We all know that the Tour of California, off to a flying start with this year's picturesque, smoothly-run and exciting race, is set for the immediate future. Amgen put five years' sponsorship down, and with the way things went there is nothing stopping the race right now. As for its future amibitions, could it someday be a Pro Tour race? UCI President Pat McQuaid was in Cali this past weekend and offered the following:
In his mind, there is even the possibility that far down the road, a race like this and others outside of Europe could be included in a Pro Tour calendar. "There is no reason why not if the race keeps growing. If the Pro Tour changes as it evolves, who knows which way it could go. Already I've been approached about Pro Tour by the prime minister of South Australia - who is very much behind his race, and is prepared to invest whatever it takes to make it Pro Tour. But at the moment, with the current Pro Tour regulations, that wouldn't be possible, nor a good thing. And the same applies to here. If you have to follow the regulations, you would have to have all twenty teams here, which is no good for American cycling. We have to take it in a pragmatic way as well as a emotional way."
I gather the "not good for American Cycling" quote has to do with the importance of the ToC for domestic pro teams? Since they never had a ToC before this year, wouldn't they just be status quo? And wouldn't raising the race's profile with pro tour status generally help the sport here? Either way, these things do take time...