Bike Fort Collins

BY TREVOR HUGHES
TrevorHughes@coloradoan.com

The 2008 and 2009 national collegiate cycling championships are coming to Fort Collins, bringing with it 500 racers each May to the city selected because of its bike-friendly attitude and scenic courses.

The Colorado State University's cycling club, boosted by local enthusiasts and business leaders, worked to secure the event, which will include competitions in a time trial, road race and a downtown criterium. USA Cycling is sponsoring the championships, which will take place May 9-11 of each year.

T.G. Taylor, president of Rams Cycling, the CSU collegiate club sports team, said picking the courses was easy.

"They're the courses we like to ride every day, and courses we knew it would be possible to run a race on," said Taylor, a CSU graduate student.

For the most part, the courses are the ones used by the Fort Collins Cycling Festival, although Taylor said they had to modify the courses to eliminate some of the hills, especially in Rist Canyon.

While cyclists from, say, Florida, are as fit an any from Fort Collins, they just aren't used to riding down hills, Taylor said.

USA Cycling was "worried it was too challenging for people who had never ridden up a mountain, let alone down one," he said. "In Florida, their idea of a hill is an overpass."

Taylor said he and other club members put out feelers earlier this year and quickly found support from the cycling festival and the Fort Collins Convention and Visitor's Bureau. Taylor said he's trying to make the CSU cycling club the best in the nation. It was named national collegiate club of the year for 2007 by USA Cycling.

"We live in such a great town ... and we came up with the idea that if we want our team to be the best team, we want to host the premier cycling event," Taylor said. "The next thing you know, we had a meeting of 15 people who wanted to help bring this thing to Fort Collins."

Taylor said the group is still seeking local sponsors and community members to help with the event.

Larimer County manager Frank Lancaster on Friday afternoon said the group does not yet have a required permit for the races and gently reminded them to get one quickly.

"This is a great event to have here in our community, and we're looking forward to hosting the championships," Lancaster added.

Fort Collins is a nationally recognized "Bicycle Friendly City" by the League of American Bicyclists. This week, it hosted a winter Bike to Work Day that drew about 100 participants. The summer version typically brings in about 1,800 cyclists to 16 breakfast stations around town.