Women’s UCI Races in Gatineau, Quebec
There's the potential to have a women's UCI race as part of the La Grande Visite de Gatineau.
Organizers of La Grande Visite de Gatineau, a weekend of bike racing for women, masters men, and young cyclists, are trying to include an elite women’s UCI-sanctioned road race and individual time trial. The road race is scheduled for June 13 and is slated as the feature event of the race weekend that includes the Chrono Gatineau individual time trial, the regional finals for the Quebec Games individual time trial, and criterium races for masters men and junior racers.
But to ensure that the elite women’s road race and individual time trial are included, the race organizers need commitment from five foreign teams to attend the race weekend. The deadline to secure this commitment from the women’s racing community is May 7 – only 10 days away.
John Large is one of the organizers of this event and he is strongly committed to including the women’s races in this weekend of racing. “We have secured prize money and can provide accommodation for the athletes. Now all we need is the agreement from the women’s teams that they will come and race. We will be putting on a top-notch even and the women will get to race on some challenging terrain in a very cycling-positive environment.”
The individual women’s time trial will be 17.7 kilometers long and the road race will be six laps of a 12.4 kilometer circuit for a 99.2 kilometer road race. There is a combined prize purse of $5,000.00 for the two races. Large says that Tara Whitten, the double World Track Champion and Team Tibco have committed to the race weekend.
For more information about the women’s races, contact Large at johnlarge@primus.ca.
