Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Biking enthusiasts hope to gain traction in Las Vegas

Pedal Palooza

Sam Morris

Mike Olsen is seen Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2014, at the Container Park, which will be surrounded by Las Vegas Pedal PaLooza, an event he is organizing to run concurrently with Interbike.

Mike Olsen was going through a divorce and needed a release for his stress. He had played baseball and football in college but no longer had the outlet of competitive team sports.

Click to enlarge photo

Mike Olsen is seen Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2014, near where the criterium start/finish line will be located during Las Vegas Pedal PaLooza.

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WHEN: 5-10:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 11

WHERE: East Fremont Street, downtown Las Vegas

DETAILS: Kids bicycle rodeo, 5-7 p.m.; criterium racing, 5-10:30 p.m.; roller racing, 7-9 p.m.; vintage bike show, 5-10 p.m.

MORE: lvpedalpalooza.com/

A friend invited him to go on a nighttime bike ride in Cottonwood Valley, south of Red Rock National Conservation Area.

“He made me ride so hard that I threw up in his truck on the way back, and I’ve been hooked ever since,” Olsen said. “I love bicycling because you get out of it what you put into it.”

That was in 2000, and Olsen, 47, has been cycling ever since. He thinks the timing is right for a downtown Las Vegas cycling event, which he hopes will become a catalyst for exponential growth of the valley’s two-wheeled, pedal-powered community.

With support from Zappos.com and other sponsors, and the backing of the city, Olsen is launching Las Vegas Pedal PaLooza, an evening of cycling on East Fremont Street. It is scheduled for Sept. 11.

The highlight will be a series of criterium races, street racing in a loop that Olsen says is “like NASCAR on bikes,” featuring both professional and amateur heats. Other attractions include a kids bike parade, vintage bike show and stationary bike race, in which riders put their bicycles on rollers while a computer measures how fast they’re pedaling.

Olsen and other local cyclists lament that there are few bicycle events in town, and most racers travel for hours to Phoenix or Los Angeles to get their competition fix.

“I’ve been here for 11 years, and we’ve gone from one racing team to six or seven,” said Keely Brooks, a founder of the Las Vegas Bicycle Coalition. “Cycling has been growing in Vegas, but that hasn’t really led to events.”

Olsen ran the Callville Bay Classic race for a few years, but it got too big for the Lake Mead National Recreational Area. Since the race ended in 2011, Olsen has focused on being a stay-at-home dad for his five sons.

But with the economy on the rebound and other events springing up around downtown’s rejuvenation, Olsen figured now was the time to launch a new event.

“I was asking myself: ‘What do racers want, and how can Vegas fit that?’ ” he said. “If we tried to do a real cool race in July, forget it. It’s not going to happen. We have to play the cards that we have. So, the fall season and the early spring are what really work for us.”

Brooks hopes Olsen’s efforts to put on Pedal PaLooza will show other cycling enthusiasts that it can be done. Perhaps more bike events will follow.

Ryan O’Keefe, a cyclist and member of the local Allegiant Air racing team, said Pedal PaLooza has been met with enthusiasm.

“It’s amazing that it will be held right downtown,” he said. “I think that’s a cool aspect, because most local bike races are far from the city center.”

Olsen is trying to keep his expectations reasonable for the first year, saying he wants to have a safe event that people talk about afterward.

“Hopefully it’s a start of a tradition, because if the event comes off even half like I hope it will, it provides all the stuff that all these people want to come do,” he said. “They want to come race in a cool atmosphere, and seeing Fremont Street through the finish line, it doesn’t get a whole lot better than that.”

How to keep Southern Nevada from spinning its wheels

Bicycling is on the rise in the valley, thanks to infrastructure improvements, an increase in cycling groups and rider-friendly initiatives by the Regional Transportation Commission. But local cyclists say Southern Nevada can do more to catch up to cities where bikes are used the most, such as Portland and Seattle.

Las Vegas is home to few cycling events. Our road designs aren’t conducive to commuting by bike, and businesses and governments haven’t done much to encourage cycling. While 6 percent of Portland residents bike to work, according to the Census Bureau, just 0.4 percent of Las Vegas residents commute by bike.

What can be done to improve the cycling culture? A few suggestions:

• EDUCATION. For motorists and cyclists alike. Children need to learn bicycle safety and traffic laws in elementary school, and local agencies should have promotional campaigns that support cycling. The RTC has created maps of bike routes across the valley, but public awareness campaigns focusing on safety still are needed, local cyclist Ryan O’Keefe said.

“They could do more in terms of advertising and informing drivers to give cyclists on the road 3 feet of space when passing, which is the law,” O’Keefe said.

• MORE COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT. Businesses can provide incentives for cycling to work and offer shower and locker facilities and convenient bike racks. Local governments can sponsor community events such as a “cyclovia,” when a major street is closed to motorized traffic one day a week, typically Sundays.

The League of American Bicyclists suggests reducing the cost of organizing cycling events and streamlining the permit process. Other ideas include bike valet parking at big events and charity bike rides.

• INFRASTRUCTURE. There are a lot of commuter roads in the valley that have speed limits of 35 mph or above, and the League of American Bicyclists says those are where bicycle lanes need to be buffered with concrete barriers or pylons.

Las Vegas has 648 cycling accidents and 9.2 cycling deaths per 10,000 daily bicyclists each year, the league found. Those numbers are way above the average for similar cities — 180 accidents and 1.4 deaths per 10,000 riders.

Several local cyclists lauded the valley’s network of trails and bike lanes, including the River Mountain trail and the route from downtown to Red Rock National Conservation Area. But they said there always can be more designated bike lanes and better connections between bikeways. The Strip, they say, is a cycling black hole and needs to be more bike friendly.

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