Some good quotes from 2007's press conference, for those who haven't followed the links:
"Upon entering the room, the press corps was handed a three-page information packet with mostly vague details about the race organization, but shockingly detailed information about the entire 27 stages of the race, including both start and finish cities along with dates."
"One area that received a lot of attention was the proposed course, with four stages of more than 400 kilometers each and an individual time trial of nearly 130 kilometers. The question of if the race was possible for a someone to even complete, let alone compete in, were asked. As well, the irony of such an extreme race - one that is meant to solve the problems doping scandals have caused - possibly causing riders to turn to performance enhancing substances was also mentioned."
"Beyond the money issue, the lack of logistics and local governmental support was glaring. From what Arokiasamy said, it seemed that none of the start or finish cities had signed-on to host the race, let alone any municipalities through which the race will have to travel. "We hope to have a final route by mid-March with all the cities signed-up," said Arokiasamy. "We are in negotiations with several cities and will be doing so in phases because we cannot talk to all 500 at one time. We are going to start with the major cities and then connect the dots as we go."
In the audience and asking questions was John Eustice, a veteran of both US racing and race promoting. Eustice is someone who knows how difficult it is to put on a one day race like the Univest Grand Prix, and sounded astonished that anyone would propose a race of this magnitude without serious thought into the technical aspects, such as the fact that almost the entire proposed direction of the race course will be into a headwind or that the UCI would never sanction a race like this."
I personally love the obviously strained tone as the writer tries to report on this as a serious venture. Also, the entire proposed (27 stage, 7000+km) route into a headwind! Amazing.