BELLEVILLE, Ill. — A beloved Belleville, Illinois, tradition is ending. Tour de Belleville is hitting the brakes after one last ride.
The event started as a nighttime bike ride 19 years ago. At its peak, it brought more than 2,500 riders to downtown Belleville.
"This event has always been a major liability issue for the City of Belleville. Having a nighttime bicycle ride is a challenge," Director of Public Works & Parks Jason Poole said.
Poole said they turned it into a daytime event in 2021 because there were too many safety concerns and liabilities associated with holding it after dark.
However, participation started dwindling.
"We had a lot of feedback saying, 'this isn't Tour de Belleville anymore. You got it off the nighttime event and off the Downtown streets of Belleville; it's not the Tour de Belleville anymore.' We've never had a major incident, but we also don't want to have a major incident," Poole said.
The tradition will end for good after one last nighttime ride on July 12.
"I'm actually pretty sad. This was one of my favorite events to do," Dan Lane, a long-time bike rider and sponsor, said.
Lane has been riding in Tour de Belleville for years and doesn't want to see it go.
"Anytime you can combine something fun and raise money for the community is great," Lane said.
Tour de Belleville is also a fundraiser. It has raised over $260,000 for police and fire equipment, plus improvements to local parks.
"We've purchased a lot of stuff with those funds. Utility vehicle for our police department, utility vehicle for our fire department, utility vehicle for our parks department," said Poole.
Poole said the bike ride would return, but in a different way and under a different name.
"We'll come back with another family-friendly bicycle ride during the day next year and call it something different," Poole said.
The final ride, dubbed the Sunset Tour, is happening at 8 p.m. July 12 in Belleville.