Tour of Alberta route announced
The six-day stage race features mountains, foothills and prairie
On Tuesday, the Tour of Alberta revealed bit more about the six-day UCI 2.1 stage race that will run Sept. 3-8. While the start and finish cities of Edmonton and Calgary were essentially revealed Dec. 17 during a press conference, the remaining stage locations remained a bit of a mystery. The organizers referred to these places rather coyly with names such as Heartland Highways, Dinosaur Trails and Racing in the Rockies. However, Tuesday the start and finish communities for each stage of the race were revealed.
The prologue will feature a time trial that starts and finishes in Edmonton. “We made it the maximum UCI distance allowed [for a time trial],” race technical director Jeff Corbett said in an earlier interview. “It’s long and a little challenging. It has a really nice hill in it that I like. It’s not going to be 120 guys separated by 20 seconds at the end of the prologue. Literally, guys could lose a minute.”
Stage 1 will start in Strathcona County and feature rural roads as the peloton wends its way to the finish in Camrose. Stage 2 runs from Devon to the rolling hills of Red Deer.
Stage 3 starts in Strathmore and ends in the Dinosaur Capital of the World, Drumheller. “The whole Drumheller Valley is almost in a canyon carved by the river there,” said Corbett. “We [sent the route] up and down that river bluff multiple times. It’s neat. It creates a pretty challenging little space. You end up with a number of hard smaller climbs similar to a Classics race.”
Stage 4 is the mountain stage. It begins in the foothills in the town of Black Diamond, and then heads along the Highwood Pass and into Canmore. Finally, it’s back to the foolhills and the town of Okotoks for the two-wheeled stampede to Calgary. The total distance of the race is more than 850 km.
