The Tour of Georgia, one of American’s cycling’s most prestigious events, has been cancelled for next season.
Created in 2003, the Tour has failed to secure regular sponsors since Lance Armstrong’s retirement in 2005.
The Texan, who announced his return to professional cycling in September, did not include Georgia in his 2009 plans.
“I’m disappointed that the 2009 Tour has been cancelled, but very pleased that it will return in 2010,” said USA Cycling boss Steve Johnson.
In a statement, organisers said: “The planning process for the Tour of Georgia requires a tremendous amount of time and effort.
“We wanted to give all of our partners enough time to plan and allocate their resources to take full advantage of the event. Therefore, we will skip 2009.”
Seven-time Tour de France winner Armstrong took the Georgia title in 2004.
Every, I’ve wanted to make the trip back east to go see the race, especially since in most years, there has been at least one stage finish in my hometown of Chattanooga, Tennessee … looks like I’ll have to wait until 2010.
I’m sure that economic hard times and the current recession are contributing factors as well, but it really sucks that the American corporate sponsorship community (at least for a sport like cycling) focusses so much on one rider that his retirement has a ripple effect throughout the the entire sport.
And even his comeback isn’t enough to generate big monetary excitement.
Or, it could be all the doping issues … regardless, the loss of another large American race does not bode well …
The Tour de Georgia will not be held next year, but the race’s backers say it will be back in 2010.
The race’s board of directors announced Friday that they will use 2009 to “plan ahead and properly position” the race for 2010.
“We believe that this unique and exciting event will endure,” said Tom Saddlemire, a member of the board and recently retired CFO of GE Energy.
The race backers said that by many measures the event has been wildly successful.
“Over the course of six years, the Tour de Georgia has attracted 3.2 million spectators, many of whom traveled to Georgia from out of state, and generated a direct economic impact totaling over $186 million,” said Craig Lesser, former Commissioner of the Georgia Department of Economic Development. “The 2008 Tour de Georgia, our most successful Tour yet, yielded over $38.6 million in direct economic impact for the state. We have come a long way since 2003.”
The 2008 event also raised nearly $3.2 million in operating expenses and commitments for more than $500,000 in support of cancer research through the Aflac Cancer Center at Children’s Healthcare and the Georgia Cancer Coalition.
Despite the fund raising and competitive successes, the race has often struggled to find title sponsors, signing its “Presenting Sponsor,” AT&T, in January last year.
» by flahute in: Word Play on August 30th, 2008 at 19:14:56 UTC |
Kind of wish I had received this before posting recent reactionary blog posts … but will be something to keep in mind going forward.
THE POWER OF AN AUTUMN LEAF
In working with the setting sun or confused world, the attitude of the warrior is like an autumn leaf floating down a river. It doesn’t change its color, and it doesn’t struggle with the river. It goes along with it. This has a natural effect, because the brook or the river has never carried such an autumn leaf before. The setting sun world will be uncertain what to do with this leaf. So by simply being there, you make people think twice, automatically.
It puts people on the spot when you don’t react to them. You don’t fight back when they attack you, but you just remain as an autumn leaf, whatever they do. This is the gentle way of working. If there are hundreds of thousands of autumn leaves coming down a small brook, then the appearance of the brook will be changed by them altogether. The joke is on the setting sun people, and they have to think twice. They might smile and pretend to laugh, but really they will be crying, weeping. So you see, an autumn leaf has a great deal of power over the world of the setting sun. Such little leaves could stop the flow of water altogether. If there are enough powerful autumn leaves, that is possible. It has been done in the past.
From CONQUERING FEAR: THE HEART OF WARRIORSHIP, forthcoming from Shambhala Publications in 2009.
Wireless communication is changing the way people work, live, love and relate to places—and each other, says Andreas Kluth.
Illustration by Bell Mellor
AT THE Nomad Café in Oakland, California, Tia Katrina Canlas, a law student at the nearby university in Berkeley, places her double Americano next to her mobile phone and iPod, opens her MacBook laptop computer and logs on to the café’s wireless internet connection to study for her class on the legal treatment of sexual orientation. She is a regular here but doesn’t usually bring cash, so her credit-card statement reads “Nomad, Nomad, Nomad, Nomad”. That says it all, she thinks. Permanently connected, she communicates by text, photo, video or voice throughout the day with her friends and family, and does her “work stuff” at the same time. She roams around town, but often alights at oases that cater to nomads.
Christopher Waters, the owner, opened the Nomad Café in 2003, just as Wi-Fi “hotspots” were mushrooming all around town. His idea was to provide a watering-hole for “techno-Bedouins” such as himself, he says. Since Bedouins, whether in Arabian deserts or American suburbs, are inherently tribal and social creatures, he understood from the outset that a good oasis has to do more than provide Wi-Fi; it must also become a new—or very old—kind of gathering place. He thought of calling his café the “Gypsy Spirit Mission”, which also captures the theme of mobility, but settled for the simpler Nomad.
It’s probably not a great secret that I consider myself to be something of a reluctant nomad. I think a huge part of that stems from how much I moved while I was growing up. Until I started university, I never went to a school for more than 2 years; and generally when I moved, it was mid-year.
So like many people in the generation that succeeded my own, I don’t have a deep-seated sense of place. Depending on my mood, when someone asks me where I’m from, I answer Tennessee, Northern California (Santa Cruz/San Francisco), and increasingly Utah.
Like Ms. Canlas, I seem to be connected constantly throughout the day via email, text, this blog, and now Twitter and Facebook.
Kim (my ex) considers the constant connectivity to be a bad thing … she steadfastly refuses to sign up for any social networks; but I tend to feel like so many of my connections are so tenuous that I need to maintain them in any way I possibly can. I find I’m reconnecting with people from my past though these social networks, and am redeveloping some friendships that I’ve let slip through my fingers in the past.
I’m also trying to disconnect from the Interwebs enough to connect with real live people in face-to-face social situations; I seldom refuse an invitation anymore, whereas, in the past I used to come up with any excuse I could come up with not to go out because I was letting my anxiety control me, rather than controlling my anxiety. When I do find myself in the company of other people, I’m working on being as warm and welcoming as I can be … to listen, to engage, and to forge lasting friendships with people; something which has always been a weak point of mine in the past. It’s still a struggle at times, but it gets easier.
» by flahute in: Music on July 31st, 2008 at 02:37:58 UTC |
THE WEAKERTHANS - CIVIL TWILIGHT
My Confusion Corner commuters are cursing the cold away
As December tries to dissemble the length of their working day
And they bite their mitts off to show me transfers, deposit change
and I can’t stop finding your face in their faces, all rearranged
and angry like you never were;
And I ease us back into traffic
Dusk comes on and I wonder
Why I’m always remembering you
at civil twilight
For the most part I think about golfing and constantly calculate
all the seconds left in the minutes, and so on, etcetera
Or recite the names of provinces and Hollywood actors;
Oh, Ontario! Oh, Jennifer Jason Leigh!
This part of the day bewilders me
Streets slow down and ice over,
Dusk comes on and I struggle to stop,
To stop to stop thinking of you
at civil twilight
Hey, every other hour I pass that house,
Where you told me that you had to go
I wonder if the landlord has fixed the crack
That I stared at, instead of staring back at you;
My chance to say something seemed so brief
It wasn’t. Now I know I had plenty of time
Between the sunset and certified darkness
Dusk comes on and I follow the exhaust from memory up to the end
At civil twilight
At civil twilight
At civil twilight
At civil twilight
“Usually in life, when we act, when we exist, we tend to have a very wretched and small notion of what we are doing. Sometimes, we try to be good boys and girls. We struggle, taking our journey stitch by stitch. We go to sleep at night, we get up the next day, and we struggle to lead our life. The ordinary approach to that is undignified and very small, like flat Coca-Cola. Sometimes we feel better, we try to cheer up, and it feels pretty good. But then, behind that, there is the same familiar “me” haunting us all the time. We don’t have to be that way, at all. We actually could see our world as a big world and see ourselves as open and vast. We can see our world as sacred. That is the key to bringing together the sun of wisdom with the moon of wakefulness.”
— From OCEAN OF DHARMA: The Everyday Wisdom of Chogyam Trungpa. 365 Teachings on Living Life with Courage and Compassion. Number 284.
@saintless Can't make DL; must get up way too early tomorrow for a CX race in Ogden. Considering HH at Porc since last weekend was a no go. in reply to Saintless9 mins ago
