I don’t think it’s a competitive race. The cars don’t have spare bikes, the cyclists don’t have bib numbers, there don’t appear to be teams, some cyclists seem to have an imperfect setup and mixed sex races are uncommon. I also don’t see cars ahead of the peloton. I think it might be more of an organised leisure trip, which would explain why the road wasn’t closed.

Do you have an article or a link? Because this video doesn’t show any of that.