Say goodbye to the USA Pro Challenge.
The professional cycling race, which twice came to Fort Collins, won’t return in 2017, the Denver Post reports. Race chief Shawn Hunter told the Post on Tuesday he is not pursuing the race next year. In February, he announced the race wouldn’t run this summer as he tried to build a new ownership structure and secure long-term investors.
“Not surprising, but it’s a big bummer,” Bob Herrfeldt, manager of The Ranch Events Complex and member of Northern Colorado’s Pro Challenge local organizing committee, told the Coloradoan. “We were lucky enough to twice host the race and I’m really proud of the work we did, these communities (Larimer County, Fort Collins, Loveland, Windsor, Estes Park) coming together. It’s amazing, really.”
The Post reports another group, led by Colorado businessman and bike czar Ken Gart, is working on a new professional biking event for 2017. The format will be different from the week-long Pro Challenge, which brought more than 100 professional cyclists through Fort Collins in 2013 and 2015.
Here’s all you need to know that sports marketers are full of it…
The Schadens spend $20 mil of their own money over FIVE years, and the ‘experts’ SAY the 2015 edition of the race brought $170 mil of economic benefit.
Do you really think that the ‘powers that be’ in the CO legislature would let the CO business community stand by and let the race die if the numbers were truly that good?
Hint: NO, but then again, the numbers aren’t truly that good.