May 3, 2005 – Well the short version of this story is that the High Park Classic has to be canceled for 2005.

The long version of this story involves plenty of wheeling and dealing in an effort to keep all the “stakeholders” involved in putting on an event in the City of Toronto happy. We’ve had plenty of drama with one City of Toronto employee screaming at another City of Toronto employee in a voice mail message about the race. Too many turf wars in trying to get a bike race organized.

Last year I know that we had a great event. We even won an award from the City of Toronto. We have been trying for several months to get the necessary permits for the 2005 event. Unfortunately we still don’t have the permit and things have been dragging on for so long that myself and the other people involved have decided to cancel this year’s event. The delays have caused to many problems that cannot be solved in enough time to put on a good event.

The irony is that we have people from the St. Lawrence Market area of the city are eager to help us organize an event but the date that they needed was not available because of another race. Yes, I tried swapping dates (in late February) but the other race organizer was unable to help us out.

We’ve already started the planning for the St. Lawrence market race in 2006. If you want that race to happen I’d suggest you contact the OCA and ask them to support my request for Sunday June 11th, 2006.

We’re going to the top of the food chain with the City and we’ll be working on getting a proper series of events organized in Toronto in 2006.

Thanks
Dave Butler
Jet Fuel Coffee cycling team