Valley leaders to pitch area as major bike tour stop

Four weeks and a lot of work

A group of local cycling enthusiasts, businesspeople and politicians are quickly shifting into high gear to try to land one of the host sites for a new professional cycling stage race that will hit Colorado next August. An initial meeting of two dozen people from Crested Butte, Gunnison and Mt. Crested Butte was held Monday and all were enthusiastic about trying to be a part of the event.

As announced last week by Governor Bill Ritter and cycling star Lance Armstrong, the tour of Colorado is expected to draw the world’s top cyclists after they complete the Tour de France.
The route of the Quiznos Pro Challenge is not yet mapped out. Organizers are taking proposals from various towns and will decide the route in September. The race is scheduled for August 22-28, 2011. Armstrong said the race would include mountain and urban settings like the old Coors Classic.
“This is an exciting opportunity and I think we are uniquely positioned to put this on,” said Crested Butte-Mt. Crested Butte Chamber of Commerce events director Scott Still. “It will take a lot of work but I think we can do it.”
Crested Butte restaurateur Peter Maxwell was an original participant in organizing the similar Tour of Missouri when he lived in Kansas City. An avid biker, he and his wife, Molly, say hosting such an event can bring tremendous rewards to the valley.
“Cycling is part of the culture in Colorado and this can help get the word out about this part of the state,” Maxwell said. “It will take a lot of heavy lifting to get this done with the RFP [request for proposals] due in four weeks but a lot of towns will be trying to host one of the seven stages.”
Maxwell said his research has showed that it will take about 250 hotel rooms for participants on the day of an event. Food will need to be supplied. Porta-potties will have to be available. Coordination will have to take place between the towns, the police, the state highway patrol and communities in general. He said it would cost between $75,000 and $100,000 to host an event and that’s if they get 25 to 50 donated hotel rooms and a price break for the rest.
“Molly and I will pledge $5,000 and I will contact food suppliers to see if they would be willing to help, but we’ll need everyone to step up and pledge money or services to make this happen,” Maxwell said.
Crested Butte Mountain Resort chief operating officer Ken Stone said the resort would jump in and support the event. They control hundreds of hotel rooms on the mountain. “This is a tremendous opportunity for the community,” Stone said. “The ski area is fully supportive of this effort and we’ll help. It’s a great way to put our best foot forward. As for the rooms, we are ready to use all our resources to help attract a stage of the race.”
Maxwell agreed that getting the tour would showcase the valley. “This will probably get picked up on the Versus television network,” he said. “They’ll use helicopters and have thorough coverage. It will really show off how beautiful it is in this part of the state and an international audience will see it. You can expect some international teams to participate and it will attract cycling enthusiasts to the valley. It’s not free publicity but it’s cheap.”
Maxwell said the valley could expect to see 7,000 to 10,000 additional visitors if a stage finishes in the area. He would expect a boost in business for several days beforehand as organizers arrive to help set up the site.
“There will be a group from Medalist Sports that will come in and be very helpful,” Maxwell explained. “If we get awarded a stage there’s a playbook that you just fill in the blanks. They’re very good at letting us know what is needed.”
Maxwell said that if one of the tour stages finished in Mt. Crested Butte, for example, the tour wouldn’t likely start from there the next day. The start might, for example, take place in Buena Vista. He said it would probably be better to host a finish than a start. “With a finish we can create a festival atmosphere up on the mountain,” he suggested.
There was preliminary discussion about which sort of race and route to suggest to the state organizers. Back in the mid-1980s, the towns of Crested Butte and Mt. Crested Butte hosted the Munsingwear Classic road bike races. Time trials were held on Highway 135. A road race was held on Highway 92 by the Black Canyon and a Criterion was hosted in Mt. Crested Butte.
There was preliminary talk at the Monday meeting about trying to be a stage of the state tour that perhaps started in Montrose and ended in Mt. Crested Butte. A similar idea was thrown out about an Aspen to Crested Butte stage.
“That would be sick,” said local cycler Dave Ochs. “Having a route that went between two epic towns would be great. Riders would be pumped and if mag-chloride is put down on Kebler, it would be fine for the racers.”
Ochs also threw out the idea of proposing a 130-mile stage that started in Crested Butte, went over Kebler Pass to Paonia, rode Highway 92 by the Black Canyon and finished in Gunnison.
Representatives of Gunnison were at the planning meeting and were also enthusiastic about the potential. It was decided that it would be a stronger proposal to the state if the three towns in the county worked together on a proposal.
Maxwell suggested getting a steering committee together that included representatives of the towns. “There will need to be a contract signed so if one or all the towns can step up to do that, it will make it easier,” he said.
“This is really exciting and we are ready to move forward,” said Mt. Crested Butte town manager Joe Fitzpatrick.
“We have a crack team ready to help,” added Crested Butte town manager Susan Parker.
“The opportunity looks great,” said Gunnison city manager Ken Coleman. “Having one strong proposal with the three communities seems the best way to go, and we agree that using Highway 92 would be a great addition.”
“Crested Butte-Gunnison is a cycling Mecca,” said Ochs. “This is a great chance to bring back an epic event.”
“This is a spectacular idea and it would be hard to believe the race organizers would skip a beautiful setting like this,” said local biker Aaron Huckstep, “but we certainly have a lot of work to do.”
“We need to let the organizers know that we have more desire to host a stage than anyone else in the state,” said Stone.
“The next four weeks will be very busy,” summed up Maxwell. “There are a lot of questions to be answered. And the better idea we have of how much money we’ll have raised toward the event, the better it will look with the proposal. Let’s see if we can get this done.”
The group will break down into various committees soon and begin the process of pulling together an extensive proposal to be considered. The RFP is due by September 10 and a decision of the route and stage hosts will be announced by the end of September.