Tour of Alberta announce host cities and mass-participation event for 2016
Tour of Alberta reduced to five stages, Hesjedal and Trek-Segafredo return for 2016 edition.
The Tour of Alberta announced the cities that are set to host the fourth edition of the UCI 2.1 stage race. The race will take the peloton from Southern to Central Alberta over the course of five stages.
Stage 1 returns to Lethbridge on September 1. The city played host to Stage 1 of the 2014 edition and Ruben Zepuntke (then with Bissell now with Cannondale Pro Cycling) sprinted to victory from the reduced peloton, Ryan Anderson (now with Direct Energy) was the highest placed Canadian in third.
Kananaskis will host the start of Stage 2. The region is often called Alberta’s mountain playground with over 50 interconnected provincial parks and recreational areas. The peloton will head north through Mountain View County before reaching the finishing college-town of Olds. Stage 3 brings the riders along the Cowboy Trail from Rocky Mountain House and finishes in the small town of Drayton Valley.
On September 4, the race heads to Edmonton where earlier in the day the ITU World Triathlon Edmonton will be taking place. The two events will share Hawrelak Park which will host entertainment and programming throughout the day.
Edmonton has hosted a number of stages of the Tour of Alberta. The race’s final stage is held on an 11-km circuit through the downtown core. In 2014, Daryl Impey used the final stage in Edmonton as a launching pad for his general classification victory using the time bonuses on offer to vault him past Tom Dumoulin who had taken the lead with a strong prologue on the first stage. The race was reduced in length by one stage in 2016.
“It is no secret that the province as a whole has suffered economically this year,” says Alberta Peloton Association chairman Jared Smith. “As a result of the unscrupulous economic situation, the Alberta Peloton Association made the difficult decision to decrease to a five-day stage race, we empathize with the tour’s prospective host communities and partners who have been hit hard by Alberta’s decline in the economy. We are looking ahead to 2017 and beyond when we will return to a six-day event.”
Ryder Hesjedal’s Trek-Segafredo Team returns to the race in 2016. In last years edition of the race, Bauke Mollema led the race for five of six stages on his way to winning the general classification. Full team rosters will be released in August.
In addition to announcing the host cities for the 2016 edition, a partnership with UCI Velothon Majors was announced to bring a world class urban cycling event to Edmonton. The mass-participation event gives participants the choice of riding a shorter event of approximately 60-km or a longer one approximately 120-km. Families have the opportunity to ride the fourth annual public ride to raise funds for Child, Adolescent and Family Mental Health at the ATB Financial Family Ride supporting CASA. UCI Velothon Majors welcomes thousands of participants every year to events around the world. In 2016, the calendar includes Wales on May 21 and 22, Berlin on June 18 to 19 and Stockholm on September 10 and 12.
