Tour de Belleville riders cruise new route
Nearly 400 bicyclists cruised through the east side of Belleville on Saturday for the annual Tour de Belleville bike ride.
As a precautionary measure, the 16-mile route was reduced to 12 miles because of the possibility of storms on Saturday afternoon, according to Jason Poole, who leads the city’s parks and recreation department as well as the public works department.
The annual ride is a fundraiser for the parks and recreation department.
Poole said he thinks the number of riders was lower than expected because the forecast had called for a possibility of storms. When riders took off at 1 p.m. at Eckert’s, it was breezy and the skies were cloudy.
It was a new location and a new time for this year’s event with the routes starting and ending at Eckert’s. Along with the long route, there also was a six-mile route. This was the 16th edition of the ride.
The Tour de Belleville traditionally was in the evening in mid-July with the starting point in downtown Belleville. The 2020 event was canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic and the 2021 event was moved to the fall.
Here are scenes from Saturday’s ride:
This story was originally published April 30, 2022 at 3:33 PM.
