14,000 Take ‘Tour de Freeway’

As far as the people of Claremont and La Verne are concerned, the French can keep their Tour de France; the Italians, their Giro d’Italia.

The two cities held their own cycling event Saturday. They called it the Tour de Freeway.

More than 14,000 people gathered on a stretch of the Foothill Freeway extension in Claremont to take advantage of an opportunity to ride and walk on it before it opens to traffic.

The 6 1/2-mile extension, opening in Claremont and La Verne in the fall, has been in development since the late 1940s.

The two cities had been trying to decide how to celebrate, and “We didn’t want that run-of-the-mill ribbon-cutting,” said Claremont Mayor Paul Held.

Instead, the cities’ recreation departments came up with the Tour de Freeway concept: a fun ride and walk, coupled with a street festival.

The event drew a mix of bicycles and riders: tandems and tricycles, well-used mountain bikes and slick road machines with aerodynamic handle bars.

One man even rode atop a unicycle in the carpool lane.

“This is so cool,” Tim Brayton, 60, of Claremont, dressed in a red cycling jersey and black shorts, said as he approached the finish line of the 12-mile ride from the extension’s east end to the west end and back.

“You’ve got to pace yourself,” 8-year-old Jesse Martinez of La Verne said as he rested underneath an overpass, having pedaled up a long incline.

“I’ve been practicing,” his sister Maia, 9, said as she stood next to her bike, waiting for her parents, Chris and Lisa, to start moving toward the finish.

“To see the freeway built and then do this ... “ Chris Martinez said.

His wife finished his sentence. “This is one of the neatest things you can do,” she said.