On my last ride on the Busse Woods Trail ~ featured in my 6/1/14 blog post ~ I had an interesting and informative conversation with another cyclist that I met on my ride. This cyclist was an Elk Grove resident and we eventually started talking about the Tour of Elk Grove (TOEG). During this conversation he told me that the Tour of Elk Grove had been cancelled due to scheduling conflicts with other local events and more importantly with the Tour of Utah.

I had really gotten into the TOEG the past few years and have posted a lot of information and photos on this event to this website and I was very disappointed to hear this. You can find our article and photos on this event here on our Tour of Elk Grove pages.

Although the cyclist that I was talking to seemed very credible, I decided to check into this further when I got home. I did a Google search and sadly it was all true 🙁

The Elk Grove Village website had an update on the event  titled: Alexian Brothers Tour of Elk Grove (located here) which has all the details and a link to “An open letter was published in local media outlets explaining the decision”.

I was very disappointed with the cancellation of this great cycling event and I sent an electronic message to the Mayor of Elk Grove, Craig B. Johnson who I know is a cyclist and was very dedicated to the event. I actually sent my message through the standard online “contact us” message system on the Elk Grove Village website so I really don’t expect much of a response. If the mayor got back to me I would be shocked (but why not give it a try?).

Anyway, in my message ~ to the mayor ~  I asked why the TOEG could not be held at the same time as the Arlington Millions (which was stated as one of the conflicting events).  I know that the Arlington Millions is a huge event and has been around for a long time but I don’t see why the 2 events could not be held at the same time and maybe even complement each other.

This may be an uninformed and naïve question to ask but sometimes it takes a simple innocent question from an outsider to generate new ideas and/or actions.

Why Not?

On the lighter side, I am posting a photo that I took (or more accurately photo-shopped) a while back to show how cycling and horse racing events can be held together and even complement each other 🙂 The cyclist in the photo was actually from the TOEG.

Well, sadly, 2013 may have been the last year for the Tour of Elk Grove. It was great while it lasted (8 years worth) but it may be history now… Unless the mayor gets back to me an likes my idea 🙂