Professional Bicycle Racing Reaches Our Region—

Housatonic Valley Classic Will Offer A Sport That Is Entertaining For Spectators, Sun.

By Shannon Hicks

Cycling competitors will wind through the ten towns of the Housatonic Valley in a clockwise circuit of 100 miles on Sunday, May 20. The first-ever Housatonic Valley Classic will host over 200 cyclists, many of them among the top professional riders of the United States. The seven-man teams will be riding over a course that begins and ends in Danbury, where cyclists will then face a 40-mile circuit before reaching the finish line.

The Housatonic Valley Classic will begin at 9 am at CityCenter Danbury. It is expected to enter Newtown at 10:49. At this point, the riders will have already traveled from Danbury into New Fairfield, Sherman, New Milford, Bridgewater, and Brookfield. The Newtown town line measures 45.5 miles into the course, with 48.4 miles remaining before returning to the circuit.

After leaving Newtown, the course continues into Redding, Bethel, and Ridgefield before returning to Danbury. Drew Cunningham, a 21-year-old Danbury resident and a team member for Le Chateau, designed the course.

The official spectator station in Newtown will be set up in front of Edmond Town Hall on Main Street, although bicycling enthusiasts are welcome to wait for the bicyclists anywhere along the course.

The spectator site will host official tour vehicles, and have information for visitors concerning upcoming bicycling events throughout the Northeast region and bicycling safety information for all family members.

Cannondale has also donated three R-400 Model bicycles, valued at $900 each, which will be raffled to benefit the American Red Cross/Danbury area chapter. Tickets for the bicycle raffle will be sold at each town’s spectator station for $5 each, and the drawing for the bikes will be held at 3 pm on Sunday.

Ticket purchasers will not only receive a raffle ticket, but also a safety whistle or victory cowbell which they will be urged to whistle or clang as the professional racers pass through their neighborhood. Jackie Kelly of Newtown is coordinating the Newtown station.

Event designer John Eustice visited Newtown this week for one of his final pre-race meetings with First Selectman Herb Rosenthal; Lieutenant David Lydem, of Newtown Police Department; residents Mae and Bob Schmidle, Jackie and Joe Kelly, and Sherry and Tom Paisley; and Molly Curry, a representative of Housatonic Valley Tourism District. HVTD, headquartered in Danbury, is sponsoring the race.

Mr Eustice promised the group, and those who turn out Sunday morning to watch the event, “A great show, quite a spectacle.”

“Bicycle racing is as tactically complex as football, or professional America’s Cup races,” Mr Eustice said.

“Bicycling is about the only sport where you can have the camera right next to the bicyclist,” he continued. “This makes for good TV and is part of the lure of this as a great spectator sport.” The race will in fact be videotaped for rebroadcast next month on Outdoor Life Network.

Mr Eustice has worked for ABC/ESPN on the last eight Tour de France races as a writer, producer, and on-camera analyst. He is also the owner of Sparta Cycling.

On race day, radio station WLAD (800 AM) will be broadcasting live coverage of the race.

Although a first-time event, the draw for the Housatonic Classic is extremely strong within the cycling world. Among the teams competing on Sunday will be Jet Fuel Cycling, a Canadian Division III team; Mercury Cycling (United States, Division I); Navigators Pro Cycling Team (United States, Division II); Saturn Cycling (United States, Division II); and 7-Up/Colorado cycling (United States, Division III).

“America has two Division I teams,” Mr Eustice has pointed out. “The money and time involved to achieve that status are tremendous. For the United States to have two Division I teams… is fantastic… and the Housatonic Valley Classic has one of them set to race!” Mr Eustice predicted the second Division I team would most likely join the competition.

Each town will host a sprint segment of the race, where riders will have an intense one-mile competition near the  center of town. Newtown’s sprint will begin at the flagpole.

The entire competition is kept very close, Mr Eustice explained, and stragglers will be pulled from the race if they don’t keep pace.

“We won’t have people waiting on the sides of the roads for two hours or so,” he said. “You’ll know when the race has gone by, because it happens within minutes. We want to keep this a tight race. We want it to be exciting for the spectators, too.”

“It’s really quite impressive,” he continued. “You really want to watch the whole show — the colors, the high speed, even listen to the noise. When it goes by, there’s a terrific noise. It’s like a ‘whoosh,’ like a high-speed flock of birds has just gone by.”

“Cycling is very tactical,” Mr Eustice said. “Think of 30 football teams on a field, all running plays at the same time. Radio communication is extremely important.”

In addition to the full 140-mile race, two races will also be ongoing at CityCenter. Over 500 male and female amateur racers will be competing on a three-mile Pro-Am Circuit within Danbury, riding in teams of one, two, three, and four members. The Pro-Am race also begins at 9 am.

There will also be Criterion Races — fast-action, short courses for three amateur groups — to keep crowds cheering in Danbury until the racers of the Classic return to the downtown area. Criterion Races are scheduled to begin at 9:10, 10:20, and 11:30 am.

CityCenter Green will host a Health & Recreation Expo on Sunday, from 9 am to 3 pm, with live music, food from local restaurants, exhibits, free massages, martial arts demonstrations, and a skateboarding show by The Underground, a team owned and sponsored by The Ski Market of Danbury. The show will include fearless skateboarding techniques across ramps, quarter pipes, pyramids, and hand rails. (The show is a demonstration only; there will be no public access to the skate ramps.)

“This bike race is a natural for this area,” said Catherine Brashich, the director of HVTD. “Most people are unaware that Connecticut was home to one of the original bicycle manufacturers, and at one time had a velodrome in the 1920s for bike racing.”

The Newtown Course

Bicyclists are expected to reach Newtown at 10:49, and pass the Official Spectator Station in front of Edmond Town Hall at 10:56.

Racers will be coming down Route 25 from Brookfield, and turning onto Currituck Road, then left onto Route 25/Main Street; right onto Route 302; left onto Boggs Hill Road; left onto Palestine Road; left onto Hundred Acres Road/Platts Hill Road; right onto Brushy Hill Road; right onto Castle Meadow Road; right onto Hattertown Road; and left onto Poverty Hollow Road, where they proceed into Redding.