UCI Gran Fondo World Series visits Victoriaville, Quebec this September

Organized in Victoriaville and the surrounding area, hopes to attract 1,000 to 1,500 amateur cyclists from Canada and the northeastern United States. Canadian Tour de France superstar cyclist Michael Woods is rumoured to be taking part

Alexis Benard, the event’s co-founder, is optimistic, he explains "there are encouraging signs with vaccination and dismantling activities. Our organization is a bit smaller, in a medium-sized city, so our logistics will likely be less complicated than many events. However, we will adapt to the situation when the time comes"

This competition will serve as the Canadian Championships for Masters, i.e. cyclists over 35 years old, and as qualifications for the UCI Gran Fondo World Championships scheduled to be held in Istocno Sarajevo (East Sarajevo) in Bosnia and Herzegovina October 6-10 2021.

The organization, which founded the Appalachian Classic in 2015, will present the first stage of the global Gran Fondo Series taking place in Quebec. These cyclo-sports events bring together athletes of all ages who want to outdo themselves in training and measure themselves in competition.

There's a 24 km Time Trial and 131 km Gran Fondo, with over 1,684m of climbing, starting in downtown Victoriaville.

The routes present good challenges for more experienced cyclists who have been looking for a different route than the Quebec calendar. Benard explains that the region’s topography allows us to do this, "The time trial course is very gradual, while the road race will be an end-of-season challenge for many people and an opportunity to validate all their training."

"We want the weekend to be the culmination of a season without a lot of sporting action in Quebec."

Those in the top 25% of the standings will also qualify for the World Championships. Victoriaville could one day host the UCI Gran Fondo World Championship.

"We’re very happy to have a World Series for three years, but we’re letting ourselves dream bigger, and why not, hopefully one day we’ll host the Gran Fondo World Championships", adds Benard." We’re still dreaming, but we already have a very exciting event this year for cyclists from here and elsewhere".

Since the first Appalachian Classic took place in 2015, many of the big names in cycling in Quebec have come to cycle in the Bois-Francs including James Piccoli, Hugo Hall, Matthew Janis and Michael Woods.

For more information, please visit; https://www.classiquedesappalaches.com