4th annual professional cycling event moves from September to May 25

Competitors in the 2007 Tour de
Leelanau race down M-22 in Leland.

Memorial Day weekend in Leelanau County is the new date for the Tour de Leelanau.

The fourth annual professional bicycle road race, sponsored by Priority Health and the Leelanau Sands Casino, will be held on Sunday, May 25 with the men’s race beginning at 1 p.m. in Leland and the women’s start at 2:40 p.m. at The Homestead resort.

The first three Tour de Leelanau races were held on the third Saturday in September and were part of big cycling-based tourism weekend in the county. Race director Steve Brown said he learned last spring of a new cycling event, the Tour of Missouri, a week-long endurance event that will draw many of same professional racing teams he hoped would compete at the Leelanau event.

"I was told by many of the top team directors that while they had committed to us for 2007, they would have to be at the Missouri race in 2008, so I knew I had to do something," he said.

Brown applied to the International Cycling Union and USA Cycling to move the race to May. He initially scheduled it for Saturday, May 23, but that is the same day as the Baystrider Marathon in Traverse City, so he moved it back one day to May 24.

"We’re hoping to get the people who watch marathons to come out and watch our race as well," Brown said. ICU and USA Cycling have both approved the new date.
The Leelanau Peninsula Chamber of Commerce has worked with Brown since the first race to promote and organize the bicycling race. Bill Morrison, a chamber member and race organizer, said moving the race to the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend will be beneficial for all involved.

"The Priority Health Tour de Leelanau is an event that showcases all of the communities in our region and can fill all of our Leelanau communities, roadsides and ridges with thousands of people. Getting both our residents and visitors excited about an event like this impacts all of our communities in a positive way," he said

Brown said there will be no changes in the course this year. "From a logistical standpoint I haven’t had the time to tweak the course since September. I think the course we had for 2007 proved to be challenging for the riders. All the riders I talked with last year said the course was very challenging," he said.

The men’s course will be 109.5 miles long, while the women will race a 69.5-mile course. Both races will go through Glen Arbor, Maple City, Cedar, Lake Leelanau, Suttons Bay and Northport before finishing at the Eagle’s Ridge Conference Center in Peshawbestown. The men’s race will begin at Leland, go through the Sugar Loaf area and over to Empire before meeting up with the women racers at Glen Arbor.

One of the challenges with the September race is many of the top teams start competing overseas in February.

"By Sept. 1 everyone is pretty much toast, mentally and physically," Brown said. It was a problem for the 2007 event when many of the top men racers for the Toyota team didn’t compete due in part to the first Tour of Missouri, but also because of injuries.

"Having the race over Memorial Day weekend means everyone should be fresh and it’s right at the heart of the racing season in the U.S.," Brown said, adding he is also hoping to attract more female racers as a prelude to a big women’s race in Montreal the following weekend.

Brown is working with the local ESPN radio affiliate, 1310-AM, to broadcast updates throughout the afternoon on race day. The race committee has also worked on improving communications between race sites. A large contingent of volunteers will be needed again this year. Brown said the biggest area of need is for road marshals who are stationed at road intersections along the course.

"We have over 100 different intersections on the race course," he said. Susan Wilcox Olson, the tour’s media relations director, said hosts will also be needed for foreign teams.

Brown will have the tour’s website, www.tourdeleelanau.com, updated starting April 1. Anyone interested in volunteering for the race can visit the website after April 1 to sign up.