2009 Tempe Tour de Fat Recap

Greetings bike lovers! This year’s Tour de Fat was crazy! I don’t think I stood still for more than 15 minutes the entire event. Thank you again to all the volunteers that make this event happen every year. Without YOU we couldn’t make it happen. We’ve already begun planning for next year, getting thoughts, ideas and improvements down on paper. Suffice it to say, if we get our ideas approved by New Belgium, being a volunteer next year will be awesome! We’ll also be recruiting more volunteers next year to fill some additional positions we see necessary. And now the moment you’ve been waiting for… fairly official numbers:

Attendance was between 9 and 10,000, in contrast 2008 was about 7,000. Tempe holds the #2 spot for attendance behind only the home show at the brewery in Fort Collins which saw 15,000 this year.

Gross income: $70,902 (+$4,300 that went directly to Mountain Bike Patrol for Parade donations)
Beer cost: -$12,065 (127 kegs tapped)
Other expenses: -$330
Half of merch to New Beligum: -$3,150
Net income: $55,363

The gross income represents a new Tour de Fat record as most money raised in the ~10 year history of Tour de Fat!

This net income gets split three ways equally between Tempe Bicycle Action Group, Bike Saviours and the Mountain Bike Association of Arizona. All registered 501c3 non profit organizations here in Arizona.

I hear the bike parade stretched the ENTIRE ~3 mile loop. Apparently the tail end of the parade was just leaving as the front returned to the park!

Also, I wanted to share a little information on Oktoberfest which sort of fell by the wayside with Tour de Fat occurring the weekend after. We parked about 600 bikes! We brought in $312 in tips. Thank you to the valet volunteers as well!