Viva Bike Vegas boosted by presence of Perimeter Bicycling, El Tour de Tucson

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LAS VEGAS — Perimeter Bicycling Association of America, Inc., recently reached agreement with the Regional Transportation Commission (RTC) of Southern Nevada to take over the production and coordination of the 2014 Viva Bike Vegas.

Viva Bike Vegas is scheduled for Sat., Sept. 13, 2014. It will include a 100-mile perimeter ride of the Las Vegas valley.

The ride will be held on the same week of InterBike, the largest bicycle trade show in North America with more than 100,000 cycling enthusiasts coming to Las Vegas.

Cyclists will ride any one of three distances: 100, 50 and 25 miles or participate in the Fun Ride of 10, 5 or 1/4-mile.

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The century (100 miles) will start and finish at the Discovery Children’s Museum near down, with the remote starts (50 and 25-milers) finishing there as well. Exact locations for the remote starts will be announced soon. Start times are 100-mile at 6 a.m.; 50-mile at 10:30 a.m.; 25-mile at 12 noon.

A one-day bicycle expo and packet pick-up will be Fri., Sept. 12 from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. at The Linq, the newest property of Caesars Entertainment.

“The ride has many great advantages for the city, the surrounding area, local charities and all of its participants,” said Richard J. DeBernardis, president and founder of Perimeter Bicycling Association of America, Inc. “We are incredibly delighted to be a part of Viva Bike Vegas. It is an extraordinary cycling event for the Las Vegas community.”

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Perimeter Bicycling has developed collaborative partnerships with the RTC, City of Henderson, City of Las Vegas and the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) to help support and promote the ride.

Registration is available online.

One of Perimeter Bicycling’s major goals is to raise money for local non-profit organizations. To date, the nonprofits selected to receive proceeds from Viva Bike Vegas include: Discovery Children’s Museum, Easter Seals Nevada, League of American Bicyclists (LAB) and Safe Nest TADC. Organizers hope to raise anywhere from $25,000 to $50,000 for the event’s first year, with an estimated 1,700 cyclists. It is expected that other nonprofits will be added in the coming weeks.

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The El Tour de Tucson and El Tour de Las Vegas will also be linked with riders advancing from the Las Vegas 100-mile ride to the Tucson event based on their time. Riders who break the 5-hour barrier in Las Vegas will qualify for the platinum group in the El Tour de Tucson two months later.

The optimism for what lies ahead for bicycling in the Las Vegas Valley is a 180-degree turn from the disheartening news of the cancellation of the event in February.

The League of American Bicyclists recently awarded a “bronze” designation for the City of Las Vegas, Henderson and City of Mesquite as a bicycle-friendly community.

DeBernardis said revitalization of the Viva Bike Vegas event with Perimeter Bicycling and El Tour de Tucson will elevate that status to “silver” within one year.

“When you get up to the gold and platinum categories, that’s going to draw businesses to your community and people are going to move to your community,” DeBernardis said. “If you have a good bicycling community that means your education is good.

“That means your police department is good. It has a lot of generalization effects that will benefit everybody here.”

ALLSPORTSTUCSON.com publisher, writer and editor Javier Morales is a former Arizona Press Club award winner. He also writes articles for Bleacher Report and Lindy’s College Sports.