#Colorado
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| Courtesy Denver Post |
A couple weeks after the inaugural running of the Colorado Classic, race chairman Ken Gart is making plans for next year with tweaks to the size of the Velorama Festival in RiNo, new host cities in the mountains and, perhaps, a new television model.
DP: So you said there were “three distinct successes” for your debut year? Tell us.
“Number one was the race. The race got a huge amount of accolades. We said we were going to do it differently for an American audience. I think point-to-point racing is not as interesting for an American audience and we proved that because we did circuits. Back to the history of the Pro Challenge, we thought that was something that worked better. It was a better economic model for the cities, with a better bed base and the restaurants fill up. Better for the audience and spectators because they see the riders multiple times. We heard that loud and clear and I think we proved that. The six-man team worked out to be good too. People seemed to like that. It was a little more interesting and a little less predictable. I think the racing was a home run.
Secondly, the music festival was very positive as well. There was great energy and excitement and I think the music alone was very, very successful.
Thirdly, I think RiNo turned out to be a big success. That was a real challenge for the team because I think the city worked hard to make sure we didn’t hurt businesses or inconvenience homeowners and that was a heavy, heavy lift for the team. Our feedback from the RiNo’s Brewers Association … is that every single person wanted it back next year. In general the feedback we got was that restaurants were busy, business was generally good.”
DP: What didn’t work?
“The challenges, for sure there were plenty of problems with the logistics. I got there on Friday night and we had really, really long beer lines. We had port-a-potty problems. We had logistical challenges that the team responded, too — certainly not perfectly but the beer lines and the restroom situation was better on Saturday than it was on Friday. Most importantly we can fix all those problems easily for next year.
But the biggest overall miss was the size of the footprint. It was just too large. To get from expo to the start-finish to another area all the way to the Flea and the music stage … it was just way too big. But ironically that’s something that cannot only be fixed, but we can save a boatload of money because if we put up less barricades … we will dramatically reduce our footprint and that will be a much better experience. The magic that we wanted to create where you see the music and hear the music and see the activity and the expo and you see the bike racers, we didn’t create that magic because the footprint was too big and that’s kind of the most disappointing thing.”
DP: Heading into the race you said your investment team “had a long runway” and they were willing to be patient as the race develops. Now that you’ve decompressed and absorbed the race, is the runway still long?
“Yeah. We have not gotten final numbers yet. But the feedback has been excellent. I think every investor is excited about what we did. The one thing that was most universal is that people were amazed by the scale and the ambition of the project. Which is both good and bad. It’s good because it’s cool to do something bold and ambitious and I’m proud of that. But the scale was big that is created some flaws, because we had trouble executing with that footprint. But everybody has been very positive. Sponsors too, they seem to be universally wanting to do more.”
DP: So there will be a next year?
“Yeah we are working our tail off right now to solidify that and I think it will happen. For sure the footprint will be shrunk in RiNo. But it will not be in the Springs or Breckenridge. They like the every-other-year model and that’s been our plan since the start. Some of these cities do not want to put the budget out every year, but if they can do it every other year they can still get the benefit, plan it out, use their budgets for other things. We are going to talk to Vail and Aspen and many other communities to and see if they are interested.”
DP: It was fun having women announcers, with Olympian Kristin Armstrong and Susie Wargin. I thought I’d miss Dave Towle, but the women were great. Although I did miss someone screaming “he’s a wattage cottage!”
“That had never been done before. I think it’s inspiring to have all women announcers. If we can attract more women to the sport and get more young girls to pay attention that’s pretty cool. Not doing the podium girls was another thing. I think that’s more modern and reflective to what America is about, you know.”
DP: You got sideways with the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency when you invited Lance Armstrong to bring his webcast to the race. Was that a good call or a mistake?
“I can say both of those are true. It was a good call and a mistake.”
DP: Did you ever ponder challenging USADA’s demand to yank Lancefrom the sponsored race coverage?
“We didn’t want to fight that fight. They could shut us down. Still, he came and he wasn’t required to come.”
DP: Like the Pro Challenge, the race was plagued with television coverage issues, with relay planes grounded and lost signals. How can you fix TV for next year?
“I do not have the answer to that question. We are broadcasting at a higher elevation than any other race in the world. It’s a hard one. But I do think there’s another model out there besides NBC. I don’t know what that model is. We will obviously talk to NBC — we have a contractual obligation to talk with NBC — but I think in the age of YouTube and cellphone technology and crowd-sourcing, maybe there is a different model. I’m not an expert on that. David (Koff, the race co-founder) knows more about that stuff. Maybe we get a ton more motorcycles. What about drones? How much would that save? You would think that’s where things are going to go. Bring the costs down and bring the quality of the coverage up. I think we have opportunities here to look at other models.”
