Etape Caledonia opponents say they will drop their protest but insist a closed-road event is still not right for Highland Perthshire.
Pressure group ACRE (Anti-Closed Roads Events) said it will not even demonstrate at Sunday’s fourth event which sees more than 80 miles of roads shut to vehicles every year and will instead focus its efforts on ensuring Perth and Kinross Council backs an open-road time trial alternative from 2012.
Pro-Etape campaigners gathered in Perth to show their support for the race but ACRE spokesman Peter Hounam said the proposed replacement would bring the same level of visitors to Highland Perthshire while uniting what he sees as a currently divided community.
He said the decision to stop protesting had been prompted partly by the attack on last year’s race, when carpet tacks were strewn along part of the route and hundreds of tyres were punctured and cyclists injured.
He said, “As of a few weeks ago, even the issue of demonstrating is in abeyance. We are not anti-cycling and hope to heal a few wounds cyclists feel they have with us.”
He added, “The council’s highly unpopular decision to give Etape Caledonia’s organisers a five-year franchise, and tens of thousands of pounds in subsidies, means for this year and next it is almost impossible to arrest the running of the race in its present form.
“Of equal influence is last year’s sabotaging of the Etape Caledonia race. ACRE affirmably played no part in this criminal act and condemned it outright, but the group is concerned this year’s race will attract the focus of the whole of Scotland for all the wrong reasons.
“It believes the animosity and anger generated by the attack must be given a chance to fade.
“It has always argued its battle is not with the cycling community but with Perth and Kinross Council and other authorities, including the police, who have unwisely given their backing for the road closures.”
ACRE’s alternative is a fixed route in Highland Perthshire where cyclists could test themselves at any time of the year.
Competitors would be encouraged to stay longer and spread the economic benefits to a wider area. Crucially for ACRE, this would leave the roads open.LobbyMr Hounam said ACRE would lobby the council to get behind the idea from 2012, when Etape organiser IMG’s run ends.
However, he acknowledged communications with the council which dismissed ACRE as a “tiny minority despite claims it has almost 600 supporters” had long since ceased.
He said, “It is now time for Perth and Kinross to support local initiative rather a multinational concern based in the south of England.
“The attraction of our idea is that it will bring a steady flow of visitors into the area at all times of the year, something Perth and Kinross Council is fervently in favour of encouraging.
“We won’t be sorry to say goodbye to Etape Caledonia, but the truth is big business has no place in an area when there is a better alternative promoted on the doorstep by local initiative.”
An IMG spokeswoman confirmed the company would be bidding to keep the race going after 2011 and dismissed ACRE as having “an awful lot of ideas but nothing concrete in progress.”
She said, “We’re grateful they are going to stop campaigning and inciting difficulties at the next few events.
“We’ll wait and see if their plans come to anything but they would have an economic impact on the charity it is hoped £500,000 will be raised for Macmillan Cancer Care this year.
“It has to be a closed-roads event because the safety of the cyclists is the most important thing for us.”
She said extra stewarding would be in place on Sunday to prevent a repeat of last year’s chaos.
A council spokesman said, “The council has no view on any plan ACRE has come up with. We are instead concentrating on helping to deliver what promises to be the most successful Etape Caledonia event so far.
“We’re working to ensure the thousands of visitors who come to Highland Perthshire this week leave with a positive impression, and local businesses can make the most of the opportunity the event presents them with.”