Bike-Pizza Combo Returns

Two of New Haven’s most-beloved traditions — bikes and pizza — will converge in New Haven’s second annual Grand Prix cycling races next week.

Almost 150 years after the first bicycle patent was granted to the mechanic Pierre Lallement in New Haven, Mayor Toni Harp, other city officials and those leading the Grand Prix into its sophomore year gathered at City Hall Thursday morning to unveil the schedule for the race, which will take place primarily in the afternoon and evening of Sept. 16.

In addition to a course which circles downtown through Elm, Temple, Chapel and High Streets, the event will include freestyle trick shows, local entertainers and a concurrent Apizza and Eats Feast.

“New Haven has incredible history in the sport of cycling,” city transit chief Doug Hausladen said. ​“And we’re excited to bring it back.”

The Prix redux is also another puzzle piece in New Haven’s evolution as a bike-friendly and pedestrian-friendly city, Harp said. This summer season-closing extravaganza will include three back-to-back bike races, with 70 total miles of ​“grand-prix” style competition.

(Read about last year’s competition here.)

The Grand Prix aims to raise money for the Connecticut Cycling Advancement Program, which has established youth cycling programs across the state.

Aidan Charles (pictured at left), director of the Prix and founder of the CCAP, anticipates that about 150 cyclists will participate in this year’s races, but Charles is more focused on the attendees: Last year drew somewhere between 8,000 to 10,000 of them, and he’s hoping for more this time around.

“It’s not about the cyclists so much as it is about the scene downtown,” Charles said.

Colin Caplan (pictured), director of the Apizza Feast this year, carried several boxes of pizza in his arms, before handing over a box to Hausladen. The feast will line the streets of downtown with trucks, restaurants, beer gardens and — of course — pizza. Notably, the feast also does not include an entry charge this year.

“I see a lot of people drooling now,” Caplan said, shutting his open box. ​“I must leave.”

While Harp politely declined the pie Caplan offered her, students from cycling clubs established with the aid of CCAP at Worthington Hooker School and the New Horizons School for Higher Achievement swarmed around the leftover slices, clad in their uniforms.

“I wasn’t cycling as much until I joined the club, and now I’m re-inspired,” Steven Zhang, an eighth grader at Worthington Hooker School, said through a mouthful of crust. ​“My goal is to finish the race and not be last.”

His coach, Tim Shortt, who also teaches sixth grade science and literacy at Worthington Hooker, pointed a finger at him.

“You are racing,” he said. ​“You’re doing it.”