Peter Shokeir | [email protected]
Cyclists will have the chance to traverse the roadways threading through the mountains during the seventh edition of the Gran Fondo on June 3.
Started in 2014, the race is the only event of its kind to take place entirely within a Canadian national park.
鈥淚t鈥檚 quite a boutique event, I guess, the way we call it, because it鈥檚 not like some of the other Gran Fondos you might see where they鈥檒l get thousands,鈥� said Trevor Soll, founder and director of MultiSportsCanada, which hosts the Gran Fondo.
鈥淥urs is capped at 400 by Parks Canada, just to keep everything to a nice tight minimum and then all participants enjoy the area and not impact the tourists that much, so the athletes have a great experience coming from all over Western Canada, the United States and around the world.鈥�
Last year鈥檚 bike race, which had come back after a two-year pandemic interruption, broke attendance records with 300 participants registered and around 270 able to attend.
The event has five different routes, with the Forte Fondo being the longest of them all at 190 kilometres and the Gran Fondo being the second longest at 165 kilometres.
The shorter routes include the 126-km Leg Burner, the 100-km Medio Fondo and the 65-km Piccolo Fondo and E-Bike Fondo.
All the routes begin at the Jasper Activity Centre and go out of town down the Icefields Parkway before turning off at Highway 93A.
The longer routes feature mountain climbs, such as Marmot Road and Edith Cavell Road.
鈥淭here鈥檚 a couple really good hill climbs there for the cyclists that really want to enjoy the burn,鈥� Soll said.
The Jasper-Yellowhead Museum is the charity for the event and the primary volunteer base.
However, the Gran Fondo is still hoping to get more volunteers to handle water and food at the various water stations and direct athletes along the routes.
Due to the ongoing wildfires and smoky conditions in Alberta, organizers have implemented an air quality policy and will monitor the air quality reporting provided by the Alberta government.
With a Level of 7 or greater, the event will be cancelled. Organizers will notify participants 72 hours in advance with the current air quality levels, but as conditions can change within hours, a final decision will not be made until the morning of the event.
Anyone interested in volunteering can contact Soll at [email protected] or call 780-915-0693.
Registration remains open until the day before the event. To register or find out more, visit
