SubscribeThe Tour of California recently ended with an HTC-Columbia victory for Michael Rogers. The new tour dates gave us a surprising level of support for the event. I’m curious to see what kind of ratings Versus gets from viewership compared to past events, with the ToC reaching its highest point in popularity.
It’ll still be some time – if ever – before the ToC is able to transition to a full grand tour (think Giro d’Italia, Tour de France, and Vuelta a Espana)… but that doesn’t mean it won’t be a future success for American cycling. Even though Lance Armstrong crashed out of the race, fans still lined the street and mountain sides to support their favorite riders.
A look at the ToC start list shows how big of an event it has turned into — Andy Schleck, Fabian Cancellara, Tom Boonen, Lance, Levi Leipheimer, Mark Cavendish, George Hincapie, and a collection of ProTour teams made the jump across the pond.
Image courtesy of Casey B. Gibson (http://cbgphoto.com)
Even more important was the success of domestic cycling teams during the event, as Team UnitedHealthcare, Team Type 1, and other smaller teams attacked, made it into breaks, and tried to get maximum exposure for their teams.
Team Type 1’s Thomas Rabou (a Dutchman that transferred over from Rabobank) captured the King of the Mountains jersey during the ToC, which is a major victory for the upstart Team Type 1 cycling program.
