There's a picture I can't seem to get out of my head during the final countdown to the Tour of Alberta.

Two cowboys. Surrounded by a couple hundred head of cattle. Sitting slumped in their saddles near a fence. Each with a strand of straw hanging from between their teeth.

Whoosh!

One hundred and twenty cyclists, in their bright uniforms adorned with European ads, fly by in the peloton in a blur within a span of six or seven seconds. And they're gone.

One cowboy looks at the other and says “Well, Slim, ya figure we got our money's worth there?”

That's going to be the first question when the Tour of Alberta, which launches in Edmonton Tuesday and begins it's run through the Roamin' Empire Wednesday in Sherwood Park, comes to a conclusion next Sunday in Calgary.

Was it worth $6 million in cash and another million in public services to run a bunch of bikes through 10 Alberta centres and a whole lot of Alberta countryside where the four legged critters watching could out-number the two?

The biggest chunk of the money is $3.5 million from the provincial government's Rural Alberta Development Fund. Another $500,000 comes from Travel Alberta. Add another $500,000 from local organizing communities such as Sherwood Park (which contributed $125,000). Tourism, Parks & Recreation tossed in $250,000. Culture put up another $250,000. That's all public money.

The other million came from corporate sponsorships.

Whoosh!

It's easy to see all that money blowing into the wind as the cyclists fly by.

The thing is, though, once those big cheques are written, it's free!

Click here for a map of the Tour of Alberta's Edmonton road closures

“It's the first time I worked an event before where I didn't have to sell tickets,” said Duane Vienneau, executive director of the event who held the same position with Grey Cup 2010 in Edmonton.

There is a huge market these days, especially for families, for free festival type entertainment involving communities coming together. And that's what this would be if people embrace it. If it all comes together it would be like one big, giant provincial picnic and tailgate party.

But that's a big if.

Will the fans fill the festival areas for the starts and finishes each day and line the routes through the province for an event that, at least in the beginning, they can't really relate to?

Will it become Halloween at every stop with people dressing up in crazy costumes as they try to get on TV like they do in the rest of the world?

Will they come out to see Ryder Hesjedal, the first Canadian to win a Grand Tour event at the 2012 Giro d'Italiana. Will they want to get a glimpse of Cadel Evans, the winner of the 2011 Tour de France? Will they want to get look at Peter Sagan who is second in the world point standings and won four of seven stages in the recent Tour of Colorado?

They're the famous riders in the inaugural Tour de Alberta. But does famous count for much to an audience which wouldn't recognize those guys if they delivered their newspaper in the morning?

And how can this be promoted as such a high calibre competition if there are three big cycling tours in the world, the Tour de France, the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a Espana and the latter will be going on at the same time as this race?

The big selling point to government tourism agencies is television component. Two hours live, two hours prime time replay and a one hour package program every day for six days on Rogers Sportsnet. And worldwide distribution by IMG delivering 168 million households in 162 countries is the hook.

Putting something on TV is one thing. Having people choose to watch it is another. Last year's Tour de Colorado is said to have the lowest rating of any sports event on NBC in the month of August. On the other hand, the real audience is the one from around the rest of the world and the promotional and advertising time you just can't buy.

There are other questions.

Like the dates. The race starts in Edmonton on the first day of school. While school kids will line the route in Fort Saskatchewan on Wednesday as the stage begins in Sherwood Park and ends in Camrose and continues the following day starting in Devon en route to Red Deer, it's no longer the lazy, hazy days of summer but a hectic, stressful time of year for most people.

And why start in Edmonton and end in Calgary during the week when the football beat peaks with the Eskimos in Calgary Monday and the Stampeders in Edmonton Friday? Why isn't it the other way around so people could combine football and the Tour of Alberta in tandem?

And if the whole idea of this is to show of Alberta to the world, how come it's not going anywhere near Banff or Jasper or one of the most scenic stretches of highway in the world between the two?

It's a fascinating experiment to see if a phenomenon which creates such spectacular scenes in Europe can be transferable to Western Canada culture.

Is it folly? Or the start of something special?

It is such a foreign concept. Will it work? Will people actually fill downtown Edmonton Tuesday for the festival and two hours of time trials?

Lets start there.

Vienneau admits that what happens Tuesday as the event begins in Edmonton could have huge impact in what happens in the rest of the tour. If there's a “Wow, that was fun” response and big crowds, there could be a domino effect. With no significant scene for starters, it could have the opposite effect.

“The first impression in Edmonton and Sherwood Park is going to be huge,” said Vienneau. “It sets the tone.”

He compares it to the 100th Grey Cup Train, a project he was involved with for the Eskimos, and how the scene in Edmonton helped launch similar scenes to follow.

The time trial in Edmonton, at least, isn't a seven second whoosh in the countryside. It's two hours on a closed circuit. For two hours the cyclists leave a minute apart on the 7.3 kilometre route beginning and ending at Churchill Square and traveling down Grierson Hill, down past Telus Field, along River Valley Road and up to the Legislature and back to Churchill Square.

“You are either inside or outside the circuit and if you are in you are not getting out and if you are out you are not getting in,” said Vienneau of the stage set to begin at 6:15 p.m..

If you are “in," the man who organized the 2010 Grey Cup downtown festival which drew an estimated 100,000 on the Saturday afternoon is attempting to create something similar.

“There will be an entertainment stage and sponsor activities and it's very much like the Grey Cup,” he said of the 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. scene.

But build it, and will they come?

“We don't know. The Grey Cup has years and years of tradition.”

The goal, he said, is to draw 300,000 for the six days.

“We are going to enormous lengths to get accurate economic impact information including photographing the crowds,” he said.

The first couple days of television are also going to be crucial to launching the event.

As for the question about the calibre of the event, Tour of Alberta chairman Brian Jolly said it's an education thing.

“There are a number of tours and events going on and a lot of riders are preparing for the world championships in Florence in a couple of weeks. Our race is a perfect fit for them,” he said of competing in the Tour of Colorado and Tour of Utah leading into this event with another event in Quebec following the Alberta run.

“Instead of riding in a big tour like Spain which is a drain for 20 odd days, riders will have time to recover from something like this. We have drawn an excellent field. We couldn't have asked for a better field for our inaugural event. A 2.1 rating is the best you can get and unless you have it, you can't attract the elite teams. They can get top points here and their world ranking helps with contract discussions at the end of the year,” said Jolly, a Sherwood Park resident.

Vienneau said the government was sold on backing this with the idea – which has three-years of guaranteed support to this point – that after the fifth year, the event could be self-sustainable through corporate sponsorship.

Vienneau believes there will be changes next year.

“Next year I think our target would be to do Banff-Jasper. Because of the Rural Alberta Development Fund money, we felt it was important to run it through the communities we're visiting on the inaugural tour.”

He also said he expects they'd get with the football flow and start the race in Calgary and end in Edmonton.

Whatever, first things first. And with a daring experiment like this one, you can't help but have a little angst if you are involved in this.

“Are we nervous?” asked Jolly

“I think a lot of people are anxious to get on with it. It's a big responsibility to have something like this where we're selling the province to the world.”

The first stage is selling it to Edmonton. Then to Sherwood Park. Then to Camrose, Devon, Red Deer .... Showing it to the world is a whole other story.

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terry.jones@sunmedia.ca

Tour of Alberta routes