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Tour of the Valley will return, but much bigger
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Phil Moore, executive director of the Mahoning County Convention and Visitors Bureau, discusses the Summer Festival .of the Arts, the Youngstown Jazz Festival and the Tour of the Valley bicycle race Ñ all slated for July 9-11. Regional leaders are calling it ÒThe Bigges Weekend of the Summer.Ó
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Erin Quinlan of Carbon Racing discusses the 2010 Tour of the Valley bicycle race during a press conference Thursday in downtown Youngstown. The event is scheduled July 9-11.
By John Bassetti
YOUNGSTOWN
Dan Quinlan’s vision has changed in one year’s time.
No, he’s still not wearing glasses, but, since the inaugural Tour of the Valley last July, the cycling event’s co-founder sees the potential for growth and the expansion of the race’s scope.
“We’ll still pull in the pro riders and we have to do that for a few years, but, potentially, we could be one of those national cycling calendar events,” Quinlan said at a downtown press conference Thursday.
Quinlan and his wife, Erin — as principals of Carbon Racing, along with Phil Moore of the Mahoning County Convention and Visitor’s Bureau, were on hand at the old Phar-Mor building concourse to promote the 2010 Tour of the Valley, scheduled July 9-11.
In addition to the nearly 200 participants who entered the inaugural TOTV, 100 new riders are expected for 2010.
“The exposure has grown beyond Ohio this year,” Erin Quinlan said of the result of advertising on Facebook and other internet-based sites.
“We’ve had people calling from all over the country this year,” she said of inquiries that started in February. “We’ve had such huge feedback from people who liked the event and were expecting to come back this summer.”
After 2009, the Quinlans got e-mails for a month from cyclists, saying how they loved it and couldn’t wait to come back.
Again, the event comprises a three-day weekend of racing, although a greater number of pro riders is anticipated.
Changes include the elimination of Canfield as a venue for a criterium and the addition of 10 laps at the conclusion of the pro portion of the road race in Columbiana.
A junior event for competitive riders 15- to 18-year-olds has been added to each day’s schedule.
However, the event is dependant on registrant response.
“It’s a smaller population of kids who race at that level,” Erin Quinlan said.
The prize money has nearly doubled from $12,000 to $20,000.
“That’s quite an increase,” Dan Quinlan said. “It also helps when applying for national-level events because of minimum prize-list requirements.”
Besides attracting more high-caliber racers, the communities benefit from the trickle-down effect.
“The goal of half of the racers is to pay for their weekend,” Quinlan said. “They don’t profit a lot, but it helps defer expenses of traveling and racing. So, most of that money they win probably ends up being spent here.”
With one year under their belts the Quinlans made some technical modifications to the race logistics.
“We learned how to run the course, how to spread riders out as far as times go and how to score,” Erin Quinlan said, noting that times instead of points will determine winners and standings.
“Last year, we found it difficult keeping track of all the points, so scoring will be based on times this year. Winners will be those who have the best times.”
Some of the confusion arose from the disparity between riders who competed in the entire slate of the weekend’s races and those who didn’t.
“We’ll now have the option of requiring pre-registration for the whole weekend, yet allow anyone who wants to do an individual event to do so.”