Cyclers Wreak Havoc

An annual bicycle "Tour of the Hamptons" stretched like a slow-moving snake along roadsides from Southampton to Montauk on Sunday. While the scenery might have pleased the 1,000 participating cyclists, the organizers at the Massapequa Park Bicycle Club had failed to alert East Hampton Town authorities and apparently misrepresented their numbers to Southampton Town officials. The resultant traffic snarls had motorists and police hopping mad.

"It was an absolute disaster. We had to pull officers off pre-existing assignments to get it to be a palatable situation. There was no coordination with us prior or during the event," said Capt. Todd Sarris of the East Hampton Town Police Department. Captain Sarris said members of the bike club who were trying, not very successfully, to direct traffic were ordered off the street.

Impassable Roads

"It's a liability to have them directing traffic," he said, adding that organizers of all such events, most of them far smaller than Sunday's tour, were required to apply to the town for a gathering permit. There was no application in this case. Police were able to track down one of the organizers before the end of the day to register their protest.

Glen Stonemetz, East Hampton Village Police Chief, was still angry on Tuesday afternoon. He said the roads had become so impassable by midday that traffic was stalled from Main Street, Bridgehampton, "almost to the traffic light at Newtown Lane" in East Hampton.

Mr. Stonemetz said the worst jam was caused when cyclists were traveling west. "They crossed over Woods Lane (Route 27) to the east end of Georgica Road (to tour the Georgica area), then crossed over 27 again at the west end of Georgica Road, and again at Wainscott Stone Road by the Sapore di Mare restaurant. We had no idea this was going to happen, by phone or by letter."

Never Again

"It's not only inconvenient, it's dangerous," he continued. "There are four ambulance services east of [the traffic jam]. They call me Mr. Mean from the land of No, but Route 27 is the only way to the nearest hospital. I feel very strongly about this. It's not going to happen again, I'll tell you right now," vowed the chief.

The bike club did apply for and receive a permit to pedal through Southampton Town with the stipulation that riders stay in single file. A spokeswoman for Supervisor Vincent Cannuscio said on Tuesday that while there appeared to have been no accidents on Southampton roads, there were traffic jams caused by the bikers, whose numbers might have been misrepresented on the permit application. "They said between 500 and 600. They might have needed a special events permit," she said.

Southampton Town Police reported relatively minor problems attributed to the tour this year compared with the past. Only one complaint was registered - by a motorist who had words with one of the club's traffic directors.

Tour Route

"It's a beautiful route," said Mike Bottini, an East Hampton resident who has helped organize the tour in past years, although a broken foot prevented his participation this time around. Twelve hundred participated last year, and about 1,000 the year before.Mr. Bottoni is a planner with the Group for the South Fork.

The tour begins early at South ampton High School and participants can choose a 25-mile, 50-mile, 65-mile, or 100-mile "loop." Bikers first pedal through the estate area, across Route 39 to the Tuckahoe School. The tour then winds through North Sea, Noyac, Sag Harbor, Northwest, Barnes Landing, Napeague, and Montauk.

Mr. Bottini said one stretch that has posed a problem in the past is the narrow and windy Noyac Road, which cyclists must use all the way east to Long Beach.

The return portion of all four loops explores the farmland south of the highway, passing along Bluff Road in Amagansett to East Hampton, back onto Montauk Highway (Route 27) through Wainscott and Sag a pon ack.

Perry Perakakis was this year's chairman of the tour, which benefits the Make a Wish Foundation and the purchase of bikes for needy families. He said a change in policy probably was responsible for the trouble in this sixth year of the event.

More Traffic

"We have had close calls and minor injuries in the past and to help prevent them the club assigned 'monitors' to stop traffic in places," he said. "Maybe some of our people got overzealous, I don't know."

Mr. Perakakis said the event has been held at about the same time each year, but this year the car traffic was much heavier. He said he had arranged to meet with Chief Stonemetz to plan future events. That is, if there is one.

East Hampton Town Councilman Tom Knobel, who is in charge of special events permits for the town, said, "They made no effort to orchestrate this in advance. I'm going to make it clear they really screwed up."

Mr. Knobel's counterpart in Southampton, Councilman Steven Halsey, said that if his board had known there were going to be a thousand participants, "we might have had them in to answer questions."