Cycling Canada announces racing calendar for 2016

This week, Cycling Canada announced the domestic competitive calendar for 2016 — and as ever, the year to come is going to cook, from the looks of things.

Track

In track, competition for Junior and Cadet classifications will kick off the season, with the Canadian Cadet/Junior Track Championships taking place from April 1 to 3 at the Mattamy National Cycling Centre in Milton, Ont. As well, there’s the Milton International Challenge, which saw its first event as a test for the Pan Am Games this past year, shortly after Mattamy opened. Elite, Para and Master classifications, meanwhile, will once again hit the track in fall of 2016. Final dates for that competition are pending.

2016 will also see two new national-level events on the track calendar, when Milton, Ont. hosts the Eastern Track Challenge on Feb. 13, and Burnaby, B.C. hosts the Western Track Challenge on a date to be determined. The twin sanction events are made for the U15, Cadet and Junior age groups, providing a springboard for the Canadian track championships.

Road cycling

Road, of course, is expected to once again set the tempo for Canadian competition in 2016, with some of the year’s top races returning. Gatineau, Que. and Ottawa will once again share hosting privileges for the Global Relay Canadian Road Championships, starting on June 25 and running until June 29. This year, the schedule has been shaken up a bit, too. Masters riders will have a separate Canadian championship event in mid-June, with the details expected to be firmed up in the coming weeks.

On the global level, Gatineau will see the world’s top women hit the road at the Grand Prix Cycliste de Gatineau and the Chrono Gatineau in early June. Back-to-back events will also see the Grand Prix Cycliste de Saguenay and the Tour de Beauce leaving riders with little time to catch their breath.

In 2016, the Tour of Alberta returns for the fourth year, too, with the sanctioned UCI 2.1 race — Canada’s biggest stage race — bringing some of the world’s best to the incomparable beauty of the Canadian west. Road riders in the para classification will also compete in Montreal, when the Defi Sportif AlterGo returns.

Mountain bike and cross-country

Quebec’s Charlevoix region, as riders at both the domestic and international levels are keenly aware, is one of the most staggeringly picturesque, technically versatile regions in the country for cycling, and its history proves it. For the last 17 years, Canada Cup and Coupe du Quebec events have been hosted in the Quebec region, at the Baie-Saint-Paul resort, and 2016 is raising the bar on that track record a bit. Next year, the Canadian mountain bike cross-country championships will take place at resort, too, marking the first time that Baie-Saint-Paul has ever hosted a Canadian championship event.

Bear Mountain, just outside Victoria — a site, Cycling Canada announced in January, designated as the official high performance training centre of the Canadian National Mountain Bike Team — will also be host to a first, when Canada Cup mountain bike competition kicks off on March 5. The race starts the 2016 Canada Cup mountain bike series, which runs through August and is scheduled to visit Victoria, Mont-Tremblant, Horseshoe Valley, Hardwood Ski and Bike and St.-Felicien. As in past years, Whistler, B.C., during 2016’s Crankworx Festival, will be the venue for Series final competition in the cross-country and downhill disciplines.

Downhill riders, too, will remember 2016 as the first year of the East Open Canada Cup, scheduled for the Blue Mountain Resort in Ontario. On the other side of the country, the Canadian mountain bike downhill championships will roll out once again at Sun Peaks Resort, when Canada’s daredevil downhillers vie for the Maple Leaf in their discipline.

2016 will also be another marquee year for Mont-Sainte-Anne, Quebec which will host the UCI World Cup.

BMX

Calgary will also see another year as the Canadian BMX scene’s gilded city, when the Canadian BMX Championships hit the Alberta dirt for the first year of a two-year run at the host city. It will also host the final installment of the Canada Cup BMX Series of 2016, with the other events in the seven-race series happening in Abbotsford, B.C., Drummondville, Que., Toronto and Calgary. Abbotsford will start the Canada Cup in May, while Toronto’s Centennial Park Pan Am BMX Centre and BMX Drummond will host the second and third rounds, respectively.

Cyclocross

2016 is expected to be a banner year for Canadian cyclocross, too, a discipline which has seen surging interest and enthusiasm in recent years. Next year, Cycling Canada announced, Sherbrooke, Que. will host the 2016 Canadian cyclocross championships on Oct. 22, and serve as host city the following year as well.

Organizers from the Club Cycliste de Sherbrooke, reportedly, are excited to welcome Canada’s top riders in the growing sport.

“We are very excited that Club Cycliste de Sherbrooke has been chosen to host the 2016 and 2017 Canadian Cyclocross Championships,” said chief organizer Stephane Vallieres. “We will work hard to ensure these championships are a success. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the city of Sherbrooke, Destination Sherbrooke and the Siboire microbrewery for their support in the preparation of the bid.

The full schedule can be viewed online at cyclingcanada.ca.