By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON October 3, 2011 Today was the Go – No go day for elite cycling in Burlington and because a hard deadline the city had set for a response from the MidWeek Cycling Club did not arrive before the end of the cling events during the summer of 2012 in Burlington. Which is unfortunate because the city’s geography offered so much potential for the development of some sports tourism that the city had dearly hoped to develop.
The Canadian Cycling Association has given the rights to the 2011 and 2012 qualifying events to Mid-Week Cycling who then approached Burlington and the
We could have become a great place for elite level cyclists to develop their skills. Not this time but the geography we are blessed will be there for the next attempt.
city along with the Burlington Hotel Association put up a total of $50,000. to support the initiative that was to see exciting Criterion races in the downtown core of the city o
n Canada Day.
But it was not to happen. In 2010 Parks and Recreation staff bent over backwards to make the event happen. The Halton Regional Police spent hours working through traffic plans and routing possibilities. But time and again the Mid Week Cycling Club failed to deliver documentation and details. The last time around in 2010 and 2011 everyone worked very hard and there was the one race event in the Aldershot areas that most people felt went off very well. But the city tired of never really knowing of the cycling people were going to come through.
At one point in the comedy of errors on the part of the Mid Week Cycling Club a required payment was made to the Halton Regional Police but the cheque bounced.
Police turned a blind eye to the offence and continued with all the field work. It amounted to nothing.
The contract was for a two year agreement and 2012 was to be the year that it all came together. This time the city was not going to be run around in circles. The Parks and Recreation people at the direction of Council established deadlines that had to be met and October 3rd was one of them. If event route data was not in the hands of the city by 5:00 of the 3rd – the event was off and the agreement would be terminated.
There was nothing in hand by 5:00 pm. So no cycling races in Burlington during the summer of 2012. City hall staff were not as disappointed as they had been in the past. They learned some hard lessons last summer and were not going to make the same mistakes twice.
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