Louisville - Part I

This weekend I opted to drive north instead of east to race in Louisville, Kentucky. I'm much better at going fast than I am uphill, so the races promoted by 2WheelSports fit perfectly into my schedule.

Saturday's criterium in downtown Louisville was held in conjunction with the celebration of the 200th anniversary of the Louisville Metro Police Department. The LMPD went all out and had ever tactical unit on hand displaying their department's tools that help keep the city safe. There was even a band playing for most of the day made up entirely of police officers, and believe me they were rocking the whole time. Louisville's mayor and chief of police were both on hand and even addressed the crowd before the Pro 1/2 race.

2WheelSports did a great job at tying the race and anniversary celebration together, as well as getting Texas Roadhouse and Papa John's involved with key sponsorship. The downtown venue was right on the waterfront with a lot of activities for the entire family surrounding the bike races. This helped ensure a good crowd watching the races all day, and made for greater fun as you scorched through the course.

One thing that really caught my eye was the opportunity to rent pedalcycling transportation on the waterfront. As you can see from the pictures you weren't limited to just regular bicycles either. The car looking bicycle reminds me of the old Tin Lizzies at the Opryland amusement park, remember those?




These rentals are available every day during the summer, but only on the weekend during the spring and fall months. The great thing was a LOT of people were renting these bikes!

Not far from the race venue and celebration was a skate park with a lot of free-style bmx bikers. The last two turns along the crit course was next to Louisville Slugger Park, home of the Triple A team for the Cincinnati Reds. Behind the start finish line was for lack of a better term, a water park for anyone to cool down in for free.

All this to say the atmosphere around the criterium was fantastic. You felt like you were a part of something bigger that the whole community was embracing. I couldn't help but thinking the whole time that this is how I envision downtown Nashville becoming over the next 5 to 10 years. Until then, I also wonder how I/we can now put together a celebration as Louisville did.

Right now the west bank has 2nd Avenue and the east bank has LP Field, but the city of Nashville hasn't done a good job at tying the whole area together. My hope is the new Nashville Sounds baseball stadium becomes a crucial piece of the puzzle that also brings along a lot of other opportunities for families to enjoy downtown.

Let's face it, unless you a 20-something looking for a party downtown or a Titans season ticket holder you aren't really looking to visit the area. That's a shame because we have one of the cleaner downtowns in the country, easily accessible, and I believe a beautiful looking area. With the right mixture of ideas and people of different entities coming together we too can pull off what Louisville has done.

As for the criterium itself it was outstanding as well. The turnout was great with the Masters, Cat 3 and Pro 1/2 field all having around 60 riders or more. It was a little bumpy like all downtown crits are, but it was safe and wide open. The word from the sponsors, the promoter, and the mayor was this was going to become an annual event. If you're gravity challenged like myself then I highly recommend putting this race on your schedule for 2007.