About a month or two ago while out cycling, I met an 85 year old British gentleman on a steel framed Mercian nicknamed 'Crumpy'. He began professionally racing at the age of 14 and is still grinding out miles all these years later. He managed 5,500 miles in 2017 alone! Crazy stuff.
Anyway, he's lived in our neighborhood of 'The Pinery' in Parker, CO since its' founding in the 70's and had some old photos of a bike race that occured here in the early 80's. I did some research and it turns out the development company used these bike races (which featured several pro riders) and also hot air balloon races as a way to generate interest in the development.
Terracor and Senior Corp... The first developer of the Pinery was Terracor, a Utah-based company. They planned on building a premier development in the area. The original vision of Terracor was to plot sites for small vacation cabins for people living in Denver. The plan called for open space, green belts, and excellent views of the mountains. This plan never came to fruition: the developer decided the 'homes should be permanent rather than summer "getaways.” The open areas were replotted for 5 - 10 acre sites and estate-sized homes. Included in the new plan were a park and a bird sanctuary. The development was begun in 1971, when the real estate market was poor. Some lots were sold and built on by independent builders, but the selling lagged. Terracor advertised their enterprise heavily to attract more buyers. In 1976-1977, hot air balloon races were held: take-off for the balloons was the elevated site where Mountain View Elementary School now stands. They also conceived of holding bicycle races throughout the Pinery. None of their advertising schemes worked well; in 1982, Terracor was forced to declare bankruptcy. At that time, the Pinery was separated from the undeveloped remainder of the property
Thought this was a cool little tidbit about my neighborhood and I wanted to get these photos out into the light.
Here's a map of the loop they did. Each one was 7.3 miles with 440ft of climbing. It's unclear how many times they did it
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