Denver’s Gart family is joining Colorado-based heirs to the Walmart fortune in an attempt to revive professional bike racing in Colorado.
Ken Gart, tasked with shepherding Gov. John Hickenlooper’s $100 million “Pedal Colorado” biking plan, said Tuesday that he had corralled “business and community leaders” to create a new professional bike racing series based in Denver and Richmond, Va., where the 2015 UCI Road World Championships were held.
Four-day races are planned in both states next summer, running from hubs in Richmond and Denver. Gart said the series will feature national musical acts, a festival, athlete interaction, mass-participation events and “spoke events,” like a long-stage in the mountains or a one-day hill climb spinning off from the main event.
“We have assembled a group of community-minded investors as well as a strong leadership team whose sole mission is to broaden the enthusiasm for cycling,” Gart, who is chairman of the new RPM Events Group, said in a statement. “This new bike series will provide communities with sustainable, engaging cycling events for participants and fans to enjoy.”
RPM Events Group is backed by these investors: the Gart family, Liberty Global, David Koff, a partner at InterMedia Partners investment fund and former executive at Liberty Media, and Denver philanthropist Ben Walton, a grandson of Walmart founder Sam Walton. Tim Miller, who led Virginia’s 2010 bid to land the 2015 Road World Championships, will serve as chief operating officer for the group.
Professional cycling has a long history of failing in the United States. Most recently, the popular USA Pro Challenge folded after struggling to land deep-pocketed sponsors to support the seven-day traverse across Colorado that lured as many as 1 million spectators every August from 2010 to 2015. Similar multi-stage tours featuring the biggest names in professional cycling in Georgia and Missouri have foundered in the last decade. Only the Amgen Tour of California, owned by Denver billionaire Philip Anschutz, and the Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah have persisted.
The cost of moving an entire city of athletes, organizers and support teams across Colorado every night for six nights proved expensive and the USA Pro Challenge bled cash.
RPM Events Group hopes that enlisting public participation in the racing and anchoring annual events out of Denver and Richmond will keep costs down, forging a sustainable model that could revive pro racing in the U.S.
“We are shifting our thinking away from week-long stage races to a hub and series concept to contain costs, open up new revenue streams and create exciting and engaging community events,” said RPM Events Group CEO Koff, in a statement. “While the format is different, we are deeply indebted to and respectful of the previous efforts in Colorado and Virginia and hope to build on their success.”
The USA Pro Challenge pumped more than $100 million into the Colorado economy as a quarter-million out-of-state spectators chased the race across the mountains, stopping overnight in towns like Steamboat Springs, Aspen, Vail, Breckenridge and Crested Butte. The 2015 world championships in Richmond generated $170 million statewide, drawing an estimated 645,000 spectators and spreading the event to 142 million television viewers in September 2015.
“Cycling is a deep part of our health-conscious tradition in Colorado, as well as a significant driver of our economic growth and tourism industry. We are excited that professional racing will continue in our state,” Hickenlooper said in a statement. “The fact that this new endeavor is being led by a group of well-established, savvy investors who are passionate about their communities and the sport, gives us an enormous amount of confidence and pride.”
Details are thin as the RPM Events Group petitions both USA Cycling and the UCI for sanctioning and a spot on the international race calendar. Medalist Sports, which operated the USA Pro Challenge, has been tapped to manage the event, which organizers hope to place around the same August timeframe as the Pro Challenge. The locations of the Denver festival and possible day-events in the mountains were not disclosed. More details — like the dates, locations, registration for the citizens ride and the festival plans — will be released when USA Cycling and UCI approve and schedule the race.
