SaltCycle: Second annual Velo Weekend sees a rise in participation

Cyclists take to the streets of downtown
Salt Lake during Critical Mass
(Photo: Neel Patel)

Despite the high temperatures, the second annual Velo Weekend saw a rise in participants, a huge number of sponsors, and an outpouring of support from the community.

The weekend started out on Friday, June 29, with Critical Mass. The point events began later in the evening with Tall Bike Jousting at Vertical Diner. Saturday began with a vegan breakfast, courtesy of Salty Spokes, and a friendly Sprinkles Ride around the city. The point events for Saturday were the Fixed Gear Freestyle competition, Mini Bike Gymkhana, a Goonies-themed alleycat, and Gold Sprints.

We talked with one of the organizers, Debbie Larsen, to find out about the success of this years event.

CJ: How many people registered for this year's Velo Weekend? How does this compare with the numbers from last year?

DL: We had around 80 people register for Velo Weekend this year. Last year we had around 70, but we had more people participate in all the events this year, which was what we were looking for. We think it's amazing that so many people came out for this two day bike event.

CJ: How many volunteers did you have to run the stops and take down/ put up each event?

The Salt Lake Public Library was on hand to make sure
everyone had temporary SLPL tattoos for the weekend
(Photo: Patrick Weeks)

DL: We had great volunteers this year! Our volunteers include: Dylan Chadwick, who designed the t-shirt, patch, spoke cards, and helped out during the event; Alan Berg did the website, fliers, posters, and ran the Salt City Sprints; Mark Chetti was in charge of the tall bike joust and did a fabulous job MCing the event; the FOAD Crew (Evan and Izik Service, Sam Allgood, Parker Thompson, Jackson Bradshaw) put on the fixed gear freestyle competition and built all the ramps, which we also used for the mini bike gymkhana; Carla Meroño was at all the events to help with everything, including helping prepare the breakfast; Skylar Hoellein also helped at all the events, MCed the Salt City Sprints, and helpled prepare the free breakfast Saturday; Michael Wise manned the Artisian Well stop on the alleycat and helped prepare the pancake breakfast; Dru Simonson manned the piano stop for the alleycat; and Michelle Pate, who had to deal with our huge mess at the Derby Depot. This event wouldn't be possible without all their help and we are so grateful to all of them.

CJ: What are your best memories of this years Velo Weekend?

DL: The tall bike joust was so much fun (to watch); we did not know what to expect of the gymkhana, but it turned out to be one of the best events and we will definitely be doing this again next year; the breakfast was really cool and it was nice that everyone could just chill out and get a good start to the day; it was awesome to have Union Street Eats set up at Nobrow; it was exciting to watch the girls' final Sprints, with Carla and Robin, which determined who the top female points winner was of Velo Weekend; and the excitement of the raffle is always good. I still can't believe how amazing our sponsors are who donated their spaces, food, and all the raffle prizes!


Esther Meroño, of Salty Spokes, was one of the volunteers who helped keep Velo Weekend running smoothly (Photo: Annette Bowman)

CJ: How was it better (or worse) than last year?

DL: For us organizers, it was way more stressful planning all the events. We had a really hard time finding a location for the FGFS (Fixed Gear Freestyle) competition and we were scrambling to get the Sprints set up because there were scheduling conflicts with the usual people who run this. In the end, it all came together and we think the event was a huge success. So many people participated and seemed to have fun. We had awesome sponsors, many of whom, went above and beyond what we ever expected and it was great to have Vitamin Water provide all the drinks on Saturday. The heat sure sucked on Saturday, which was hard on everybody this year. Overall, the event was pretty amazing!

For more photos from Velo Weekend, check out the SaltCycle Flickr page, which will be updated soon.