April 23, 2004 – On the last weekend of May 2004, (May 30), High Park in Toronto will once again see a bike race. Pedal spoke with Jet Fuel team manager, David Butler, who along with the City of Toronto, McBride Cycles, and Jet Fuel Coffee will be putting on the event. David Butler says the idea of putting on the race again began, “after the city of Toronto contacted Jet Fuel to see if they were interested in organizing a race in conjunction with Bike Week. We said we'd love to.”

Organizing bike races in downtown Toronto is always tricky given the logistics and traffic and such, so was it as hard as it appears? “Because the city of Toronto is spearheading the event, the race organizing end of it has been made a lot easier,” Butler says, “The staff of Toronto is working for Bike Week, which has meant they have helped in pushing through the logistics and political hurdles. Still, there have been five meetings to attend to get the race going. And I've also been working hard to make sure the stakeholders of the week are pleased with our ideas.”

Prizes have been organized by McBride Cycles, who Butler says have been crucial to getting the event off the ground. Butler's vision for the event is also quite novel: to have a zero entry fee, ultimately. “Unfortunately, we had to charge entry fees this year, but the eventual goal is to charge nothing. I believe that paying no entry fee is more beneficial to the greater cycling community then a larger prize purse. If anything, most people would rather pay nothing to race then to pay a high registration fee and see a larger prize , for example.” Butler makes mention of a European model of racing which he believes is key to participation at all levels. “In all the races Jet Fuel races in Europe, we don't have to pay a cent. Accommodation, travel, even start money, some times. I think this is something that would benefit the Canadian racing scene in terms of increasing participation. I hope that events like the High Park race will set a standard and with time, the event and size and stature will encourage others to follow it. Eventually it would be fantastic to see Bike Week evolve into a kind of Superweek with several other races.”

So what's the race like? Many others may have raced the High Park course in years past. “This year's course is really different. It's a great loop, a very European course with some great corners and a climb. It's going to be a tough race. One of our riders, Andrew Randell, admitted this year's race won't be easy. We're actually going to limit teams to only six riders each because of the difficulty of the course, as there is one fairly narrow spot that might allow a really large team to dominate.”

McBride Cycles will be providing prizes with GT, Opus and Norco, and there will also be a free lunch for racers. For more information on the May 30 event, keep tuned to www.pedalmag.com , or contact David Butler at cyclepromo@sympatico.ca