The Tour of Battenkill was very close to be canceled due to the withdrawal of former sponsor Global Foundaries. But with some quick work by Dieter Drake the race has been saved, and not a second too soon. Drake has secured PepsiCo as the new sponsor and the race will go on as planned in New York on April 18th.

“I approached them back in January after we lost our presenting sponsor from last year during the Christmas holiday,” Drake said. “With some persistence, they were receptive to talking about it. Selling a bicycle race is not an easy task but with a large, multi-billion dollar company like Pepsi it worked out.”

Drake talked about the challenges of talking with Global Foundaries and the difficulty in being able to communicate with the new management. “GlobalFoundries had some leadership changes that had an effect on our ability to communicate the event and cycling in general to them,” Drake said. “They are also in a difficult phase where they are not generating revenue for themselves, as I understand it.”

You can be sure that the commitment of PepsiCo is a huge relief for Drake, and he no doubt is happy that the race will go on. “It’s huge,” Drake said. “We now have a globally known retail sponsor. I can’t think of a better position to be in. Since we’re short on time for 2010, we haven’t had time to workout the long-term details. It’s my mission to grow the exposure and stature of the event internationally and Pepsi can make that happen.”

PepsiCo will be sponsor the whole two weeks of racing, starting with Pro/AM and the womens racing on April 10th.

“I think it would be difficult for us to present it in any other way,” Drake said. “The UCI event is, of course, the marquee race with the biggest exposure, but we’ve also got more than 2000 amateurs and their families coming for the Pro/Am. That’s a lot of people for them to get their name and products out there so it makes sense to give them that exposure too.”

“The goal of the race is to boost our regional economy and this just makes sense,” Drake said. “Both the Pro/Am and the UCI race are huge undertakings on their own and we needed time in between to get everything right.”

“The number of racers on the road for the Pro/Am is not something to take lightly,” he added. “The details and logistics for that alone boggles the mind. So that needed its own weekend. Also, having the UCI race the following weekend allows us to use the week in between for some outreach-type events to local schools and sponsors.”