February 26/09 14:20 pm - Tour de Kootenays Cancelled

Posted by Editoress on 02/26/09
 

Tour de Kootenays Cancelled

The Tour de Kootenay stage race that was scheduled to take place in BC's interior this summer has been cancelled. Bob Hennessy, the executive director of the race, blames the Nelson office of the B.C. Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure (MoTI) for imposing requirements that would be too costly to implement. Organizers appealed to the Premier of BC to intervene, but received no response.

Hennessy wrote in a letter to Nelson MoTI District Technician Hugh Eberle: "it is clear to me (as I am sure it will be to anyone who acquaints themselves with the particulars of our application) that you, your staff colleagues and supervisor at the Nelson office of MoTI will take any steps, however unreasonable, impose any requirements, however costly, to frustrate the realization of the Tour de Kootenays."

In the local Castlegar News, Hennessy went further:

Hennessy believes the civil servants are opposed to it because too much traffic will be backed up on highway six in the valley.

Hennessy is frustrated with MoTI because he does not believe the MoTI truly understood the implications of canceling the event.

"If Canadians win points at our race Canada can field more teams at the next Olympics," he said.

Adding, "mid level civil servants in a town of 9,000 people have stopped an event which is equivalent, in the cycling world, to the Tour of California," he said.

(Editor's Note: 'equivalent to the Tour of California' is clearly an exaggeration...)

Read the Castlegar News story Here.