Pflugerville Police Department Bicycle Rodeo Canceled

PFLUGERVILLE, TX — The Pflugerville Police Department Bicycle Rodeo that was scheduled on Saturday has been canceled due to weather, officials said.

Officials sent out a notice Friday alerting to the cancellation. The forecast calls for cold and rainy temperatures on Saturday, April 7.

The annual event is geared to children from kindergarten to fifth grade as a way of teaching safe bike-riding skills — the use of hand signals, the importance of wearing a helmet and an obstacle course meant to improve riding skills. The event was to take place from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Pflugerville High School parking lot, 1401 FM 1825. The free community event typically features police, fire and EMS personnel with patrol cars and a fire truck traditionally parked at the site.

Pflugerville Police Department spokeswoman Terri Toledo said there are no plans to reschedule the event to a later date. "We hate to cancel it, but it looks like the weather might make for an uncomfortable experience," she told Patch in a telephone interview. "We just hope people will come to future events we hold."

Officials in the tight-knit community place a premium on such events, particularly because it gives residents an opportunity to meet their first responders and get to know them better. Pflugerville Police Chief Jessica Robledo had looked forward to the event, judging her statement from an earlier announcement.

“At the Bicycle Rodeo, we make safety fun as our officers teach kids hand signals and help them improve their bike-riding skills as they ride through a rodeo course of eight obstacles and challenges including looped courses and sharp turns,” Robledo said ahead of the now-canceled event. “Families can register bikes and meet members of the Pflugerville Police Department.”

Despite the dire weather predictions, the National Weather Service meteorologists aren't forecasting rain on Saturday — or cold weather for that matter. The forecast calls for mostly cloudy skies during the day with a high temperature of 57 degrees expected (which could be considered cold to some accustomed to the region's temperate climate). It is expected to get on the cooler side on Saturday night, with a low of around 43 degrees forecast.

However, thunderstorms are likely on Friday night on the day before the event. Saturday is expected to be mostly cloudy and windy. Winds that will start at between 15 miles per hour are expected to form into gusts with velocity of up to 35 miles per hour during the day, according to weather forecasters.

"The forecast we saw called for temperatures in the 40s as well as windy weather," Toledo told Patch. "That doesn't really lend itself with having children on bicycles during a rodeo."

Toledo noted the police department stages events designed to meet with residents year-round — the quarterly "Coffee With A Cop" gatherings designed for residents to meet with their neighborhood police officers in a casual setting, the annual open house at the cop shop in September, the annual staging of local "National Night Out" observances in October, just to name a few. Pflugerville police even have a so-called "apartment task force" when they meet with apartment dwellers to provide safety tips, she added.

And, she noted, parents should always feel free to contact police if they need the authority figures' currency to impart safety tips — related to bicycle riding and other matters — on a case-by-case basis: "We're definitely accessible if someone in interested in meeting with our officers," Toledo told Patch. "Just give us a call!"

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