More than 5,000 cyclists, many donning costumes and riding homemade contraptions, took to the city's streets of Fort Collins last Saturday for New Belgium Brewing's Tour de Fat "a bicycle carnival, a pedal-powered imaginative chaos of creativity" The event started 7 years ago and this year Fort Collins broke the world record for the largest bike parade.
This year's Tour de Fat theme was "Salvation from Dumpnation." Spectators lined streets to catch glimpse of the parade's costumes, which ranged from Miss Piggy and Fred Flintstone to striped knee socks and hot pink feather boas. New Belgium launched Tour de Fat as a way to increase awareness of and participation in bicycling as an alternative means of transportation to driving.
This summer the tour hit 12 cities with its message of sustainable transportation, its vehicles fueled by B100 biodiesel. Musicians performed on solar-powered stages and the tour used composting and recycling to keep most of its waste out of the trash. Last year it diverted 85 percent of its garbage, and organizers hoped for 95 percent this year.
Money raised through biker registration and beer sales Saturday will go to Diamond Peaks Mountain Bike Patrol, a volunteer-run nonprofit organization, which promotes responsible mountain biking, and Bike Fort Collins, which educates and encourages people to foster a bicycle-friendly culture. Last year the Tour De Fat raised $166,000.
I love this town!
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