Rose Parade cleanup answers call of duty for Amgen Tour

Among the hundreds of workers and volunteers in downtown Santa Rosa today facilitating the marriage of a world-class bike race and a homespun parade attended by more than 20,000 people, one of the most critical roles in one of Sonoma County’s most ginormous events will be played by those who clean up.

After the horses.

Crews of pooper scoopers bolstered by teams with shovels, wheelbarrows and brooms are tasked with scouring downtown’s streets in the short interval between the end of the 122nd procession of the Rose Parade and its 120 entries, and the arrival of some 145 professional cyclists whirring through downtown on the penultimate leg of the Amgen Tour of California.

Just to make their duty more difficult, they’ll need to be on the lookout for candy tossed from parade floats and the detritus of food, wrappers, cigarette butts and rose petals shed along the route. A rain that’s forecast through the day could increase the degree of difficulty.

“It behooves us to have the smoothest surface possible on city streets,” said Raissa de la Rosa, the city’s economic development and marketing coordinator and co-chairwoman of race’s local organizing committee, “because they (the bicycle racers) are going really fast in a tight pack.”

The obvious question: Why schedule the day’s events, which also includes a women’s Tour of California bike race prior to the parade, on the same day?

The answer: It makes for a great city payday.

The Rose Parade always has run on the third Saturday in May, generally seen as the ideal time between Mother’s Day and Memorial Day.

But in October, Amgen Tour officials announced new - and later - race dates spanning from May 15 to 22, built around eight stages in the state. Santa Rosa was offered the seventh stage, right before the tour ends Sunday in Sacramento.

Rather than decline an event expected to generate more than $1.2 million for the local economy, the city gulped, took a deep breath and accepted.

“I think there was only so much wiggle room,” said Judy Groverman Walker, manager of the Rose Parade. “Kind of a take it or leave it situation.”

Ever since, local organizers have worked on coordinating the events by meeting weekly among themselves and monthly with race officials. That evolved into a synchronized plan where the three events share some of the same roads and vendor space, Walker said.

The 70-mile-long women’s race begins downtown at 9:15 a.m. The men’s 109-mile-long race starts about two hours later - at 11:10 a.m. The women riders will return to downtown about noon and finish after a three-lap sprint around the central business district, estimated to be at 12:10 p.m.

Although shorter than past processions, the parade is expected to embark five minutes later and end by 4:15 p.m. at Fourth and B streets.

“The parade can’t start until the women arrive back,” Walker said.

Organizers will closely monitor the parade’s pace, and plan to cut off entries if it appears they can’t complete in time, de la Rosa said. Those entries may be allowed to amble the route after the men’s race concludes.

“We know where we need to be at what time,” de la Rosa said.

You can reach Staff Writer Paul Payne at 568-5312 or paul.payne@pressdemocrat.com.