While Mayor Streeter blames the city of Boston for the collapse of the planned bicycle race that was to start in Montreal on Aug. 5, make a stop in Nashua on Aug. 11 and finish in Boston on Aug. 12, the organizers don’t blame any municipality or person.

The planners merely say organizing the bike race that would involve two countries – the United States and Canada – the states of Vermont, New Hampshire and Massachusetts, plus the province of Quebec, proved too complicated in the time allotted for planning. They are now shooting for the first race to happen in 2008.

Evidently, the planning got started too late and some communities between Boston and Montreal weren’t prepared on short notice to muster community resources to shepherd the international race through their roads. In New Hampshire, the race would have also rolled through Concord and Manchester, and in a number of smaller communities.

Streeter, in his announcement that the race was canceled for this year, said Boston’s lack of interest in the race doomed it.

“As mayor, I am personally offended by the city of Boston’s lack of interest and support,” said Streeter. “I know our state officials who have worked long and hard on this event are crushed with this decision.”

A Boston official, though, says it wasn’t a lack of interest that delayed the race but the complicated logistics involved. Boston is usually looking for tourist draws, and the race would have been a great one for the slow month of August when most people want to flee the city for cooler places. But the intricacies of huge public events are far more complicated in a city as large as Boston.

If the organizers have decided that planning the race of pro cyclists, dubbed the Montreal-Boston Tour, will take another year, so be it despite Streeter’s disappointment. A badly organized race could have been a fatal way to launch this event.

Another year will allow the tour organizers to refine their plans and by then, Boston probably will be fully on board to host the race’s finale.

After all, great events do take loads of coordination and mutual understanding, especially when multiple states, municipalities and countries are involved.

It looks like the organizers are being realists, and we say better luck in 2008 in pulling it all together.

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