Now cycling enthusiasts and private sponsors are hoping to capitalize while seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong's heroics are still fresh in people's minds.

The nation's cycling officials began their push into the mainstream with the Amgen Tour of California, which began Feb. 19 in San Francisco and concludes today south of Los Angeles.

There's more. Utahns will experience the large-scale cycling test in the U.S. when the Tour of Utah is held Aug. 7-12. Billed as "America's Hardest Bike Race," the Tour of Utah is being transformed from a small event in Utah County to a multi-stage race that attracts the top U.S. cycling teams to courses in and around Salt Lake City.

Larry Miller has increased his sponsorship of the event, which now will offer a $40,000 total purse.

Tour of Utah race director Jason Preston said the goal is to become one of three major domestic multi-stage races along with the Tour of California and the Tour of Georgia.

"It's [interest in cycling] been huge," Preston said. "It's a big trend. I think some of the [state officials] wanted to jump on before someone in Colorado got a hold of it."

While smaller in prize money than the Tour of California, where sponsors have committed $35 million over the next five years, the Utah race is expected to offer an enticingly high degree of difficulty. The Tour of Utah stages have been proposed, but Preston said race officials are awaiting approval from various city officials and would not offer specific sites.

The final stage is expected to feature a climb, Preston said, that's just less than a combined 17,000 feet.

"That puts some of the Tour de France stages to shame," Preston said. "It will be a big thing."

Steve Johnson, USA Cycling's director of athletics and chief operating officer, said cycling officials are pinning their hopes on general sports fans, recreational and serious cyclists and children who want to grow up to be like Armstrong, who lives in Austin, Texas.

"He definitely put cycling on the map in America," Johnson said, "and he put cycling on the map for a lot of young Americans."

Are kids dreaming of becoming the next Armstrong, rather than the next Michael Jordan or Tom Brady? Johnson said it's a possible.

"He's proved that you can become a star as a cyclist," Johnson said. "We've seen tremendous growth with racing memberships, especially among young people."

One thing both races have going for them is television coverage, albeit in limited packages at this point.

ESPN2 has shown a nightly highlight package of the Tour of California, while KJZZ will produce a 30-minute nightly recap on the Tour of Utah in prime time.

Organizers believe that the Tour of California will become America's version of the Tour de France. The United States hasn't played host to a major multi-stage race with a deep-pockets sponsor since the Tour DuPont folded in 1996.

Amgen, a biotechnology company, is backing the 600-mile Tour of California for three years.

"That's important," Johnson said of the purse money while failing to hold back laughter. "That helps."

Johnson said the money won't be the lone drawing card for the world's best cyclists. He believes that the Tour of California will be on par with multi-stage races in Europe, and that others in the United States, like the Tour of Utah, will follow suit.

"We absolutely want to lead by example," said Johnson, who noted that there's no such thing as a closed venue for road racing. "It's problematic to have an event this size with road closures and other things. It's important to have the community on board. California has been tremendously helpful in making this is a reality."

The Tour of California has succeeded in attracting the sport's top names. Olympus High graduate Dave Zabriskie, Rowland Hall-St. Mark's alumnus Levi Leipheimer and American standouts Floyd Landis and George Hincapie are among the participants, and eight top European teams have been riding this week.

Landis wore the yellow jersey after five stages and Zabriskie was in second. Crowd estimates were at 680,000 spectators after the first five days, putting it on pace to set records for the highest attendance ever for a

cycling event held in the United States.

"The course has all the ingredients to test all the riders at this stage of the year," Tour of California race director Jim Birrell told the International Herald Tribune. "That helped us attract so many European teams and have them bring their 'A' squads over."

In earlier multi-stage races in the United States, such as the Tour de Trump, which folded in 1989, and the Tour Du Pont, European teams tended to send over their second-ranked riders. The Tour of California squads feature the best Americans, but along European stars like Jens Voigt and Gilberto Simono.

"If the fans don't turn out for this, they won't turn out for anything," Christian Vande Velde, an American rider with the CSC team from Denmark, told the Herald Tribune.

Tour of California

It's an eight-day, 600-mile multi-stage race, which started in San Francisco on Feb. 19 with a 1.9-mile sprint. The event finishes today with a circuit race in Redondo Beach, Calif. The race features more than 120 riders from 16 top international cycling teams, including Utahn David Zabriskie. It also includes powerhouse teams like CSC, Discovery (Lance Armstrong's old team), Phonak and others.

Tour of Utah

The revamped, 600-mile multi-stage race is scheduled for Aug. 7-12. The stages are being worked out between race and city officials. Proposals have been made for stages in downtown Salt Lake City, the Miller Motor Park in Tooele, Provo, Mount Nebo and Park City. Organizers are hoping to attract the nation's top teams with challenging courses and a $40,000 total purse.

Tour of Georgia

It's a six-stage, 650-mile race, starting in Augusta, Ga., on April 18 and culminating in Alpharetta, Ga., on April 23. It bills itself as the nation's highest-ranked cycling stage race. Last year's race was contested by 16 elite teams, comprised of six UCI ProTour teams, two Professional Continental teams and eight UCI America Tour Continental teams.