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Fort Collins area bidding for USA Pro Cycling Challenge stage

published 9 November 2012

Colorado towns unite to host growing race

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The 2011 USA Pro Cycling Challenge final podium (L-R): Tejay van Garderen, 3rd; Levi Leipheimer, 1st; Christian Vande Velde, 2nd (Image credit: Jonathan Devich)

The Colorado Front Range towns of Fort Collins, Loveland and Windsor, together with Estes Park, the home of the Rocky Mountain National Park headquarters, are working together to bid to host the 2013 USA Pro Cycling Challenge. The news comes on the heels of an announcement by the Boulder local organising committee in the Denver Post that they would not submit a bid for the 2013 race.

Jim Clark of the Fort Collins Conventions and Visitors Bureau wrote in the local cycling website YourGroupRide.com describing the efforts to bring the popular race to the area for the first time.

"For the last couple of years, we've had the chance to be an observer of this event. In the long run, I think it's been advantageous," Clark wrote, noting that in the past two years of the race's existence, Fort Collins did not have the budget to undertake a stage.

"The cost of producing an event that drew the world's top cyclists and one million spectators to 12 Colorado towns this year is much greater in a city than in a resort town, especially when it comes to securing intersections. With all due respect to my friends in towns like Gunnison or Steamboat Springs, there just aren't that many stoplights in either town."

By bringing four towns together, the bid became a reality.

"There is no guarantee we will win. However, I believe we'll make a compelling case. We'll propose that the race begin at The Ranch, head out through Windsor, traverse Loveland, go through Estes Park and finish in downtown Fort Collins."

The bid will be delivered to Medalist Sports, organiser of the USA Pro Cycling Challenge, by bicycle messenger in a ceremony that includes a public ride to escort the messenger on November 16, starting in Loveland and ending in Denver, about 70 miles away.