The Twilight Criterium had its streak of 33 consecutive years of bicycle races snapped last year when they had to cancel because of the pandemic, but this summer tradition is back in Boise this weekend.
On Saturday night the pro races start in the evening will feature the most competitors this race has ever seen with 80 female competitors and 120 men.
"Those 120 riders when they are going full gas will stretch tip to tail two blocks," said Mike Cooley the race director. "Those guys and gals will be doing close to 30 miles per hour for over an hour."
The race is growing in other ways as well as the paracycle national championships will be in Boise, which begins on Friday with the time trial in Glenn's Ferry, the national championship crit happens Saturday morning at 11:00 a.m. in front of the statehouse and on Sunday the road race national championship starts at 8:00 a.m in Melba.
Our Lynsey Amundson introduces you to a pair of local Idahoans who will be competing in these races this weekend.
"A few years ago we maybe had about six hand cyclists, I think this year we have close to 100 athletes in town for the different disciplines," said Cooley. "It's an important partnership between us and the Challenged Athletes Foundation.
Saturday features a full slate of activities in front of the Idaho State Capitol and one of the more popular events is the kid's ride with Boise's own three-time Olympic gold medalist Kristin Armstrong.
"That is one of the biggest kids rides in the United States at these types of events," said Cooley. "We usually have about six hundred kids and this year we partnered up with mission 43 who is a local organization that works to help veterans."
Here is a link to the full schedule on Saturday.
The Twilight Criterium will kick off the events with the Twilight Trifecta at Jump at 4:00 p.m. on Friday evening, then on Saturday people can hang out all day in Cecil Andrus park and the surrounding area with events for both children and adults.
People also need to know that a stretch of road will be blocked off from Jefferson to Bannock Streets and from 6th to 8th Streets pretty much all day on Saturday.
