The organisers of the Colorado Classic and the partner Velorama festival declared the event a success, but even in the heavily veiled PR-speak of the post-race press conference, it was clear that the concept was imperfectly executed. The event was a bold experiment to inject some life into the sport by combining the UCI 2.HC stage race with a three-day music festival replete with multiple beer sponsors, food trucks and the hand-crafted product vendors of the Denver Flea market. The race was even broadcast by NBC Sports live streaming. Ken Gart, chairman of RPM Group, the event promoters, said he was thrilled with the outcome. He estimated there were 30,000 people in attendance and said he received ample positive feedback.ADVERTISEMENT `I feel like the fundamental concept of marrying a music festival to a bike race and a broader community celebration using the unique atmosphere of RiNo was very successful. We heard consistently from fans and sponsors that they were thrilled,` Gart said. `We did have some problems, which we fixed to a great degree. But like every first year event it certainly wasn`t perfect. But overall we were absolutely thrilled.` There were some snafus at the music festival. Lines on the first evening to get in or to buy beer were so long that ticket holders complained they missed seeing the bands, a situation that was largely rectified by the second night. The sound for the music festival`s headliners, Death Cab for Cutie, had technical difficulties. Spectators struggled to navigate the sprawling venue, and had to choose between watching the evening bike races or seeing the bands as there was no way to do both. The racing proved to be aggressive, in particular on stage 2 in Breckenridge, but the course was so short and so many riders were dropped on the climbs that the front of the race convoy caught the back end, resulting in a fair bit of chaos on the narrow roads.
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