Don’t be surprised to see some cross-pollination between the Tour de France and the Amgen Tour of California during the French grand tour this July.

Amgen Tour organizers AEG Sports have signed a marketing partnership with Amaury Sports Organization (ASO), the French owners and promoters of events such as the Tour, Paris-Nice, Paris-Roubaix and Liège-Bastogne-Liège, the two organizers will announce Monday.

Beginning with the upcoming Tour and the 2009 Amgen Tour, the multi-year agreement will see AEG help ASO sell sponsorship packages in the U.S, while ASO will help AEG expand its television and media distribution internationally.

The partnership will leverage marketing assets and media associated with each event, including on-site visibility as well as broadcast components. AEG Sports president Andrew Messick characterized the deal as ASO and AEG “working together to promote each other’s races.”

The Amgen Tour began in 2006 and immediately assumed its place as the biggest stage race in North America, having drawn ProTour stars over the years such as Paolo Bettini, Tom Boonen, Oscar Freire, Mario Cipollini, Cadel Evans and Ivan Basso, as well as top Americans Floyd Landis, Levi Leipheimer, George Hincapie, Dave Zabriskie and Bobby Julich.

“The Tour of California is still a brand-new event on the cycling calendar but one with a promising future ahead of it,” said Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme. “At ASO we are particularly pleased to be able to provide this event with our support. We believe that it is also our duty to participate in the worldwide promotion and expansion of the sport of cycling and the development of constantly evolving new races, like the Amgen Tour of California.”

The first edition of the Amgen Tour was broadcast nightly on ESPN2; the second and third years the race was broadcast daily on the Versus cable channel. AEG isn’t concealing the fact that it would like to see the race broadcast across the world, which would greatly increase both its visibility and sponsorship marketability.

“We are working hard to expand the profile of our race,” Messick said. “We have aspirations to be an important event on the global cycling calendar. We’re very pleased with a chance to partner with an organization like ASO. There is no one better than them in terms of running or organizing a race, and we think there is a lot to learn from them. This is a big step.”

At the 2008 edition of the Tour of California speculation was rife that the event might aspire to become a UCI ProTour event, particularly after UCI president Pat McQuaid visited and praised the race, saying, “By and large, there is no doubt that this is the biggest and best race in the U.S. There is really no limit to the amount of days to which this race could grow. There are only three grand tours at the moment, but there is no reason why there couldn’t be more; this race is certainly a good candidate.”

Messick halted at proclaiming AEG hoped to develop the Amgen Tour into a ProTour event, saying that AEG values the participation of domestic-based non-ProTour teams for the development of American cycling.

Like many event organizers, AEG is also in the awkward position of waiting to see what happens in the complicated power struggle between ASO and the UCI.

The 2008 season has seen ASO align itself with Giro organizers RCS, buy a stake in the Vuelta España and express interest in the Tour of Germany. In recent weeks ASO has been circulating a proposal to restructure pro road cycling among event organizers; it appears to be an attempt to create its own top-flight European pro cycling calendar.

On Wednesday the UCI announced a new Russian stage race for its 2009 ProTour calendar that overlaps with the Giro. The UCI also discussed moving the world road cycling championships from the end of September to the end of August, which could clash with the Vuelta.

Which direction the Amgen Tour would go remains to be seen, Messick said.

“I think everyone understands that the tier-one races are the three grand tours and the five monuments,” he said. “What races are in tier two and tier three is of enormous importance to us. Whether or not we buy into this larger vision of where cycling is going, and how it’s going to be administered, is a different and altogether more complicated question.”

Messick added that he didn’t see AEG’s partnership with ASO as choosing one side over another.

“That isn’t the case,” Messick said. “I characterize [the agreement with ASO] as a commercial relationship. We can keep those as separate things. We’d like our race to be broadcast in 100 countries, If ASO can help us distribute the TV rights, if we can come to a financial agreement that makes sense for both of us, from a television and media distribution perspective, then we’d like to do that.”

In related news, VeloNews has learned that Tour of California title sponsor Amgen has renewed its support for three additional years, with an additional two-year option. Amgen’s initial three-year commitment had come up following this year’s event, but Messick confirmed that Amgen is behind AEG’s efforts to grow the race, including the possibility of adding more stages, perhaps in San Diego, which Messick said is a long-term goal.

Messick added that both Amgen and ASO fully support AEG’s anti-doping initiatives, announced prior to this year’s edition, which called for stringent blood and urine testing, and for all teams participating to ensure their riders, trainers, support staff and doctors were clear of any active doping investigations.

“What is important is that our partners are behind us,” Messick said. “I think the teams are behind us, and we believe we are fighting the good fight regarding anti-doping. We are trying to do everything in our power to make sure that people understand that the sport is credible, the sport is serious about cleaning itself up, and that we have no tolerance for people that think there are easy ways out.”