Bike race’s Westside traffic issues lead city to offer survey
  TOP: The lead riders during the second lap of the six-lap Colorado Classic Stage 1 men's race Aug. 10 lean into the curve on Fontmore Road shortly before a left onto 30th Street. BOTTOM: Street closures during the race led to delays and driver confusion, such as this scene at 31st Street and Colorado Avenue. Westside Pioneer photos
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City Deputy Chief of Staff Bret Waters revealed that the city received “some calls of concern” from the Old Colorado City area, where numerous streets were closed for the eight hours that the event was going on.
The city has requested responses through a survey posted at https://coloradosprings.granicusideas.com/surveys/colorado-classic-cos-stage-1-post-event-survey.
Among the questions are “How were you impacted?” and “Do you have any suggestions to make future events more successful?”
On the Westside, event-related problems included slow-moving - sometimes confused or frustrated - motorists on Highway 24 and side streets, a number of closed OCC businesses, and multiple reports of reduced commerce.
With a women's race in the morning and men's in the afternoon, Stage 1 had a total of eight identical 15-mile “laps” that took in the Colorado Springs downtown and Westside. Included in the route were Old Colorado City, some older neighborhoods and the Garden of the Gods.
Several well-used West-side streets, including multiple blocks of Colorado Avenue, 30th Street, Fontmore Road, Mesa Road and Pikes Peak Avenue were closed to vehicles for eight hours.
The event is not planned for Colorado Springs in 2018, but could be back in 2019, according to officials.
About 160 riders (90 male, 70 female) participated. The distances were 38.3 miles for the women and 93.5 for the men.
In all, the Colorado Classic schedule called for four stages on successive days. The second stage was in Breckenridge and the third and fourth in the Denver area the weekend of Aug. 12-13. The overall men/women winners (Manuel Senni, men; Sara Poidevin, women) were those with the lowest times for all four stages.
Westside Pioneer article