Bikes, beer and so much more

The day finally came this past weekend when New Belgium Brewery's Tour de Fat graced the Triangle as their first stop of the 13 city annual tour to spread bicycle cheer. If you haven't noticed, I've blogged a bit lately about the event as the date approached for the Durham event on the American Tobacco Campus. It was a big deal to promote Tour de Fat through social media utilizing a grassroots approach since its free to attend and all proceeds raised were to go to several local charities including Triangle Spokes Group.

  

As avid bike2beer beercyclists, my wife and I were onboard early on and many of our friends showed up for the ride and/or the post-ride festival at Diamond View Park. I volunteered for the early shift to help get arriving cyclists signed up for the parade ride and to than help lead or marshal the 4 mile parade around downtown Durham. As the 10:00am start time approached, the crowd of cyclists grew quickly and by 9:45am, Blackwell Street had swelled full of cyclists. I could already tell that the parade had attracted far more riders than New Belgium or Triangle Spokes Group had anticipated. Five motorcycle officers from the Durham Police Department were onsite to lead the parade and close intersections as the parade would pass.

We rolled out shortly after 10am and as we headed down Durham's Main Street, it was amazing to see the long line of riders that stretched from one end to the other. I helped lead the parade and dropped back to take photos and usher riders to the right lane. I don't think enough riders realized that the roads were not closed in both directions. As we approached Duke's East campus, the parade had stretched out to a point that the police were having trouble covering all the intersections that needed closed. The ride continued down 9th Street and onto Markham St. where we made the call to pause the parade to bunch everyone together and give the officers a chance to rest and catch up. That worked out well and we were off again headed towards are next big turn on Washington St. for the hill past the historic Durham Bulls Park and back to downtown. As we followed the downtown loop back to ATC, I stopped at the train tracks to take in the parade as a spectator and hang out on the tracks for a bit. The parade had been a huge success and now it was time for some fun at the festival. 

The unofficial count and estimate of riders in the parade was 500-600. There were at least 400 registered and that probably does not include New Belgium employees or the many riders who did not register but rode anyways. Registration was simply signing a waiver, no payment was due; though donations were accepted. Based on those numbers alone, New Belgium was happy to report that Durham was the largest showing for a first year TdF city ever! (in it's four year history) It seems that would good enough to guarantee their return next year. 

My recommendation for 2012 would be to either have the route closed off or double the amount of officers brought on to close intersections. Perhaps using patrol cars to lead the parade and control the pace with motorcycle officers ahead to close the intersections. That said, the Durham officers did an outstanding job last weekend leading and controlling the parade. One of them told me how much they enjoy doing events like this. I hope they got to enjoy a little of the festival that followed.

The festival itself kicked off with beers and cups of H2O available from New Belgium. The beer tents were pouring 1554, Ranger, Fat Tire, Somersault and Mothership Wit. Just like Clips of Faith and many beer festivals out west, each token purchased gets you one beer. I like this method. 

 

Now for the entertainment...WOW! What an amazing collection of shows, games and interactive displays?! There was almost no way to see and do everything but I know a lot of people tried. The main stage at live bands and even a Dating Game featuring folks from the audience including the lovely Hop_Zilla in her New Belgium bottle cap helmet and a buddy of mine - Troy - a fellow beercyclist and mountain biking madman from Raleigh. Fellow beer bloggers from Craft Beer Collective and Geistbear Brewing Blog were there plus all the regional Beer Rangers from New Belgium. How do I get that job anyway?

It was also great to see lots of folks from McKinney - the Durham based advertising firm from across street that were there too. There were also dozens of people I recognized from Big Boss Run Club and the Team on Draft and TriBeer Meetup groups in both the ride and on the lawn at the festival.

 

The bike pit was friggin awesome with dozens of bizarre bicycles you could test ride in the grassy enclosed area. I gave a few of them a try including the Fat Tire bike and some recliner bike. I probably should have tried the bikes BEFORE I had 4 Ranger IPAs, ha!

One of my favorite shows I saw was the end of the side show on stage where the grand finale was a guy juggling a running chainsaw (with a blade on it), an egg and a bowling ball. Don't believe me? Watch the video I shot below. 

Here are some additional links to photos and blogs about Tour de Fat that I have come across. 

Craft Beer Collective

Triangle

News and Observer
The Herald-Sun
Food, Sweat and Beers 
Durham Magazine

All I can say is that I CANNOT wait until next year when Tour de Fat hopefully returns to Durham. Until than, if you have the chance, check out one of the remaining 12 cities on the 2011 tour.