Approximately 3,500 cyclists, support staff and fans will converge June 19 at the University of Colorado at Boulder to begin the 431-mile Ride The Rockies bicycle tour.
Registration, seminars, food and entertainment will be available on campus from 9:30 a.m. until 9 p.m. Organizers expect about 850 tour participants to camp in designated areas on campus June 19. All Ride The Rockies events, except for the bicycle tour and camping, are open to the public.
The bicycle tour begins June 20 with opening ceremonies at 7 a.m. in campus lot 430, across from the Coors Events Center on Regent Drive. Motorists can expect very brief traffic stops as the initial group of 400-500 cyclists leaves Boulder around 7:30 a.m. From Regent Drive and Colorado Avenue, the riders will move west with a police escort to Folsom Street, north to Jay Road, east to U.S. 36 and north out of town, eventually turning west at Left Hand Canyon.
A total of 2,000 riders will spend six days pedaling from Boulder to Estes Park, then Steamboat Springs and will finish in Idaho Springs on June 25.
Created by The Denver Post in 1986, Ride The Rockies is a noncompetitive event that annually attracts riders ages eight to 82 from all over the United States and as many as 18 foreign countries. Organizers receive twice as many rider applications as there are spots available, so participants are selected by lottery drawing. Winners were notified in March.
Different routes through Colorado are chosen each year. This year's event is only the second time there has been an overnight tour stop in Boulder.
"We are very excited to be visiting CU and Boulder again this year," said tour director Paul Balaguer. "We look forward to another great experience for all the cyclists and our hosts."
Host communities provide inexpensive community meals, entertainment and lodging. In the past, riders have spent an average of $175,000 per day in each community along the tour. Organizers said Ride The Rockies annually generates more than $1.5 million in tourism business for the state. The tour also attracts extensive local and some national media coverage.
CU-Boulder's Community Relations Office and the Boulder Convention and Visitor Bureau have joined forces to coordinate the 2004 tour start in Boulder.
On June 19, University Memorial Center Catering will provide lunch on Observatory Field from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., and dinner on the lawn outside of the University Club from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. Breakfast the next morning will be served at Observatory Field from 5 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. A variety of low-cost items will be available at all the meals.
Room 100 of the Mathematics Building, located just south of the intersection of Colorado and Folsom, will host a number of seminars and guest speakers June 19. Dr. Deb St. Phard of the CU Health Sciences Center and University Sports Medicine in Denver and Bob Cranny of Wardenburg Student Health Center will make presentations at 1 p.m. and 2 p.m., respectively. At 4:30 p.m., Olympic cycling medalist and U.S. National Champion Ron Kiefel will speak along with Dr. Andrew Pruitt, director of the Boulder Center for Sports Medicine.
CU-Boulder Vice Chancellor Paul Tabolt and Boulder Mayor Will Toor will offer remarks at the 7 a.m. opening ceremony on June 20 just before cyclists take to the road.
Cyclists will have the option of parking their cars in campus lot 436, north of the Regent Drive Autopark, for the duration of the tour at a cost of $15.
Proceeds from Ride The Rockies benefit Post-News Charities. CU-Boulder's ArtsBridge program, which sends outstanding CU-Boulder arts students to metro area school districts to help teach art classes, was awarded $5,000 by the Post-News Community grant group. Since 2001, the grant group has awarded funds to nonprofit agencies based in Ride The Rockies host communities that serve children and promote literacy.
For more information about Ride The Rockies, call the tour office at (303) 820-1338, or CU-Boulder Community Relations at (303) 492-8384, or visit .