Taken for a ride?

Organizations say Bike Tour of Colorado’s checks bounced.

A Colorado bicycle tour has left some organizations on the Western Slope with bounced checks instead of promised payments amid questions about whether the ride itself has pedaled off into the proverbial sunset.

Jill Jurca, treasurer of the Delta High School Band Parents, heard through the Delta County Chamber of Commerce that the 24th annual Bicycle Tour of Colorado was coming through town this past June, and the Morrisonbased ride’s organizers were looking for service groups that could help provide meals to the event’s 1,500 cyclists.

Jurca’s group of Delta High School band students and parents was happy to help, using the opportunity as a fundraiser for the band and working out an agreement to prepare a hearty breakfast for tour participants in exchange for $1,800.

This year’s ride took place June 2430, and covered more than 425 miles as cyclists rode over four mountain passes in a loop that started and ended in Leadville, passing through Carbondale, Delta, Palisade, Glenwood Springs and Eagle along the way.

But last week, while balancing the group’s books, Jurca noticed the bike tour’s check had bounced.

In an email Jurca provided to The Denver Post, the Bicycle Tour of Colorado responded to the Delta County group’s inquiry into the bounced check by writing: “We have sponsors that did not come through with money promised to the BTC. We have no funds to pay this at this time. We are working at obtaining funds … we are not sure when we will have funds.”

Efforts to reach representatives of the Bicycle Tour of Colorado on Monday were unsuccessful.

The ride’s website appears wiped of much of its information. When a reporter from the Post tried to call a number for the tour listed on its Facebook page, the call did not go through. A message sent to the email address listed on the group’s Facebook page bounced.

Multiple people have posted on the tour’s Facebook page to ask when the 2019 ride will be announced or whether there will be one. Registration for the 2018 tour opened in July 2017, and was promoted on the ride’s Facebook page for months. The Bicycle Tour of Colorado hasn’t posted on its Facebook page since early June.

Darnell PlaceWise was the executive director of the Delta Area Chamber of Commerce when the Bicycle Tour of Colorado approached her about the group’s overnight stay in Delta during its 2018 tour. The city and Delta Chamber of Commerce prepared for months, and PlaceWise ended up securing three nonprofit organization to fix the cyclists breakfast, lunch and dinner. She also arranged for live music and a beer garden.

The check to the Delta High School band bounced along with a $1,365 check to the Kiwanis Club of Delta and a $1,320 check to the Delta Area Chamber of Commerce, PlaceWise said.

Representatives of the Bicycle Tour of Colorado wrote back to PlaceWise saying they had no money to pay, she said.

“I am no longer at the Chamber of Commerce, but as the organizer of the event, I am outraged,” PlaceWise said. “Especially for the band, as we are a small school, and literally every single dollar matters. We have regionals coming up and have a good chance to qualify for state, which that $1,800 would go toward since it’s in Pueblo.”

Jurca said band students and their parents stayed up most of the night in late June preparing $700 worth of breakfast foods that the Bicycle Tour of Colorado had requested, including oatmeal, breakfast burritos, fruit, coffee and tea.

The cyclists were polite, Jurca said, and it seemed the event went fine — until the money didn’t come through.

“We’ve already spent that money thinking it was in the account,” Jurca said. “We’ll be OK. It’s more that we’re sad and angry that they did this. You’re dealing with kids and band students, and that’s not OK to do this. They’re not good people.”

Others posting on the Bicycle Tour of Colorado’s Facebook page dating back to August mentioned similar financial issues, with checks bouncing and nobody responding to phone calls or emails about the situation.

Jurca contacted the Colorado Attorney General’s Office and is in talks with her school district to see if there’s any recourse.