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Bill  On The Road

 by: Bill Oetinger  5/1/2010

Good Neighbors

Right in the middle of the front page of my local paper this morning was a big photo of George Hincapie riding across a finish line…not in a race, but in a Breakaway From Cancer fundraiser ride ending in downtown Santa Rosa (on Sunday, April 25). He was leading in 750 participants who had ridden all or part of the route of Stage 2 of the Amgen Tour of California, which will travel from Davis to Santa Rosa on Monday, May 17. The article with the photo says that the riders collectively raised $55,000 in support of cancer research and services. I know nothing more about the event, but I hope any costs associated with staging it were covered by sponsor underwriting, and that the support staff was all volunteer, so that all funds raised actually end up going to the good cause. I'm not always sure that's the case with fund-raising events for charity, but in this case, let's be charitable ourselves and assume the best.

By the way, George is currently a member of the BMC Racing Team, which is based in Santa Rosa and managed by Santa Rosa homeboy Gavin Chilcott. I don't know how widely appreciated it is, in the California bike community, that the BMC team is based here in Santa Rosa. This is a team that was only recently quite small and is now, almost overnight, quite impressively strong. This past off-season, in addition to signing Hincapie (current US National Champion), they signed the current World Champion Cadel Evans and former World Champion Allesandro Ballan. Evans just won the spring classic Fleche Wallone, catching and passing Alberto Contador on the super-steep final climb of Mur de Huy. (When was the last time anyone got the better of Contador in an uphill finish?) The team has been invited to both the Giro and the Tour. They have gone big time. Personally, I get a big charge out of the fact that the team of the World Champion and so many other good riders is based in our home town. As if Santa Rosa--and by extension, Sonoma County--doesn't already have enough cachet in the cycling world, being the home of the popular Wine Country Century, the mythic Terrible Two Double Century, and being a perennial ville d'etape in the Tour of California, it now has this latest claim to fame.

But this column isn't precisely about Santa Rosa or the BMC team, although it is, in some respects, about Sonoma County being a cycling mecca. This region has become its own sort of overnight sensation. Those of us who live here and ride here have known for years that it's a great cycling destination. A fair amount of in-the-know cyclists from further afield have known it too. We have had pro teams holding their winter training camps here since the days of the Coors Light and 7-11 teams, and every bike touring company on the planet offers some sort of "wine country" vacation package. So we have always seen a moderate number of riders tooling along our back roads, all the year 'round. But in the past five years or so, the word has spread, thanks to the Tour of California passing through here every year and thanks to Levi Leipheimer and his much publicized King Ridge Gran Fondo and a number of other, new, pay-to-ride events that have grabbed onto those big coattails (such as Hincapie's Breakaway ride).

To some extent, the Santa Rosa Cycling Club's Wine Country Century and Terrible Two Double Century are caught up in this heightened publicity. Both have been taking place annually for over 30 years and both have remained relatively constant in their levels of participation. The WCC, always held on the first Saturday in May, is capped at 2500 riders. The Terrible Two, held in late June, doesn't have a field limit, except for the pragmatic one imposed by its level of difficulty: there are only so many riders fit enough to tackle it and who find it to be the sort of challenge that appeals to them. So the field typically ends up being around 250-strong…hardly more than a cult classic. Both events reached their current level of participation and support at least a dozen years ago, so we can't really say they have been swept up in this new wave of Sonoma County bike frenzy. About the only indicator of a heightened demand is that it takes less and less time each year for the WCC to hit its 2500-rider limit. From registration opening on February 1, it used to take until mid-April, but in the past few years, that has changed dramatically. Now, when on-line reg opens at midnight on February 1, the entries start within minutes, and the field is completely full within four days.

Whether or not the SRCC's two marquee attractions have shared in the rapid growth of cycling events in the region, they are likely to share in some of the less desirable results of that growth: another round of anti-bike backlash from folks who live on the roads where the rides go. We've seen this on a fairly regular basis for many years: when the big ride comes through, some locals will express frustration at having been inconvenienced for a few hours or a few minutes. The latest flashpoint is out around the isolated village of Cazadero, which the Gran Fondo passes through on its way to King Ridge. The Terrible Two has passed through Caz for all of its 35 years, but with less than 150 very spread-out riders still on the course at that point--mile 175 or so--it has pretty much flown under the radar. Not so with the Gran Fondo, where 3000 riders stream through in one big batch.

Naturally, some of the locals take exception to this invasion. Meetings have been convened; letters have been written; demands have been made; county politicos have had their cages rattled. As I say, we have been down this road before. It will work itself out eventually. I feel fairly confident that the cycling interests will prevail in the long run, although the obstructionists may make life difficult for individual cyclists and for event organizers in the short run. But this too is not the story I'm trying to tell today, or at least not directly. My column today is in some ways a response to those naysaying curmudgeons who insist that cyclists and their big events are just a pain in the butt and a drain on the community. (For instance, the official complaint from the Cazadero residents repeats the allegation that "cyclists don't pay their share of road costs," a shopworn old chestnut we have rebutted in another column and more recently in a blog at the Santa Rosa Press Democrat.) My goal here is to run some numbers past you to make the point that events such as our Wine Country Century are indeed a financial plus for the region and for the economy in general.

So let's start crunching the numbers with a few basics… 

2500 entrants at $60 per = $150,000. In addition, we will sell approximately $25,000 worth of collateral product at the event, mostly commemorative jerseys, t-shirts, and posters. We have sold bike socks in the past and may do so in the future, but not this year. In general, we aren't trying to be a merchandizing juggernaut here, but folks want to take home a souvenir from their day in the wine country, so we have some items available.

So the event grosses about $175,000 each year. The club is a non-profit with an all-volunteer work force. Every penny that comes into the event is turned back into the economy, most of it immediately and most of it locally, within this county. (By the way, I'm not divulging any deep secrets from our club's accounts. Everything we do is open and transparent, and you could figure all this out yourself in a few minutes if you wanted to.)

Right off the top, several dollars from each entry fee are set aside to support the Sonoma County Bicycle Coalition, the Bay Area Bicycle Coalition, the California Bicycle Coalition, and the League of American Bicyclists, all organizations working at their various levels on cycling advocacy. Additionally, a $2 set-aside from each fee goes to the Santa Rosa Organizing Committee for the Tour of California, to help fund future visits of the tour to our region. Good causes, one and all, and all vital to the health of cycling. At least we think so.

After that, the bulk of the revenue goes toward the staging of the event. If you've never been involved in putting on an event of this sort, you probably have no idea how much goes into it. The club rents a substantial warehouse year 'round to store all of the equipment it owns, from canopies to ice chests to water coolers to cutting boards to knives and forks and spoons and plates and bowls. Honestly…you have no idea! This vast inventory of supplies isn't just used once a year. We also use it on the Terrible Two, on our tours, on our own picnics and parties…and we loan some of it out to other groups for their events. It's all in circulation all the time, and as items wear out or break or are lost, they are replaced…on and on.

All of that equipment is purchased from local stores, as is all the food and drink that 2500 cyclists will hoover up in a day, including all the usual rest stop food, a big spread at the mid-ride lunch, and a bigger spread at the after-ride barbecue. A downstream beneficiary of all this food buying will be the local soup kitchens for the poor: all the leftover food is delivered to them the next day. Very little is thrown away. (You think the cyclists look happy, plowing their way through the buffet? Check out the smiles on the faces of the homeless people when we roll up to the soup kitchen and start unloading the leftovers.)

Other expenses include the cost of having several police officers stationed around the course. (You thought your taxes were paying for them to be there? Guess again. They're there on our dime.) We also pay to have paramedics and ambulances around the course. We have porta-potties up the wazoo, so to speak. And several dumpsters for a mountain of trash. We rent a fleet of trucks for the entire weekend to haul supplies and equipment out to the rest stops. We pay use fees to all the rest stop venues and the start/finish site, and some of those fees are quite high. In a few cases, the venues are schools, and we happily bump up the amount we pay them to well above what the basic fee is that they ask for. We like to support the schools, and of course we want the schools to like us, so we can use their facilities again next year.

We pay the vendors who produce our jerseys and silk-screen our t-shirts and print our posters and the cute little fridge magnets we give away to each participant. We pay for a whacking great insurance policy. And of course we pay sales tax on all sorts of goods and services all down this list, which I suppose helps the state, which certainly needs all the help it can get.

It all adds up, one invoice at a time, and it all goes out, one check at a time, to these many local suppliers. After all of that, there should still be a few bucks left over so that the club can treat its members to a few picnics and dinners over the course of the year, including one big one, the week after the WCC, when all 350 or so volunteers get to ride the course and then party into the afternoon at yet another catered barbecue. That and a free event t-shirt are the only payback our members get for their volunteer efforts around the event. Of course, even the money we spend to feed ourselves at our picnics and dinners goes right back to someone in the community: to stores or caterers.

Finally, after all the bills have been paid and a little seed money has been set aside to get the process moving again next year, anything that's left is donated to charity. We have a very well organized system for identifying worthy organizations in our community that can use a little financial assistance. Remember: we're a non-profit; we have to get rid of all the money that comes in. It is not part of our club mission to be a fund-raising engine (unlike the groups running so many bike rides). But in the end, we always seem to end up a few thousand dollars in the black, and all of that is handed out to good groups doing good work in the community. The list of organizations that have benefited from the WCC largesse is long and diverse, with those on the list accounting for positive impacts all over the region.

So that's the immediate income and outgo from the event itself. Now how about its impact in the larger community?

We know that riders participating in this year's WCC come from over 20 states--as far away as New York, Florida, and Texas--and at least three foreign countries. While a large number will have come from nearby, bay-area locations, driving in for just the day, many others come from further away. They fly in or drive greater distances, and they stay in local hotels.

Because we asked them on their entry forms, we know that at least 800 will be staying in local lodgings. Figure most will be double-occupancy, but not all will, so maybe 600 rooms. Some will stay only one night, but quite a few will make a weekend out of it, and a few will make an entire vacation out of it. I chatted on the phone with one woman from back east: she and her husband are making this the keystone in a California vacation; they're staying for at least a week, visiting the ocean and wineries and so on. How many are doing something similar? I have no idea. But between the two-night stays and the occasional longer sojourns, we can probably bump the total for rooms rented up over 1000, maybe even 1200 rooms let as a result of the century. How much does an average hotel room cost these days in Sonoma County? With the basic tariff, plus the bed tax, would $125 per night be about right? (I'm just guessing here. I haven't done the research. If you think my guess is too high or low, adjust accordingly.)

So let's say 1100 rooms at $125 per. That's $137,500.

Aside from the food the riders are going to eat during the event, they have to feed themselves the rest of the time they're here as well. There will be dinner on Friday, breakfast on Saturday, and for some hungry folks, another dinner on Saturday, on top of the after-ride barbecue. After all, they might eat that barbecue in mid-afternoon, and they've exercised mightily this day; most of them are going to want to tie the feed bag on again sometime before bedtime. Those are the ones who are staying over two nights, and they'll need breakfast on Sunday as well. Some of them may hang around on Sunday to visit wineries or go out to the coast for a whiff of salt sea air, so maybe we have lunch on Sunday too. And then there are the long-termers, the folks making a big vacation out of it. At that point, we're getting seriously hypothetical. I can't begin to juggle those variables. But even so, we can make some ballpark estimates on meals consumed. So…back to our 800 overnight guests:

Let's say 800 dinners on Friday night at $40 each = $32,000. (Okay, some folks are going to the local taqueria for $20 each, but others are going somewhere fancier for over $50 each, including wine.) 800 breakfasts on Saturday at $20 each = $16,000. Some folks leave after one night, so we'll say 500 dinners on Saturday, again at $40, and another 500 breakfasts on Sunday at $20 = $30,000. Can I just pull a figure out of thin air and suggest another $20,000 for Sunday lunches and for whatever is consumed by the folks staying on after the weekend?

That adds up to $98,000. What the heck, let's round that up to $100,000. I think some in the tourist industry would say my figures are low, but I'm comfortable with them.

I don't even know how to calculate the amount spent on air fares for our more distant travelers. It isn't a boost to our local economy, but it certainly is good for the larger economy, and it is driven by the event. Those air travelers may generate some local revenues. They may choose not to bring their own bikes but rent them locally, or they may pay a local bike shop to assemble their bikes from their bike boxes, then break them down and pack them afterward. These are relatively small transactions, but they do happen and they do add up, and they do pay the wages of the wrenches working in the local bike shops. If you think I'm making this up, ask at the shops about how busy their service bays are before and after our event or the Vineman Triathlon or Levi's Gran Fondo, etc. Many of our airline visitors will rent cars locally too.

Which brings me to gasoline. Our bikes may not take much gas, but getting to the ride start and getting home again does. We urge people to carpool to the event or even to ride in from their nearby homes or hotels. We even have an on-line ride-share clearing house to facilitate carpooling. But inevitably, many people will drive to the ride start or at least to their hotel nearby, carpooling or not, and depending on how far they've driven, they will need to refuel while they're here. Figure around 600 fill-ups--at least!--for 2500 people. Say, 10 gallons each at $3.20 a gallon = around $20,000.

To sum up, we have about $175,000 collected by the event and (mostly) injected into the local economy. Then we have around $137,500 for lodgings and another $100,000 for meals and another $20,000 for gas. That adds up to $432,500. Then there are all the little, nickel-and-dime expenses, from the bike rentals to a new tire bought at a local shop to a couple of cases of local wine picked up on a tasting cruise on Sunday. Crafts and clothing bought in local shops, artisan cheeses or other gourmet products for which this region is so renowned…all the myriad touristy gifts we know our visitors take away with them. I don't think it's even a bit of a stretch to round our overall figure up to a half-million dollars pumped into our local economy over the course of one weekend, all powered by the existence of this one bike ride on one day in May.

You don't think half a million is serious money for this economy? In these tough times? Ask the County Convention and Visitors' Bureau if it likes that kind of payday. Ask them how they like it when the Tour of California comes to town, two weeks after the century, with its army of racers and team staffs and officials and the media caravan, not to mention the thousands of race fans. Ask them how they like Levi's King Ridge Gran Fondo, with 6000 participants (each of whom pays an entry fee over twice what we charge our WCC riders). Then consider that there are events similar to the Wine Country Century in other communities on nearly every sunny weekend of the year, somewhere in the state. On that same first weekend in May, when we stage our event on Saturday, an ambitious rider could also do--on Sunday--either the Grizzly Peak Century near Berkeley or the Delta Century near Sacramento. (I know people who do this.)

This is the bottom line we have to offer to those grumps who say that cyclists are just takers; selfish elitists who only clog up the roads and give nothing back to the community. We do appreciate that the big rides do occasionally cause disruption and minor inconvenience for folks who happen to find themselves in the middle of an event. But I have a little anecdote to relate concerning that. Several years ago, a bike race was staged along some of our back roads. For a couple of hours on a Saturday afternoon, while the racers were lapping around a circuit, traffic flow was restricted along these roads. Not stopped entirely; just made to circulate in the same direction as the racers. One resident was apoplectic with fury that this should be happening to him on his road. Funny thing, though: I noticed, out behind his barn, a float that had been used in our local Apple Blossom Parade, Sebastopol's big, annual celebration. For the parade, they pretty much shut down all of downtown for one morning and partially for all weekend. So this guy, who must have run his float in the parade, where those road closures were okay by him, was totally bent out of shape when someone else wanted a piece of HIS road for a couple of hours?

Anyway, anecdotes aside, we understand these big rides can be inconvenient for those who get tangled up in them. So, while we maintain our right to be there, doing that, we also make efforts to placate folks with one olive branch or another, including our ongoing program of picking up litter along many of the roads where the Wine Country Century runs. (I have written about this in another column.) We have made a lot of friends with that program over the years, including quite a few who were once among the loudest complainers. We'll keep doing community outreach projects of that sort, trying to demonstrate we're good neighbors. But the general public also needs to face up to two hard facts: one, we have a right to be there; two, these events generate a very substantial boost for our local economy. They have, all in all, a very moderate downside--that occasional inconvenience for a few--and balanced against that, they have a huge upside. It's time we stopped apologizing, as if we were the problem, and instead asked some of the obstructionists what they've done lately for the community and the economy.

Bill can be reached at srccride@sonic.net



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