The Tour de Georgia will return for a fourth installment in April of 2006, and for the second straight year Fayetteville will be a host city. The tour will depart from Fayetteville on Wednesday, April 19 and will travel to Rome, Ga.

This year’s race brought thousands of viewers along the route which started in Fayetteville and passed through Peachtree City and Tyrone on its way past sights in Coweta and south Fulton counties.

The biggest attraction was cyclist Lance Armstrong, who won his seventh consecutive Tour de France after participating in the Tour de Georgia. Armstrong has since retired from professional racing.

Fifteen professional cycling teams from around the world, each with eight athletes, will be extended special invitations to participate in the Tour de Georgia.

Professional athletes from 24 countries rode in the race in 2005 and the Tour expects a formal announcement of participating teams in early 2006.

Details for each of the six stages, including mileage, elevation profiles, sprint lines, and king of the mountain climbs, are in the final planning process. New information regarding stage details and host city festivities will be released in the coming weeks.

“The Tour de Georgia is a showcase event for our state and continues to gain momentum each year. For a full week in April, all 11 of the host cities in Georgia, our friends to the north in Chattanooga, and all the communities in between, will partner together for festivals and events which add to the positive economic impact created by the Tour de Georgia,” said Governor Sonny Perdue, in a release issued Tuesday afternoon.

The Tour de Georgia continues to be more than a tune-up to the Tour de France. For the Georgian population, the Tour spreads the message about a different race: the battle against cancer. The Tour continues its partnership with the Georgia Cancer Coalition (GCC) to support its objectives and messages of clinical trials and survivorship.

For more information on the 2006 Tour de Georgia, visit www.tourdegeorgia.com. Links are provided on the Web site for individuals to plan trips to the Tour or register to become a volunteer.

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