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Tour de Fat returns for another
spin through Durango
written by Will Sands
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| The Skinny’s cruiser rests
in anticipation of Saturday’s event./Photo by
Ben Eng. |
Beer and bicycles, two great tastes that
go surprisingly well together, will be reunited this weekend.
The Tour de Fat, a self-proclaimed beer festival on the
back of a truck, will close down Main Avenue between 12th
& 13th streets on Saturday, Sept. 27, as old Schwinns
and suds reign supreme.
In its second year, New Belgium Brewing Co.’s Tour
de Fat is bringing its “Ballyhoo of Bikes and Beer”
to 15 towns and cities across the West. Organizer Dave
Kemp said the Tour is an effort to export the beer and
bike culture of New Belgium’s home. “It started
in Fort Collins, and it’s kind of a slice of our
culture,” he said. “We wanted to bring our
cruiser bike and beer culture to other cities.”
Kemp said that Durango was a natural choice for a Tour
de Fat stopover, namely because of an established love
of the event’s backbones. “I took one trip
to Durango and saw cruiser bikes everywhere,” he
said. “Durango is big for bikes and especially big
for vintage cruisers.”
And as for old school klunkers and cruisers, Kemp added,
“The Tour de Fat is really all about bikes in general,
but we see cruiser bikes as the grandparent of bicycling.
They’re something you could hang on your wall and
then take down for a spin. They represent a ‘stop
and smell the flowers’ approach to bicycling and
are really just fun to ride.”
The day’s festivities begin with organized morning
rides guided by local bike shops, Durango Cyclery and
Mountain Bike Specialists. Intermediate mountain bike
and road rides are planned. Registration begins at 8:30
a.m. with a 9 a.m. departure. For  obvious
reasons, the “Wacky Cruiser Ride” will take
off a little later in the morning, buying participants
an extra hour on the snooze bar. Costumes are encouraged
for this low-impact, 10 a.m. ride with a 9:30 a.m. registration.
As this leisurely Tour de Durango rolls back to the 1200
block of Main Avenue, members of the New Belgium family
of beer will begin flowing, grub from East by Southwest
and Scoot ’n Blues will be served, and the games
will get under way. From 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., local cruiser-meisters
can test their skills in events like the “paperboy
challenge,” “rim toss” and “ghost
ride.”
Live music played atop a solar-powered stage will run
the entire afternoon. Listen, a techno jam band from Fort
Collins, will kick things off; Kipchoge, a California
jam band will keep them going; and Tucson’s Warsaw
will close it down with ska and punk. In between, the
Mile High Extreme Team will entertain with BMX stunt riding
and San Francisco’s Cyclecide will present its renowned
Bike Rodeo. Cyclecide also will have its cast of bicycle
mutants, including the world’s longest chopper,
the bicycle-mower and the double-decker bike, on hand
for free demos.
And while the festival promises to be fat on fun, the
Tour de Fat also kicks money back into the local community.
The Tour de Fat’s mission is to raise money for
cycling organizations throughout the country, and last
year it dumped more than $120,000 back into communities.
The San Juan Mountains Association, the local public lands
stewardship organization, will be the beneficiary of this
year’s event.
“They come in and set up the bands and events and
bring the beer,” said Nicole Smith, SJMA’s
education and outreach director. “We provide the
volunteers, and we get the proceeds.”
Looking back on last year’s event, Smith added,
“It seems like people kind of dust off their cruisers,
shine them up and come on down. It should definitely be
a good time.”
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