
The Tour de France may have Paris, but the tour of Austin's Got, well, Austin.
With the demise of the International Downtown Austin Criterium of the local bike races this calendar year, the bike scene lacked a national event caliber.
Sign in Holland Racing, organizers of Thursday Driveway Austin Bike Series race at night. Director Andrew Willis fired a trio of races under one umbrella to create a three-day event Labor Day weekend with over $ 15,000 in prizes.
The Tour starts Saturday with road races of 20 kilometers to 100 kilometers on a trail around the apartment, field corn surrounding countryside dotted Manda, about 8 miles east of Austin. Team Hotel San Jose is sponsoring the race.
Sunday, the Tour moves to a 1.15-mile closed loop at the University of Texas' JJ Pickle Research Campus, 10100 Burnet Road. This race doubles as a fundraiser for the UT Cycling Club.
The grand finale comes Monday with the stigma Eracing Criterium in Austin State Hospital, 4110 Guadalupe St. cyclists tearing around a 0.9-mile loop on the campus, which serves the mentally handicapped. During breaks between heats, patients will be invited to make a little run of their own size of an adult on three wheels. The Flyers Austin Women's Cycling Team is sponsoring this leg, which is a fundraiser for the hospital.
About 300 riders are expected each day of the Tour. Registration is $ 30 per race, with a discount of 15 per cent for those who pre-register for three days to www.raceaustin.com.
Willis hopes that the Tour of Austin, eventually developing into a five-or six-day barrage bike race - over a rolling entertainment for nonracers - which attracts some of the best riders in the country.
"We're the town with Lance and we do not really have a weekend that sticks on the national calendar," says Willis, a former champion race National Collegiate Cycling is also president of the Texas Bicycle Racing....
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