At the Home Depot Center this afternoon, between Track Worlds sessions, Hein Verbruggen, president of the UCI, Richard Riordan, former Los Angeles mayor and now California Secretary of Education, and Tim Leiweke, president and CEO of AEG (Anschutz Entertainment Group), announced the coming of the 8 day Tour of California in 2006.

Tim Leiweke, the president and CEO of AEG, kicked off the announcement with opening remarks. He said that when AEG first had the vision of the Home Depot Center, they knew there were great growth sports in the US - soccer, track and field, volleyball, tennis, and cycling. Some people thought they were crazy when they talked about these growth sports, but he said this weekend the Track Cycling Worlds has been an unbelievable success, and the world championship of track cycling is in the United States for the first time, showing that there are growth sports within the Olympic movement which, "if given the change and the proper funding, can give great moments of truth, that inspire and bring many more participants that are awed and wowed by that particular sport. It also gives us the ability to take sports like cycling and to take it to the next level." 

He continued, "If you look at the United States, the world's greatest cyclist ever is Lance Armstrong, but if you look at his sport and his craft, it's what we saw with cycling in the velodrome - our athletes, within the US Olympic team, have to go to Europe to train for track cycling. There was no place in the United States, ultimately, that gave them the environment and the facility to allow them to be the best they could possibly be within the Olympic movement. When we created this dream [of the Home Depot Center], we saw cycling as a sport that we were excited about as a company, and Mr. Anschutz, in particular, has put his time and his money behind a great new vision for the sport of cycling, for all the of athletes that participate in this sport, create a great new vision so that the world's greatest cyclists don't have to go overseas to find this greatness. In addition to being a proud host to track cycling here, we now are going to announce a further commitment to the sport of cycling by creating the Tour of California."

The Tour of California will be an 8 day stage race - and the partners aspire to have it be one of those greatest cycling events, ranking with the Tour de France. The organizers look at Tour de France as their model, as "what we want to be when we grow up" and strive to be one of the great cycling events in all the world.

This is not an inexpensive endeavor, but AEG and Mr. Anshutz have committed 35 million dollars to give the race the right chance. Leiweke said, "It will take us some years to accomplish what we intend to accomplish, but there should be no doubt in your mind that AEG and its partners are all dedicated to making this one of the two or three best cycling events in the world - the best athletes will come here, the most prize money in the history of the sport of cycling in the US, the most coverage on broadcast networks - we are going to do this the right way, we are going to take our time and build something great, and we are going to strive to be a great event like the Tour de France for cycling in the United States and for cycling around the world."

[Anshutz is, among other things, the owner of the San Francisco Examiner, and has investments and/or ownership in energy, pipelines, railroads, agriculture, real estate, film production, movie theaters, telecommunications (Qwest Communications), sports (17 sports franchises including owner Los Angeles Kings hockey team,  minority owner of the Los Angeles Lakers and six European soccer teams), media and entertainment companies; approximately one hundred companies.]

During the Salt Lake Olympic Games, AEG met with Hein Verbruggen and told him they planned to build a velodrome. Leiweke said, "When Hein 'got off the floor' and controlled himself - that he found someone that was committed to building a world class velodrome in the United States, and committed to bring world class events here, we further told him that we would do that, but we wanted his commitment to create a great, true stage race in the United States, something that would rival the Tour de France one day." Verbruggen's commitment has been unflagging and he has formed a great partnership with the Tour of California group. Leiweke said that without the UCI's support, they would not be here today.

Leiweke introduced California Secretary of Education and former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, who has been an avid cyclist all his life, and who was one of the first people to ride the velodrome while it was under construction.

Mr. Riordan said that he had with him a letter from Governor Schwarzenegger endorsing the Tour of California is. The governor quoted Ronald Reagan: "'California is not just a state or a country, it is a way of life.' The Tour of California will show the world what he knew, and what I, as governor, believe."

Riordan recounted that he fell in love with racing thru Alex Baum (of the Los Angeles Mayor's Office and LA City Bicycle Advisory Committee) - Baum talked Riordan into riding with "some unknown racer" about ten years ago - and Riordan said, "'Are you sure he can keep up with me?' Well, it was Lance Armstrong. And he not only couldn't keep up with me, he kept hitting me in the back...as he pushed me up the hill, of course."

Hein Verbruggen of the Union Cicliste International, also present for the Track Worlds in Los Angeles, said of the Tour of California, "If ever I've seen all the components that are necessary to make a success out of a race, it is here. ...A company like AEG being involved, what I've seen from them til now, is they absolutely live up to their commitments. ...The support of the state of California... and one thing I would like to say to California - no sport offers the possibility to show the world how a country looks, like cycling. All of the committees that have organized the Olympic Games - we have seen this in Athens, and it's gonna be in Beijing - now insist the road race be shown on a Thursday, just to have the opportunity to show the city to the world. It's three hours of live TV. Also in Beijing [2008 Olympics] - it's going to be on a Saturday, the road race, offering them the possibility to show to the world how their city looks. You made the right choice to go into cycling - this will be great advertising for your state."

Verbruggen also said that the involvement of USA Cycling is a key component in the success, that he is extremely happy with the race initiative and that the UCI will give their full support now and in the future, "because the continental calendars we have now are becoming more and more important with the re-structuring we went through recently, so we are very happy with the registration of this race." He said in closing about the Home Depot Track Cycling Center: "That was also part of the deal you [Leiweke] didn't mention - initially the plan was that you were going to have an open track, and I think we can say we seduced you by saying, 'Well,  if it would be a closed track, you might have a world championship...' so I guess that worked because we are very happy to be here today."

Gerald Bisceglia of USA Cycling said that everyone says they are happy they are about this race coming to California, but USA Cycling is not happy - USA Cycling is "absolutely giddy" that this race is coming to California. He said "...we train athletes and it's very difficult to keep tabs on them - the only way to keep tabs them is to get up at 6 o'clock in the morning and hope that someone has them on TV. Having a race like this in the United States gives us the opportunity to have our kids at home. Right now the United States is, I think, the fourth ranked country in the world in road racing, and we've got some of the greatest racers in the world - from California they have to go 6 or 7000 miles to ply their trade." Bisceglia went on to discuss how ideal a venue California is for a stage race.

He then thanked the other partners and thanked "Mr. Verbruggen for giving us the opportunity to accept his bribe." (Laughter).

In the audience were distinguished cyclists Mariano Freidich and Health Net's Ivan Dominguez.

Questions from the audience about specifics of the race yielded few details, other than to expect a summer announcement on timing of the race and venue cities. The name Tour of California is the working name, though the name may be subject to change as final name rights partners and the state are integrated into the arrangements. Cities outside California have expressed interest in having the race visit their city, and ultimately the organization will look at expanding the race - for example, the Tour de France sometimes starts in other European cities and comes to France, so the possibility exists of doing the same thing here.

As for funding, Leiweke said that AEG sat down and looked at how much it would cost over the next five years if the race brought in no revenue - the uniqueness of cycling events is that they do not charge. "The Tour de France is the largest spectator event in the world, where 20 million people watch the Tour and not one of them buys a ticket." So the decision that AEG and its race partners had to make was "were we willing to go it alone and grow this, and if we never sold a sponsorship, and if we never sold the naming rights, finance the Tour of California over the next five years to make sure that we were successful and that we gave ourselves plenty of time, ultimately, to create one of the great events within cycling. And that's about a 35 million dollar commitment. If we have to spend 35 million to build the race, we will. I'll probably be selling t-shirts on the side of the road if we don't find sponsorship or naming rights..."

The race is tentatively scheduled for February 2006.