The Tri-City Cycling Club’s annual invitational ride attracted 250 riders from clubs across the Greater Vancouver area.
A major bike ride that sparked excitement at Port Moody City Hall in 2023 raised more than $10,000 for SHARE Family and Community Services in this year’s edition.
The Tri-City Cycling Club (TCCC) annual invitational ride on Sunday, August 11, attracted 250 road cyclists from groups across the Greater Vancouver area.
They cycled on routes of varying lengths that took the toughest cyclists through the Tri-Cities, out to Pitt Meadows and Maple Ridge, and then back to Anmore and Belcarra before finishing with a huge picnic at Rocky Point Park in Port Moody.
Organizer Adrian Pettyfer said the event, which began in 2018 as an informal gathering of about 16 cyclists, is an opportunity for local cyclists to show off their favorite routes and terrain to cyclists who may not visit the Tri-Cities as frequently. Each participant pays a $30 registration fee, which is donated to SHARE.
But in 2023, the ride almost fell apart when the City of Port Moody decided that the event would require a highway use permit and a certificate of insurance. The city’s planning department explained that this would require a “partial closure” of the roads because the peloton would “impede automobile traffic.”
Pettyfer said that while TCCC is already insured through Cycling BC, like all individual cyclists who belong to a club sanctioned by the provincial organization, the need for a permit to use the highway would have introduced an unexpected complication and expense that would have compromised the charitable purpose of the ride. He said the annual invitational ride is not very different from the group’s regular weekly outings, where the peloton sets off in smaller groups at staggered intervals, everyone follows the rules of the road to minimize impact on motorists, and road closures have never been necessary.
Pettyfer said the invitational ride is not a fondo, a mass ride in which cyclists start in large groups and often stay crowded together on a controlled route that is at least partially closed to cars.
“When we plan a mass-start ride like a fondo, we can see the value of having permission for road closures and traffic diversions,” Pettyfer said.
But after a specially convened city council meeting just days before the 2023 rally, the city gave in.
Jeff Moi, Port Moody’s general manager of engineering and operations, said the permit system was actually intended to regulate construction projects where a road or roadway might be blocked by construction equipment for a period of time.
He said the city would streamline its system to create exceptions for cycling or running events that benefit a charitable cause.
