Multiday professional bike race to take over Missoula

The Tour of Montana is a four-day series of professional road races to be held July 16-19, with all events based out of Caras Park in downtown Missoula.

According to executive director Nicole Adamson, not only will it be the first multiday professional road race in Montana, it will also be one of the only races in the world to offer men and women the same purse, the same sponsored media coverage and the same challenging course.

“No one else is doing those three things,” she said. “Women will make the same amount of money and race on the same course. So it’s a new format. We were creating a format from scratch, and tennis is a successful sport in terms of equal purse prizes and media coverage. So that’s what we modeled our format after. Imagine women’s pro tennis before Billie Jean King, and that will give an idea of where women’s cycling is today. With the Tour of Montana, we’re shattering the mold and setting the standard for how future bicycle races will be developed.”

Thursday, July 16, will be the team time trial. The race will be held in conjunction with Downtown Tonight.

“Team time trials kind of went out of fashion for a while, but now more races are including them, including the Tour de France,” Adamson explained.

On Friday, July 17, there will be a classic road race on a circuit course through Missoula featuring plenty of climbing and a sprint finish downtown.

“We are doing a closed-circuit race instead of an out-and-back race,” Adamson said. “Our hope is by doing that, we can really get the community involved. At any point along the race, anyone in Missoula will be able to see and engage with riders.”

Saturday, July 18, is the “big day,” according to Adamson. There will be a full day of category, amateur and citizen criterium events, with men and women racing at twilight on a high-speed course through downtown Missoula. Criterium races are held on short courses and racers take many laps, usually all packed together, at high speeds and high intensity.

Sunday, July 19, is the day of the Gran Fondo, which will start and finish in Missoula. Recreational cyclists will take to the road for the “big ride,” which will be led by featured VIPs from the professional peloton.

“We will try to include some gravel elements, although it will mostly be a road race, because gravel riding is becoming more popular,” Adamson said.

During the entire weekend, there will be an expo, food, live music and races for kids each day. There will be a parade, as well as a bicycle film festival running at the Roxy Theater in May, which will show classic cycling films like “Breaking Away” every Thursday.

“People will be able to go and experience road racing and what that’s like,” Adamson said.

The event will finish with a giant party downtown, with the Montana premiere of the film “Half the Road,” a documentary about efforts of the Women’s Cycling Association to get a women’s race at the Tour de France.

From June 19 to 21, there will be an all-women cycling clinic led by professionals in the Bitterroot Valley, capped off by a Saturday 100-kilometer race and a party at Red Barn Bicycles in Hamilton.

Adamson, who lives in Hamilton, said she and race director Kurt Stockton were impressed by Missoula when they looked at potential sites for the events.

“Missoula really stood out for host cities as far as a potential host city,” she said. “After three years, it will become a true Tour of Montana, but Missoula will always be the headquarters of the race and festival headquarters, but it will be like the Tour of California, where it spreads out across the state.”

Adamson said many professional cyclists are excited to come to Montana to race, and she really anticipates cooperating with the community.

“Eventually we’ll be a nonprofit,” she said. “We’ve been working with the city and the state, and (Destination Missoula) and the Adventure Cycling Association. We really want to make it an inclusive thing. We don’t want to be the people that come in and close roads for four days. We are hoping to bring in gobs of money, and really have it be a hub of art and culture in downtown Missoula.”