New Orange Belt Cycling Event Launches Saturday In St. Petersburg

ST. PETERSBURG, FL — Two local business owners are bringing the CRIT Championship Tour, a professional cycling race launched earlier this year, to downtown St. Petersburg Saturday for the first time.

The criterium race series was founded by Justin Williams, a professional cyclist and founder of the L39ION of Los Angeles team, with the goal of promoting a love for bike racing across the country.

St. Pete residents and friends, Michael Rideout, the former owner of Made Coffee, and Nathan Stonecipher, an owner of Green Bench Brewing, are bringing the race to the Sunshine City as part of their new Orange Belt Cycling Series.

Both became avid bikers in adulthood and cycling buddies, Rideout told Patch. “Aside from just being a kid and riding a bike, I was never big into following races and cycling as much as I do now.”

For the past four years, they’ve traveled to Georgia to watch the Athens Twilight Criterium race.

“I’ve always thought it would be a race we’d love to bring to St. Pete,” Rideout said. “But I’m not coming from an events background or cycling events background or any major fitness events background. So, I started the learning curve on how to work with the city and how to get the businesses to sign off on it.”

He felt the city was ready for a cycling event like this, nodding to the city’s relationship with IndyCar for the popular Firestone Grand Prix.

“We’re trying to find the IndyCar of bicycle racing,” he added. “That’s essentially who the CRIT Championship Tour is.

The friends began dreaming of bringing a cycling race to St. Petersburg in early 2020, but their plans were cut short because of the COVID-19 pandemic. While businesses were shut down, they continued to work quietly on what such an event might look like.

Over the last year, they learned the CRIT Championship Tour was launching a new league in 2024 and was looking for a city to pilot the tour and host a kickoff event this year.

“The group came to town and ultimately picked St. Pete and fell in love with the waterfront, as well,” Rideout said.

The tour’s founders were impressed by the number of hotels in the downtown area, as well as the SunRunner bus system that runs between downtown St. Petersburg and St. Pete Beach.

“They wanted to have a lot of hotels near the racecourse,” he said. “The SunRunner bus was definitely a sell to them, the hotels, the whole development of the Edge District.”

The race will bring professional cyclists — six men’s teams and four women’s teams — from around the world to the city.

There will be race viewing areas available for free to spectators, as well as a limited number of VIP and general admission seating available for sale.

In addition to the racing, there will be a festival atmosphere with food, drinks, live music, a skate expo raising money for local charities and more at Green Bench Brewing. A local community ride, the CRIT Fundo, as well as a 5K race will also take place over the weekend.

“The idea is we’re essentially activating the area the entire day,” Rideout said.

The event is also expected to be an economic boon for businesses.

“We have big national sponsors coming in, professional race teams staying at hotels in the area and there’s going to be a lot of people coming into town — and all of them will spend money in the local bars and restaurants,” he said. “We’re bringing people from outside the city into the city and introducing them to St. Pete.”

He and Stonecipher hope this turns into an annual event.

“Our goal is either one, to partner with this (CRIT) league for many years to come, or two, if it doesn’t work out with the league, we want to make sure this event continues to happen for many years to come,” Rideout said. “We don’t want this to just be a standalone. Our goal is to continue to have this event in the Edge District in the fall of 2024 and beyond.”