Tour de Scottsdale

What do you do when you have 7,000 bananas for a big event?

Make sure they are ready, ripe and worthy of the quality event.

That’s what Mike Ciasca did – and made sure it would happen – when the Tour de Scottsdale rolled around on April 13.

He had a vision, and it was pulled off – or in this case peeled off.

“I know how finicky bananas can be,” Ciasca said, “going from perfect to banana bread in days. You can’t really predict that, but if you have a banana that’s not ready it could take a few days to become ready.”

He knows for experience – professional and recreational. He is a district sales representative for Shamrock.

Back in 2009, he rode in an El Tour event – his first – and remembered being at the second river crossing (you remember those, right?) and there were 100s of people at the aid station. He was hurting and wanted to have a couple of bananas. When he got there the bananas were green.

“They tasted like chalk … I was so deflated,” he said. “I just wanted a good banana.”

Photo provided by Mike Ciasa

Fast forward to the last few years as more than just a participant – being a rep for Shamrock, who provides El Tour’s fruit now and not back then – he wants to make sure the bananas and good and ready for the ride as they were for Tour de Scottsdale. Shamrock has provided the produce for six years.

“I didn’t want to be the guy who brings in the green bananas,” he said.

Instead, he was the guy who made sure the bananas were ripe and ready.

“I wanted them to be perfect,” he said.

And they were … but there’s also a process Ciasca and Shamrock did to make sure they were ready.

Del Monte came through as did Shamrock.

It took a village – which was about a handful of people, Ciasca said, that played a part in it.

He wanted to make sure 70 cases of bananas – 2,800 pounds – were ready. The process started in February, and they started to “work things backwards.”

There were a lot of moving parts.

“We wanted them to be absolutely perfect for that Saturday morning,” he said.

Del Monte ripens the fruit for Shamrock, but “they needed to place special eyes on these, and they handpicked cases of the perfect bananas” three days prior to the ride on April 13.

They were “baby sat” and later put on pallets that had a sign that said: Tour de Scottsdale bike race.

“There were not to be put in regular inventory for the Shamrock customers,” he said.

“When I saw the bananas before the race and hand one,” he said, “I thought this was the most perfect, ready-for-consumption banana. It made me feel really good because our company Shamrock put so much into it that the 70 cases were absolutely perfect.”

All that for a banana, he said, but “I’m proud of Shamrock the buying team, our specialists working with me to make it happen. My hat goes off to them. And for them to look at me as an employee and put in that special care that makes sure nearly 3,000 riders had a good experience.”

Mike Ciasca

Oh, by the way. They provided 50 cases of oranges, too. They too were super good.

“They aren’t as finicky,” he said. “They are ready to go once they hit our warehouse.”

“They were nice and juicy and sweet,” he said.

And, oh by the way, he loved the ride. He's a platinum rider. 

 “It was awesome,” he said. “The course was spot on. The roads were fabulous, and the police support was spot on … it was a perfect venue.”