Tour de l'Avenir
If you're wanting to track the future of professional cycling then look no further than the 2006 Tour de l'Avenir.
Unfortunately, the 43rd annual event kicked off on August 31st without any American teams invited. Surely there's a reason why neither the US National team nor TIAA-CREF were invited considering they were both there in 2005. The start list from the USA Cycling Championships taking place in Greenville has TIAA-CREF with 14 riders in the road race, so maybe that's their priority this year.
The Tour de l'Avenir is the most prestigious under-25 event in Europe, but without any American teams participating it's a missed opportunity for our best young talent to race against the world's best. However, American Tyler Farrar is racing the event for Cofidis, but he's doing so on a French based team.
Examples of Americans who have raced there in the past are Tom Danielson, Saul Raisin, Shawn Milne (who is smoking right now!), Dave Zabriskie, Floyd Landis, Aaron Olson and Christian Van De Velde. Not a bad list right?
Is it possible that USA Cycling didn't consider the conflict of scheduling or that European race organizers didn't reach out to any American teams? The structure of this event changes next year back to a national team competition instead of being open to ProTour squads. At a minimum one would think sending the US National team each year would be a top priority for USA Cycling.
Unfortunately, the 43rd annual event kicked off on August 31st without any American teams invited. Surely there's a reason why neither the US National team nor TIAA-CREF were invited considering they were both there in 2005. The start list from the USA Cycling Championships taking place in Greenville has TIAA-CREF with 14 riders in the road race, so maybe that's their priority this year.
The Tour de l'Avenir is the most prestigious under-25 event in Europe, but without any American teams participating it's a missed opportunity for our best young talent to race against the world's best. However, American Tyler Farrar is racing the event for Cofidis, but he's doing so on a French based team.
Examples of Americans who have raced there in the past are Tom Danielson, Saul Raisin, Shawn Milne (who is smoking right now!), Dave Zabriskie, Floyd Landis, Aaron Olson and Christian Van De Velde. Not a bad list right?
Is it possible that USA Cycling didn't consider the conflict of scheduling or that European race organizers didn't reach out to any American teams? The structure of this event changes next year back to a national team competition instead of being open to ProTour squads. At a minimum one would think sending the US National team each year would be a top priority for USA Cycling.
posted by NashvilleCyclist.com at 9/01/2006 12:11:00 AM
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