If this was a 7 day stage race…..if this was a 14 day stage race, there goes the $11 million.  But I will make this happen.  I will bring in the $30 in corporate money and when I talk about $30 million, I talk about one thing.  I am talking about corporate people buying into it.  I am not talking about merchandising.  There is alot of additional income.  I am not even talking about that.  But all that is speculative.  What I am talking about is things taht I can actually tell you……………..so the $30 million is an underestimation of what this tour can bring.   But, coming down too much, the value to corporations is lost.  Part of the problem that teams are having….we have tailwind lose it’s major sponsor, and unable to find a sponsor.  What does a sponsor want?  A sponsor wants exposure.  Thats all they want.  The more exposure, the more money they give you.  Am I right?  That’s what they want.  Now we get exposed  to the biggest market in the world, I think we can put alot of money from American and European cycling teams, that is what needs to happen.  It would change if we change the way we think.  I will bring you that money, but you have to give me a chance to do it.  I don’t know how much clear I can be on that point.

Q:  I am curious to what your reaction will be tomorrow when other magazines come out with their reports on this, because they’re going to be negative.  I think you are smart enough to know they are going to be negative.

A:  I think we will get some negative press, but that is part of the battle.  Actually, I am surprised at how much good press we have gotten.

1 October 2007 | News | Comments