Two Bike Races Planned, One Chastised For Poor Performance

Anita Weston, Reporter

RANDOLPH-November 7.  Dirk Cowley would like to sponsor a special bicycle race in July of 2013.  The race would begin at 8 a.m. in Logan and would go through Logan Canyon, into Garden City, up to Laketown and around the lake ending in Garden City.  There will be five groups or fields of 75 riders each.  Each field will have a highway patrol car in the lead and another in the rear.  There will also be two additional patrolmen within the field itself.  He indicated that there would be signage to let people know of this activity several days prior to the race.  The Commissioners indicated that they would try and work with him with this special event.

 

County Commissioners were not as pleased with another race director.  Joe Coles asked the Commissioners to work with him on another bicycle race this coming summer.  He had sponsored a race this past summer.  The Commission made it clear that they would not approve the race unless Mr. Coles was willing to follow their directions. 

 

Coles was told last spring that the participants in the race could not go down one side of the road, then turn and return on the other side.  Having bicyclists on both sides of the road makes it almost impossible for any traffic to get through at all.  Mr. Coles had said he would follow these instructions.  However, he  actually set up the race using both sides of the road..  There were a couple of serious accidents, and it took 27 minutes for one ambulance to travel five miles to get to one of the casualties.  A second ambulance had a similar experience to get to the second victim.  There were also some areas that were not left clean and in an acceptable manner.  The Commissioners indicated that they were not in favor of having a similar situation this next year.  They suggested that Mr. Coles check with Idaho to see if Idaho would allow the race on that part of the lake.