Nevada City Advocate - A free news & entertainment Newspaper Serving Nevada City & Greater Nevada County: Nevada City already seeing benefits of Amgen, organizer says

Nevada City already seeing benefits of Amgen, organizer says
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Pat Butler on Mar 08 10:50am
 
By Pat Butler
Nevada City Advocate
Nevada City is already seeing the benefits of being the starting point for the
2010 Amgen Tour of California, according to the local organizer of the
eight-day, 750-mile bicycle race.
“We’re getting hit daily for interviews and pictures from all types of
media, even outlets from Europe,” said Duane Strawser, who also manages the
Nevada City Bicycle Classic. “It’s amazing how many organizations want to be
here.”
Strawser said around 200 media organizations will be here for the start of the
race on May 16. This list includes ESPN, NPR and Velo News, a popular biking
magazine that is published in Boulder, Colo.
The Amgen Tour of California is one of the most widely covered bicycle races in
the world. This year’s field of competitors features top professional teams
and bicyclists, including Lance Armstrong who won the 49th annual Nevada City
Bicycle Classic in June of 2009.
Since the city celebrated the news that the race would start in Nevada City,
officials and volunteers have been busy getting ready to host the spectacle.
The city has spent around $15,000 laying asphalt on several blocks of South
Pine Street, which is the first street the bicyclists will take after doing one
or two laps on the Nevada City Bicycle Classic course that starts at Broad and
Pine streets.
“It’s really maintenance work that’s being done to get ready for
Amgen,” City Engineer Bill Falconi said. The work was done by Hansen Bros. of
Grass Valley.
The overlay project also covered the block on North Pine Street that connects
Cottage and York streets, he said.
Falconi said the city is moving up a scheduled repaving of Broad Street as well
for Amgen. The project has been awarded to Western Engineering of Loomis, which
made the low bid of $89,470. Six other companies, including Hansen Bros., bid on
the project that calls for repaving Nevada City’s main street from Union
Street to the Methodist Church at the top of the hill.
Strawser said local organizers need to raise $40,000 to provide meals with
“strict menu guidelines” for the bicyclists, establish a media center and
feed the journalists, and provide lodging and meals for Amgen officials, who
have already made several visits to Nevada City.
Strawser, who is the outgoing Chamber of Commerce president, said the publicity
Nevada City is garnering as a result of Amgen justifies the contributions being
made by the city, local businesses and volunteers.
“If they canceled the race now, it would be a success,” he said. “The
pre-publicity, to me, is the primary reason for this effort,”
Race day, however, will also be a boon to the local economy, Strawser said. He
expects from 30,000 to 50,000 people could watch the race in Nevada City, basing
his estimate on the turnout for past Amgen starting points and the crowd at last
summer’s Nevada City Bicycle Classic, which featured Armstrong, the seven-time
Tour de France winner.
Strawser said that based on an aerial computer count made that day,
approximately 37,000 people watched Armstrong win the classic.
“The money we’re spending is very little when compared to the other cities
on the route,” he said. “You can’t quantify how little this is when
compared to the coverage we’re going to get.”
The Amgen Tour of California announced in February the route the race will take
through Nevada City and Grass Valley in a video now posted on its web site
(www.amgentourofcalifornia.com).
The race starts at 11:45 a.m. in front of City Hall on Broad Street and then
goes up the hill to Main Street so spectators can get a better look at the
bicyclists before they go down and then up South Pine Street to Sacramento
Street and then on to Zion Street and past SPD Market.
It is expected the racers will spend about five minutes touring Nevada City
before taking Ridge Road to Alta Street in Grass Valley. They will then take a
left on Alta Street and go to West Main Street and then onto Mill Street in
downtown Grass Valley.
The racers will take another left at Neal Street next to the Del Oro Theater
and continue on to Highway 174 to Colfax. It is expected the bicyclists will
arrive in Sacramento about three hours and 30 minutes after leaving Nevada City.
Volunteers needed
The local organizers of Stage 1 of the 2010 Amgen Bicycle Classic are looking
for around 200 volunteers who can work for two to three hours on race day, which
is May 16. To register as a volunteer, visit www.amgentourofcalifornia.com.
Volunteers will work with Duane Strawser, the local organizer for the race.
Volunteers will get Amgen T-shirts for their efforts.