Future San Francisco bicycle race hits pothole

The city's supervisors are in a snit over $90,000 in unpaid bills for police protection that the Grand Prix organizers didn't pay from the 2004 event before getting a permit for 2005 event in September.

The SF Grand Prix routes professional cyclists over a hilly circuit around the city before the 108-mile race ends. Racers this year included well-known US cyclists George Hincapie, Levi Leipheimer, Chris Horner, and David Zabriskie, as well as Italian Ivan Basso.

Actually, the city fathers might be a little embarrassed over the fact that race organizer San Francisco Cycling LLC was able to get the permit for the 2005 race without having all its bills up-to-date, the San Francisco Chronicle suggests. City rules prohibit that from happening.

Supervisor Aaron Peskin said the city should cut its ties to the race, because of the unpaid bills. Another supervisor questioned how the group got permission to race through Fisherman's Wharf over the busy Labor Day weekend; it hurt merchants' business.

Dan Osipow, a spokesman for Threshold Sports, which works with San Francisco Cycling (he also works for Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team), said his group received the 2004 police bill just before the supervisors' meeting.

Although Peskin accused him of lying, that sounds entirely possible. Budget director Noelle Simmons said SF Cycling still owed an additional $82,000 bill for public works and the parking and traffic department, although she believed the company had yet to be billed for those fees.