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2007 Tour Wraps Up with a Guarantee for the Future
The Tour Down Under is helping to put South Australia on the world map and will remain as a major tourism event for the State into the future, Premier Mike Rann has guaranteed.
As the event gears up for its 10th birthday in 2008, Premier Rann says the Tour attracts thousands of tourists and generates the kind of worldwide media coverage that money cannot buy.
“No-one can take this event away from us – the State Government owns the Tour Down Under, we run the Tour Down Under and it’s ours to keep.
“We have backed up this commitment with extra funding of up to $2 million over the next four years to make the event bigger, better and even more prominent on the world stage.
“We had an expanded field of teams this year and the Tour is already the highest ranked cycling road race in the southern hemisphere, but we want to take it to even greater heights in the future.
“We are positioning the event to become one of the first ProTour races outside Europe, with a direct request already made to the President of the United Cycling Institute, Pat McQuaid.
“We want it to become the first event of the year on an expanded, more international ProTour calendar, ranked alongside some of the biggest races in Europe.”
Premier Rann says the 2007 Tour Down Under has been an outstanding success and many of the riders and their team personnel have raved about the high level of organisation.
“The riders love our event and they love coming to South Australia,” he says.
“The people of South Australia, along with thousands of interstate and overseas visitors, have also embraced the Tour as never before.
“We’ve seen massive crowds lining the track – from the East End of the city to the Barossa and, for the very first time this year, at Mannum on the Murray River.
“We’ve also seen huge numbers of cycling fans taking part in the events associated with the Tour, including a record field of 2700 riders in the Mutual Community Challenge Tour.
“The various stages of the Tour itself have been fantastic and Adelaide has been spoilt with a display of highly competitive, world class cycling.
“I want to thank the teams for their superb efforts over the past week and the many locals who have worked hard to make this event a great success once again.”
For more information please call Michele D’Aloia on 08 8463 4695.
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