Up to 100 bike racers will speed through downtown Ketchum streets competing for a $10,000 top prize in an event combining with a three-day Music Festival over Labor Day weekend.
Organizers for Ski Tour LLC, who launched The Honda Ski Tour in January, went before the Ketchum City Council on Tuesday, June 26, and outlined plans to bring live music on three nights and for reviving the Ketchum Criterion, last held in the 1980s.
The revived Ketchum Criterion is different than the Ketchum Criterion of the last several years, which traditionally was held in June. The revived race will be the same as that of the 1970s and 1980s and feature top-level athletes. The Ketchum Criterion of the last several years has been run by Greg Stock, co-owner of Sun Summit Ski and Cycle in Ketchum.
"My thing had nothing to do with the history of it," Stock said. "But we always got tons of compliments on the course. The racers from Boise gave us lots of compliments."
Stock said he does not plan to continue running his race, citing bureaucratic red tape at Ketchum City Hall.
The Music Festival had already been given a thumbs up by the council, Ski Tour LLC Managing Director of Operations Maureen Baker said in an interview. At Tuesday's meeting, the council was supportive after Don Wiseman, executive director of the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation, outlined bike race plans.
Wiseman, Baker, The Ski Tour co-founder Kip Nelson, Music Festival co-sponsor Bravo Entertainment, Inc. and city officials met Wednesday morning.
"We're on," Wiseman said Wednesday of the Criterion plans. "We're moving forward with it."
With a scant 60 days to go before Labor Day, many details need to be worked out with fire and police officials, citizens, merchants and the Idaho Department of Transportation, which has authority over Sun Valley Road, Wiseman said. The race will be run over downtown city streets and will be one hour in duration.
The three days of concerts are intended to "broaden out" the Wagon Days celebration, a half-century Ketchum tradition that occurs on the Saturday of Labor Day Weekend, Nelson and Baker told the council. Each night a concert would feature a specific genre, with one night especially for family entertainment. The concert lineup will be released today with ticket information soon to follow. The concerts will run from 6 p.m. until curfew at a stage at the south end of East Avenue.
A race the same weekend has been canceled in Utah, and that provides a great window to bring back the Criterion, Wiseman said.
The event would bring the best pro racers, "the fast, top men elite racers" and more visitors to town, Wiseman said.
A similar event, the Boise Twilight Criterion in July, attracts 15,000 to 25,000 people, who line the racecourse four and five deep, he said.
The Ketchum Crit, as it was formerly known, will bring top riders from the United States Cycling Federation and pros "with many of the participants of Tour de France quality," a Ski Tour news release said.
The race folded in the 1980s when it lost city support when it was held the same day as the Labor Day parade. The Crit will take place Sunday and not interfere with the parade, Wiseman said.
The council and mayor were receptive to the presentation.
"It sounds like a lot of fun. I'd love to see the Criterion come back," said Councilman Ron Parsons.
The race would be a chance to "respectfully separate more tourists from their money than we have in the past," said Mayor Randy Hall.
The race would include sprints within the race as well as something called "missing out." That is when a bell is rung and the last person to cross the finish line at that stage of the race is out of the competition, Wiseman said. That keeps the speed up as riders struggle not to be eliminated.
Organizers envision the Labor Day festivities as a summer equal to The Honda Ski Tour that could morph into something bigger in the future, perhaps to include mountain bike races and a mountain bike festival.
The event is sponsored by Atkinsons' Markets.
