When the first Minneapolis parkway bike tour was scheduled for a week after the 13th pedaling of the St. Paul Classic, Mary Morse worried that the competitive scheduling might be akin to a murder-suicide.

Turns out that Morse, who heads the organization that runs the St. Paul tour, may have been half right.

While the St. Paul Classic had 5,664 preregistrations as of Friday afternoon for Sunday's ride, the Minneapolis tour was lagging.

As of Friday afternoon, registrations for the Minneapolis event on Sept. 16 had hit 1,918 riders. The St. Paul ride had 2,850 bikers in 1995, its first year, and bills itself as the state's largest bike tour.

In an effort to boost registrations, Minneapolis park officials waived the planned increase in its ride fee for those registering after Aug. 31.

"It's about what we expected," Shane Stenzel, the Minneapolis tour director, said of registrations for his event. "A lot of people haven't even heard about it. It takes time for an event to establish."

But Morse said that Minneapolis officials were predicting last winter that they'd attract thousands of riders when she tried to dissuade them from setting their date a week after the St. Paul ride.

"I can guarantee that you will have difficulty attracting enough riders one week after the St. Paul Classic to truly reap the financial benefits that you expect," she told one Minneapolis park official in an e-mail in January.

"I do not want either of our rides to fail but your organization seems determined to head down that direction," she said.

Although both tours are billed as a family-friendly chance to bike the cities' parkways without traffic, the tours are about more than a fun ride. St. Paul's nonprofit Neighborhood Energy Connection uses the ride to promote energy conservation and raised about $20,000 for its programs from last year's ride. Morse is its executive director. The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board hopes its tour will raise money for its foundation.

Stenzel said Minneapolis park officials had a hard time securing a date for their tour, not wanting to bump one of the hundreds of other events that use parkways from March to November.

He said some bikers told him they'd do both tours, while others said they'd done the St. Paul ride enough times that they'd like to try the Minneapolis one.

"If you want to do biking and you like to do tours, you're going to do both," Stenzel said.

Morse disagreed and told Minneapolis officials their ride would fare better if it was scheduled for earlier in the year. She suggested offering a medallion to riders who completed both tours. Alternately, the rides could be run the same day and a 70-mile route combining both cities' parkways could be offered as an option, she said.

Stenzel said Minneapolis wanted to focus on creating a simple event with a good route and build from there.

The date clash between the two tours could become even worse. Occasionally, when Rosh Hashanah falls on the traditional St. Paul tour date of the Sunday after Labor Day, the ride is pushed back a week. That schedule could put the two rides on the same day in some years.

Steve Brandt • 612-673-4438

Steve Brandt • sbrandt@startribune.com