City to cope with bike race

Jessica Benton
ORGANISERS have promised Geelong will avoid a traffic nightmare when the city hosts a five-day world cycling championship event in September and October, 2010
But organising committee general manager Michael Palmer said numerous road closures around Geelong were inevitable to allow for riders and record crowds.
The 16-kilometre loop event will run through the heart of Geelong and around inner-city suburbs, with the start and finish line on Moorabool Street.
The course will run past Kardinia Park to Barrabool Road and along Challambra Crescent, Scenic Road, Queens Park Road, Aphrasia Street, Pakington Street, Glenleith Avenue and Geelong’s waterfront.
Organisers said about 230,000 spectators, 1225 athletes from 57 countries and 267 million television viewers worldwide watched the championships the last time it was run outside Europe, in 2003.
Mr Palmer said organisers were working on a traffic management plan with Vicroads, police and City Hall.
“We’re hoping that process goes pretty well and we can come up with a really positive way of keeping the city operating while we run the event,” he said.
The city’s main arterial road, Latrobe Terrace, would escape blockages.
“At no point does the event block Latrobe Terrace,” Mr Palmer said.
“There’s clearly a need to close some roads and this will of course have some impact but if we had closed Latrobe Terrace it would have been too big an impact.”
Mr Palmer said the event would not impede city workers from the Wednesday of the event through to the following Sunday.
“The start and finish times won’t impact on people getting to and from work because we’ll be making sure all of the starting and finishing times would be mid-morning and mid-afternoon,” he said.
City councillor Andy Richards called the world championships a “big win for Geelong”.
“It will bring a lot of money into the city,” he said.
“However, we’ve got to get it right. Councillors haven’t been briefed on the traffic management plan yet but I look forward to seeing it well in advance of the event so we can get it right.”
The Bellarine Peninsula Independent reported last week that Portarlington residents were furious about a cycling event earlier this year, making them captives in their own homes for two days.
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