Bicyclists injured

We had a great Tour de Ruidoso. However can we let these accidents please give us ALL a wake-up call. Ruidoso is quickly becoming a Bicycle vacation destination. You will be seeing more and more cyclist out there on the roads of Ruidoso and Lincoln County. Please give them a wide birth, and please yeild to cyclist as you would any other vehicle.
Their life is at stake! We as cyclist are counting on you to be aware.
Thank you for your consideration and again Please share the road !

Steve Hightower, Event Director, Tour de Ruidoso

Did any of the Tour de Ruidoso event coordinators/directors bother to get a permit from the highway department for this event? What about notifying State Police of the tour details and asking them for personnel to help with escorting the bicyclists? Afterall, the vast majority of the tour was on State Highways. Poor planning if you ask me!

It's bad enough we have to watch for deer and elk and now this. I don't think the roads are big enough for this kinda stuff.

Are you serious? I have never seen any serious riders in this town. The only people I have seen on bikes are assbackwards, incapable of following any traffic rules at all. They ride on the wrong side of the road (facing traffic) or sidewalks, they don't wear helmets, they don't signal and their generally just a nuisance. You want to make us take gun safety classes before we can arm ourselves (our right) but these foolish cyclists can lay claim to the roads without a shred of responsibility. Humnug!

I believe there was a bike (bicycle) rally in town. You are describing the local yokels and they are bad enough, however, I am not a proponet of having these rallies where bicyclists impede traffic and alarm drivers. To me, that's worse.

nmle2180 wrote:

Did any of the Tour de Ruidoso event coordinators/directors bother to get a permit from the highway department for this event? What about notifying State Police of the tour details and asking them for personnel to help with escorting the bicyclists? Afterall, the vast majority of the tour was on State Highways. Poor planning if you ask me!

The event was conducted under a permit from the state highway department, and a Village of Ruidoso Parade permit. EMS was on sight, and patrolling for the entire event. State police , Lincoln Co. Sherrif , and Ruidoso police, all patrolled the route. Ruidoso police even escorted the group. The giant Solar powered sign on Hwy 48 notified motorist of the event. The Sierra Blanca Radio Club provided patrol and a comm. center. The event had 4 Sag vehicles following.

The event was very well organized! We simply had 2 motorist fail to yeild in the midst of all that activity! Please yeild to Cyclist

Where do you guys come from? Two very bad vehicle drivers injured bike riders, through their own bad driving. Both were cited! This event was well publicized and had many LE agencies along the route as well as volunteers at the way stops, providing fruit and water for the riders. Maybe you guys need to find a piece of land in the middle of nowhere and live together. Steve it was a great event, even with the two incidents. I hope it does not put it off for next year.

Here's what I heard. The event coordinators/directors did not even ask until the day before for escorts. Then they told the wrong starting time, and started before escorts could arrive. I don't know if this is true or not, but this is not enuff time to get the proper staffing for a propter escort if you ask me. As for motorist I feel we do need to watch out for cyclist local or not. And I did see cyclist(for the race) running stop signs and not following traffic laws. If you are going to have a race, you should have pepole posted at the intersections where they riding through. Just a thought.

Oh and I am sorry for the ones that got hit. I hope they have a speedy recovory. And I also hope you have future "Tour de Ruidoso's". I do think it is a good idea. just needs a little better plaining.

Ruidoso is a beautiful place to ride. Personally, I don't mind being inconvenienced for an event like this, I just want some warning of what is going on so I can slow down and watch out for them. I don't want my first clue that there is an event to be a cyclist on my hood.

I'm shocked by your response Sunny. You strike me as the type of person to force a stick in the spokes of a passing cyclist and double over in laughter as they head over their handlebars.

Nope! If you take an oath to uphold the law and act in the public interest and then you play dirty little games with good peoples lives I will force a stick into the spokes of your public lie and cause you to crash.

Sunny wrote:

Nope! If you take an oath to uphold the law and act in the public interest and then you play dirty little games with good peoples lives I will force a stick into the spokes of your public lie and cause you to crash.

Well I am not going to give anything away here Sunny because you are always so good to us, but you know, people in glass houses and all?

People in glass houses shouldn't let their kids hang out with 60 year old roaches that distribute meth. I live in a glass house and your a roach. Thanks for a clarification. I don't know why you are so mad, your meth head cop buddy is back running interference for you. Got a new room mate, LOL?

Yeah! It's you!

steven hightower wrote:

<quoted text>
The event was conducted under a permit from the state highway department, and a Village of Ruidoso Parade permit. EMS was on sight, and patrolling for the entire event. State police , Lincoln Co. Sherrif , and Ruidoso police, all patrolled the route. Ruidoso police even escorted the group. The giant Solar powered sign on Hwy 48 notified motorist of the event. The Sierra Blanca Radio Club provided patrol and a comm. center. The event had 4 Sag vehicles following.
The event was very well organized! We simply had 2 motorist fail to yeild in the midst of all that activity! Please yeild to Cyclist

While I agree that motorists should have been paying closer attention to all the cyclists, and yeilding to them, I also agree that the route that they were taking was not adequate for that amount of bike traffic to safely operate.

I spoke directly to the State Police Supervisors for the Ruidoso area, and they stated that the first notification they had of this fiasco was when they were called to handle the first bicycle/vehicle wreck. I spoke with the Ruidoso Police personnel that were working that day, and none of them had been notified with the exception of the SINGLE motorcyle cop that escorted the bikes. And, with regard to the ONE (I repeat, one single) motorcycle officer with Ruidoso Police, he was notified to be out at 9am, not at 8am. The dispatcher that arranged a last minute patrol escort at 8 am had no notification of the even until she was contacted by the race organizers and told that they were leaving in 10 minutes and wanted to know where their escort was. Chief Born was notified about it 1 day prior. There was even a member of the Village Managers office that stated their notification consisted of hearing an announcement on the local radio station the day before. As far as Lincoln Co. Sheriff's office goes, I was unable to speak to anyone there and find out if they were aware of what was going on.

Well organized? Proper notifications made? That is not true.