After much planning, Sunday’s Perron District Criterium was scrapped.
According to Velocity Cycling Club’s website, the City of St. Albert cancelled the event due to “safety concerns,” although the organization didn’t say what those concerns were.
Organizer Troy Rossmann declined to comment, and the City of St. Albert could not respond by press time.
Velocity president Ed Heacock wasn’t immediately available to comment on why the event was cancelled.
The organization posted the cancellation on its Facebook page May 16, three days before the event was to take place. In the post, it said all race entry fees would be reimbursed.
Velocity laid the blame on the city for slashing the event.
“This event was to be attended by cyclists from all of Alberta. The immense amount of work and dedication was simply disregarded. Any and all concerns easily could have been solved,” the group posted to its Facebook page.
“Most disrespectful event cancelling ‘process’ I've seen in 40 years as a city resident. Disrespectful to: city admin staff working w/ @PerronCrit organizers to tick ALL safety reqmts (sic), LOCAL business sponsors, 50+ volunteers, youth/adult/senior cyclists.”
Cranky’s Bike Shop, which was a sponsor of the event, also didn’t respond to the St. Albert Gazette by press time.
The event was supposed to be a “high speed and spectator friendly” cycling event, Rossmann said previously to Gazette reporter Jeff Hansen.
The circuit would have had cyclists racing around St. Albert’s downtown in laps.
“It's fast, hard, aggressive style of racing,” Rossmann said at the time. “The racers are going to be using road bikes like they use in the Tour de France.”
St. Albert’s last major cycling event took place in the ‘70s.
Velocity vice-president Kevin Coghlan tweeted photos of St. Albert’s downtown core on Sunday, showing a vacant street and parking lot from 12:47 to 2:01 p.m. that day.
“Good thing we didn’t have a race here today. Someone might have been downtown,” he tweeted sarcastically.
The Sunnyside ITT, which took place Monday in Bon Accord, still drew racers out from across Alberta.
Slightly different, the individual trials had each cyclist set off in one-minute intervals.
Winners
For the Sunnyside ITT, Danny Easterby came in first under the citizen category, with a time of 0:37:59. Lucy Jamieson came in a close second, with a time of 00:44:03.
In the U17 category, Owen Brennan took first with a total time of 00:45:42. Jeremy Wiens came in second at 0:50:57.
For category 5 men, Steven Boehm took first place at 0:34:21, and Franky Thibaudeau came second with a time of 00:38:21.
Jesse Bauer took first place for category 4 men, with a time of 00:35:32. Greg Cote came in second place at 00:37:05.
For category 3 men, Alan Sutherland took first place at 00:35:39, while Mathieu Meurer placed second at 00:36:18.
Kate Snihur won first place for women 4,5, with a time of 00:42:56. Colleen Malcolm took second at 00:44:30.
For category women 1,2 and 3, Kimberly Walter went home with first place at 00:38:09. Gail Wozny won second at 00:39:46.
In category 1 and 2 for men, Warren Muir won first place at 00:32:03. Mitchell Thomas came second at 00:33:04.
