Paul Bass Photo
The city’s love affair with the bicycle ascended to another level, with the announcement that a first-ever New Haven Grand Prix will take place downtown at twilight on Friday, Sept. 18.
The professional competition, buttressed by a $7,500 state marketing grant, will be run by the CT Cycling Advancement Program (CCAP). It will be part of the professional National Racing Criterium Calendar.
CCAP announced the competition at a press conference with New Haven officials outside City Hall Wednesday afternoon. Student riders from some of the 20-plus youth cycling teams organized in the state by CCAP (include squads at Common Ground and New Horizons schools) looked on, mounted on their steeds.
Mayor Toni Harp called the upcoming event “one more summertime extravaganza to look forward to” and part of the city’s march toward bike-friendliness. The city has been preparing new bike lanes across town, among other cycling-promotion efforts.
The Grand Prix will coincide with a pizza and food truck festival, complete with live music and a beer garden, on College Street.
The races will run a rectangular route from Chapel and Temple to High Street up to Elm, then back down Chapel. Three races will take place: An under-18 race, which runs 20 laps around the rectangle; a professional women’s race, also 20 laps; and a 40-lap (or approximately 48 – 50 mile) professional men’s race. (Click here to register by Sept. 16.)
Why do the men ride twice as far?
“Traditionally the men race longer than the women,” CCAP marketing chief Hunter Pronovost (pictured above) responded when asked the question at the press conference.
“Like tennis…” prompted city economic development chief Matthew Nemerson, standing to his immediate left.
“Just like tennis,” Pronovost added.
And unlike the recent New Haven-organized cyclist journey to Hartford to lobby for a bike bill, in which septuagenarian women led the pack.
