When planning the first Tour of Somerville in 1940, race founder Fred “Pop” Kugler reached out to more than 150 local merchants for “dollar here, dollar there” support as well as contributions of time and talent from various volunteer groups. That inaugural race had a dairy farm as one of its primary sponsors with groups like the Kiwanis Club, Chamber of Commerce, and the Boy Scouts lending a hand in everything from logistics to crowd control. Through the years, additional groups such as Rotary International, the Lion’s Clubs, the Somerville Area Jaycees, pharmaceutical companies, banks, auto dealers, hospitals and bicycle clubs like the Somerset Wheelmen all contributed to the goal of running a first-rate sporting event, free to the spectator.
During the decade of the 2000s, all those contributors grew in size and stature. For a period of more than 20 years, the race grew under the direction of a volunteer group, Middle Earth, a youth mentoring and development resource. Races across the nation began emulating the Somerville success formula as closed-city streets, multi-lap, fast-paced racing became a draw to bring town celebrations together. As Sports Illustrated writer Sara Pileggi poetically-penned a few years earlier in her story “The Somerville Whirl,” “As for the spectators and for the cost of not one penny, and from the best seats in the house, the sidewalks, they will be able to watch some of the worlds’ finest athletes whirring past on their silent, delicate machines 77 separate times.”
Racing and winning during the decade came in bunches, again with a foreign flavor, although five time American winner Jonas Carney (2000, 2003) continued where he left off in the ‘90s. Canadian Eric Wohlberg (added another win in 2001). Argentina’s Lucas Sebastian Haedo won twice (2008, 2009); Victor Rapinski of Belarus won with a stunning sprint in 2004, while Australian Hilton Clarke claimed yet another Somerville victory in 2007. As for the women, the decade was dominated by three racers who also won in bunches, Notably, they were Six-time national criterium champ Tina Mayolo Pic of Georgia (1999,2000,2006, 2009); Philadelphian Theresa Cliff-Ryan (2007, 2011 and 2012).Finally, building on her first Somerville win in 1999, Laura Van Gilder was on her way to becoming a perennial fan favorite with victories in 2002 and 2005).
