I completely missed this on VeloNews and CyclingNews.com this past Friday, just stumbling across this article on the BBC this morning.

BBC SPORT | Other sport… | Cycling | 2009 Tour of Georgia is scrapped

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 …

VeloNews | No Tour de Georgia in ‘09 | The Journal of Competitive Cycling.

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.

From the USA Cycling 2008 Racing Rules for Road, Track and Cyclocross

1H2. Women may enter any race for which they are eligible by age, category, and any performance requirements and may enter categorized races for men that are up to one category lower than their women’s category, or in the case of category 1 women, up to two categories lower. In addition, category 4 and 3 women who are 35 or older may compete in Masters races for all riders up to 20 years greater than their racing age, subject to other eligibility requirements.

This means that a woman with a Cat 4 license can race in a men’s Cat 5 race, and that a 36 year old woman can race in any Masters race from Men’s 35+ to 55+.

Now the UTCX Series doesn’t use licenses … we let people self-categorize; but can and will upgrade people at our discretion, which means that if any person (men or women) start dominating a particular category, then we’ll upgrade them if necessary.

But until then, I don’t like having to pull out the rule book to say that it’s okay for a someone to play with the boys. Deal with it. It’s supposed to be fun.

Three races disappear in less than a week. From www.cyclingnews.com today:

Tour of America cancels for 2008

It may no longer be April Fool’s day, but it would be understandable if you thought otherwise as the organizers of the first Tour of America announced on April 2 that their race for 2008 would not materialize. Dr. Frank Arokiasamy, Ph.D., president of Aqu Sports, organizers of the race, had announced previously that last Monday, March 31, would be the go/no-go decision date – and apparently the decision was to wait another year.

“After we announced the Tour of America last fall, we hit the ground running to make the event happen in 2008,” Arokiasamy said in a press statement. “Everyone we have spoken with wants to see a ‘Tour de France-style” race here in the United [sic] We want to work with USA Cycling and UCI to establish this event as a compliment to the major international races, and at the same time not conflict with established races in the United States. Overall, we want to make sure the Tour of America strengthens the sport of cycling and the race calendar. In addition, potential sponsors and route cities have expressed strong support for a fall 2009 race.”

Further down the same page:

Tour of Virginia also cancels 2008 race

Another race on the National Racing Calendar (NRC) circuit in the United States has announced a major change for 2008. The Tour of Virginia, formerly the Tour of Shenandoah, posted on its website this week that it is cancelling the 2008 event due to a lack of funding. “I’d be lying if I told you I wasn’t supremely frustrated, devoid of confidence and depressed after having this experience,” event director Matthew Butterman on the race web site regarding attempts to sign sponsors for this year’s event.

“From the start of this event, we have pushed forward under the assumption of ‘build it and they will come,’ ” the statement said. ” ‘They’ refers to private corporate and state financial support. The state has been unwilling to invest in this event… So we built it anyway with the hope that a media friendly, attention-getting event would eventually attract private support either from within our venue community network, or from the outside. This has not happened to a sustainable level despite what must be described as our best efforts as a grossly underfunded promoting organization”

And finally this news from a few days ago:

Tour de ‘Toona shrinks to one-day

The Tour de ‘Toona, held in and around Altoona, Pennsylvania, will shrink to just one day for 2008. After 20 years, the race had grown to seven days. What remains is a criterium on July 27 in downtown.

“I’m just disappointed this year we’re stepping back, but we hope next year to come back even stronger,” Race Director Larry Bilotto said to the Altoona Mirror. The organization plans to return to a full schedule in 2009.

Bilotto said the steering committee needed a break, especially after contending with lawsuits related to a former race director and a rider injured in the 2005 edition, deaths of committee members and recent sponsorship struggles. He did not elaborate on the latter.

How much of it is the economy, and how much is the current state of cycling, with all the doping scandals, lack of a “proper” big name American star cyclist to generate interest in the sport, especially with all the politicking between the UCI and race organizers in Europe throwing things into further disarray.

It doesn’t take a genius to recognize that it’s going to get worse before it gets better, as well. Soon Versus will start cutting back their Tour de France coverage to an hour or two a day (like ESPN did back in the 1990s), and then eventually down to a 1-hour special at the end of the season (like has happened with the Vuelta a España the past few years …

Thankfully, there are online sites like cyclingnews.com and VeloNews to provide coverage. Other video-based sites are popping up and getting bigger as well, like WCSN.com and Cycling.TV … and those of us who are serious Euro race junkies will still be able to get our fix.

Sat through several hours of seminar, took my test, passed with 94% and paid my $35.00 … I’m on my way to becoming “The Man!” for USA Cycling.

So you better get your bribes ready, or I’m gonna start DQ’ing people before the season even starts. Yah!

Okay, I’m not … I’ve got far too much integrity for that. The biggest thing for me … how long can I go before I have to suck it up and wear the khakis and blue. Feh.

So tomorrow I get to spend one of my precious weekend days sitting in a conference room at a hotel in downtown Salt Lake City … and why, you might ask?

The Utah Cycling Association is holding their annual clinic for officials … if you want to become a licensed official in the sport of cycling, you must attend one of these events. Ellie G. has been suggesting for years that I get my license, pretty much ever since I started helping out at the UTCX series.

I think it’s just her way of getting out of doing the officiating next year, but we’ll see what happens.

So … I’ve renewed my USCF racing license (as a Cat 5 on the road and track, Cat 4 cyclocross [i.e. bottom of the barrel in all three disciplines]), and am pursuing a USA Cycling officials license.

The irony? I can’t stand much of what USA Cycling is about … with their focus on Elite racing, rather than growing the sport at the grassroots level; and their lack of support for their members who are obviously getting screwed by USADA … these are all things that need to change.

Now, do I think that my becoming more officially involved with the sport will help change all of that? No … probably not. But at least I will feel like I am doing my part to keep the sport going, if not growing.

I wonder if I can still refer to myself as the Chief Unofficial in non-sanctioned events …

Oh, dear Christ … now USADA is targeting Bart, also for missing a doping control. I’m sure he wouldn’t appreciate my language, but this is some serious fucked up shit right here.

On the bright side of things, however, Gerard Bisceglia is suing USA Cycling for wrongful dismissal. I posted a couple entires on this here and here several months ago.

Finally, something is happening … and hopefully the situation will be rectified in a manner that is actually good for cycling, rather than the continued cronyism that has plagued the sport for decades.

Les Earnest, former USA Cycling wonk, and current Executive Director of the FIAC (Federation of Independent Associations for Cycling) has this to say about Jim Ochowicz in a recent rec.bicycles.racing post.

You are well advised to be suspicious of Jim Ochowicz. I first met him in 1978 when he was competing in the Red Zinger stage race in Colorado and I was the chief timer. There was a particularly difficult stage from Aspen to Vail over Independence Pass where Ochowicz apparently finished third. Trouble was, he had come off the back of the main field and was never seen again until he crossed the the finish line well ahead of the field! He got caught that time but probably didn’t learn from it.

Ochowicz’s ethics seem to mesh nicely with those of his employer, Thomas Weisel Partners, which was recently fined $12.5 million for securities violations.

Thomas Weisel Partners was fined another $1.75 million this past year by the NASD for “engaging in improper initial public offering (IPO) allocation practices …”