THE Tour de Perth 45km Criterium bike race shut down Fremantle’s city centre Wednesday afternoon, causing traffic gridlock.

With streets closed from 3pm, angry commuters clocking off work for the day say getting out of the port city took an hour—a trip that normally takes five minutes.

Mark La Gue from the Record Finder on High Street had pole-position viewing and witnessed a traffic warden cop plenty of abuse.

“They were going off at him, saying he wasn’t do his job,” Mr La Gue told the Herald.

“It’s pretty unfair really as it wasn’t his fault, the council always seem to close roads at unnecessary times. The worker said he would never do this again.”

Mr La Gue felt the lash of a Toll delivery driver’s tongue: “He was going on about how he had places to be, deliveries to make, why have a bike race at this time of day, it was stupid to have a race.”

CIC event management group, which contracted the traffic management group for Wednesday event, would not provide its contractor’s numbers to the Herald.

CIC event director Craig Smith-Gander says it’s very disappointing to hear that wardens were abused.

“That is not fair, he was just doing his job, and an event volunteer at that. Unfortunately, for events like these that occur on public roads we do need to shut them down to get them ready—not only for the safety of the athletes, but also the workers, “We know people are inconvenienced but we do our best. We feel we gave people adequate warning, so they could use alternative transport on the day.”

Mr Smith-Gander says the Wednesday evening event was well attended and enjoyed: “Being a tour and a five-day event we had to close streets on a Wednesday so the event could finish on a Saturday.”

by CLARE KENYON