Perimeter Bicycling Association of America taking over Viva bicycle ride

Have no fear Las Vegas bicyclists — the Viva Bike Vegas bicycle ride lives on.

Perimeter Bicycling Association of America Inc., which stages El Tour de Tucson in Tucson, Ariz., is taking over the Viva bicycle ride from the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada.

The commission had announced earlier this year that it had dropped the Viva ride. The commission pulled the plug after the 2013 ride lost $117,000. The number of cyclists dropped by 26.4 percent, to 1,731 in 2013 from 2,351 in 2012, and sponsorship revenue fell.

The first Viva ride was in 2008.

But with Tucson-based Perimeter Bicycling running the Viva show, the ride is back on for Sept. 13, with a route that will move along the Las Vegas Valley’s perimeter.

The Viva ride draws national bicyclists because it’s traditionally staged the Saturday after Interbike, North America’s biggest bicycle show with more than 100,000 cycling enthusiasts.

Instead of holding the Viva event, RTC is staging smaller community bicycle rides, which cost much less than holding a major event such as Viva Bike Vegas.

Perimeter Bicycling has held an informal relationship with the RTC for years, offering tips to the agency on staging big ride events like Viva. The organization has held more than 100 ride events in its 32 years.

To reverse the ride’s downward revenue and participant trends, Perimeter will tap its database of bicyclists to promote Viva while working to recruit more sponsors, Perimeter Bicycling media director Marilyn Hall said.

“We have a lot of resources and a lot of bicyclists in a database,” Hall said Thursday.

The organization stages the popular El Tour de Tucson ride and attends Interbike in Las Vegas to hand out free El Tour de Tucson posters and recruit bicyclists to its events.

The group’s board voted in April to assume control of Viva, Hall said.

This year’s Viva ride will let cyclists pedal 100, 50 or 25 miles — or participate in the Fun Ride of 10 miles, five miles or a quarter-mile.

The 100-miler will start and finish at the Discovery Children’s Museum, with the remote starts of the 50-mile and 25-mile events finishing there, too. Locations for the remote starts will be announced soon.

Start times are: 6 a.m., 100-mile; 10:30 a.m., 50-mile; and noon, 25-mile,

A one-day bicycle expo and packet pickup will run 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sept. 12 at The Linq on the Strip.

“The ride has many great advantages for the city, the surrounding area, local charities and all of its participants,” Perimeter Bicycling Association of America Inc. founder and President Richard DeBernardis said in a statement.

Perimeter Bicycling has created partnerships with the RTC, the cities of Henderson and Las Vegas and the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority to help support and promote the Viva ride.

“We are excited that Perimeter Bicycling Association of America has decided to produce Viva Bike Vegas this year,” RTC general manager Tina Quigley said in a statement.

Registration opened online Monday. For information and registration for Viva Bike Vegas, visit perimeterbicycling.com/las-vegas or follow VivaBikeVegasElTour on Facebook.

One of Perimeter Bicycling’s major goals is also to raise money for local nonprofit organizations.

Nonprofits selected to receive money from Viva Bike Vegas include: Discovery Children’s Museum, Easter Seals Nevada, League of American Bicyclists and Safe Nest.

Organizers hope to raise $25,000 to $50,000 for the event’s first year, with an estimated 1,700 cyclists. Other nonprofits are expected to be added in coming weeks.

Contact Alan Snel at asnel@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5273. Find him on Twitter: @bicyclemansnel