Currently it appears that all 20,000 entrants will do a ‘neutral lap’ with Lance, followed by a 10 lap 25 mile road race on the 500 oval. It will NOT be on the formula 1 track.

Whoever is the winner will be added to the Discovery Team for 1 event, the upcoming pro-criterium nationals.

It appears that you do not need a pro license to do the event.

I too, have concerns about the event. my biggest concern is that the riders that actually have a chance of winning will do the 25 miles in 50 minutes or so. For the rest of us, averaging 15 mph, we will get lapped 3-4 times, and Grandma, will get lapped 5-6 times.

How do you score an event with 20,000 riders on 6 different laps?

As for the contest itself, the Yahoo new article mentioned that one “eligible” rider would win the chance to compete at the national championships, which I take as some bozo who already has a pro license, but wants to ride around the Brickyard with 20,000 of his closest friends.

On the larger point of corporate promotion of the sport, I think there is another aspect in the desire to elevate cycling to the level of a mainstream sport capable of competing with the big four, rather than promoting it as the basically niche interest that it is (at least in the U.S.)

Discovery Channel can be given something as a pass on this — afterall they were likely sold at least half a bill of goods in thinking that Lance had several years left in him, rather than one. After having jumped on the bandwagon, no wonder they’d like to see it rolling again, so why not combine the sport with the enormous popularity of American Idol?

But its a company like Nike that could be doing more, but isn’t. To be sure, Nike’s interest in the sport was originally flirtatous, and they did attempt to withdraw from sponsorship of the Tour (and then try and license out their commitment to another apparel manufacturer). But if there is one think Nike loves, it is a winner, so when Lance came along, they went full throttle. And I think they deserve a lot of the credit for elevating the popular coverage of the sport — not just through their ad campaigns, but more importantly through the heavy lifting the company can do behind the scenes to get their athletes time in the spotlight.

But with the retirement of Lance, where is Nike now? Compare their approach to cycling with their much longer-term approach to the World Cup (of soccer). There they embraced its niche — or cult — status, including it’s international flavor, and devised ad campaigns highlighting the exotic European and Latin stars that would dominate the non-American sports stage for three weeks in June. With the emergence of the U.S. team in the last World Cup, they now too have a more domestically-focused campaign (“Now No One Wants to Play Us”).

A similar approach would see the company sign up and promote the younger, English-speaking (even if as second- third- or fourth-languages) riders like Boonen, Basso, and Valverde and try and build awareness around them. In that way, too, they’d be better positioned to leverage the next great American rider — one who will be revealed through the rigors of European competition, not some cheesy promotion in Indianapolis.