USA Pro Cycling Challenge the worst thing to happen to Fort Collins
“When giant stretches of much-needed roads are closed, people panic, looking for ways to get to their destination. If they were like me, one dead end led to another, and another and so-on until there were lengthy backups and people driving like maniacs to get around town.”
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The day Fort Collins died.
On Saturday, our lovely little town was halted by something foreign; a bike race.
Speaking of foreign, I don’t usually poo-poo sports, but this thing stinks worse than munster cheese, wine and cigarette breath.
The USA Pro Challenge took over Fort Fun this afternoon and created nightmares on the roads, shutting down major stretches of crucial pavement, even closing part of I-25 this morning.
Cars stopped in the thousands for a few hundred mostly European men on bikes?
What a silly concept.
I’ll preface this much; I love riding my bike, and part of the town’s roads are closed every year for Tour de Fat – a sweet bike parade put on by New Belgium – and Fort Collins is a bike-rider’s Mecca.
Still, with Tour de Fat – which comes next Saturday – we already know the route and which roads will be closed. Plus, those road closures are on less important ones – Mountain instead of Mulberry etc. – and a much smaller portion of them are closed, in the morning.
This was a Saturday afternoon, during rush hour.
It was the worst traffic I’ve experienced in 10 years of living here, possibly the worst in the history of the city, due to so much of it being closed for these bikers.
Traffic was terrible, so much so, safety became a concern.
When giant stretches of much-needed roads are closed, people panic, looking for ways to get to their destination. If they were like me, one dead end led to another, and another and so-on until there were lengthy backups and people driving like maniacs to get around town.
To make matters worse, there were thousands – and I mean thousands – of men, women and children out on their bicycle, heading to the finish line in Old Town.
So, take hundreds of cars forced to go around crazy road closures, and add in thousands of bikers hurrying to make it to Old Town in time for the finish and you have a recipe for disaster.
While I haven’t heard of anyone being hurt – and I certainly hope no one was during the mayhem – I wouldn’t be surprised if some bikers were bumped or even hit hard by cars.
People worry the proposed on-campus football stadium on Colorado State’s campus will muck-up traffic? This was way worse than any gameday I’ve experienced. In Denver or FoCo.
It took me an hour to drive the three miles that took me seven minutes this morning.
That’s insane, and even crazier, I had to swerve out of the way of kids veering into traffic and out of their bike lanes as well as those bicyclists that think they own the road.
Of course, I’m well within the minority when being against this race; the majority of Fort Collins and others loved it, no doubt.
Top-notch local sports anchor Susie Wargin – who loves to ride her bike and dress in those stylish nylon outfits – was one. She loved the race and hopes it returns for many years in the future.
She tweeted, “#NoCoCyclingmade Stage 6 magic! Huge crowds everywhere. Here’s to many returns of the #ProChallenge!!”
Will it be back? Probably.
Should it be back? Sure.
But, use Mountain instead of Mulberry, find a way to close smaller roads and in smaller chunks so we can still get around our city.
Safety was in question and all for a sport that most of us know little about.
Stay cool, Fort Collins.
Don’t let more foreigners take you over.
