Cycling prepares to ride popularity

One expert said the sport needs to promote young riders.
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) -- Lance Armstrong's run of six straight Tour de France victories has raised cycling's profile in the United States to unprecedented levels.
Professional and amateur organizations say their memberships have risen steadily while millions tuned in to coverage of international racing's premier event this summer.
Now comes the real challenge. At 32, Armstrong knows he won't race too much longer and he might not even ride in the Tour de France next year.
Will the sport continue to grow after Armstrong racks his bike for the final time? Or will it wither like the women's pro soccer league that couldn't capitalize on the success of the national team's 1999 World Cup championship?
"I think it can be maintained," USA Cycling spokesman Andy Lee said. "Cycling in America has always existed. There's been a number of world-class events in America. It just hasn't been in the mainstream."
Wave of popularity
Cycling enjoyed a wave of popularity after Greg LeMond became the first American to win the Tour de France in 1986.
The Tour de Trump and its successor Tour DuPont -- which Armstrong won twice before being diagnosed with cancer -- took the sport around the country before fizzling out by 1997 in a dispute over sponsorship.
Still, there is a thriving American circuit that organizers hope to expand.
The Pro Cycling Tour has a four-month summer schedule with its marquee events in Philadelphia, New York City and San Francisco. All are one-day races.
For the races to be more popular, the sport needs to develop star power in the next generation of American cyclists, said David Chauner, president of Threshold Sports, which owns the Pro Cycling Tour.
That could include Floyd Landis, who races on Armstrong's team, and Tom Danielson, competing in his first season in Europe with an Italian team.
"We have to do like NASCAR and promote the drivers and let people know who they are," Chauner said. "Show there's more personalities and people than Lance Armstrong."
One key U.S. event is the Tour de Georgia, a six-day stage race in April that drew an estimated 748,000 spectators in its second year -- undoubtedly buoyed by the fact that Armstrong and the U.S Postal Service team raced and won.
Stan Holm, executive director of the Georgia race, boldly predicted attendance as high as 3 million next year.
"A lot of those people are coming out to see Lance Armstrong. He's a rock star," Holm said.
But he also identified what he called the "Grateful Dead" pack of hardcore cycling fans itching for a great American race like the tours in Europe, the heartland of the pro sport.