Organizers of the USA Pro Challenge have scheduled a media conference Tuesday amid speculation that the tour will add women’s racing to this year’s event.
After last year’s tour, Pro Challenge chief executive Shawn Hunter talked about his desire to expand the tour and brought up the possibility of women’s races.
“Probably next year we will have a women’s component to the Pro Challenge,” Hunter said at the time.
The Tour of California has four women’s stages, and the Tour of Utah has two. The fifth Pro Challenge will be held Aug. 17-23, beginning in Steamboat Springs and ending in Denver with stops at Arapahoe Basin, Copper Mountain, Aspen, Breckenridge and Golden.
“We want to be very careful,” Hunter said at the tour’s closing news conference last August. “We’re on our five-year plan to break even, and I’m proud to say we’re getting there. We will expand over time. We will do it very prudently.
“Cycling is one of the only sports that has a global footprint. We’ve got to do it very carefully, but we’re going to keep building.”
John Meyer: jmeyer@denverpost.com or
